Chapter 2

The more I resisted, the more she persisted. I rolled my eyes.

"It's a natural reaction...," I tried to defend myself as Cecelia pulled me into her house. I'm really very annoyed with Cecelia right now. She's giving me one of her determined faces - there's really nothing, ABSOULTLY NOTHING, that possibly could block her from getting her goal.

"No! Listen!..." Cecelia groaned. "I'm doing this for your own good! I'm jus-"

"I can't! I can't go inside! Puss' missing and I think there's something wrong with her!" I screamed, wrestling my wrist out of her hand. Cecelia turned around and looked at me, wide-eyed.

"Murrey's scaring her. I think he did something to Puss. I saw... I saw Murrey..." The tears came, blurring my vision.

"It's.. okay... Come on. You'll be better once I give you something to drink." Cecelia was truly worried. I could hear it from her voice.

"Wh-what about Puss?" I whispered, my stomach turned tight about what would happen if I left Puss alone again. "What if... Murrey did something to scare her... Again?"

"Cummon... Puss has animal instinct. I'm sure she'll climb up to a tree to take refuge if she was scared." Cecelia has such comforting words. I wished I shared half of her calmness. "Tell me what happened. I can help you. Let's go inside before you have a heat stroke." She smiled. I flashed the tiniest smile back. But even before I could take another step, the ground before me began to move.

What's happening? An earthquake? No... Aargh... My head... Ow... I closed my eyes, hoping that the dizziness would go away. But when I opened them, the ground became unsteadier. The moment Cecelia tried to reach for me, I felt the world turning and soon, I felt my head hit on the floor and I knew that I've lost unconsciousness.

When I woke up, I could not recognize the place that I'm in. I sat up in bed and removed what seemed like a ice pack from my head and checked the time. Holy cow! It's already 9pm! I vaguely remembering ramming into Cecelia and telling her about Murrey. I stepped out of the bed too quickly and my head pounded. I swayed a little, but grabbed the bed frame for support. I shook my head and blinked, trying to clear my blurry vision. Just then, I heard Cecelia's voice from down stairs.

"She was really tired! She didn't wanna come in, but of course, being her friend, I brought her in and before she took another step, she...fainted from fatigue..." Her voice trailed off.

" I guess she'll be all right," the voice of Merlin rang out, " Let's grab a bite at the inner inn... We haven't eaten yet because somebody is SO concerned about unconscious Jill!"

"Merlin! Don't speak ill behind other's backs!" Vesta yelled. I could see her threatening to hit Merlin. "She's sick. Give her some space! Poor girl... She burned her head from working too much..." Vesta sighed.

" Let's go already!" Merlin pleaded, " I'm starving my guts out..."

"ALL RIGHT! Stop whining already! But only for today! I don't want to get fat from eating too much." Vesta grumbled. " I need to work out if I get fat."

"Pfft... Like you even tried to move..." Merlin said under his breath.

"What? What did you say?" Vesta yelled. " C'mere, you!"

Following after that, I could hear the sound of the locking and closing of doors and the laughter and giggling fading away into the darkness outside. Now, I'll have to make my way downstairs, fumbling through the darkness. I blinked in the darkness, and could make out shapes from the moonlight shinning from outside. Now, the headache and the pain in my eyes has faded away. In my mind, I only thought about Puss.

Even though I've only been in here about a few times, I could remember a little where was where. I mean, I know where they put items and stuff. Most importantly, I could remember where they placed the spare key- my key to finding Puss. So, it's either this, or climbing through the window.