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“To save Abigail’s life?” That doesn’t ring true and I’m shocked when she says with a sigh and a slight shake of her head.
“To save mine.”
CHAPTER26
ABIGAIL
When the door opens one hour later, my nerves are all over the place. I thought long and hard about how to play this because I need to deal with my fear and keep my wits about me.
I have done as Mario asked and am standing naked with the dark hooded robe pulled around me; the hood covering my face, offering a kind of protection that I’m grateful for.
Two figures stand in the doorway, wearing identical robes to mine and my heart sinks when I see they are wearing devil masks. As they approach, I say fearfully, “Please, let me go.”
They say nothing and merely take one arm each and clamp metal handcuffs on my wrists, fastening them behind my back.
I call out, “Stop, what are you doing? I’m cooperating, for fuck’s sake.”
Once again, they say nothing and just push me toward the door and walk beside me like demons on my shoulder.
We move down the carpeted hallway, and I strain to hear any sound, but it’s eerily quiet.
It’s obvious Mario enjoys the best that money can buy because this place is a palace. Expensive art and deep pile carpets that smell new and there is nothing out of place in a house that doesn’t appear to be lived in at all.
The hooded figures lead me to a door at the foot of the stairs and my heart beats frantically when they open it, revealing stone steps leading down to what I imagine is the basement.
Is this the hunt that Mario promised me? Will they set me free to run for my life or is there something else?
They push me into a room that is shrouded in darkness, the cool breeze whistling through the stone walls chilling my blood. My feet hurt as I walk on rough ground and it’s obvious, unlike the rooms above, this was designed for cold comfort instead.
We make our way into a huge room that makes me want to turn and run because, set in the middle, on a pedestal of sorts, is a stone altar. It is surrounded by candles that burn fiercely, casting the room in the fires of hell.
I glance nervously around and note several hooded figures standing around the altar, each holding a candle and then one steps forward as the two men guarding me step back.
My heart almost gives out on me as the figure removes his hood and I see the same devil mask covering his or her face. My heart thumps as I move back straight into the figures that are guarding me from behind.
The devil reaches out and pulls me close and, leaning down, whispers, “You make a beautiful bride, darling.”
I shiver with revulsion at the sound of that voice, knowing immediately the identity of the sick and twisted bastard standing before me.
His voice slides over me like acid rain, burning as it causes irreversible damage.
“You have a choice. Marry me or die. What is it?”
“Kill me now, you bastard.”
I spit in his face and am rewarded with a sharp slap around the head, momentarily blinding me and then as the fog clears, he spins me around and hisses, “Then maybe this will change your mind.”
I stand bound and restrained, watching something that causes me so much pain I think I’m about to pass out when Clarice is pulled struggling and screaming into the room, naked and shackled just like I am. She has no robe to cover her modesty, and the fear in her eyes is palpable as she cries, “Please, let me go. I did what you asked.”
I watch in horror as she is forced down on the stone altar by two hooded figures and shackled to it with metal cuffs.
Mario laughs softly beside me and whispers, “You’ll enjoy this. She betrayed you, darling. She brought you to me knowing my plans for you. She was a fool.”
“Why?”
The tears pour down my face as he shrugs. “She thought she could earn her position as Jefferson’s wife. All it would take was an initiation of sorts to prove her loyalty. We used her and now we will use her again to change your mind.”
“Why are you doing this?”
