The Ringmaster's Keeper

Chapter 30: A Strange Girl

I sat bolt upright and stared at the wardrobe. A small tanned hand was holding it open from the inside. Then she popped her head around. She was a small asian girl with dark tanned skin and a small black bob of hair.
"Hello?" She said with a look of terror on her face. I paused. What had just happened? I stood up and ran out of the bedroom. I stood on the other side of the living room and stared at the door way. She got out of the cupboard and stood in the doorway. Was she one of those creatures? Was she here to eat me? I didn't know what to do.
"Are you here to eat me?" She said asked sounding scared.
"What?"
"Are you one of those creatures that ate my sister." Her eyes welled up and she collapsed onto the floor in a tangled crying mess. What was happening? I slowly calmed down and as she kept crying and mumbling to her self. It was then that I realised that she was human. She a crystal around her neck like me. I slowly walked towards her and crouched in front of her, not wanting to make it worse by startling her. She slowly stopped crying and was now softly sobbing as the silent vets of terror ripped through her.
"It's ok." I assured her as I put a hand on her back. She flinxhed away at the gesture and fell down crying again. Great.
"It's ok," I kept saying, trying to sooth her. But when I thought about it, was it ok. I mean, we were in the middle of no where, with no one and nothing apart from each other. "Everything's going to be ok." Kept saying, even though it probably wasn't true. She slowly calmed down again and eventually looked up to my face.
"Are your mum and dad here?" I asked trying to keep my voice soothing.
"Why would I need my mum and dad? I'm thirteen you know. Besides, they're the ones whose memories we need to find." She started shuddering, just about to cry again, when I pulled her into a hug. She sobbed into my shoulder for a full five minutes before she started calming down again. I didn't realise she was thirteen. She looked seven, if that. I tried asking her questions, but she would just nuzzle her head into my shoulder and ignore me. We sat there for about an hour before she fell asleep. She wasn't that heavy when I tried standing with her. I walked around the house with her to test if I could hold for very long and she proved to be quite light. I was going to head home with her if possible. I put her on the bed in Jayden's room and took stuff that might be handy from around the house. I made sure to stick away from the food though. I'm not going there again. I grabbed a blanket or two to keep the girl warm. I also grabbed one of Molly's jackets that I could wear and a head torch. I put on the jacket and torch then went back to go pick the girl up. I wrapped her in the blankets and stared at her face for a second. She was quite pretty and innocent looking. I picked her up and walked out onto the front porch. It was still quite dark outside and the clock inside the cabin said it was 2:37am. My torch illuminated the ground in front of me and I walked out into the dense pines.

***
I finally found my way to the house and by the time I did, it was still quite dark. I set the girl down onto the grass next to the hatch. She mumbled something that I didn't catch and I opened the hatch. It was dark inside the house from what I could see from the top of the hatch. I went to pick the girl up, but then thought about how I would get her down. I didn't have many options. So I woke her up and got her to climb down herself. It took a bit of convincing before she would go down, because she still thought we were monsters, but I showed her my crystal and compared it to hers and she seemed satisfied with the proof. When we were in the house it was silent and dark. Until someone turned on the light. The bright light blinded my eyes and I had to shade them from the intensity. I heard a gasp that sounded like Lili. When eyes finally adjusted, I saw Lili standing in front of me in a fluffy dressing gown. But she wasn't gasping at me, she was gasping at the girl. Lili turned to me.
"Who is this?!" she demanded.
"I don't know. I found her in those creatures' hut hiding in the wardrobe." I said with a shrug of my shoulders. She gulped with a worried look on her face. She turned back to the girl.
"What's your name?" Lili asked in a delicate voice. The girl looked at Lili.
"My name's Nikki."