Maryssa could not believe that Guy had been behind all of this. As she ran down a narrow path, everything started to fit together in her head. Obviously, he had known that Annabelle wouldn't come to his 'party', but she would, any chance to get some money. So he must be going around to her house now, to ambush her sister whilst she was captured by his cronies, no way to protect Annabelle from him. She knew she couldn't risk leaving the gate again, that was too dangerous; all she could hope for was that Phillip had escaped and was going to Annabelle, reaching her before Guy got his hands on her sister. There was nothing she could do now, she had figured it all out way to late to be any use. Stopping dead in her tracks, Maryssa screamed in frustration and fright, feeling all the more useless every second. That was when she felt the first drop of rain, right on top of her head, making her look up. It had started to spit in that horrible way that makes her hair frizzy; which only added to her anger.

But as she looked up, Maryssa saw something she was not expecting. A large building was sitting there right in front of her, only about 200 metres down the path. She had never known there was a house here, and she stared at it in awe. Its bricks were a dark brown, turning black in the increasing rain and it had at least 3 stories upwards.

'Looks very desolate,' she thought, just when the heavens opened and rain started to pelt down onto her; she was soaked in seconds. Without thinking, she ran with a final burst of energy towards the large door of the building, eager to get out of the rain, and hopefully out of danger for the time being.

As she reached the giant porch, Maryssa rapped on the door with the large knocker, still unsure whether there was anyone inside. With the force of the knocker the door swung open, and she cautiously stepped in.

"H-hello?" she called, the cold water running down her back making her shiver. There was no answer, so she called again, a little louder now, "Hello?!"

After a couple of seconds she heard a faint whisper coming from behind a closed door, and she headed towards it slowly.

"I'm ever so sorry for trespassing, but I was being attacked, and I need a place to stay for the night, to shelter from the rain." she said still loudly.

This time she definitely heard a mutter of "attacked!" and "no, no, no. That is out of the question."

Curious, Maryssa pushed open the door to which the voices were coming from. As soon as they heard the creek of the door, they were silent. Maryssas heart was beating fast as she slowly revealed two men standing in the centre of what looked like a dilapidated old sitting room.

"I-I am so s-sorry, I was a-attacked by-"

"Yes my dear, we heard you don't worry. My, you do look a mess, we need to warm you up!" said a young, gangly looking man with very light blonde hair tied back in a pony tail, and a yellow hoodie on. He had a large smile, and had been about to take a step towards her when an older man with a large pot belly and short dark brown hair with a thin goatee and a blue waistcoat, grabbed hold of the young mans arm and hissed, "No we won't, you know strangers aren't meant to know about us, we must send her away again!"

The younger man shook him off and came towards Maryssa, who was still standing, frozen in her place, and placed his hands on her upper arms, trying to sooth her.

"Pay no attention to old Brucey over there, he doesnt know what he is talking about!" he winked. " I'm Lucius Matthew, but most people just call me Lum. Pleased to meet you ...?" he reached out his hand.

"oh, I'm...Maryssa" she accepted his hand shake, and quickly let go again. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but, what IS this place?"

"that is none of your concern." Bruce tried to stare straight into Maryssas eyes, which would have been frightening, if they didn't drift off constantly to flick at the clock.

Lum gave Bruce an exasperated look.

"I'll take you to get some warm clothes and towel, you must have been through a hell of a lot to end up in this situation." he spoke with a slight accent, which she couldn't place. He then grabbed her hand gently, and led her back out of the door. As they left the room, Maryssa stole a glance backwards to see if the grumpy Bruce was following them. Instead he was looking straight at the large clock on the mantelpiece, hurriedly tapping the numbers four and eight on the clock face. Maybe he had noticed something wrong with it, she thought, and carried on after Lum.

Soon they reached another room, one twice the size of the first. An armchair sat in the middle of the carpet, right in front of an empty fireplace.

"sit here my dear," Lum said, before reaching into his pocket to pull out a box of matches. He struck a match, and put it to some wood and newspaper in the fire, which instantly set alight. Maryssa could see a large grin spread across Lums face as he watched the flames lick and curl at the sides of the fireplace. She watched as he then sat back against the side of the hearth, extremely close to the long flames. He was a very talented fire starter, she would give him that, but a little reckless, sitting so close to it.

"What are you doing!?" Bruce yelled at Lum, whose face lost its grin, a scowl taking its place.

"nothing is going to happen. We can't just chuck the girl out, it's absolutely tipping it down with rain, and you saw those men attack her. Surely you have more heart than that Bruce Cogsworth." Lum said, leaving him speechless. Turning back to Maryssa, Lum smiled again and offered to fetch her a towel. She nodded, and as he unfolded his long thin limbs and walked to go out of the door, Bruce sneered, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

While Lum was gone, Maryssa watched Bruce, who didn't make any effort in conversation she tried to start at all. He just stayed very still and looked hard at the big analog clock in this room.

"is there something wrong with the clock?" she asked tentatively. He didn't even move, so she tried different words," I mean, is the clock broken?"

suddenly she jumped a mile when a brash female voice spoke from behind her, "now why would it be broken?" and chortled. A very large curly blonde woman was waddling towards her, a boy hidden behind her legs.

"mrs Potts is my name, and this is my little friend Chip. Nice to see a different face every now and again!" and she kissed two sloppy kisses on Maryssas cheeks. Chip peeked out from behind Mrs Potts' skirt, so all she could see were two round blue eyes staring up at her and a pair of dirty brown shoes, about 1 metre down from the large eyes.

"would you like a cup of tea dearie? That always helps warm people up!" Mrs Potts said, and somehow produced a pink teapot from behind her back.

Chip nervously held out a cup brimming with tea and asked,

"what are you in for?"

Maryssa stared at him for a second before replying, "I'm, I'm not in for anything! What do you mean?"

"Now, Chip, what did I say? she's not like the rest of us, she just needs a place to stay for the night!" Mrs Potts bent down and looked Chip in the eye as she spoke to him.

Chip scowled and pushed at her, but she just took hold of his hand and shook her head. Chip stood behind her again, sheepish.

All of a sudden, Lum ran back in, his hands running though his hair.

"Lum, what did you do?!" Bruce spoke forcefully.

"I-I may have...you'd better come with me." he turned tail and ran back out of the door...

"that boy..." Bruce crumbled, and began to tap on the large clock again, the four and the eight. Maryssa looked on quizzically, not sure what to make of this mysterious house.

*BANG*

Everyone froze, before diving into action. Lum ran back in backwards and dived towards the fire, clutching a box of matches. Mrs Potts took Chip and went and stood up against the wall, next to Bruce, who had jumped away from the clock.

Maryssa was confused. She had no idea what was happening, where she was, who these people were. She was just about to shout for someone to explain when-

"LUM! What did you do!? I smell smoke."

A deafening booming voice filled the house, causing Maryssa to shiver.

*CRASH*

The door slammed open and from under the doorway, the largest man she had ever seen appeared. He must have been at least two and a half metres tall, most probably more, and had so many scars all over his body, distorting his face and hands. Maryssa gasped, and leant back in her seat.

"Lum? What did I say?! DONT EVER START A-why the hell is there someone in the chair? MY chair? ANSWER ME!"

"she needed a room for night. The poor girl was attacked in the rain alone..."

"You KNOW we don't except strangers here. It's not safe. She must leave at once." and with that, the giant turned away from them.

"wait! Sir, please, that's cruel, she would die! Please, please sir, forgive us, but let the poor girl stay!" Lum cried out, on his knees by the hearth.

"Fine. I wont send her out." the giant said, and moved around to face Maryssa straight on. "But she has clearly TRESPASSED on MY fathers property. She will be punished like any other. And DO NOT try and stop me Lum. You have caused enough trouble tonight as it is." he then grabbed Maryssas dress, and lifted her up with one hand, before chucking her body over his shoulder. He span on his heel and stormed out of the room, and up the stairs.

As he left with Maryssa on his shoulder, the others stayed in the little sitting room.

"I'm so sorry, everyone. I accidentally set fire to the laundry room... I'm sorry." Lum sobbed and collapsed his head in his hands. Mrs Potts and Bruce looked at each other in dismay, knowing full well what would happen to the poor girl. She would never leave again, much like the other trespassers, trapped in the attic until they die

(AN. Please review!)