Page 40 of Like An Animal

THE GHOST

A t some point while crying like a baby, Jeremy picks me up in his arms and carries me to our room, a place he knows I need to feel safe. I don’t know how he knows but he does.

He climbed into bed while still holding me and didn’t let me go. He held me like I was the most precious thing in the world to him.

“Shh. I’ve got you, little ghost,” he whispers as he pushes the damp hair out of my face. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you ever again. You’re safe. There’s no safer place on Earth than right here with me.”

Another sob falls from my lips as he trails kisses across my forehead, pulling my body tight against his.

“It’s okay. Just tell me what happened,” he begs as more tears fall down my face.

“You know what my father did to me, but that wasn’t the end of it.” My voice breaks as I try to keep my speech together. “It was only the beginning.”

His fingers run through my hair as I press my cheek against his shoulder, staring off into space to try to disassociate from what I’m having to talk about.

“He used me as a bargaining chip when I was four. He took me to their compound to be initiated.”

“Who are they?” he asks, his voice disarming.

“The Fathers of Jephthah. They told the story from the bible of Jephthah who promised to sacrifice the first thing to walk through the doorway but what ended up walking through was his daughter. They used the story and twisted it for their benefit. It’s a cult of pedophiles.

When someone joins, they’re expected to sign away their children and every future child in their family into sex trafficking.

Whoever wants to hurt them can and no one is there to save them.

Four years old is the age for initiation.

When I was initiated, I was raped by all six men and four women in that room.

That’s what was on that tape. They record every initiation and keep it to hold as a warning for if any of the children ever run away.

They sent it because they know me and Charlotte are here.

I’ve been running from them since Charlotte was a month old. ”

And I’ll never escape them. They will always be there haunting my dreams. They’re a shadow cast over me and Charlotte.

“What?” Jeremy’s inflection changes, almost as if he’s choked up.

I look up at him and see something in his eyes akin to heartbreak.

“What do you mean you’ve been running from them since she was a month old?” His knuckles trace along my jaw as my bottom lip trembles.

“Because I have been. I was given a reprieve for four years in the shape of you, but they were very mad about it.” A part of me wonders if I should tell him about the deal I struck with The Fathers, but I decide against it.

It will just cause more pain than necessary.

It doesn’t mean anything anymore. “They came to collect me three days after you were arrested. They took me in the dead of night to their compound and I didn’t leave until a month after Charlotte was born.

I was punished for my disobedience. That’s where the scars on my back came from.

They would beat me until I couldn’t hold my body up anymore and then the true horrors would begin… ”