Benny Watts Imagines

We'll Find Her P5

The room fell silent as Mr Whitemore's words lingered, leaving a palpable stillness that hung in the air. Eventually, Miss Peters turned her focus back to Violet.

"Miss Watts. When you awoke in the basement of Mr Whitemore's Corner Store, what did you find there?" Miss Peters began again,

"A cupboard,"

"A cupboard?"

"It was a small room, with bible pages on the walls, crosses everywhere, the room was too little to lay or really sit. Just enough to stand in." She said, "I screamed but begged for help but ..."

"None came,"

"No,"

"Exhibit C, a small cupboard designed for a water heater in the basement of Whitemore Corner Store. Not the walls lined with bible scripture, copper and silver crosses and the door labelled with a phrase." She explained, "Mr Whitemore, for the court. What is that phrase?"

"The Christ Closet," he answered,

"And pray tell Miss Watts, what would happen in the Christ Closet?"

"Mr Whitemore would push me inside, lock the door from the outside. He would do so whenever he told me I was being sinful, he'd leave me for hours, days even, without food, water ... the bathroom,"

"what was the longest time you remember being locked in there Violet?"

"... the longest, without water was three days, the longest with him giving me water three weeks."

I squeezed Y/n's hand almost to the point of hurting her but she did the same her nails digging into my hand as we listened... to our little girl, our sweet baby girl, explain what that man did to her. He is so lucky. so very very lucky. cause the first chance I get that man alone... he's dead.

"In total, you were his prisoner for two years?"

"Yes, Two years," she nodded, "But... it felt like so much longer,"

"Exhibit D, The basement of Whitemore Corner store,"

The picture came up, the walls a grey brick, lined with shelves of merchandise, a mattress on the floor with a TV, blanket, a radiator and a bucket,

"The basement was full of items for his business, Miss Watts was chained to the radiator for days at a time with no access to water, no access to the toilet, the only light that of a 1967 17-inch Zenith TV." Miss Peters explained, "And what was plaid on this TV Miss Watts?"

"It didn't get a signal, so the TV had an old 70's VCR. The tape he plaid was for a large-scale mass church service, the tape would play day in and day out the only break when it would reach its end and the machine would rewind it and start again."

"That sounds hellish... but that's not even the begining of what was done to you Miss Watts, if you have the strength. I'd like for you to tell the court sparing no details. What happened to you while under Mr Whitemore's abduction."

Violet sighed gathering her courage,

I did my best to prepare myself. I knew what had happened to her but I had never pushed to know the gory details. I wasn't sure I could handle it, but I needed to know, I wanted to know. So I can go to him with the knowledge of everything he's done and punish him accordingly,

"Mr Whitemore... is a horrible man. He's a monster. he took me and hid me away from my family, no matter how much I begged him to let me go home, or even just to call my parents to tell them I was alive. I offered him to ransom me back to my family but he said the money was not his gain. He was going to keep me until I was better or so he said. When I behaved I was his 'good girl' a term that still makes me shiver even now, when I was less behaved he called me... a monster, a demon, a creature of sin, dike and other such things. He made me wear a dress for a little school girl, He would make me work unpacking boxes for hours, he would starve me until I begged him for food, and if I stole food he would strike me with an old copper pipe, he would take a spray bottle and fill it with ice cold water to spray at me like a cat, he would isolate me never letting me see the sun, speak to anyone but him, and playing that horrible tape over and over so I lost all track of time." She explained, "But the worst of it... was his 'Conversion Therapies', he said I was a monster for being gay, said I was broken, sinful, filled with demons and hellish ideas, that I had been possessed and corrupted by satan."