Flashes of his daughter haunted him. Memories he had tried so hard to suppress. Memories of a daughter lost to him when she was sixteen and as he surmised, pregnant with her first child. Clenching his jaw as he pedalled blindly through the night he remembered when he had last seen her. Her menacing glare when she had revealed herself, every fibre of her being filled with an insurmountable darkness.
Her words echoed through his head, "And I hoped you'd be long dead and buried by now but life is full of disappointments isn't it?"
Laden with malice this sentence had not disturbed him, it hadn't been the first time she'd wished his death. Thinking back to the time before she had disappeared from him he remembered the last words they'd shared with each other, words that had resulted in her threatening his life.
He could still feel the cold tip of the knife she had held at his chin. Her eyes holding his as her hand shook with its intent. He had remained still, pinned against the wall with her arm across his throat. She had let him go; only to beat her brother hours later when he had taken steps to have her dealt with.
Until he had seen his son sitting battered and bloody on his bedroom floor had he realised the true extent of his daughter's violence. He had always assumed that he was the only one she had inflicted physical harm on but discovering his son had made it clear to him that this was not an isolated incident.
Filtering the images within his mind, his thoughts turned to the eyes with which Robyn had glared at him and that were fixed upon him now.
They were so like his daughter's.
Was this what his granddaughter had become?
Steeling himself against his misgivings about his granddaughter he was again assaulted by memories of the daughter he had denied. His eyes looking inwardly and not at the horizon beyond him he could see her soul twist and contort with an evil neither he nor her mother possessed within them.
What had made her turn?
He could never understand what had made his daughter the malevolent creature she was. Many times he had tried to bring himself to understand but he had been sickened by the heart wrenching possibilities.
Had he loved her too much? Not enough? Had he doted upon his son, the next of his line too much? Had he disciplined her with an iron hand or allowed her too much freedom? Had she was always been this way or had he chosen to turn a blind eye? Had he caused her to become the monster she was?
Did his salvation lie in the young woman he had torn from her home?
Ceasing his pedalling he got up from his piloting section. He walked across the airship to the bed she was sitting on. His eyes implored with her to be still as he began to untie her bonds, his fingers wet with sweat as he released the knot tying her gag. He expected her to continue her verbal tirade against him but she remained silent as he pulled the gag from her mouth.
Without a word or motion, Robyn got up from the bed and passed through the revolving door to the bathroom. Sitting on the floor with her back against the door she wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her head on them. Closing her eyes she could feel the airship start to move again as it took her to a place she had been only once before in person and had heard many stories of.
A place she had always dreamed of going to once again but not like this. Not held captive by her grandfather who through his actions had reawakened memories of Cain binding her and leaving her encased in the darkness in which he had raped her.
It felt as though she wasn't alone in the room as she wrapped her arms tighter around her legs. She closed her eyes against the images forged in a place other than this but the action did little to spare her. She could see herself lying on the floor, Cain's body pressed against hers as he consumed her. His fingernails were tearing at her flesh as he stole her virginity and tarnished her forever.
Opening her eyes she could see a reflection of her eyes looking at her, pleading with her to end the torment. Eyes brimming with tears she crawled towards the image of herself being taken by Cain. She reached her hand out and felt shaking fingers interlace themselves with hers.
She could hide from what had happened to her no longer as she became the reflection of herself. Every attempt to bury what the therapists had hoped they'd resolved was undone as she felt the wounds inflicted on her by her brother's merciless fingernails reopen and she screamed as denial gave way to realisation.
Strong arms pulled her into an embrace that chased away the image of her rape and brought her back to where she was. Holding onto those arms as though they could stop her falling into an unending precipice she released the words she had been holding onto for so long.
"He raped me!"