Chapter 8

"A Virgin Sacrifice"

"You were forced into a coach?" I asked, feeling a sense of shock. "Didn't your mommy and daddy try and protect you?"

"They did, but…he used some spell to knock everyone out cold. I tried to run, but these monsters grabbed me."

"What monsters?"

"They looked like monkeys," Sabina continued. "They threw me into the coach and there were children, nothing like me. I'm not like them, Daphne, but they had evil in them."

She then began to cry a little and I got up and moved as close to her as possible. It was clear Sabina had been through a lot and right now, she needed to someone to cry on.

"It wasn't until I got to the island when they had my way with me…"

Sabina then lowered her head and began to cry hard for a few moments and I looked back to Fred and the others with a forlorn look on my face. It was also perhaps why Sabina's First Communion Dress was largely ripped off of her.

None of us could imagine the horror that this young girl experienced.

"He…he had my tied to a pole and they all took turns ripping off my dress, hurting me, spitting at me, pulling my hair…"

Just as she tried to talk further, she once again began to cry heavily. I then asked Fred and the others to come into the room. Scooby could sense the sadness coming from Sabina and rubbed himself against her in an attempt to comfort her.

"It's okay, Sabina," I said gently. "It's okay. Let it all out. These are my friends and they feel your pain as much as I do."

But Sabina was too upset to even notice the rest of us. But the question remained why she would be targeted for being put in this position in the first place? Why was it that this 8 year old girl, this charming 8 year old girl about to complete a holy sacrament be snatched and brought to a place of torment and sin?

…

Eventually, Sabina had cried so hard that she was too exhausted to continue on with her testimony.

"That poor kid," Shaggy cried as he ate on some snacks later that day. "Like, who would do such a thing?"

"One thing that is clear is that Sabina was basically used as a piece of property," Fred said as he stared out the window overlooking the city of Rome. "An effort to speed up the process of transformation."

"To become a donkey? Why aren't I surprised?" remarked Beau, leaning against one of the cabinets. "These kids have no respect for others."

"Which is exactly what the Coachman wants," said Agent Gordon, wheeling herself over to the window to join Fred. "If Admiral McCroskey's son is part of what happened to Sabina…"

"What makes you think that, Barb?" wondered Beau. "Let's not jump to any conclusions here."

But Agent Gordon had her reasons.

"But it's true, Beau," she said. "Admiral McCroskey's son was a troubled youth and going to Pleasure Island was a way to free himself of that authority. I mean, what would you do in that situation?"

"I would confess to both the police and a priest and ask for forgiveness," said Fred, turning away from the window. "If you ask me, gang, this is like Spring Break gone bad."

"Like Girls Gone Wild?" asked Shaggy, but Fred didn't answer.

Just then, Velma came into the room and she was holding what appeared to be a veil in a large plastic bag.

"Velma, what's that?" I asked.

"It's a first communion veil," she answered. "One of the Italian police officers who was the first on the scene of Sabina's kidnapping discovered it."

"Like, what about it?" Shaggy asked.

"I'm scanning it for any fingermarks because it seems like it was pulled off of her head as she was being forced into the coach," Velma answered. "It could be anyone at the time, a child, a servant or even the Coachman himself.

"So?" Fred asked in a slightly irritable voice.

"So, it confirms that Sabina was kidnapped just because she was more than looking like someone about to receive their first communion," Velma said. "Personally, I think she was targeted."

Now this blew the case wide open as someone had apparently been spying on Sabina, but who would do such a thing?

"I mean, let's look at it this way," Velma said, adjusting her glasses, placing the bag containing the veil on the table. "If you are a child who is striving to be perfect in the eyes of God, someone would want to take all that representation away because A) they want all that perfection for themselves B) they want the child to be just like them or C) they want to bring that child down to their level. It all makes perfect sense given that Pleasure Island is a place where sin runs wild."

…

Later that night, I couldn't really sleep at the prospect of what Sabina went through. All I could do was stare up at the ceiling and then I began to hear the sounds of a little girl screaming in agony while loud shouts and laughs from boys and girls were heard. Then, I could hear the sounds of a dress being ripped away followed by the sounds of slapping and spitting. I was feeling what Sabina was feeling and all I could do was climb out of bed and walk to the window of my hotel room. Inside me, I could feel anger growing and it wasn't just any anger, it was anger that a mother or big sister would have if their daughter or little sister was harmed in such a manner.

"Mark my words, Sabina," I said in a quiet voice as I looked out on the nighttime streets of Rome. "I will find who did this and they will suffer the consequences. They will regret the day they ever came across Daphne Anne Blake and her friends!"

...

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