Page 61 of His Obsession

“I’m…” he starts to say.

“Can you come lay with me?” I ask softly.

“Yeah, baby,” he says. Lucian comes over and lies beside me so that I can turn my face to see him. He starts gently stroking my hair and I relax more.

“What did he brand me with?” I ask.

“His initials,” Lucian says. “He apparently hacked some shit and made it look like he was someone else, but his name is legally Jake Fritz.”

“He’s my brother,” I say.

“Half, but yes,” he confirms. “He is a year younger than I am, so he is ten years older than you.”

“He has a lot of followers,” I say.

“This can wait, baby,” he says.

“I want to explain,” I say.

“Okay,” he says. “How many?”

“About forty. That’s just who he had in there. I never saw anyone’s face, but they were all men,” I tell him. As long as I keep talking, I don’t have to focus on them cleaning my back. My feet are also bruised from running on the gravel road, I’m sure.

“He has… forty?” Lucian asks.

“Yeah. About halfway from the office to that place, he forced me to give him head. He parked and went harder until he finished. When I got into that main building in the center, he had all of them strip me. The first thing he used was that machine. It was a lot bigger than anything you’ve used. It hurt a lot. He did that for a while, but then I ended up passing out. When I woke up, he whipped me. He said just twenty-five, but he didn’t stop until fifty. I think that’s because I wasn’t giving a reaction. Once he got done doing that, he raped me. He was so violent. He used that clip thing and forced me to come. The second time he made me have an orgasm, that’s when he branded me. He came at the same time. When he got done, he let the others do whatever they wanted. As far as I can remember, it was three at a time. I was unconscious for a lot of it, I think. My memory ispretty choppy. I just remember that they all had black hooded cloaks and white masks. None of them spoke, and they just kept fucking me over and over and over. The next thing I knew, I was waking up alone in the room. There was a bucket of soapy water, a washcloth, and a towel. I was covered in… everything. I… this is embarrassing… Apparently, I had gone to the bathroom on myself, plus everything they all left behind. I was happy to comply and clean myself. I wrapped myself up in the towel and sat in the corner of the room. Jake and the others came in and he basically said that I would run, and he would hunt me. If he caught me, I was his forever. If I lasted until dawn or got off the property, I was free. I knew I wouldn’t make it off the property, so I hid for hours. When it started snowing, I…”

“What?” he asks.

“I didn’t want you all to find my body. I thought I was going to die, so my plan was to get as deep into the woods as I could before collapsing. I didn’t want anyone to find me like this. I figured it would be easier to grieve me if I disappeared than if you found me and saw what he did… I feel so fucking stupid. You knew something was off, but I kept ignoring you. He was my friend and I trusted him. He saved me from being raped… Why would he do that? He cared for me when I was helpless… He could have hurt me, but he took care of me instead. He made me feel safe… I kept getting bad vibes, but I blamed it on going so long without trusting anyone, so I forced myself to be okay with him.”

“Baby, it’s not your fault. He manipulated all of us. He was a part of this community for years, and none of us suspected a thing until he latched onto you,” he says.

“Is he… Is he dead?” I ask.

“No,” he says. “Our focus was to save you. Once you heal, we will deal with him and the others. We need to get the detective either on our side or to send him searching elsewhere so we can handle them.”

“Are you going to kill them?” I ask.

“Every last one of them,” he confirms. “Women and children won’t be harmed, because they were forced into that life, but anyone who put their hands on you… They’re dead.”

“I want to see you kill Jake,” I say. “I want to watch him die. For me… for my mom… for everyone he hurt.”

“If you are healed enough,” he says. “Carol?”

“The cuts aren’t too deep. They will heal on their own. The brand will take a while, but it’s not as severe as I anticipated. The bruises will look terrible, but she should start feeling better in about a week or so. She is going to be very swollen for a while.”

“What about… the rape?” he asks.

“I’ll need to do an exam for that,” she says. “May I do an exam, Elise?”

“Will it hurt?” I ask.

“Not terribly. If I see you have any tearing, I’ll numb you before I handle anything,” she explains.

“Okay,” I say. “But uh… like forty men came in me… I feel like I should probably be tested.”

“I’ll do some swabs and blood work, but I’ll go ahead and give you a shot of antibiotics and a prescription, just in case. I’d also like to give you emergency contraceptive.”

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