"Yes hello?" Zach's mother answered her cell phone.
"Loraine, hi it's Rohan."
"Oh Rohan, how are you?"
"Fine, I was calling because my housemaid Diana said she came in this morning and noticed Elizabeth's bedroom was empty. She was going to give her a ride to meet up with your family. Did you happen to pick her up on the way?"
Zach's mother scrunched up her face confused and turned to her husband.
"What is it?" he answered, puzzled by her expression.
"Uh..no we didn't come get her. We assumed that she slept in, Zach came home very late last night."
A sense of dread washed over them.
"She's not with you?"
"No Rohan, I'm sorry. We thought she was home sleeping."
Elizabeth's uncle fell silent, his heart sank into his stomach and it took everything in him not to drop the phone.
"She...she's not answering her phone. Are you sure Zach dropped her home last night and not anywhere else?Not to a friends house?" Rohan himself knew that was impossible since they were planning to meet in the morning anyway. But still he wanted some hope, some clearance as to where his young niece might be.
"Yes I'm sure he dropped her off right infront of your house."
There was a long silence as everyone's mind began wondering off for the worst, but for Rohan the worst seemed impossible.
Could his brother have had something to do with this? Could she be in danger?
Rohan hung up and ran inside the house, frantically calling out for his niece but to no avail.
"What happened?" Zach's father asked Loraine.
Loraine looked down at her phone, her eyes were sad and strange. "I-I don' know, Rohan said Elizabeth wasn't home this morning so he thought she was with us."
"Well...maybe she went out with a friend and forgot her phone?"
They both knew that sounded unlikely, and yet they hoped however unlikely that might be that she was at least somewhere safe and would come home soon.
"Let's not mention this to Zach right away." Zach's father spoke as he kept his eyes on the road in front of him. Loraine kept her eyes on her phone, hoping that Rohan would call her and say oh never mind she was in the bathroom, or went to grab some coffee or any kind of confirmation that he found her. She hoped and prayed to her phone as she gripped it.
"...Ok..." she agreed with her husband. The last thing they wanted was to cause Zach any more worry.
****************************
Elizabeth woke up with a pulsing headache, her eyes adjusted to the low light room. She sat up on the uncomfortable mattress, her hand sunk into it.
She was too tired and too hurt to panic, as much as her brain was telling her to try and get out all she could do was sit up and take deep breaths.
She held her hand over her wound, the blood had soaked her bandage.
"Wow.."
Looking down at her hands she noticed her clothes were different. She was in a pajama short and white button up blouse. Immediately she felt violated and crossed her arms over her chest, bringing her knees up into a fetal position.
Not much longer, the door opened slowly. The door itself was well hidden, there was no lock that she could see. It would not be possible to pick it. The door was very heavy and since she did not hear any footsteps before it opened, she assumed it must be sound proof.
Her captor walked through and entered, his hands pocketed in his pants.
"Good to see you awake Elizabeth." his eyes were kind and calm, despite this terrifying scenario.
"Father Beckford...how long have I been down here?" her lips couldn't help but tremble.
She feared him.
More than ever before she feared that man. Her head was spinning, she hated him but more than that, she hated herself for never telling anyone about all the horrible things he had done to her.
But then again, if she had who would have believe her?
"You've been sleeping for almost two days now." he walked closer to her, his stride was long and slow.
With each step, he struck more fear into her heart. Her knees began to shake.
"Are you hungry?"
Elizabeth shook her head, hot tears were building up in her eyes. "No, I just ...wanna go home." her voice cracked as the tears tumbled down her beautiful heart shaped face.
For the first moment in many months she had known him, the priest smiled.
"We will go home soon Elizabeth."
His smile was unnerving sending chills up her spine. He seemed out if it, lost and in a daze and yet seemed to be staring through her.
"We?"
He crouch down to her level, his dull eyes peered at her shining glossy green iris's.
"Yes," he softly whispered "Worry not, we won't be here forever. I promise you, I swear to you." he held his hand out to touch her, but she swatted his hand away before he could lay a hand on her knees.
His smile fell, as he watched her eyes narrowed at him in anger.
"I suppose this is normal, you reacting that way towards me." he commented, standing up and walking towards the other side of the room.
What part of this is could be considered normal at all?
"You're angry at me now, but soon you'll realize that I am doing you a favor. Keeping you safe, keeping your purity and innocence."
James opened a storage bin and pulled out some slice bread and a can of tuna. He began to make her a sandwich. "Only through me can you maintain your holiness, Elizabeth. Only I can save you. I know you don't understand it, I know you might hate me right now. But I swear to you, I am doing this to save your soul."
He turned to face her, his expression seemed painful. She began to cry even more completely lost at his words, confused and still in pain. All she wanted to do was wake up from this nightmare ; wake up to the smell of Diana making breakfast and to her uncle laughing across the kitchen table, drinking his strong coffee as usual.
"What are you talking about?! Please just take me home..!" she cried, panic was consuming her.
James finished making her food and brought her the plate with a bottle of water and set it down next to her on the floor.
"Shhh Elizabeth, you're fine, everything's fine now," he attempted to sooth her, reaching out his hand, he placed atop her head. This time she was too busy crying and shaking to swat him away so it pleased him that she allowed him to touch her.
"Why...are you doing this?"her eyes darted to him.
He smiled that creepy smile of his again, this time exposing his teeth like a wolf.
"My sweet Elizabeth, you don't realize the evil you possess inside your soul. You don't realize that you are sin incarnate, you're a seductress, like that that was once Eve who bewitched Adam causing the downfall of man."
Elizabeth stopped crying, her eyes widened.
He's....completely insane....
She instantly knew, she was not dealing with a man in his right state of him.
"Only I, as a holy priest can save you from eternal damnation. I will stop at nothing to make you mine, to have you submit and accept me. I am a patient man, I...will....have you." he said as his slender finger dipped below her chin , bringing it up to face him. The wolf seemed to salivate from having his prey so close to him.
Elizabeth could hear her heart beating loudly in her ears.
His palm opened to cup her warm cheek before moving away, "Eat your food. I will come check on you later." He said as he stood up towards the door.
Once he had left her alone, the gravity of her situation set it and she screamed as loud as she could, hurting her throat but she continued to screamed without care. The adrenaline pumped through her again and she got up and pounded her fists against the door.
"HELP ME PLEASE!!!SOMEBODY HEEEEELP!!!" she cried and cried until no more tears were left. Elizabeth realized it was useless, no one could hear her. She sunk sobbing to the floor and threw her plate of food across the tiny room.
She laid on the cold concrete floor to sob herself to sleep.