Loving you, supporting you
Believing in you always.

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Warning - This chapter may be triggering for some readers.

Flashback

"Can't you just let me go?" I ask out aloud, enough for that man to hear.

Clutching my locket to my dear life, I also fear what if that person lunges on me right now? By the voice radiating from his side, I can say he is sharpening something. For whatever purpose, I don't understand.

"Why me?" I cry.

Why am I such a careless kid and entered this place without thinking twice? Already knowing that my parents have strictly told me not to wander around but still I did.

My curious self is getting me in danger.

The man silently hears my screams and shouts without being interrupted in his work. His expressions remains the same — a creepy smile on his overly abnormal face.

I can't even get his face out of my mind when I'm sleeping in the same corner I'm right now. Sitting in a crouching position and chanting prayers, begging that man to let me go, it has become my daily routine now.

I don't remember the last time I got up.

But I, at least get the clue of him being mentally retarded.

Then came a day, that I never imagined.

A girl, just like me stepped inside the same main door like I did.

"Anyone here?" The new voice emerges as light peeps inside the darkened room. I flinch and slowly lift my head up to check who it is. Squinting my eyes, when I finally get the clue that another kid is going to step inside, I instantly get up on my feet to tell her not to enter.

With my overly wobbly legs because of eating almost nothing since the past 1 week, I try motioning her to return back but a sudden force catches me in its arms.

I scream internally and try fighting away the force but nothing comes in my grip.

I am suffocating.

I am suffering.

I am being tortured.

And I don't want these things to happen with the kid too.

No matter how many tines I protest, the thing never lets me go. And all I can do is to touch my locket and pray to keep everyone safe.

But I think God already made a destiny for her, just like me.

Right in front of my eyes, the girl comes running inside the room and in no seconds is sitting on the same table. The man comes and pats her head. I don't know why but the girl isn't able to understand his expressions.

He doesn't show any mercy to her.

She is killed in an instant.

I shiver when the unpleasant sound enters my ears. The sickening sound of that weapon meeting the flesh of that girl scares me to death.

The way it haunts me whenever I sleep.

It is almost impossible for me to escape, no, I've lost hope already.

He never leaves. Not for even washroom or any of his business.

He either remains inside the kitchen as he sharpens his weapons or comes inside the dining room and sits on the table while staring at me.

Is he even a human?

Help me God.

Please.

"Your time will come soon."

My breathe hitches when I hear his voice. He never said anything after welcoming me in his home.

"What time?"

And he never replies after that.

He only makes those gruesome sounds, never utters even a single word.

But once when he opens his mouth to spit something out, I see nothing in his mouth — no tongue and teeth.

He keeps chanting gibberish and praying to god while making loops from wire mesh and hangs them with the fans.

And on the same day, a group of people enters the house. I am absolutely shocked knowing he has relatives too.

8 members.

And there are exactly 9 protruding pipes outside the home.

8 for the family members and one for himself right?

But they look like normal people. And just like how normal people will react to the inner surroundings of the house, they do too.

Some even faint. May be the females of the family.

But they don't see me. They are too occupied by the interior of the house that even when they glance at me, they never bother to check what a small girl like me is doing in here. Though even if they do see me, they still can't do anything.

Because the man welcomes them warmly with his whole self cleaned. New clothes, over all he is cleaned.

He starts chanting more loudly but only unclear words are heard by us.

"Dad..?" One of the male member of the family asks the man. In return, the man just lunges on him. Thinking his father is probably doing that out of affection, he complies and moves forward to return the hug.

But it is the worse decision he has ever made.

The man plunges a knife inside his son's abdomen, causing me to scream internally. My voice seems to die down because of lack of energy as the boy immediately dies on the scene.

Other family members don't seem to understand what just happened but they all complies to the man's further actions.

It is like they have faith in him.

The man walks towards a cabinet and opens its first drawer. Putting his hand inside, he rummages through it and takes out a thick book of notes.

'SALVATION NOTES'

It is written on the cover. That's when it strikes me.

Its an occult practice.

Taking a mysterious bottle from one of his pocket, he sprinkles the red substance on the others and starts shaking in an abnormal way.

The members just fold their hands and let the man do anything he wants to do with them.

His words feels sickening to my ears. It is unbearable. I clutch my hands tightly on my ears to avoid the voice from entering my ears but nothing seems to be affective.

Those words still enters my brain, piercing it through.

Picking the teen girl from out of his family members, he wraps the loop made of wire mesh around her neck and forces her to stand on the table. Throwing the book towards her and he himself gets silent.

The girl, with trembling hands picks the book and opens it. With tears brimming in her eyes, she reads the first page of the book.

"In your last hours, while your last wish is fulfilled, the sky will open up and the earth will shake, don't panic but start chanting the prayers louder. I will come to save you and others."

She sobs and closes the book as the man cheers loudly.

Age wise, everyone's turn comes.

When the man is the only left one out of the others, he looks at me. My breathe hitches when he gestures me to come near him.

And I know, if I don't do as he wants me to, he will probably kill me too.

I move towards him with the locket tightly clutched in my hands and stare at his face. There is a completely different expression on his face.

Calm and satisfaction.

Like the thing he wanted to do since ages is now being done.

He is contented.

Abruptly grabbing my hand in his, he takes out another knife and slices a cut on my middle finger.

I scream.

It hurts like ton.

Slapping a hand on my mouth, he squeezes my wound and drops one drop each on the others. The family members looks at me with widened eyes and some of them secretly cry too.

And then he throws me at some corner, again.

And right in front of my eyes..

He removes the table.

And everything I witness after that is gruesome. Absolutely.

I don't know what I can do to save them. I am not able to comprehend anything at the time.

I want to save them but can't.

Whatever they all are experiencing, I am feeling it too.

The gagging sounds they are producing. The way they are struggling because of lack of breathe, tears me up as well. 

And the last words that leaves from their lips are —

"God will save us."