Hushed Willows Every day I've got a smile where my frown goes

Mae was too exhausted, too emotionally drained to truly comprehend all that Reverie said. But she understood that she was being offered a place here. Somewhere safe; somewhere she would be loved. And she wasn't sure she trusted it, not from a stranger — but Reverie wasn't quite a stranger, was she?

Her thoughts were too fuzzy for coherency, but some part of her clung to the vague notion that this was as close as she might ever get to truly having a mother. Mae nodded. Yeah, She mumbled, fading. I'll stay. She closed her eyes, and the image of that final assailant came to her. The eye turned to a pit of pus and blood. The slavering jaws.

It's safe here, she tried to tell herself, but nightmares would plague Mae nonetheless.