Janette's Cave

Chapter Two

Night's Note: Thank you all for the support so far! I hope you all enjoy this chapter as well. 

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Janette's Cave

Chapter Two

Six Years Ago

A year in the house, as she called it, Janette not liking the word orphanage, and she was still waiting for Jeremy to come back. She felt a very strong attachment to him, and wished he would turn up again some day. Each passing day, she grew tired of waiting and decided that he wasn't coming back. 

She turned eight, supposedly. Nobody knew when the date was, and Janette was still as silent as ever. More so now that she felt abandoned, left in this house. Taken from one room to be placed in another. 

The children in the house weren't friendly, most of them avoided her while others openly voiced their opinions of her. Some even cornered her at one point, backing her into a wall to the point that Janette was hyperventilating and tears were streaming down her face. Nobody came to save her this time, and the children grew bored of her. They wanted more of a reaction out of her, but she just shook, breathing heavily, and cried. 

She only got a sympathetic look from her personal caretaker, telling her to get along better with the other children. 

Like it was her fault. 

Janette withdrew even farther into herself from that point on, not that she minded. Being alone was how she was raised, she didn't like interaction with the children. She didn't trust them at all, and she didn't trust the adults either. 

She trusted Jeremy, but he was gone. 

Still, she waited for him. Janette believed that he would come back for her eventually. Maybe not at that moment, but someday. 

Janette got out of the orphanage before he had the chance. 

--

"Is this the poor girl?" a woman asked, Janette sitting in a chair and didn't meet her gaze. She wore a flowing white dress, Janette not used to having such freedom to move when she wore it. Shirts and pants were her clothing, she didn't even know what a dress was until Susan, her caretaker, told her about them. 

"Yes," Susan said, her voice quiet, "this is Janette. She came to us about a year ago." 

"And how is she? Mentally, I mean?" the woman asked, taking a glance at her. Janette glanced up at her, only making eye contact with her for a few seconds before her eyes darted back to the floor. 

Susan sighed, "well, she doesn't get along well with other children, and even some of the adults. There is also a theory going around that she is mute, seeing as she hasn't spoken yet. I hope, Miss Lennox, that you understand what you are getting into with her. I am sure you have watched the news within the past year."

"Yes," Miss Lennox snapped, "I have. I fully understand what I am doing, and I wish to adopt her." 

"I understand that you want to do this in a good natured gesture, but Janette is more mentally unstable than the other children in this house. She may not show it all the time, but it's there. I do not say this in any way to insult her," Susan said, looking at Miss Lennox in the eyes, "I'm saying this to protect her." 

"I have already gone through the interviewing session and I want to get to know my future daughter," Miss Lennox stated, "now, if you would let us..."