Chapter 34 - Making Promises

Emma's POV

All the while as I was telling her what happened, Agent Hale and the older man kept sharing odd looks and when I finished she asked my parents and who I assumed was her partner to leave us for a moment.

The room was silent as no one spoke. "Emma," She said finally while taking off her sunglasses. "I want you to look at my face and tell me what you see."

I leaned forward and as I got a closer look I realised that surrounding her eyes were the hideously large scars, and once I noticed those, I realised they were all over her face, not as bad as around the eyes though. I eyed her over and saw such a beautiful face mangled with scars. "There are scars on your face." I told her and she nodded.

"The man who attacked you is named James." She informed me.

"James..." I thought aloud. "But that was the name of the man who hurt Bella."

"Yes." Was all she said as she stared at the floor. It was a long moment before she spoke again. "They are one and the same." She swallowed deeply. "James is the only name we know him by, no last name, just James. He is a sadistic psychopath who is more emotionally unstable than usual. We have been tracking him but all we find in his wake are a trail of bodies. The one body we have not found is from the woman who instead of killing, he kidnapped. James only lets people live if living will cause them to suffer longer." She sighed. "What I believe he was doing that night was reliving past kills." I looked at her curiously, wondering what she meant. "You said that Bella named three girls while she was talking about him," she reminded me. "Their names were Alice, Victoria, and Rose. Two of those women were his past victims, the other, an ex-girlfriend of his we assumed he was back together with, but now it is possible she is dead or worse. Victoria was I believe, a sociopath. James left her, and I knew she was searching for him, when some of the bodies in his wake were found to be killed by a woman we assumed that they were together once more, now perhaps he may have another partner. Alice was the earliest of his victims we know of. He never killed her, but chased her and tormented her until she lost her mind, he then got bored with her and ran off to chase more interesting prey. After his attack on Bella we had her under protection, we did not believe he would return for her but were cautionary anyway." She paused. "Not cautionary enough. I was assigned as Bella's protector the night that James came back for her and took her away. My name is Rose." She went quiet again and I realised that the scars on her face were put there by him.

"The people in that warehouse with you were substitutes for some of his most traumatic victims." Rose went on. "Those he had an emotional connection with, those he left alive." She paused again and I realised this was hard for her. She was just like me, a victim of James. "I used to have long hair before he ripped it out." She told me and I wanted to do something to make her feel better, but I thought the best thing I could do was let her talk. "You were there as a substitute for me. Victoria has red hair, or had, I'm not sure really."

"Charmain." I cut in and Rose nodded.

"Alice had dark brown hair and was roughly around the age of 16. It is unknown exactly how old she is as she suffered amnesia before losing her mind. And he clearly did not require a substitute for Bella as he still has her and can still torment her." Agent Hale explained. "The attachment you speak of her having is most likely some form of Stockholm syndrome or battered woman syndrome. He also changed her name for whatever reason, which he is able to do because of her dependence and attachment caused by one of the two conditions I just mentioned. If he tells her something enough times, she will believe it. If he tells her she can never escape him, she will stop trying. If he tells her her last name is Hunter when in fact it is Swan, she will eventually believe him."

"So Bella knew that James brought us there, and she knew he would kill everyone. Why didn't she warn us?" I asked feeling almost slightly betrayed, even though I knew Bella was a victim as well.

"Most likely," Rose began, "he told her not too and she would be too terrified to disobey. Don't forget, James has been tormenting, beating, and raping Bella for almost a year now. By now she is probably completely subservient to him out of pure desperation. She simply has no other choice." Rose clearly cared deeply for Bella, and from what I could tell she knew her well. If Rose said she was a victim, she was a victim.

"She said we would stick together until we died." I remembered. "She was trying to tell us." Rose nodded. "But we were all supposed to die, then why am I here?" I could feel myself crying again. It should have been Kristy, or Charmain. Why me?

"Because you made a promise." I looked to Rose again as she spoke. "Everything you told me, you said you kept promising the girls. You promised you would get them out of there, you promised you would be there for the girls, and you promised you would protect Bella from James." She reminded me. "I read the police report, but I would not be surprised if you did not know yet." I looked to her, waiting for her to tell me.

It was a long time before she spoke again. "James enjoys marking those he leaves alive." Pause. "Scars are his way of making us remember." Pause. "After what he did do me," pause. "He carved messages into my body. They said that I should have left with the others, and that I couldn't protect her." She looked about to cry.

"He did it to me too didn't he?" I already knew the answer to that.

"And Bella, he has done it to those he has let live." She told me and I remembered Bella talking about her scars.

"What do mine say?" I didn't want to know.

Rose was silent for a long time. "Don't make promises you can't keep." I burst into tears and she held me while I cried. I had promised to help them all and I didn't keep that promise. "I know you hate yourself right now," Rose told me and she was right. "But your making promises you shouldn't have is the only reason you are still alive." Did she really think that would make me feel better? I wish I was dead.

~SophieAngel69