Prologue
November 1986
The sound of Night. It was the sound of her own stuttering breath. Her eyes were closed tight as Danny Somtow's fingers slithered up her thigh, his fingertips almost breaching her pink cotton panties but the glass doors beneath them shattered instead.
Icy air thundered through the house, a many limbed elemental shoving bedroom and bathroom doors wide open.
Danny was already back in his bunk, shrinking beneath his colourful red and green teddy bear bed clothes. Saben put a hand over her mouth to dull her own yelp of fear, heart hammering with panic as the footfalls of a dozen people marched in tandem.
It's a dream, a bad dream, Saben thought to herself.
It was Baba Lucine's house, a fortress set deep in dense forestland, miles away from the city and civilization. A place even God had forgotten.
Danny was grabbed first, gnarled black fingers grasping at his shirt and him screaming like a girl. It would have made the other kids laugh but Saben didn't laugh, instead she bit her bottom lip until she tasted the copper tang of her own blood.
More tall dark figures appeared in the room, making no sound now. Cold black hands plucked her from her bed and she was dragged down to the living room where the other fosterlings had been gathered. Nine pairs of wet eyes stared at nothing in particular, but Saben looked from side to side, sucking on her broken lip to stop the tears prickling behind her eyes.
The nightmare intruders had trampled glass into the house and some of the children had cut their feet on the pieces, some shards protruded from their flesh but they didn't seem to notice or care Saben flinched, never having liked the sight of blood or gory wounds.
Of the ten children gathered only two were old and large enough to defend themselves but they remained silent. Three of the strangers paced in front of them and silence pervaded.
It's a robbery, that was her first thought but a horrible taste clung to the pallet of her mouth, the bittersweet scent oozed from the strangers and it made her want to choke. "Where's Baba?" Saben asked unable to keep silent another second.
Danny, who sat nearby, grabbed her fingers and squeezed hard. Shut The Fuck Up. But Baba Lucine was nowhere to be seen and it seemed impossible that she would be anywhere else.
One figure approached her, his face was a mask of black fabric. Just a nightmare, she thought, shaking of Danny's feeble grip and reached up, peeling back the fabric to reveal a serene human face and electric blue eyes that were not human at all.
His eyes were filled with malicious intent, they were both cold and hot and fixed to her face and as she uncovered his mouth, he slapped her hard across the cheek. "Silence."
The slap made her ears ring, her cheeks flooded with colour and throat clogged with shame. "Where's Baba Lucine?" She persisted tremulously.
"She's resistant." His companion mumbled through its black mask.
His companion removed her mask and she was beautiful. Fucking stunning and that was what made her frightening. Her beauty was not real. Somehow Saben knew that the strange woman was not what she appeared to be on the outside.
"You will not speak unless spoken to." The man spoke to Saben and then turned to the others. "Do you understand?"
His companion snorted contemptuously.
Saben opened her mouth as if to speak but the stranger captured her chin between thumb and forefinger and squeezed. It made blood ooze from her bitten lip and trickle onto her chin. "Understand?" She could feel his voice vibrate through her bones.
He gathered her blood on his gloved fingertip and put it between his lips to suck the blood off of it whilst he stared meaningfully into her eyes. She felt both sick and compelled, licking her lips.
Another of the masked people stepped forward. "You aren't meant to harm the merchandise." He whispered not to be overheard but Saben heard.
"Just a little taste." Blue eyes said. But there was something in his posture that wanted more than a little taste, it was the same kind of more Danny wanted and something else besides. Something too primal and brutal for her small mind to comprehend.
He released his hold on her and she fell back into the other children, they moved allowing her to be assimilated into their ranks, their faces blank, postures as stiff as statues.
Where was Baba Lucine? She looked at the children on either side of her but their expressions offered no answers, no comfort. Their tears had dried and she felt the lull of their indifference. One of them had pissed themselves, that mixed with the stench of the strangers made her gag.
"Is this all of them? Eight…nine…ten?" Blue eyes asked impatiently.
"Yes."
"A good batch just as the old witch promised."
"Good?" Blue eyes turned his head to spy Saben sinking into the crowd. He pointed at her with a gloved finger, the one that had her blood on it. "That's arguable."
"Leave her alone, Abberline."
If there had been a response they never heard one though a sudden intense expression crossed Abberline's face. It made Saben cringe.
"All of them orphans." The woman piped up to divert the tension. "Just as she promised."
Saben kept one eye on the door, she expected Baba Lucine to enter at any moment. This was Baba's house after all, her sanctuary and they were her children every one of them. As much as Saben clung to those thoughts, Baba Lucine did not make an appearance.
She had to escape alone. The other kids were growing increasingly more passive, their expressions were docile almost dreamy and even Danny had stopped trying to touch her. These people were evil and they wanted to harm her, it was all becoming painfully clear. Saben wasn't going to stick around to find out how.
After more excruciating waiting, Abberline's eye occasionally set on her and she pretended to be like the others. Expressionless. Soon they were being herded into the expansive drive where three unmarked white vans were parked in a row.
Baba's car was not in its usual place.
Panic galvanized the contents of Saben's stomach. The cold penetrated the others' numb wits, as they were all wearing thin cotton night clothes and others less that that. Shivering, the group mustered the instinct to huddle together.
Saben's concentration slipped, the cold disturbed her, made her expressionless mask slip to a bad-tempered glare. More dark clad figures - perhaps male perhaps female – surrounded them though not one of them were concentrating on the shivering mass of child flesh.
"Saben we have to stick together." Danny whispered as he noticed her inching away.
She stared at the group, at Danny's blotchy face and thought of his wandering fingers, his toothpaste saliva and panting breath. This was her chance. "Go fuck yourself." She hissed and ran into the night.
She could hear the sudden swell of noise as the strangers realized she had made a run for it. They were giving chase, she knew it despite the only real sound being the snap of twigs and crush of grass beneath her bear feet.
She let her tears flow freely thinking only of escaping.
She had planned the rout when she had first come to Baba Lucine's, though had only ever threatened to use it. The grounds beyond the fenced garden was wild, filled with gnarled trees and exotic plants. It was dark and she couldn't quite make out what was coming in the distance.
The shadows stretched to large mythical monsters, gaping jaws and sharp fingers lunging out at her.
Even as she thought of falling, she snagged her dress on a thorn bush, scratched her thighs and legs and the vines brought her to the ground with a thump. Air escaped her in one big rush and she was choking on despair.
Abberline landed silently beside her. She saw his boots first, inches from her head, she slowly lifted her face to meet his eyes and they glowed eerily in the moonlight. She grit her teeth, waiting for him to kick her in the jaw or reach down to grab fistfuls of her hair and drag her back to the vans.
Instead he crouched beside her.
She looked into his face and his expression had lost some of its coldness, and she realized he was young and his skin seemed to glow as if lit by the moon. He had slender cuts on his cheeks from where he'd been whipped by his dash through the trees.
"There's a clear path between the two cedars." He said softly.
Her mouth fell open into a 'o' of surprise.
He licked his lips looking warily around the silent wood. "Go, before I change my mind."
She got to her feet and her knees were gashed. His eyes flicked down to her knees and the terrifying need crept into his expression and any shred of benevolence had surely left him. She began to limp away, not tempted to look back once. She limped on until she had no more strength left in her skinny little frame.
When she woke up late the next morning, she found herself bleeding, hurting but alive.