The Garden of Heathen

Closer

Joan returned, her face set in a hard expression that melted a bit when she saw Aussie was awake.
"Aussie, thank god you're ok," She said in relief. "Do you remember what happened with Aris?"

Aussies face darkened and she seemed to shrink into Gally's embrace.
"Yes, I remember," She said.

"Good," Joan sighed. "With you and Gally telling your sides of the story we can prove he's lying."

"Lying? What is he saying?" Gally asked with furrowed brows, as if he couldn't hate the guy any more.

Joan put her hands on her hips and gave another long suffering sigh, her eyes going to the ceiling.
"He's saying that he heard you scream and came to help you. You'd fallen and seemed disoriented and he just helped you up, and that Gally came and threw him down the stairs for no reason," she informed them.

Aussie was livid. Heat rushed to her face as her jaw dropped from the amount of audacity that punk had. He put his hands on her body, he invaded her space, and he had tried to mess with her memories. That last part she couldn't prove or even hope to explain to anyone, but she knew and she held it against him. She now had a good idea of what Gally might have gone through with Hedy and she hated it, that just fuel her fire.

"That is not what happened!" She cried as she tried to extract herself from Gally's arms, ready to go beat Aris up herself.

Gally held onto her, trying not to hurt her but not letting her get away either.

"Wait Aussie," He told her, trying to calm her down.

"Don't worry," Joan tried to comfort her as well, sitting next to her on the bed. "I believe you and Gally of course. Aris is spending the night in the pit and you're staying in here with the doors locked in case he pulls an escape like Athena did. So why don't you and- why is the bed wet?"

Joan suddenly asked, picking up her hands and looking at the sheets. Georgia pointed at Gertie.

"That's how we woke Aussie up," Gertie explained as she held up the pitcher.

"We? No, you did that," Georgia clarified.

"So what? It worked, didn't it?"

"How did you know it would work?"

Gertie paused as Georgia raised her brows at her.

"I didn't know it would work," Gertie admitted, looking downcast. "It was a shot in the dark."

"A good shot," Gally said.

"Alright, well," Joan shook her head. "Gertie, Gally, why don't you take Aussie upstairs and lock yourselves in. Try to get some sleep, we still have a big day tomorrow."

"We're still going?" Gally asked in surprise. He wasn't going to leave Aussie alone within a hundred yards of that creep, pit or no pit.

"Gally," Joan said seriously. "I don't like the idea of letting that shuck face out of my sight either, but things are changing around here, just like your note said. The sooner we can get out of here, the better. Who knows what else the makers have up their sleeves! I don't want to stick around long enough to see it all."

"Hey," Georgia spoke up before Gally could. "What if you took Aris with you?"

A moment of silence settled over them as they contemplated that idea.

"Ah, shuck it," Gally finally said. "As long as I can push him in front of a griever, or we lose him in there, then I'm game. It's better than him being here with Aussie."

That seemed to settle things. Joan slept on the couch so she'd be near by just in case, Georgia even took a room inside, too creeped out to leave, and Gally went upstairs with Gertie and Aussie after Gertie patched up her hand. There was one bed and two mattresses on the floor still. Aussie took a second to finally zip up the hoodie Georgia had given her, it being quite large on her.