CHAPTER 31 - Bryan Trevor #2
“Noah, the little you’ve told me about Bryan in these past two days has already shown me he’s no fool.”
No.
He’s not.
But I know my father, and I know what he’s capable of.
Just as I know he’s cunning and dangerous.
I’m afraid Bryan will act on impulse to save me and end up falling into a trap.
“I’m scared,” I confess, and she wraps me in a hug, letting me cry. “If Gavin kills Bryan, he’ll come for Sadie next.”
God, how it hurts to even think about this!
From everything I heard and pieced together, my butterfly was going to go through the initiation ritual in a few months.
They were going to break her like they did me.
They were going to tear away the light that shines from her.
The glow of innocence.
And they were going to kill me in the process.
“That’s not going to happen!” she states firmly, as if certain. “I don’t believe in this god they’re preaching, but I know there’s a higher power that’s good. And I believe he’ll get us out of here and punish not only our fathers, but everyone involved in this heresy.”
“How can you believe after everything you’ve been through?” I ask, incredulous.
She releases me and steps back.
“My mother always told me we came to this world with a purpose and that God was just.”
“I don’t think everything we’ve been through is just,” I say, interrupting her.
“Of course it wasn’t, but I believe that unfortunately, it’s part of the process.” I shake my head. “He will get us out of here, Noah. He’ll bring both your boyfriend and my brother to help us.”
“Bryan will destroy this place when he finds out what’s happening.”
“Then he’ll be the one God sends to save us.”
It’s more likely the devil sent him, I think, but I don’t say it out loud.
Bryan isn't a man who follows God's rules.
He makes his own, and when it comes to me, he'd sell his soul to hell itself.
Knowing he'd do anything to save me is exactly why I'm afraid he'll walk right into a trap.
“I hope you're right.” I walk to the bed, feeling my bruises protest. “Thank you,” I say suddenly. “You didn't know me, yet you've helped me these past few days.”
“You helped me too,” she replies, giving me a smile.
Brittany has been a light in the middle of all this darkness.
She was the one who held me last night when I woke up screaming, drenched in a cold sweat after a nightmare. After realizing that Gavin touched me when I was just a little girl.
It hurt to be trapped in the nightmare.
But it hurt even more to wake up and realize the nightmare reflected real life.
The flashes that flooded me while Gavin was beating me are memories of the act, and even though I can't feel or remember anything beyond that bastard removing his belt, knowing for certain it happened hurt deeply.
It hurt because I was just a child.
A little girl who had no idea what a cruel world she lived in.
Or what despicable beings would raise her.
I grieved for the innocence that was ripped from me.
I cried over the cruelty forced upon me.
I let myself feel, and spent almost the whole night letting my tears cleanse my soul, just as I had yesterday morning when I woke up and found myself in this room, Gavin's hostage.
When I finally lay down, exhausted, I accepted that just like Brittany, I too was abused at five years old.
The difference between us is that it only happened to me twice—Gavin, despite everything, believed this monstrous purification only required two acts. Elias, on the other hand, is a monster who abused her whenever he felt like it, using faith as an excuse to hurt his own daughter.
He warped Brittany's mind to the point where she believed what he did was right. And he's so cruel, so monstrous, that he needed more—so he saw the spark of evil in Gavin and proposed the absurd idea of creating the Redoubt.
Of creating a cult to use and abuse women, whether children or adults.
I don't know how she manages to live with everything she's been through.
How she can console me while being even more broken than I am.
“You need to eat something today.” Her voice pulls me from my thoughts. “You didn't eat yesterday, and you haven't eaten anything today either. You're going to starve to death!”
“I want to spend as little time outside as possible, but I really need to eat something or I'll pass out,” I reply, turning my attention to the closet in front of me, remembering last night.
After the prayer, we went to dinner and I didn't see our fathers again.
Gavin only showed up this morning, forcing me to call Bryan. Elias was with him, and while I was on the call, that worm took his daughter out of the room.
When Brittany came back, her eyes were swollen and red. The moment the door closed, she ran straight to the bathroom.
I held her while she sobbed uncontrollably and vomited.
I didn't ask questions.
I didn't need to.
I knew what had happened.
I held myself together to try to comfort her, but when she fell asleep, exhausted, I broke down in silence.
I cried, imagining her pain and what she went through outside this room.
I ended up falling asleep, and when I woke up, she was already awake, showing no trace of what she'd been through earlier.
If strength were a person, it would be Brittany!
I don't know if I could survive everything she's already been through.
“What was your mother like?” I ask, looking back at her. “If it's too painful, you don't have to answer.”
“It's not. Talking about her is the only good thing I have to share from my entire life.”
“I know what that's like…” I say, knowing that Sadie was the only good thing in my life, but now there's Bryan too.
My heart aches with longing!
“She was always there for me—caring, loving, and she always treated me like a princess,” she begins, closing her eyes. “She wasn't from the church, but she started attending with my father. Even so, she wasn't cruel like him.”
“You were so young and you still remember?”
“Yes. I think my brain held onto some memories of her so I wouldn't go crazy without having anything good inside me.”
“But you have everything good inside you,” I interrupt, looking at her. “Your heart is beautiful, Brittany, and even though I know you've lived through hell, I believe happiness will find you. That you'll get to live far away from that monster.”
“Yeah, maybe.” She forces a smile, and an alarm sounds in the background.
Then a sharp voice comes through the speakers in our room.
“The evening prayer will take place only with Elias Thorne,” the voice announces, and then silence fills the space again.
“Your father won't be there…” Brittany states, and my heart races.
“I hope he's dead!” I say, looking at the door, hoping it will open any second and Bryan will burst in to get me out of here.