Prologue
“Are you ready to sneak out tonight?” Carroll asked over the phone “Don’t forget, you have to be very careful and not alert your parents. If they even get a gist of what we have planned, I will disappear from your life and never see you again.”
Bethy was giddy with excitement; she was so in love with this man that questioning his intentions was never an option. “Don’t worry my love. I know you are just trying to protect me and our relationship; I will never do anything that will get you in trouble, okay? You have my word love; no one will ever find out.”
“All right then, be ready I’ll call you and then you can come out” They hung up and Carroll pursed his lips to conceal his voice giving away a hint of the evil grin that curved his face the moment she promised to meet him as per their plan.
Bethy wasted no time and ran downstairs. She found her mother doing the dishes after dinner and her father watching TV. She said “Mother, I have a terrible headache. I took some medicine and I am going to bed early. Please do not enter my room in the middle of the night, if you disturb my sleep the headache might amplify. And I cannot take it anymore”
“Okay sweety, go to bed. And do one thing lock the door just in case I forget and enter your room anyway.” Bethy cheered in her heart; her acting was spot on! She was so excited that she kissed her parents on their cheeks and went to her room. Instead of sleeping, she took out her makeup and got to work.
“Urgh! I can barely see my face in this light! But what other choice do I have? I have to keep it discreet if I want to save my ass, no one can stop me tonight; I’m going to have the best night of my life!” Bethy dolled up pretty quickly, it didn’t even take her an hour. And she eagerly looked at her watch waiting for Carroll’s call. When the most awaited call finally came, she jumped up from her bed and answered.
“Hello? …Yes, I’m ready… all under control sweety... okay. Love you too” Bethy wanted to dance in pure joy but forced herself to calm her heart. She covered herself with a black blanket. Although it was dark outside and the houses in her neighbourhood were pretty far from one another, she took extra measures to make sure she was not seen by anyone. She climbed down through the balcony using the water pipes and landed on the pile of leaves she had accumulated and placed there earlier right before sunset.
Carroll parked his car in a secluded area and watched Bethy as she hugged her bag and tiptoed towards him. He was satisfied with her dedication and relaxed knowing that he did not have to worry about getting caught since it was obvious that she had made sure she left no trace of her leaving home at night, let alone anyone finding out who she left with.
“Oh, darling Bethy! Look at you, your cheeks are red already. Let me hug you and warm you up a little bit” He pulled her into an embrace and she melted at his tenderness. Then he opened the door for her to enter “Let’s not waste time, go get in the car before someone sees up and ruins my plan.”
Bethy casually asked, “Your plan?” as she focused on putting her seatbelt on. Clearly was not even paying attention, just making small talk out of habit.
Despite knowing that it wasn’t a serious question, Carroll was alarmed and he immediately paraphrased his sentence to make sure she had no doubts. “Our plan, my love, ours. And that is to spend just this one night together in each other’s company before you fly back to your hometown with your family and we go back to our long-distance relationship.” Carroll pretended to be sad in an attempt to distract Bethy. He knew Bethy was genuinely heartbroken, the thought of leaving him suffocated her.
Bethy pulled him closer for a love-filled kiss. He took it a step further and reached out his hand to lightly caress one of her nipples, sending her shivers and she was ecstatic, her parents were strict and she never felt a man’s hand over her breasts. She loved it and wanted more but was too shy to ask, she let her body do the talking. When her body tensed up and she failed to stop the moan he broke the kiss. He used his other hand to gently rub his saliva off of her lips and did so without breaking eye contact. She stated at his lips and met his eyes just to instinctive look down at his lips again. Carrol caressed the side of her neck and pulled himself away, intentionally leaving her hanging and craving for more. Now, she was bound to replay the sensation in her mind. The desire to relive the moment when his thumb stroked her most sensitive area would take precedence over the thought of logically evaluating the situation. She will not pay attention to anything else but her pussy, and marvel at how bad it can throb. Lust will eat her mind and he will be able to make a run for it.
As per Carrol’s premonition, Bethy was very much DTF, she was aroused and to add fuel to the fire he silently and secretly teased her more. He touched and caressed her upper thigh, went higher with every passing second giving her the false hope that he would touch her there any moment just to take his hand out of her skirt and place it back on the wheel. Carrol controlled the speed with such unpredictability that it almost felt like a roller coaster ride, the anticipation coupled with her arousal was a sweet torture she would have paid to suffer for the entirety of her life. With her feet curled she bit her lips, still not confident enough to ask him to take her to the backseat.
The rest of the ride was nonchalant until Carroll took a wrong turn and Bethy broke the silence. “Carroll? What are you doing? The GPS shows this is a one-way road that leads directly to the outskirts of the city and there is no U-turn until we reach the end of it.” Bethy was not scared or worried, she just curiously asked.
Carroll’s face went pale at her question. He did not know what to say, he just pushed on the accelerator and wished they reached the destination faster before she started to suspect. He was not in his safe zone and she was still not out of her safe zone, anything can go wrong. But Bethy was not the type of person to let things go, she would not stop pestering him until he answered her.
“AH! My love, don’t you love surprises? You thought I took this road by mistake? Jeez! You don’t trust me at all! I am taking you to a place from where you will never return. I mean! you will return. But, your heart will be captivated there forever. You should trust me; you are only 16 years old and I am 27. Don’t you think I know better since I have more experience?” He winked at her flirtatiously, took her hand and kissed it with passion. Bethy swooned once again and thought she should not ask him any more questions. She thought that this was the man she trusted most after her father, what bad can happen to her when he is with her?” she leaned against the glass window and closed her eyes to rest, she was sleepy as well.
“Hurry up now! What’s taking you so long? We cannot delay this any longer, the rituals must begin as soon as possible, and the sacrifice has to be made before 4 am.”
Bethy heard a woman whisper. She never heard the voice before. She tried to open her eyes but her eyelids were very heavy. She wanted to speak but her tongue was heavy too, with all her strength she could only manage to make a whimper and she tried to move but her body ached all over making her freeze up in response. What’s going on here? Bethy thought as she was surprised at how weak she felt at the moment. She was frail! The room smelt like incense and sweat. It was packed with people, but she only saw black. Was she blindfolded?
“Oh god no! Look she is awake already! Hey, listen to me inject her another dose of that sedative thing.” the same woman said. Bethy felt her stomach wrench. Something was terribly wrong. The last thing she remembered was being in the car with her boyfriend, how did she end up here?
“But mother! The medicine will make her sleep for another hour or two. Besides it will be boring that way, not only that but it also makes the sacrifice less effective. She has to be mentally present and awake at the time of the sacrifice.” A male suppressed into a whisper replied to the woman. Bethy was too occupied to pay attention to the voices but was frightened by the words; rituals, sacrifice, sedative. The fear made her fully awake, her body jerked in response and only then did she feel it, her limbs were tied up tightly behind her, her mouth was taped and she was on the ground lying on her side. At the same time, she saw a blob of yellow light in front of her, through the thin fabric she could somewhat navigate her surroundings, after a few minutes of trying to identify the figures in front of her, she was able to tell that a group of people sat in a circle around her. All of them have a cape on with a hoodie attached to it.
“Boring? You think we do this for fun?” the mother’s voice said to the son, “We are doing this session solely for your long life. Hoping you can outlive all of us and continue our legacy, it’s not a fun thing to do in a state where the law prioritizes human rights so much.” Irritation was obvious in her voice.
“It’s time, family. Everything is ready so let us begin.” Another voice spoke. This was an older woman. She seemed dominant, and everyone just straightened up and held hands. The older woman started chanting some prayers in a foreign language. Not only was it foreign but it sounded somewhat ancient. Bethy could not yet move properly but was very cautious of what was going on. The mother and son in front of her seemed to be moving a lot in comparison to the rest, they were probably hosting the party. The guy was passing things, the outline of the items was not helping her identify what they were, but he was the main character for sure.
Bethy did not know how long it took, the haunting prayers coming out of the old woman were very loud and filled with rage, the others occasionally but unanimously added something like a chorus in between her prayers. Then she finally spoke English “Make her look at me.”
The man in from of her took her blindfold off but did not touch the tape over her mouth. It took her a while to get adjusted to the dim lighting of the room and the first thing she saw dried her soul. The man in from of her was Carrol.
Her eyes welled up and she felt a mixture of emotions; confusion, betrayal, heartbreak, scared also safety in his presence, and many other new emotions she had never known humans were capable of experiencing. She tried to communicate with the man she loved so much. She pled him with her eyes and wanted to ask him, “Is this a nightmare? Or is it a prank?” She wanted to tell him how scared she was and how much it pained her to be here among a group of weird strangers. She was just not ready to believe the man she trusted so much just brought her to this. Maybe if she begged him sincerely enough, his heart would melt and he would rescue her from this. Even with her mouth taped, she attempted to send him a telepathic message, she tried her level best to make strong eye contact fearing a break would hinder the message from reaching him but her tears got in the way, she blinked and felt helpless, hopeless. Caroll on the other hand just stared at her and showed no sign of grief. He looked at her untouched and unmoved by her misery. Bethy was losing hope and her reality was starting to sink in.
All she could think of now was “What will happen when my parents find out I’m not in my room? Will they cry? Call the police and rescue me from these kidnappers? But what if they traffic to a different state by then?” she dared not imagine the worse but prayed to God “Jesus please make me wake up from this dream! I will never lie to my parents and will never go against them” She was struggling and silently sobbing to wake herself up from sleep and realize this experience was not real. She thought, "I know! I’m actually in my room and I never left with him. Is it not possible that I would trust people who don't deserve it. Would I ever betray my parents?
“Prepare the virgin and get her ready for the last ritual, we will end the session now.” The leader spoke and Carroll pulled her off of the ground, adjusted her posture and fixed her body in a kneeling position. The old woman approached her, grabbed a handful of hair and made her eyes meet hers.
“Dear girl, you have no idea how grateful we are, please do not be mad at us for what we did now or will do next, just know that you are very lucky as the deity has chosen you to be his bride and therefore you will soon become out goddess, you will be worshipped by our community.” The lady looked like an average grandma, nothing suspicious but the more she spoke the more Bethy noticed certain abnormalities within her, something was very odd in her looks. Something was off and Bethy failed to put a finger to it. Her temperament made the chill penetrate her bone marrow. For some reason Bethy no longer wished to get out of this alive anymore, she just wanted courage and tolerance to deal with whatever they had planned for her. She was convinced that there was no going back.
Carroll, who was gone a few seconds ago, now returned to the scene and he was holding a long object wrapped up in red cloth. The old lady took it from him and touched the thing to her forehead before unwrapping it. Bethy saw what it was and was shaken to the very core, she swallowed hard being able to predict what was coming up. Her limbs were cold and an uncomfortable tingle made the fingertips go numb. Her reflex stopped functioning, her heartbeat was so loud against her chest, that it hurt her ribcage and her eardrums vibrated so hard she heard nothing but a phantom signal sound. The sight was unbearable but all she could do was stare with her eyes wide open as her instinct to shut them close had failed. She was so scared by the sight that she was afraid of closing her eyes. She patiently waited and started counting backwards from ten.
The old woman adjusted her grip over the katana and very swiftly swung her hand across Bethy’s head. In just seconds, the room was drowned in red and the smell of iron overpowered the smell of incense and sweat. The old woman’s face was washed in red fluid and she sweetly chanted under her breath
“Rest in peace, my lovely child.”
