Molly ran upstairs, straight to her room. She knew what was coming, and didn’t want to be anywhere around it. She pulled blankets down while crawling to the dark shadows underneath her bed; she wanted to stay hidden. Teddy was in the middle waiting for her. She didn’t mind that he was missing an eye and half of his ear. He was her one and only friend. Teddy was all she had.

Molly jumped in fright from the loud thrashing of furniture coming from downstairs. She grabbed Teddy and held on for dear life. The cross necklace Aunt Carol gave her was lying on Teddy’s forehead. She clutched the pendent in her small, delicate hand and squeezed her eyes shut.

John and Amy, Molly’s parents, were almost always fighting. Every time they would get into an argument, it ended up being worse than the last. Sometimes John would become enraged enough to start throwing furniture. Last time, he broke the front door. Now it didn’t lock. Molly hated when they fought; it scared her. Whenever she thought they might start arguing, she would disappear to her special hiding place. Teddy was always there waiting for her; comforting her like the good friend he was. John and Amy had been in constant fights ever since they got together. There was always something to complain about. John would throw a fit if they were out of his whiskey, and Amy would throw fits about being out of her ‘medication,’ as Molly called it. There was never enough money, so that was just another thing they could fight and argue about.

Molly was only a little girl, barely six. Her hair was long and dirty blonde, always unkempt. For being so young she was very brave. She loved going to school, but the teachers were always asking questions: “How are you feeling?”, “Are you hungry?”, and “How was your night?” Anytime Molly came to school with a fresh bruise, they would ask what happened. Her reply was always the same: “It was an accident. I’m alright.” She would put the faintest smile on her lips, but her teachers knew better.

Molly shook in fright. She heard a loud crash down the end of the hallway, followed by footsteps coming towards her room. There wasn’t anymore screaming, Molly figured one of her parents left, but she wasn’t sure which. The footsteps were right outside her door. She stood still, barely breathing. Molly didn’t want to get caught; she thought if she was quiet enough, nobody would think she was in here. She knew how her parents got when they were in a fight. Always mean and rough.

The footsteps turned and left. Molly sighed in relief. Just to be sure, she skipped dinner and stayed under the bed for the rest of the evening. Her cross was caught on Teddy when she tried to roll over. She pulled it off of him and looked at it. Her mother and father weren’t very religious, so Molly wasn’t sure what to believe in. John and Amy weren’t too happy with Carol when she gave Molly the necklace, but they didn’t bother taking it from her either.
“It’s just a dumb piece of jewelry. Nothing to worry about. She ain’t smart enough to know what it’s for anyways,” her father proclaimed when she showed him the pendent. When aunt Carol gave her the necklace, she said that whenever Molly was wearing it, she would always be protected and never alone. Molly wasn’t quite sure what her Aunt meant, but she never took it off.

One day after school, Molly was stopped by her mom before she even got to the living room. Her mother was usually in a better mood when the father wasn’t home. She wasn’t as mean or harsh. Right now her curly hair was sticking out in all different directions. She had her night clothes on; Molly wasn’t sure why. It was the middle of the day.

“Stay up here in the living room or kitchen. Mommy has a special visitor in the back. You hear me?”

“Yes.” Molly whispered, walking to the kitchen. Her mother always had special visitors, but her father was never home to meet them. They didn’t stay long, and they always went out the back door. Molly never understood why, the front door was always the easier exit.

While coloring at the kitchen table, Molly heard her father stumble into the house. She could tell he was silly, as she called it, from where she was sitting. He walked weird, slurred, and smelled really bad.

“Where you mother at?” He tried to ask. It was a question he asked often, so Molly understood without knowing what each word was. She pointed down the hallway. He stumbled in the direction of the back bedroom. A moment later she heard her father screaming and cussing. Frightened, Molly ran into the corner of the living room behind the chair. She couldn’t get upstairs; her father was in the way.

Molly heard a bunch of screaming and soft thuds, there was one voice she didn’t recognize. She peeked up to see her mother’s visitor dash out of the house. His shirt was missing, and his nose was really bloody. Momma came in next. She was backing up, facing her husband. Both of them were screaming at each other. Molly didn’t bother listening. She ducked back behind the chair and grabbed her necklace. Aunt Carol always said it was a good idea to pray, but Molly didn’t know how. So she just closed her eyes and whispered, “Please.”

Molly heard glass breaking and jumped. Being truly terrified, she was desperate to have Teddy with her. She couldn’t help herself, she started crying. She started rocking back and forth while whispering her little prayer, until she felt a hand on her shoulder. At first she thought it was her father, and froze. Looking up, she saw a man she didn’t recognize. He had a brown beard and a funny looking white dress. He put his finger to his lips.

“Shh. It’s okay,” he stated calmly. He sat behind the chair right next to Molly. Constantly he was whispering that everything was okay. Everything would be alright. She didn’t know this man, but she believed him. For some odd reason, Molly felt piece sitting here with this stranger. She wasn’t sure why or how he got here, but she was grateful that she had company.

A loud bang echoed all across the house, followed by a second one. Molly yelped. She had never heard something so loud before. Everything was silent afterward. She couldn’t hear anything. No screaming, no shouting, no footsteps. Nothing. She turned to find the man that had been with her, only to find him gone as well.

Molly crawled out from behind the chair, and screamed. Both her mother and father were still in the living room, but they were lying on the floor. Molly had seen her father’s handgun clutched in his hand. Not knowing what to do, she ran out of the house and across the street.

She banged on the door of her neighbor’s house. She wasn’t sure who lived here. She didn’t know anybody in her neighborhood, but they all seemed to know her.

“Why Molly! Isn’t this a pleasant surprise!” A short old lady smiled as she opened the door.

Molly grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards her house. “Come here. Please.” This was all Molly dared to say.

She dragged her neighbor across the lawn and into the house. Molly pointed into the living room. The lady turned into the living room and stopped in her tracks.

“Oh my.” Her face went white. “Uh, well, oh dear.” Shaking her head, she said, “Come with me, Hon.” She grabbed Molly’s hand and took her back to her house.

Molly had never been in someone else’s house, but this was way nicer than anything she had seen. Everything looked and smelled so clean. She was afraid to touch anything.

“Sit here.” She escorted her to a white couch. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

Molly simply nodded. The lady walked back towards the kitchen. Molly heard her rummaging around. A few minutes later she had milk and cookies.

“Here you go dear.” She set the tray in front of Molly and grabbed a telephone from the table. She punched in a few numbers before putting the phone to her ear.

“Yes, my name is Nancy Piles. I have a little girl here who…” She walked off out of earshot. Molly grabbed a cookie, broke it up, and dipped it in her milk. This was truly a treat. There was hardly ever any food at her house, let alone cookies. The whole plate was licked clean by the time Nancy came into the room.

“People will be here soon, Sweetheart.” She glanced down at the plate and smiled. “I’ll get you some more.”

Disappearing into the kitchen, she appeared only moments later with another tray of cookies. Molly instantly reached for one. Not many people talked to Molly, so she enjoyed the company.

Sitting there, she thought about her mom and dad. Will they wake up again? Molly wasn’t sure by the way Nancy reacted. What was going to happen? Where was she going to go? Who was the man that sat with her behind the chair? She desperately wanted Teddy.

The next few hours dragged on for Molly. She had no idea what was going on, which only made it worse. A lot of people came by and asked her questions. Some wanted to know how she was feeling, if she was okay, whether she seen what happened or not, etc. Molly didn’t mind. They were always easy questions. One woman even brought her Teddy.

Molly asked if she was able to stay with Nancy, thinking she seemed nice enough, but she wasn’t allowed to. The people said that she was going to Aunt Carol’s. She was on her way now. This pleased Molly. She liked Aunt Carol.

When Aunt Carol came by, Molly instantly ran to her.

“Oh, my little Pumpkin! Are you okay?!” She clutched Molly tightly to her. “My poor baby.”

“I’m okay, Auntie. I’m alright.” Molly repeated. Molly instantly felt safe with her Aunt.

“Let’s go home.” Carol put her arm around Molly and lead her to the car.

The next few weeks flew by for Molly. She moved in with Aunt Carol, a lot of people came to talk to Molly about living with her aunt and her being the new parent, going to a new school, and even about her mom and dad’s funeral.

On Molly’s first day of school, she instantly knew it was going to be different. She noticed that it was a small school. Aunt Carol told her that Holy Cross Catholic was a private school. She was surprised to see everybody wearing the same uniform; she thought this would make it easier for her to fit in. She was told that when in a private school, everybody had a uniform. Molly didn’t mind.

Before school started, Molly was in the cafeteria, staring at a picture hanging on the wall. One of the nuns, Carol said they were special teachers for Catholic schools, came in and stood next to her.

“What is it child?” The nun looked at the same picture. Molly grabbed her cross necklace.
“I know that man up there on that cross. I don’t know his name, but I know he isn’t there anymore. He was there in my old house the night mommy and daddy died. He sat behind the chair with me. He told me everything was going to be okay.” Molly looked up at the nun then. Her eyes were watering and she was smiling at Molly. “He was right. Everything is going to be okay.”

“You, my dear child, have been blessed.” She raised her right hand up, down, to her left, then her right, before bowing her head and leaving. Molly glanced up at the picture of the man again. Smiling, she tucked her cross into her shirt.

“Thank you.” She whispered as she walked away to her class. She would never forget that horrid night. The evening her silent prayer had been answered.