Hung by chains

1. Pain, suffering, and Jesus

To my best friends and my dad, who read this from the begining. <3

...........................

What. The. Hell.

"...And so, you shall stay over at the Sutton manor to fix your... attitude and manners issue... The Sutton will surely be a good influence." Priest Jeffrey read out awkwardly as the rain crashed against the windows.

Solace just stared blankly at the man who read the testament of the priest that practically raised her. Late father Thomas wanted to send her to a house with men she's never seen before where she'd be locked up, with no contact with the outside world, for three whole years???

She then looked at the coffin of the fallen priest with a hint of pain in her eyes. Her stare locked on it for what seemed like hours, remembering everything she went through with him as a shaky breath escaped her.

"Hey, Pops, I love you, but I won't go." She stated at last. Jeffrey, the new head priest, sighed in slight disappointment, used to this kind of response from her, and announced his departure to pack the young woman's belongings.

"Can't you at least tell me how they are? What if they try to do something to me? What if they're violent?! What if they were perverts?!! What if they like the feeling of having their socks wet?!!! I couldn't be incarcerated with those kinds of people for three years!! What would you do then, Jeffrey?!!!"

"I... have no further details upon the matter... apologies, my child. Nonetheless, don't you wish to attain the will of your father? I doubt he would want to send you there if he distrusted them or they weren't apt to fulfill their duty." Softly responded the priest.

"Pops' will isn't something I give a single damn about at the moment." Solace snapped as Jeffrey stared at her in shock, lighting ripping the sky apart. "The matter at hand is whether or not I'll go to that house full of strangers that could be serial killers for all I know. Don't you have any information about them? What do they look like, and what are their personalities?? Their criminal record? Nothing?? How do you expect me to go there without any idea of what lies ahead???" The tall woman argued.

"But you swore you would do anything your father would want once his illness was over a few days before his loss..." Jeffrey responded.

"There are some promises that I'm unable to follow: I wasn't aware this would be included in "everything." Grunted Solace, with a knot in her throat.

"A bit selfish, no? You're only willing to fulfil your wishes...." The chubby man before her added.

"I don't believe it's selfish not to do things I do not feel safe doing, especially just because others asked me to." She snapped. "I owe no one nothing. Father Thomas chose to take care of me: he should've considered that I would have a different opinion when being locked up with men I do not know for three years. Besides, I'm 26 now; I have no reason to obey you." And with that, she left the place.

With a sigh, Jeffery watched her go up the stairs. He looked back at the coffin with a saddened expression.

"I'm sorry, master." He apologized as thunder roared.

Solace shut the door of her room and rushed to a small nightstand to open its cabinet. Rummaging through it, she took out a compact and seemingly old notebook. On its cover was taped a trashed piece of paper with the word "MEREDITH" written with a green highlighter. She plopped down on her bed and opened it, looking for the last page she had read.

"Shit...." She grunted, realizing that the humidity had reached Meredith's previous journal once more: she would have to repair it again. It was practically unrecognizable at this point. Curse the rain.

The cover was already rotting, with bits chewed off by bugs and moss growing on its corners. It almost looked like someone had tried to burn it but failed. Luckily, the pages were still readable.

She had found it about two weeks earlier near the oldest bell of the church: since the birds kept picking at the ropes throughout the decades, one of the many head priests, whose name time erased, thought that keeping it secluded was the safest option for everyone, so he built a wall to protect the bell, and with it, the staff.

Solace, bored on that fateful day, decided to look around the church and somehow found herself in the secluded room. She saw mirrors, religious props, crates, and church records. The most enticing thing to her was a dusty and thick book with a faint pattern that resembled the name "Meredith" on the front. She soon found it to be a journal, but she did not read any of it then because the nuns soon heard her in the room: She had to leave unnoticed.

She barely started reading the first pages since her father was dying. From what she read, Meredith used to be a girl also rescued by the church at a young age. She liked baby-breath flowers, knitting, sewing, running through the grass barefoot, and the smell of ink on parchment. But above all, she loved discovering new stories and creating her own. Meredith started writing on March 12th, 1893, on her 28th birthday.

Solace opened the Diary.

September 27th, 1893

Dear Diary,

I met with James again today: he said my reading and writing improved significantly. My, he's lovely: teaching me the language of books. It almost makes my heart throb to have rejected him some weeks ago, but I do not feel anything for him! Dear heavens, I wish I could fall in love with a man who would take care of me, and I would take care of him. A man who would read me books aloud, especially those new Sherlock Holmes! They came out a year ago, but I need more money to afford them.

"You go, bestie...." Solace smiled softly to herself as she read through the second paragraph.

Anyways, that is not what I came to write: In a few weeks, Father will send me over to a dear friend of his' estate to meet her sons...

After reading the end of the sentence, her brows furrowed, and confusion scattered around her features. She rapidly sat up, panic now being the one that engulfed her. She quickly threw the book on the bed and left, shaken by the horror.

"Hey, head priest??? When did you say I had to go???!!!!" The young woman shouted as she ran down the stairs, agitated.

...I do hope that the Sutton are good men.

...........................

The name's Beanz, Toasted beanz. Welcome to "Hung by chains" by none other than yours truly. Thank you for choosing my book out of all of the things you could read in this app.

Did the first chapter hook you up to the story? Let me know!

I hope you have a great day.