When she was done eating, Lord Paddy came over with a box and said "see if there's anything I missed. I think this is everything you're going to want to keep."

Mary looked through the box and was surprised to see all her precious things - the rock from the beach, the stuffy she only hugged when she was alone, the picture of her grandmother that hung on the stairs, and her recorder from school.

"How did you know?" Mary asked.

"Before you left, I took your memories." Lord Paddy said this as though it were completely normal. "It seemed easier than asking you to go through everything."

"Oh." Mary looked down, unsure how she felt about that.

"Now let me tell you what is going to happen." Paddy sat back on the ground, looking up at Mary. "You are now under my protection, which means if anybody hurts you again, they will have to deal with me. You'll live with Sally and her wife Opal until you're ready to live on your own. Bart," he waved to the man who was transferring Mary's clothes from the washer to the dryer, "lives near them, is both physically and mentally unable to do to you what those other men did, and will be a sort of paternal figure if you should need one.

"Meanwhile, your parents will live a fulfilling, childless life, and when they die their souls will come to me. For every thing they've ever done to you, that thing will be done to them for ten years, and the entire time I will feast on the energy generated by their misery. They will know the entire time that this is happening to them because of how they treated you, and that their life was so fulfilling so that the pain of their torment would be that much greater."

Mary looked at Lord Paddy, shocked and unsure how to feel about this information.

"Oh, and drop the Lord bit. To you, as to every child who's been sold to me, it's just Paddy."

Mary stared blankly at him until he sighed. Standing he, ran his hand down the side of her head. "Someday, you will remember."

Blinking, Mary looked around. She was standing across the street, staring at her old house as the roof collapsed, flames eating up it. Fire fighters were keeping the neighboring houses wet to keep the fire from spreading while they waited for the fire to burn itself out.

"Come on, Mary." Sally held out her hand, and Mary took it, letting herself be drawn away from the cordoned off area. "Time to go home."