Prologue - Sutton
~Four Years Ago~
Stepping off the plane in a foreign country, my mind is sharp and focused as the blistering heat singes my skin. Looking around with a hopeful heart, I see a third world country in desperate need of nurture and care.
“You have a big heart, little one,” Mama always told me when I was growing up. “Never let anyone dim your light, baby girl.”
I can remember her gentle tone as if it were yesterday, before she was sent away and returned a shell of herself.
Before her hateful and bitter spirit consumed every room she walked into and her handfuls of medication were shoved down her throat.
The last time Papa sent her off on a mission trip, I didn’t recognize the person she’d become.
Papa said that she’d let demons consume her and to be obedient or else I’d end up like her one day.
When Papa sent her off on her first mission trip, I was twelve years old and could hear them yelling across the house.
Mama was pleading with him to not be sent away, that she’d be sweet and obey.
I could hear Papa listing off all the reasons he didn’t believe her and then saw a van pull up in front of the house.
Quick running steps echo down the hall as my door flew open. Mama came rushing in like a twister.
“We have to leave now,” she says grabbing for my school backpack while shoving things in it.
“Where are we going?” I ask, watching her make quick work of opening and closing drawers.
“We need to leave and get away from this place, Sutton. Papa is doing bad things, and we need to get as far from here as possible.”
The sound of voices from the front of the house can be heard, and I watch as Mama darts her eyes all around.
“Where will we go?”
“We’re going on a trip far from here and away from evil,” she says as she takes a quick peek down the hallway.
She closes my bedroom door then heads over to my window, lifting the windowpane.
“We have to go, now.” Mama reaches her hand out for me to take, and I look at it then back at the closed door.
I can hear the panic in her voice as the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention.
Mama doesn’t wait for me to come to her as she leans over grabbing my wrist and yanking me towards the open window. Once we’ve climbed out, she takes me over to the side of the house and looks around the corner.
“We’ve gotta be quick and quiet, Sutton, or we’ll never get out of here,” she tells me.
I stay as quiet as possible completely confused as to why my mother just shoved us out of the house through a window instead of leaving through the front door.
Once we clear the backyard, she takes off in a sprint down the street towards downtown.
I’m dragged the entire way as my short legs can’t keep up with her strides.
At the end of the street, she stops to catch her breath and my burning lungs are so thankful for it.
“Almost there,” she pants. “Everything will be fine once we get to the police station.”
I’m about to ask her why the police station, but she takes off again pulling me behind her.
After a few more minutes the building comes into view and my body rejoices in relief.
As we wait across the street for the light to change and cars to pass, my mother keeps checking her surroundings.
She’s trembling and I’m not sure if it’s from all the running or if she’s scared.
She glances down at me giving me her beautiful smile that she always does when I walk into the room to see her.
“I should’ve done this a long time ago, little one,” she tells me. “But everything will be fine now. I’ll never let anything happen to you.”
The light changes and the last car sweeps by.
Just as we take a step off the curb and onto the crosswalk a white van screeches out of nowhere blocking our path, scaring the crap out of me.
I scream as the side door opens and a man reaches out grabbing Mama.
She tries to pull away and yell for help, but it does no good.
The man hauls her in the van shoving me back and onto the concrete hitting the hard surface hard.
I hear the door slam shut and then the tires squeal as they spin to race down the road.
My head is jumbled with how quick everything just happened that I don’t see a familiar car pull up alongside of me.
“Get in the car, Sutton,” I hear my papa’s voice. He sounds annoyed, and there’s a sharpness to it. My mind and eyes are finally focused as I take in my surroundings.
My body goes on autopilot as I stand from the dirty ground and walk up to our car. Getting in the backseat, I settle my racing heart while twisting my pebble ridden hands together.
“Mama—”
“Your mother has gone on a mission trip to cleanse her soul,” Papa tells me as he navigates the car towards the church.
“She’s going to be gone for some time, and I think it’s time you were given more chores and duties in her place.
The time will come soon that you’ll be wife and you need to know the expectations of what that entails. ”
He parks the car then comes around opening my door.
“But she—”
“We will not speak of your mother or of what happened today, Sutton, that is final. Go inside and see about helping Judy,” he informs me.
After that moment, we never spoke about Mama. Not when she came home nine months later. The woman that came home was not the mother who’d raised me. Mama was gone even if her body was living and breathing under the same roof.
Eight years later, this wasn’t what I dreamed of for my life, but The Fellowship said that this was my calling, and so I must follow their commands.
My mission trip is starting now since I graduated high school last week.
Papa told me that it was my time to serve others and to bring in as many people as I can into The Fellowship.
I’m hoping that once this is over, I’ll be able to come back and start living my life.
I didn’t realize the nightmare I was walking into.