Chapter Twenty Five

Warning: Mention of rape.

Bella

As soon as we were alone I went to my mother's body but the leg chain stopped me short, only Kat could reach her now.

"Would you cover her face please."

Kat nodded and picked up one of the pile of rags and stretched it over Renee's face hiding the damage done by the bullet but the thought of her laying lifeless here was more than I could bear and I broke down and sobbed uncontrollably until I felt a thin arm around my shoulder. Kat had stretched out as far as possible just to comfort me and I was grateful.

"I'm going to find a way out of here Kat and when I do I'll take you with me, I promise."

"Sophie looked when she first arrived but she couldn't find a way out. Daddy found her trying to dig a hole in the floor and he beat her so badly she couldn't walk or eat for a long time. I thought she was going to die. Don't try Bella please or he'll beat you too and then I'll be all alone down here and it frightens me so much."

"Kat tell me about Sophie and how you came here."

"I was already here when Sophie arrived but Daddy told me I had to call her mama. I think she is my mama because no one ever came looking for me. Daddy said the people I called mummy and daddy stole me from my real parents and he'd got me back. He said if I did as he said and was a good girl then he would love me and he and mama would give me another sister. Sophie used to cry a lot when she wasn't telling me stories and cuddling me because daddy said she was his wife and she had a duty to make him happy. He used to come in when the light was out and I would heat Sophie crying and begging him not to but I think he beat her. I think he beat her a lot and now she's sick. He took her away and I thought I'd never see her again but then a little while before he went looking for you, he said you were my sister Ellie, I saw Sophie again. She doesn't smile any more, she just looked at me as if she didn't know me, I said hello mama like daddy told me but she just turned away and daddy was real cross. He smacked me and told me he was going to get another girl who would be a good girl not a bad one like me."

She had no idea where we were or how long she and Sophie had been here but I got the impression both had been captive for a long time and this crazy man thought for some strange warped reason that Sophie was his wife. Maybe his wife was dead and Sophie resembled her, who knew. All I did know was that he was sick and dangerous and I had to find a way to get out of here or get a message to someone who could help us.

"Kat, look through Renee's pockets and see if she's got anything on her that might help us please."

Kat looked at the shrouded body reluctantly then scrambled over to Renee and tried looking in her pockets. A penknife or a cell phone would have been too much to ask for but surely she had something we could use. When Kat came back she had a small bundle in a handkerchief and passed it to me carefully.

"I like your ring, its really pretty. My mu...the lady I lived with had one like that but the stone was blue not red."

Looking down at my engagement ring I wondered what he was going to do with Renee's body. If it were found would someone be able to identify it? I slipped my ring off and gave it to Kat.

"Put that on Renee and bring me hers."

It was a long shot but if somehow Renee's body was found and identified maybe dad or Jazz would recognize my ring on her finger, a sign I was still alive.

Other than that there was a hankie, a roll of mints, a small lighter and a comb, that was all. I gave the mints to Kat who opened them delighted, smiling as she popped the first one in her mouth. However her smile was short-lived as he was soon back carrying a tarpaulin which he threw down ordering us to roll the body in it.

"I can't reach, this chain is too short."

His eyes flashed dangerously and he stalked over grabbing my shirt front and pulling me up close to his face, his putrid breath making me gag,

"Sir, The chain is too short sir. You need to remember your manners girl. No daughter of mine is going to be insolent."

"I'm not your daughter."

I know I shouldn't have argued but I couldn't help myself and I saw his eyes go dark with fury and his fists clench.

"What did you just say to me?"

"I'm not your daughter sir."

He smiled and it was pure evil then looked over to where Kat was busy trying to roll Renee up in the tarp alone and not look at us. Then his voice dropped,

"You do as you're told Ellie or you'll be watching your little sister get what her mama got, understand?"

I could hardly believe my ears, was he really threatening the child he called his daughter?

"Well, its down to you Ellie, what's it to be?"

I clenched my jaw then forced the words out through gritted teeth,

"The chain is too short sir."

He smiled and thrust me away so hard I tripped over and hit the floor elbow first crying out and Kat looked over concerned.

"You finished Kat?"

"Yes sir but I couldn't get the ties around sir"

"That's my girl"

He looked down at me,

"You could do learning manners like your little sister, think on it."

He dragged the rolled tarp out and locked the door once more then I heard a thump, thump, as he dragged Renee's body up the steep steps to ground level. Once the noises stopped I sat down hugging my body and cried ignoring my sore and swollen face, injured ankle and elbow. I had never felt so helpless and scared in my life. Kat came over and draped a rag over my shoulders then took my hand and started telling me a story as if that could comfort me. Instead I fell asleep exhausted by the events I had witnessed and found myself in a nightmare world where my mother wandered in bloody rags her throat slashed from ear to eat calling for Phil who was impaled lifeless on a tree branch down a deep gully, out of sight of anyone or anything except squirrels, raccoons and birds.

When I woke up I was stiff and my ankle and elbow throbbed but I was still in that awful cellar and my only consolation was I was not alone. Kat sat beside me rubbing her calloused ankle where the iron manacle had rubbed her tender young flesh for so long it was now hard skin and scabs. I looked at my own hoping for a weak link in the chain or a badly fitting ring that I could force open but although the chain was old and rusty it was still every bit as secure as the day it had been forged.

"Sophie tried that but daddy found out and beat her. He beat her for anything, sometimes he just beat her because he was in a bad mood. I always hide in the corner when he's got a black mood on and hope he doesn't see me."

She took a twist of what had once long ago been red silk from her pocket.

"I hid this, its my doll Elspeth. Daddy wouldn't know what it was if he found it but I know. She's a pretty dolly with blonde hair and blue eyes and she spends all day singing and dancing with the animals in the forest because she's so happy."

So Kat had found her way out of the nightmare...through Elspeth the rag doll who lived the life that should have been Kat's.