Something Missing (Updated Weekly)

Chapter 16 - Small Mercies

'What did you see?' Erica asked Carly in a sympathetic voice, 25 minutes into the episode. Rita was always impressed listening to these shows at how perfect they always managed to get the sound. Police workplace recordings and presentations, no matter what the country, suffered from a myriad of quality issues.

'They were all sitting in a circle surrounded by black candles. They all had black masks on with devil horns,' Carly said. Rita could see what Subeera had meant about her. 'I saw a Christian child lying on an altar. Someone handed me a cup of red liquid and told me to drink it. I tasted it and it was blood.'

'Sorry, Carly. I'm gonna say it straight up. I'm having trouble.' Donna sounded not just disbelieving but livid.

'Trouble with what?' Carly said innocently.

'Thing is.' Donna's voice was cold. 'There is something called the Satanic Panic. It's something we have discussed on the show before. People got falsely accused of being Satanists and participating in dark rituals. They had their lives ruined and their kids taken away for no good reason. So I'm having...difficulty accepting this.' She let out a frustrated breath. 'And - do you see why this might remind people of the Blood Libel? You said this head honcho of theirs was Jewish?'

Carly's voice was childlike. 'What's the Blood Libel?'

'It's a legend from hundreds of years ago saying Jews drank children's blood,' Donna snarled with sudden, vicious anger. 'These stories can kill people -'

'But he did drink someone's blood. I saw him. Are you saying you don't believe me?'

'Look, Carly.' Donna spoke in a tight, furious voice. She sounded shaken; this was clearly personal. Rita sympathised. The car crash interview was making her physically squirm. 'We have debunked many conspiracy theories down the years and this is a textbook example. If it was entirely down to me and not the production company I'd pull the plug on this interview right now.'

'They had a tapestry on the wall depicting the devil himself,' Carly insisted. 'Just because you cannot see demonic forces, does not mean they do not exist. It is only thanks to the grace of God that I escaped. Evil lives in this world. You can't see it. That's not my fault.'

'Carly,' Erica said, her voice gentle and diplomatic. 'Can you tell me how you escaped? We'll come back to this.'

'No,' Carly said. 'She's calling me a liar. I want to discuss it now.'

Rita paused the podcast, unsure how much more of this she could take. Her train had now stood stationary between stops for twenty minutes. The driver had announced there was a fault with the signalling and they would be on the move 'imminently'. She had a nagging urge to go to the bathroom and it was uncomfortable being squashed into the window.

'Excuse me,' Rita said to the man next to her, gathering her stuff and standing up. He grunted and took ages to shift himself out of his seat. She walked to the nearest set of carriage doors and shut herself into the toilet. She sat down and searched the Abundant Blessing Church of Christ on Google where nobody could look over her shoulder. The plethora of results the search brought up were sickening but to Rita's mind, unsurprising. The cult had crossed a line beyond inflammatory preaching into actively setting out to terrify people.

''Hate preachers' fined £250 for harassing shoppers'

'Pride marchers subjected to 'disgusting' homophobic abuse by fundamentalist sect'

'Man who lost family in Gaza heckled by 'cult' as fundraising event ends in chaos'

Rita selected the first result, her heart sinking. The shopping incident had taken place in Plumstead, where Alfonso was staying alone tonight. Somehow that made it worse. She wished she'd been more persistent in getting him to come up with her.