Mystery's Choice (Vengeance Of The Fallen Book 1) (9 page)

Shauna shrank back as a huge man stepped into the room, the candlelight glistening off his well-defined, oiled muscles.

“No!”  Shauna cried.

“Malcolm take Shauna to your workshop.”  She stepped back to give him room, “she needs some non-marring persuasion.” she ran her hands over his chest, “don’t break anything and call when she’s ready.”

“Yes, Shivana.” He tugged Shauna to her feet and out of the door.

Tears sprang to Shauna’s eyes as Malcolm strapped her arms down to a giant smoothed stone in the middle of his workshop. She tried not to look at the bones hanging from the limestone walls or to hear the screams from the damned locked in the dark, smelly stalls. She winced as he pulled her legs up to a roll-cart her body length from the stone and tied them down. Shauna cried out as he pushed the roll-cart as far away as possible without ripping off her legs or pulling off her arms. The movement pulled her body off the ground to hang suspended between the two. He waited a moment, listening for the girl’s reaction. Hearing nothing but her heavy breathing, he placed a 75lb weight on her back. Shauna screamed from the pressure on her wrists. Spots swirled in front of her eyes, and she closed them to stop the nausea.

“You may not lose consciousness, during this lesson, Shauna.”  Malcolm said in his rusty voice.

Shauna opened her eyes and glared defiantly at Malcolm and he laughed.

“Very good.” He turned to his worktable, “Who is your savior?”  He growled.

“Jesus!”  Shauna screamed. She closed her eyes and prayed for strength, for her parents to walk through the door and tell her it was all some horrible dream, she could wake up now. Prayed they would get whatever they were planning over with and she could stop being so afraid all the time.

Malcolm placed another 75lbs weight on her back, this one unpleasantly warm. Shauna screamed.

“Who is your savior, Shauna?”  Malcolm growled.

Shauna closed her eyes, summoned up all her reserve of grit and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Jesus! Jesus is my savior!”

Malcolm sighed, “This torture is so unnecessary, all you have to do is see the truth.”  Malcolm placed a third weight on her and shook his head as her skin began to split and little red lines appeared around her bonds,  “Now look what you made me do?” he brushed her sweat-soaked hair off her face, “The Shivana will be most displeased.”

He looked at her scrunched up face and decided more persuasion was needed. He walked over to the roll-cart and pushed it out just a little bit further. Shauna screamed and begged him to stop. Malcolm removed one weight.

“Who is you savior, Shauna?” he stayed poised over her with the weight.

Shauna opened her eyes; Malcolm smiled at the look of utter defeat in her eyes.

“I am waiting for your answer, Shauna.”  Malcolm said with a smile in his voice.

“Satan, Satan is my savior. Please no more.”  Shauna whispered, her parents’ faces drifted through her mind and she squeezed her eyes shut to blot them out. Tears of joy rolled down her face as Malcolm removed the weights and untied her bonds. She fell to the floor and sobbing rubbed her chafed, sore wrists.

She didn’t even lift her head when Raevanne entered the room and wrapped her in a simple black cloak.

“Welcome, my child.”

Raevanne paced her chamber nervously. It was true with Shauna’s training having progressed, they were closer to fulfilling the Master’s Plan, and so she could relax on that front. However, she had Mystery to worry over.

She could not allow Sarah Williams to go unpunished for her part in keeping Mystery from her birthright. And somehow she had to make her pay without letting Cain know she had found Mystery.

Raevanne’s lip curved in a feline smile as she remembered Nergal owed her a favor. Satan’s favored henchman owed her for the flesh of Kim Owens; she had saved him the trouble of having to purchase it. He would be able to punish Sarah without Cain being notified.

Smiling she sashayed down the hall, and the ancient man-made stairs to the ritual chamber. She gave thanks to the four corners and called the circle.

“Nergal, demon most foul, I bid thee come to me.”  Raevanne grimaced slightly in pain, “What is owed, you now must pay.”  The air inside the circle began to shift and take form and a horrible stench filled the air. “As I will, so mote it be!”  Raevanne raised her head and smiled at the horrible, pus-covered, troll-sized demon that filled the circle.

“What now, Raevanne?”  Nergal responded in a ruined voice, black liquid oozed from his mouth.

“You owe me a favor.”  She reminded him.

“What would you have me do?”

“Kill Sarah Williams and keep it quiet.”

“Why?  And who is she?”  Nergal’s yellow eyes narrowed.

“Do not ask questions I will not answer. You can have the flesh, you know the rules, and if you kill the flesh is yours.”  She watched him carefully, “you know your men need it, they always do.”

“The flesh would cover many wounds?”

“See for yourself.”  Raevanne pictured Sarah sitting in a chair before a fire and sent the image to Nergal.

“I will do it.”  He smiled and the candlelight reflected off the shining bits of flesh in his teeth, “Remember what happens to those who betray the Master, lest I end up petitioning for your flesh.”  And with those words, he vanished.

Raevanne closed her eyes and hoped.

Seth took a deep breath and knocked on his supervisor’s office door. She motioned for him to come in and kept talking on the phone. Seth took a seat across the desk from her and wished he had taken a Valium before coming to this meeting. He knew this couldn’t be good. He flipped his blond hair over his shoulder and chewed on his lower lip.

Dr. Angelica Francisco hung up the phone and studied the nervous young man across the desk from her. She ran her hands through her short gray hair and put her glasses on her desk.

“Parsons, I know you have been helping yourself to the medicine closet.”  She held up her hands when Seth protested. “I have already terminated the pharm techs involved.”  She pinched her nose. “We can handle this two ways.”  She leaned in closer to Seth. “You are a promising doctor, who I happen to know is having problems at home.”

Seth wrung his hands and wouldn’t lookup. Angelica got up and went around the desk, knelt in front of Seth and pushed his chin up. Seth’s blue eyes were full of tears.

“You can anonymously start seeing someone for drug dependency at Workplace Assistance, report to me weekly about your progress.”  She made sure he looked her in the eye. “Or I can call the BPD. It is your call. Either way it is going to be a hard road. But I think you want to be a doctor bad enough, not to let the drugs win, Seth.”  She walked back around her desk and sat. “What’ll it be?”

Seth wiped his nose and swallowed hard. He thought about the nightmare home had become and facing it without drugs. He thought about never becoming a doctor, he thought about Mystery alone while he was in jail. He couldn’t let leave her to fight this by herself. She wouldn’t make it.

“I’ll take Workplace Assistance.”  Seth said as confidently as he could. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, now get gone and never make me regret my decision.”

Seth stood and headed for the door, he turned around, “I’m sorry.”  He fled before she could answer.

As Seth drove home, he kept trying to imagine how he could drop more trouble into Mystery’s world. He knew he could wait the three days until his first rehab appointment. Or he could just get it over with. She’d had enough lies in her life without him lying to her. He knew Mystery already suspected he had a drug problem. She just couldn’t deal with anything else, so, she hadn’t brought it up again after the morning in the kitchen.

He pulled into the driveway and sat looking at the big house. When they bought the house they had planned to fill it with children. Now he wondered if Mystery would live to have any. Seth got out of the car and went for the door.

When he opened the door the stench hit him. Feces were flung all over the walls and the stairs. The furniture was all overturned and food from the refrigerator was flung around the room. Seth went upstairs, and the furniture was tossed around.

“Mystery!”

No one answered. He ran to the master bedroom and stopped. Blood ran down the walls in little rivers. The pillows on the bed were shredded.

“Mystery!”  He was walking out of the room, and stopped because he heard something. He listened closely, he heard crying. Seth walked over to the closet and slowly opened the door. Mystery was in the corner, curled into a little ball. She was sobbing. Seth pulled her into his arms. He rocked them both back and forth. His problem would have to wait; Mystery needed him to take care of her.

He picked her up and carried her out of the closet. He couldn’t find anyplace that wasn’t trashed so he carried her out to his car. Seth leaned against the hood, took out his cell phone and dialed the police station.

“Yes. I want to report a breaking and entering.”

“My I have your address, sir?”  The operator asked.

“619 Cypress Lane.”

“Are you currently in danger?”

Seth looked at Mystery; she was staring off into space. Tears still streamed down her face. “No.”

“I have a patrol car in the area. I will send them by. ETA is about 15 minutes.”

“Thank you.”  Seth pressed the end button on his phone. “Mystery.”

She jumped when he called her name; slowly she turned her head to look at him.

“I am going inside to pack us some things. We’ll stay at a motel until they get this cleaned up. Maybe we should get a security system.”

“It won’t do any good. They will keep coming until they get me.”  She turned back to stare sightlessly out the window.

“What happened, honey?”

“I was in the kitchen when I heard a noise in the living room. I went to see what the noise was and when I came back, the refrigerator was standing open and food was strewn all over the place. I ran for the front door and it wouldn’t open so, I ran upstairs. I could hear them downstairs trashing the house, so, I hid in the closet.”  She turned back to face him and her breath caught.

Seth held her hand. Mystery leaned into him.

“I heard them in the bedroom and I was sure they would find me and that would be it. They’d either take me with them or they would kill me. After a while it got quiet, but I thought it might be a trap to get me to come out of my hiding place, so I stayed there.”

“They did trash the place. They smeared feces all over the walls, trashed the furniture, dumped all the food, there is blood all over the bedroom walls and they shredded the pillows and mattress.”  Seth held her tighter when she started to shake.

“What do they want?  Why didn’t they take me?”

“I don’t know but I am glad they didn’t.” he released her and got out of the car when he heard sirens approaching. “Here they come.”

Two patrol cars pulled into the cul-de-sac and stopped in front of their house. Seth strode over to the closest one. The officers got out.

“We are responding to a breaking and entering call. Did you call the police, sir?” the tall, black officer asked him as he shook Seth’s hand.

“Yes. If you will follow me.”  He stopped as Mystery got out of the other side of the car. “This is my fiancée, Mystery Williams; she was home when it happened.”