The approaching footsteps were accompanied by something Danni hoped to never hear again – the chuffing, labored breathing that told her the devil was near.
There came the clink of something being tapped against the bars of a cage, followed by a cruel chuckle that sounded far more human than the thing they’d cornered out in the bog. The devil wasn’t alone.
Backing away from the bars, Danni was tempted to follow Abby’s lead and curl up into as small of a ball as she could, but she also knew full well it was likely to only encourage her captors.
Holding on to the memories of all she’d done in the past year, she crossed her arms in front of her and did her best to look defiant.
A large, misshapen body stepped in front of her cage, looming over her. The dim light of her prison did nothing to make it ... him ... whatever this thing was any less repulsive than it had looked out in the woods. Not helping was the lopsided leer it wore upon its face or the fact that it was naked, aside from a few bandages covering the wounds it had sustained battling them.
It grasped hold of the bars with its clawed hand and she realized that was what had made the sound she’d heard. Leaning down, it peered in at her, giving her a chance to note that even its eyes didn’t match. One was milky white, as if riddled with cataracts. The other was a clear blue, almost normal except for the vertical iris.
“H...ullo, Sssarah,” it wheezed.
Danni forced herself to meet its gaze. “Where are my friends?” she asked in a voice that was as calm as it had been the prior day while she had walked the campus with Arthur. She’d almost felt like a normal girl in that moment, a stark contrast to the waking nightmare she now found herself in.
If the creature understood her, it didn’t give any indication. “You wanna be mine, Sssarah?” The brute pressed himself up against the bars and Danni was horrified to see its erect manhood pushing through, pointing her way. “I think, you’d l-like t-that.”
The way it was talking, you’d have thought it was asking her out on a date. If she hadn’t been nearly terrified out of her mind, she’d have thought it almost surreal.
“Put that thing away, Noah,” another voice cackled. “You wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway.”
Noah? That man in the swamp had called it that, too, spoke of it like it was a person. And that’s when it clicked. It was, or he was. But what could do this to a man? She knew about birth defects, but what stood before her was a far cry from even the case of Joseph Merrick, the so-called Elephant Man.
Someone else stepped into view besides Noah. He was smaller, but not by much. Both of his eyes were nearly black, like a dog’s, and one side of his face was turned down in what appeared to be a perpetual frown. A large growth lay on his right shoulder, poking out through the overalls he wore. Though far more normal in appearance than Noah, he would have had a hard time walking down the street unnoticed.
He looked at her, avarice freely showing on his face as his dark eyes drank in her barely covered body. Danni suddenly found herself feeling far more naked than she was. She wondered if he was the one who’d undressed her while she lay semi-conscious. “This one’s gonna be my wife.” Wife?! “Don’t that sound grand, Sarah?”
Danni realized she was right to be scared when she’d woken up. The way these things were looking at her was as if she was little more than a piece of meat.
“M ... my name is not Sarah,” she replied, trying to keep herself together.
She expected to be screamed at. Perhaps the door to her cage opened and these things to launch themselves at her for her impudence.
Instead, the calm, almost jovial way the second man answered her was somehow far worse. “Of course it is. It’s always been and it always will be. It’s a good name. A good, God-fearing name.”
The devil, Noah, turned and gave the smaller one a shove. “Nuh uh, N-nathanial. She’s mine. P-papa said so.”
Nathanial laughed and pushed him back, albeit not moving him much. “You sure are stupid, you know that? He was having fun with you, that’s all. You ain’t never getting a Sarah of your own.”
Noah hissed at the smaller man, then raised one of his hands as if to strike him.
“That will be more than enough!”
Danni turned in the direction of the voice. A third man stepped into view. She recognized him as Ezekiel, from Francis’s video – the bastard who ran the museum and had been in charge of the ambush that brought her here.
Both Noah and Nathanial backed up several steps and lowered their heads as if they were little more than chastised children. Ezekiel spared one glance at her, then turned to address them. “You boys know the rules. Adam gets first go at them all. Nothing has changed. After that, he’ll decide who Sarah will wed. Until then, you both keep your mitts off her.”
Danni wasn’t stupid. His declaration brought her little comfort. It was a small reprieve, nothing more, that bespoke of future horrors.
Though she knew it would be futile, she decided to confront her captors nevertheless. “Why are you doing this?”
“Why?” Ezekiel replied, smiling as if pleased she had asked. “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 18:22. It’s simply what we’re meant to do.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t.” He stepped close to the bars. For a moment, she was tempted to launch herself at him. She would have liked nothing better than to break his jaw. But where would that get her? She’d still be locked in, and she doubted the others would react kindly to any aggression on her end. “A woman is a simple creature, but she is good for one thing, and it is that which we need badly.”
“What?”
“Children, of course.”
Disgusted and horrified, Danni’s mouth opened seemingly on its own. “But...”
“Female births have always been rare in our family and they’re even rarer whenever a special child, like our dear Noah, is sent from Heaven to grace us. So we do what we must to continue the line. You should be honored. My family has lived in these parts since the American Revolution, and we’ll continue to live here for so long as God wills it. You’ll be a part of our clan, and your children will grow up to carry on the tradition.”
“You can’t ... I don’t want...”
“It matters not, Sarah, what you want or what you don’t want. We need you. My family needs you.”
At that moment, realization hit. These things had a purpose for her, a terrible purpose she’d rather die than see come to fruition. But that same need they claimed to have for her wouldn’t have been extended to... “Where are my friends?”
“Claimed by the bog, as it was also ordained. Don’t feel sad, child. Their bodies will nurture the forest which in turn nurtures us. So, in a sense, they’ll be here with you always.”
Danni clamped a hand over her mouth and sank onto the hard pallet that served as her bed. Though she didn’t want to cry in front of these monsters who masqueraded as men, she felt the tears begin to fall regardless. Derek, Francis – they’d both been so good to her, heroes to be admired. They didn’t deserve this.
She looked up, blinking away the tears long enough to see Ezekiel smile at her once more before turning away, toward the cage across from hers.
Abby whispered, “Please, no more,” as the three converged on her cell.
“Kindly collect my wife,” Ezekiel said to the two others. “Sarah’s ripe and ready for my seed.”
He turned and began to walk away, but not before calling over his shoulder, “Be quick about it, boys. I’m in a sharing mood tonight.”