"Willow! Oh Willow, you've got to help me!"
I groaned, rolling over and finding another body in bed with me.
"Winnie?" I said, waking up. "What's wrong dear?"
"Sing," She said quietly, breathing fast. "Sing the railroad song first."
And so I sang the sad, quiet song about the girl whose lover left her, the girl whose lover caused her to die, and then Winnie looked up at me, ready to speak.
"Mother and Father hired a man to come after me, a man in a yellow suit. He...he knew about the spring, Will, and he wanted me. He was trying to hurt me, and Mae, well you know how she gets, she hit him with the gun. Didn't even shoot at him, just got him on the back of the head, and he's dead. Mae killed a man, for me."
"Oh god," I muttered. "Did they get out? Why are you still here, Win?"
"They sent her to jail. I don't know what they'll do with her there." Winnie cried into me until she fell asleep, and i laid her gently on the bed.
"What did you do?" I shouted, coming down the stairs quickly, still in my clothes from yesterday.
"Excuse me?" Mr. Foster said, looking up from his desk. "What are you talking about, young lady?"
"You. Were you even listening to what I told you yesterday? Your daughter, she was happy there. She loved those people she was with, she fit in. I'd never heard Winnie laugh like she did when she was with them, never seen her live like that!"
"Willow, Winnie's just a girl. She doesn't understand the error of her ways. That woman, the matriarch of that family, is a murderer!"
"Because you made her one! Because you allowed a man to threaten them on their way out of Treegap, because you allowed him to dig up dark family secrets. He came after Winnie, she said he tried to hurt her, did you know that? Mae was defending her family."
"Winnie is part of our family."
"You've robbed her of her family, Uncle." I told him simply. "I don't know how you can't see that."
"That's it." Mr. Foster said, grabbing me by my forearm. "I've had about enough of you and your big city ideas. You're messing with Winnie's head."
"Get off!" i shouted, but he wouldn't let me go. He dragged me down into the basement, throwing me down the stairs carelessly with all the force in his body.
"I hope you rot down there." He said, his voice hard and cruel. He slammed the door and I heard the deadbolt go through.
"Oh God," I said quietly, laughing. "What have I gotten myself into?"
I was going to perish here, in this basement. There'd be no release, because I'd never die.