Abigail looks tense. She comes into the kitchen where I’m making something to eat and leans against the kitchen counter. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she lets out a small sigh. “What is it?” I ask, immediately stopping everything I’m doing.

“I need to take you to work with me.” Her low tone speaks volumes.

“Is everything okay?”

“Can you get ready so we can leave soon?”

My breathing increases, and I notice my stomach churning. I know something is happening, and I don’t want to wait to find out. “Give me five minutes,” I say as I look to the clock.

Running to my room, I quickly change out of my sleepwear, and head out to find Abigail standing by the door, worrying her lip between her teeth. “Ready?” she asks.

Nodding, I follow as she opens the door.

Anticipation claws through me. I’m nervous.

The drive to work is silent. I can only imagine how difficult this is for Abigail, torn between what she can say to me, and what she can’t. “Everything will be okay,” I say, trying to reassure her.

She steals a quick glance at me sideways. “It should be me telling you that. You’re incredibly grounded for someone who’s been where you’ve been.”

“I gather this has to do with God’s Haven, or you wouldn’t be quite as stressed about it.”

“It does.” She presses her lips together, thinning them to a perfect line. “But I can’t say anything until my supervisors speak with you.”

“As much as I really want to know, I think it’ll be better to wait until we’re at your work too. I don’t want you to get into trouble. I just wish Elise could be with us.”

“I called her first; she’ll be there.”

Now I know it’s serious. If Abigail thought to call Elise before she said anything to me, then I think I’m going to need Abigail and Elise with me for support.

“Thank you for coming here today, Luna,” a tall man, with short hair and a plain face says.

“Has this got to do with God’s Haven?” No use in pretending I’m here for any other reason. He nods.

“I’m Jason Patterson and I’ve been in charge of your case.”

I look to Abigail, searching her face for any clues as to what Jason Patterson is talking about. “My case?” I finally ask.

“Yes, God’s Haven. I’m in charge of the team, and we’re trying to find out more about it.”

“Okay. Are you Abigail’s supervisor?”

“Kind of. She has a different supervisor, but I’ve been brought in to help.” I make a mental drawing in my head, trying to figure out who Jason Patterson is. “Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, I think so. Abigail is here.” I indicate with my hand. “And her supervisor is here.” I move my hand up a bit, then add, “And you’re here?” I question.

“Excellent, you understand where we are. Now, we’ve had a development with God’s Haven, and I need you to look at a picture and help us with something.”

“Will you tell me what the development is?”

“Ordinarily, I’d say no. But, I think it’s important you know what we’ve found. I need for us to go into a private room though. Is that okay?”

I look around, trying to find Elise. “I’ll only go if Abigail and Elise can be with me.”

“Of course. I’ve spoken with Elise this morning, and she’s been caught in traffic. But she’ll definitely be here.”

“I’m here.” Abigail places her hand on my shoulder. I feel better knowing she’s with me. Now to wait for Elise.

“How about we head into the room, and I’ll get a coffee, and whatever you want so we can all start when Elise arrives.” Jason asks.

“Yeah, that seems okay to me.”

Jason walks ahead, leading me to a room with glass walls. Everyone can see in, which means I can see out too. There’s a huge table in the middle of the room made of glass, and lots of chairs around the table. “It’s a meeting room,” Abigail says. “We have some of our meetings here, and sometimes conferences.”

Mental note, look up the word “conferences.” “Do you mind if I write things down?” I ask Jason because I have a feeling, a lot will be said and some words I won’t understand. Instead of slowing down and asking about what I don’t understand, I can write them down and look them up when I return home.

Jason looks at my hands, then says, “I’ll get you a notepad and a pen. I won’t be long. Would you like a drink?” he offers.

I shake my head and he quickly leaves the room, like he’s pressed for time. Abigail sits in one of the chairs, and I sit beside her. “I’m nervous,” I admit.

“Why? They’ve asked you here to share some information with you, and to ask for your help.”

“I’m sorry I’m late, but traffic was horrendous,” Elise says as she comes in, places her bag on a chair and makes her way over to us. “How are you, Luna? I heard you loved the museum yesterday. Maria told me you were particularly taken when you saw the Luna moth.”

“I wasn’t expecting it. I used to see them sometimes when I was behind the wall. But what I found really interesting was Amelia Earhart. She was fascinating. And I’m going to learn more about her. Maria said she’s going to get me some information, and she’s going to show me how to use a computer so I can research whatever I want.”

“You’ll find all kind of things on the Internet. Some things can get scary, but I’m sure between all of us, you’ll be okay.”

“Sorry for keeping you,” Jason says as he enters. Behind Jason, a woman enters and sits beside him, and another man who sits on the other side of him. They’re all carrying folders and they all look imposing. No one smiles. They’re serious and grim.

“Who are you?” I ask the woman and man.

“This is Stacey who works for me, and this is Alec, who also works for me. They’ve both been helping on the case by gathering information. Can I show you a picture?” The introduction is short, and by the way Jason is speaking, there’s a sense of urgency to his tone.

“What is it you want to show me?”

Stacey opens a folder, and slides something over to me. “It’s an aerial photo of the compound.”

“Compound?” I ask.

“It’s a photo of God’s Haven. From the sky,” Abigail answers.

Reaching across the table, I take the photo and stare at it.

Suddenly, all these emotions and feelings come flooding back. Tears well in my eyes as I look at a place I once knew as home. My hands tremble as I stare at the picture. “When was this taken?”

“Two days ago. What can you tell us about this?”

“This is… um.” Breathing heavy, I try to fight the tears.

“Luna, what’s going through your mind?” Elise asks as she touches my hand.

I can’t take my eyes off the photo. I’m struggling to say the words I’m feeling, because I don’t know exactly what it is. Shaking my head, a tear escapes.

“Luna, what are you thinking?” Elise asks again.

I point to the main house, and try to silence the devil screaming in my head. Taking several moments, I cry. I can’t bring myself to say anything. This picture is bringing back every bad and every good thing that ever happened while I was in there. All the lies undermine anything good, though.

“Luna?” Abigail whispers from beside me. Shaking my head, I can barely contain myself. “Give us a moment, please?” Abigail asks, rising from her chair, and pulling me with her. Jason, Stacey, and Alec push their chairs out and stand.

“No, don’t go. I can do this.” I look to them and offer a weak smile. “This is my home,” I start saying. Taking a deep breath, I pull my shoulders back and look up to them. “What do you want to know?”

“What can you tell us about the buildings on the comp…?” Stacey stares at me with wide eyes, and stops herself from finishing her question. “What can you tell us about the buildings inside God’s Haven?” she asks after a small delay.

“This one here is the main house. It’s where we have to cook for everyone.” I move my finger to the side and point to several smaller houses clumped together. “This is where the Elders live with their wives.” I let out a snarky huff. “A lot of things go on in there. Elder Steven kept me in a small room here. It’s behind a locked door. It’s where he shoved my head in a bathtub of water, because I found a way out.”

“How did you get out?” I don’t know who asks the question, because I’m so transfixed on the photo.

“Through the trees. Here.” I point to them. “But when Elder Steven found me, I knew that if I was ever going to get out again, it wouldn’t be through the trees. They knew that’s how I got out, so I had a feeling they’d do something to stop me from leaving that way again.”

“How thick are the trees in this area, Luna?” Jason asks. I slowly lift my shoulders, not knowing how to answer. He scratches his chin, and narrows his eyes. “Can you think back to when you left?” I nod. “As you got further into the trees, could you turn and still see the main house?” I shake my head. “Did it get darker the more you walked through the trees?”

“Yes, it did.”

“Was there another wall there?”

“Not a wall. But there were wires. There was a sign saying something, but I don’t know what it said.”

“Was it a white sign?” Stacey asks.

“Hmmm,” I confirm.

“If I show you some signs, do you think you’d recognize it?”

“Hmmm.” I nod.

She takes a small rectangle I recognize as a laptop computer out of her bag. She opens it, and types on the keyboard. I smile to myself, because I’ve learned so much. I give myself an internal clap, because I’m not confused by these things.

“Does it look like this?” She turns the laptop around, and shows me a sign. I read the words carefully and nod my head. It’s a white sign with red writing. I didn’t know how to read when I was inside God’s Haven, now I know exactly what it says.

“Caution Electric,” I say. “What does that mean?”

“The wires are live wires, which means anyone who touches them will receive an electric shock. The severity of the shock will depend on how strong the electricity is.”

I look to Abigail, questioning what Stacey has just said.

“If a person touches live electricity, they can get electrocuted, causing death. Electricity is dangerous if you don’t treat it with respect,” Abigail explains. “Touching a wire that has electricity running through it, can hurt… or kill.”

“But I touched it, and nothing happened. Actually, I dug under it to get out.”

“They would’ve rectified that. There’s no way they’ll leave that without electricity. Not now that Luna’s gotten out,” Jason says to Alec and Stacey.

I don’t ask what they mean. I actually get what they’re saying. I watch as the three of them scribble furiously on note pads. I feel like I should be writing something, but I don’t know what. So far, everyone has been explaining everything.

“Can you tell us what this is?” Alec points to the one thing I hated most.

My shoulders slump and I let out a small sigh. “It’s the whipping post. Elder Steven liked to do it in front of all the others, to show them the cost of bad behavior. The last time I was whipped…” My heart jumps up into my throat, and I can barely speak. One tear falls, remembering how Cain beat me.

“It’s okay, we can talk about this later,” Elise says.

Shaking my head, I fight with myself. But they need to hear what type of people the Elders are. What they’re capable of. “He made Cain do it. Told Cain it was his only path to becoming an Elder, and handed him the belt. Cain didn’t want to do it.” More tears fall. This is a lot more emotional than I thought it would be. All of it.

“Can we take a break?” Elise asks.

“No, I don’t want a break.” I take several calming breaths, and regain my control. “What else do you want to know?”

“How did you get out when Abigail found you?”

“The wall, there’s a part of it that slides aside. It’s about here.” I point to the spot where I walked out of God’s Haven. “They don’t open it while we’re around, I never even knew it existed until shortly before I escaped. I suspect they’d only open it at night, whenever they’d give us an early curfew.”

“There are cameras everywhere. I’m not sure we’ll be able to pull off a surprise ambush,” Jason says to both Alec and Stacey. “Maybe we can hack in and loop the feed.”

“Ambush? What have you got planned?” I ask, concerned people are going to get hurt. Especially the young children in God’s Haven. I couldn’t care less about the Elders, but I am concerned for all the innocent people involved.

Jason looks at me and narrows his eyes. He stands and paces, running his hand through his short, dark hair. His pacing looks to me as if he’s struggling with internal thoughts. “We’ve been working hard on ascertaining…” he stops talking for a split second before continuing, “…gathering information on God’s Haven. As you know, it’s what we call a cult. It started out as a religious cult created by this man.” He walks over to a folder Stacey slides on the glass table. He pulls out a photo, picks it up and walks around to be beside me. He hands it to me, and I instantly recognize the man to be Elder William. A much younger Elder William.

“Elder William,” I say.

“William Scott Bancroft,” Jason says and waits for my reaction. I shrug my shoulders silently telling him, I have no idea who he is. I only know him as Elder William. “William Scott Bancroft is a convicted pedophile. The last sighting of him was approximately twenty-two years ago.”

I feel so stupid. Jason’s just said a bunch of words that don’t make sense to me. “Can you explain that please?” I say in a low voice, embarrassed by the fact that I don’t understand.

“Do you know what a pedophile is?” he asks.

I shake my head. “Should I?” I look to Abigail for answers. “What’s a pedophile?”

She chews on her lower lip; her brows are creasing together. She’s worried. “A pedophile is an adult who gets sexual enjoyment out of having sex with children.”

“Children?”

“In his case, young children. As young as five.”

I stare blankly. “How does a five-year-old understand what sex is when I didn’t know until it was explained to me? I didn’t want to have sex with Elder Steven, so I don’t understand how a child could want to have sex with anyone.”

“Because they don’t. It’s illegal to have sex with anyone under the age of sixteen,” Jason answers.

“Ohhh.” It dawns on me, what they used to say to us. I sit back in my chair, and cross my arms in front of my chest, letting out an extended, “Ohhh.” That makes sense now. “The Elders would say when we’d be of age, then we had to wed whichever Elder wanted us more. Of age means sixteen. Elder Steven said he was going to marry me even though I wasn’t of age yet.” I scrunch my nose and feel a lump quickly rising to the back of my throat. “That’s disgusting.”

“Did anyone ever have sex with you, Luna?” Elise asks.

The question is abrupt and to the point. All five pairs of eyes are on me. “No, no one had sex with me,” I answer honestly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Abigail’s shoulders slump as if she’s relieved.

“Do you know who these two girls are?” Jason asks, as he’s handed two more photos. He shows them to me.

“No. Am I supposed to?” I stare at the pictures of the two young girls. Both have big smiles on their faces. One little girl has darker hair, and the other has freckles and crooked teeth. I smile, because they both look so happy in these pictures.

“This is Elizabeth Edith Kemp, and this is Kelly Kim Wolf.” Jason points to one picture, then the other. “They were both kidnapped, a year apart, from neighboring towns. We believe William took them.”

“Wait, what’s their names?” I ask.

“Elizabeth Edith Kemp and Kelly Kim Wolf.”

I pick the picture of Kelly up and study her. Then I take Elizabeth’s photo, and look at her too. “I think this Is Momma Edith, and Momma Kim.” A chill runs up my spine. “I’m not sure,” I say trying to see the resemblance between the photos and the Mommas I know.

“We’ve done a digital photo of what Elizabeth and Kelly would look like now.” He reaches across the table to take another two photos from Stacey, then hands them to me.

I gasp, as my arms are covered in tiny goosebumps. A thunderbolt of ice freezes my blood. “That’s Momma Edith and Momma Kim.” I stare at the pictures. “Except Momma Edith is angrier than this picture.”

“We’ve found them,” Jason says with a smile to Alec and Stacey.

I can’t take my eyes off the photos, nor can I wrap my head around this. “I need a moment please.” I walk out of the room, without even waiting for them to tell me it’s okay to do so.

Pacing the hallway, I try not to focus on them all staring at me or talking with each other. Elise comes to the door, opens it and watches as I pace back and forth. “Luna, what are you feeling?”

“I don’t know. I’m angry, and relieved and I don’t know what else. It’s all jumbled up.”

“Why are you angry?”

“I don’t know,” I answer candidly.

“Why are you relieved then?”

I stop walking and face her. There’s a burning feeling inside my gut. “I don’t know!” I say again before I start walking back and forth.

“Why do you think you’re feeling angry?”

I burst into tears, the flame growing hotter and hotter. I’m overwhelmed with everything. “I don’t know!” I scream. I shock myself with my painful cry. I just screamed at Elise who’s only ever been nice to me. “I’m sorry.” I clasp my hand to my mouth, embarrassed.

“Don’t be sorry, Luna. The only way forward is to talk to me.”

“It’s too much,” I say as I hit the palm of my hand to the side of my head, trying to form coherent thoughts. “Everything is too much. Elder…” I stop addressing him the way they taught us, and clear my throat. “William is not a nice person. And he stole Edith and Kim? Why were they so mean, then? They were taken, and they treated me so nasty. Edith more than Kim. I don’t understand, why?” My shoulders sink and I bury my face into my hands. “Why?” I cry. Collapsing to the floor, I huddle into myself. My brain is working so fast as thoughts compete with each other.

“We’ll figure this out together,” Abigail says as she hugs me. She must’ve seen me and has come out to help.

Lifting my head from my hands, I notice how worried she is. “Thank you,” I say and return her hug.

“They have some more questions for you. Do you think you can answer them?”

My mind is screaming no, but I have to do what’s right. “I think so.”

“When you’re ready, we’ll go in and help them with whatever they need. I’ll be right there with you.”

“And I’m here too,” Elise says.

I swallow back the spit gathering in my mouth and give them both the weakest smile. “I want him to be held accountable,” I say. Standing, I dust my hands down my pants, wipe the tears from my face, and become even more determined to do what’s right. “I can’t allow him to have so much power.”

Abigail grins. “I’m proud of you, Luna.”

I let out a small humorless laugh. “I’m proud of myself.” William has done things he has no right to do. He needs to answer for what he’s done. As do all the other Elders.