Page 13

Roman

Zoriah has been asleep for a while, so I gently get up and tiptoe to the bathroom.

I get the shower turned on and pull off my boxers while I fight back tears.

I’m trying so hard to be strong for her, but it’s hard.

I was so fucking scared that I didn’t sleep or eat the entire time.

I am so fucking exhausted, but I’m afraid if I fall asleep, something bad will happen to her.

I can’t get the image of her when I opened the door out of my head.

She looked broken and terrified but relieved to see me.

It felt like an absolute honor to be able to clean her body.

Maybe that sounds weird, but just by looking at her, I knew something terrible had happened.

She trusted me in her most vulnerable moment to help her.

Even now, she fell asleep in my arms knowing she was safe with me. That’s special to me.

I have never seen that much come on someone’s body before.

It was dried all over her thighs, genital area, her chest, breasts, neck, and even in her hair.

She was covered in blood, dirt, and her own waste.

She definitely has a rash in a few areas from that and will probably need medication for how long everything stayed inside of her.

It was absolutely heartbreaking to see all of that because it’s indicative of what she went through.

I know they didn’t want to leave her side, but we also know that her being surrounded by people isn’t a good idea. She is bound to crash, but how she will crash is up for debate.

Once I am clean and the water is cold, I get out and dry off. When I go back into the bedroom, Zoriah is in the same exact spot, sleeping peacefully. I quietly leave the room and go down to check on everyone else.

“Hey,” I say when I get to the living room.

“How is she?” Ben asks.

“Traumatized,” I say. “She’s being very hard on herself for how she is reacting to everything.”

“How?” Jim asks.

“Well… she is hypersexual, and it makes her feel insane,” I say.

“I mean… She needs to rest for a second before going there. That’s not even trauma-related. Her body is exhausted. You can see it in the way she moves that her body has been through a lot,” Jim says. “I’ve never seen her so… I don’t know what the word is.”

“Devastated,” Corbin says.

“Yeah. Obviously, she was just a little girl when Clara died, but I’d almost believe she handled that better,” Jim says.

“What happened to her mom?” I ask.

“Oh, man,” Jim sighs. “I usually drink to forget her.”

“You don’t have to,” I say. “She just mentioned having a nightmare about her.”

“I didn’t know she was having nightmares again,” Jim says quietly.

“She never stopped having them,” Corbin says gently. “She just knew it would cause you more pain, so she just talked to me about them.”

“So… Clara. God, Zoriah is just like her,” Jim says.

“So… Corbin was with Huxley and another friend of theirs at a sleepover. Zoriah and her mom had spent the day shopping and just doing mother-daughter things. I was at work but trying to get off early so I could spend time with Zoriah before bedtime. Usually, Clara lets her stay up a little while. They were watching a movie when Clara called me in a panic from the kitchen. She said she had the doors locked, but the back door was wide open. I told her to grab Zoriah and get out. She kept me on the phone while she went to grab Zoriah, but… There was someone in the house already. They had gotten ahold of Riah…”

“Oh no,” Ben says quietly.

“Yeah…” Jim says slowly. “Clara dropped the phone and screamed at them to let her go… Someone grabbed Clara. I knew what they were doing to my little girl because I could hear her screaming. All the sounds… I knew they were raping my little girl, but I was still an hour away from home… Clara never stopped screaming. When she did, it was because someone was raping her and… All I could do was listen and drive as fast as I could. I was praying they took their time so they would at least be alive… Zoriah got quiet after a while, but I could still hear them raping Clara. What they were saying, it was… I couldn’t help them…

Clara must have gotten away from them at some point because they all started screaming at her before the shots went off.

Zoriah started screaming again, but it was muffled.

She went quiet after a second too. The men hung around for a minute but eventually left…

I didn’t want to hang up, so I just kept driving.

When I got home and found them, Clara had been shot in the head.

She was lying on top of Zoriah to protect her but couldn’t get out from under her.

She shut down and went quiet, so they must have thought she was dead.

That saved her. I called the police and had Corbin with me.

They cleared me immediately, and nothing ever came of the men who raped my girls and killed my wife…

I lost myself so fast because I had no support.

Corbin helped with Zoriah a lot, but the drinking got out of hand so fast. I went to work and provided for my kids, but I was always drunk.

It was the only time I didn’t see her mangled face in my head.

When I don’t drink, I can still hear the way they screamed…

Now with Zoriah getting hurt again, I can’t keep drinking away the pain.

She needs me now, and she needed me then. I have to do right by my kids.”

“That’s awful,” I say. “I don’t know what to say.”

“When did Zoriah meet Haley?” Ben asks.

“About six months after that incident,” Jim says. I look at Ben, and he is typing on his phone. I recognize that look. He’s up to something.

“Why?” I ask him.

“I find it odd that all of that takes place right before the man who just kidnapped and raped her moved to town,” Ben says. “Every accusation that has been made against that cult has come from lifetime members that got out and went into hiding.”

“You don’t think…” Jim asks.

“We should just ask her,” I say.

“It’s going to throw her off the deep end,” Corbin says. “But if they are connected to Mom’s death and her being brutally raped at six years old… We need to find out.”

“God, that’s awful,” I sigh. “We do need to know the truth if that’s connected. If it is, they’ve been planning that for a long time. Anything sketchy in Clara’s past that would connect her to them?”

“She didn’t talk to her family because they were physically abusive. She had scars all over her back, butt, and legs. Looks like someone slashed her open, but she never opened up about how that happened,” Jim says.

“I will look into her past. I am going to look into yours too, okay?” Ben warns.

“Nothing to hide,” he says with a sigh. “If… If Richard and this Doug character were the ones who hurt my little girl back then and took her mom from us… What does that mean?”

“It means…” I say as I sit up. “It means we have a much bigger problem than a random sacrifice.”