Snippet #2680703

Jane blushed slightly and smiled as the man darted up again, touched by his kindness. She hugged the blanket around her shoulders and took a digestive. "Thank you - so much." She brushed the crumbs from the blanket sheepishly. She knew she should have felt more guilty for imposing on the man, but she was too relieved too have found a place of solace. Besides, he seemed more than happy to accommodate her. Suddenly, she pictured her mother's face with a thin eyebrow raised and her lips pinched skeptically: Men aren't just nice to young girls out of the kindness of their hearts. She should have been wary. Her mother had would have wanted her to be frightened, but when Jane glanced up at this man's kind eyes and genuine concern, she didn't feel frightened in the slightest.

"My mother and I were in the Cursed Woods," Jane paused, deciding if the explanation of how they had come to be there was too complicated too recite. Then again, she wasn't even sure she fully knew the reason; all her life her mother had periodically moved them and it was always further from the Eastern Seaboard, from her mother's fears. But whatever her mother was running from, Jane had known the Cursed Woods were a bad idea; the name wasn't exactly subtle. But Jane had followed her obediently.

"We became separated a couple of days ago," she continued, "and it wasn't until this morning I found this town. My mother had told me about it before. She said it was a place of..." she looked at the man, not wanted to offend him if he was associated with the things her mother had warned her about. "That there were vampires and monsters here. But my mother always overemphasises the darker things," she added quickly. Jane had wandered around the streets for hours, too afraid to stop somewhere in case someone approached her.

She took a sip of the hot tea and inhaled the steam for a moment before placing it back on the newspaper mat. "I'm Jane," she said, realising she hadn't introduced herself, and held out her hand.