Darkness Rising

Chapter Eleven

Roland was seething. Things had been going so well, only to suddenly go so wrong. He kneeled on the floor in the middle of the room; stripped bare; his body covered in sweat; the scars rising on his arms, legs, back and chest; standing out in the glow of the candle light. Ellie O'Neill had managed yet again to wiggle her way free from him. He had been certain that using Dr. Stan was the perfect way to trap her and finish what he had started all those years ago.

...She had been such a pretty little girl; he had watched her in secret for months before he was finally ready to take her as his own. She would be the perfect sacrifice; never failing to arouse him when he imagined her bare body, dripping with the blood he would draw from her creamy skin... he had shivered in anticipation every time he dreamed of it. He struggled with his desire to possess her and those feelings had only intensified after fate had arranged for her to be at the Sabbath gathering with her girlfriends. He had sneaked in to watch. He knew his mother and grandmother were into some very strange, powerfully occult practices and that night Ellie had shown herself to be clean, a child of the light. He knew then that he had been chosen to claim her for the dark side.

He watched and waited and planned, schemed and dreamed until one afternoon she had simply shown up there near the clearing...like a lamb to the slaughter. It could have worked; it would have worked if his mother had not distracted him; though later when he questioned her about it, she swore that she had not been calling for him. When he had found the girl missing upon his return to the shack, he threw together the most powerful hex bag he had ever attempted to make. He knew since Ellie had been strong enough to pull herself out of the basement she would likely have the determination to make it home. She would be able to identify him to the authorities and have him locked away for a long time. Figuring that her family would be at the hospital with her, he finished the hex bag, made his way to her house, hid the bag inside her mattress and spoke the ancient words his grandmother had taught him... and so her dreams began.

From the time he was very young Roland had been 'taking care' of himself; his mother would never be confused for the nurturing type. His independent nature aided him as he managed to avoid capture for 15 months at which time he was returned home to stand trial. Ellie did not attend. She had suffered a seizure a few days after the attack and fell into a coma that lasted 6 days. When she awoke, she didn't remember any of it. Thankfully, the Sherriff had gotten permission to video tape her testimony in the hospital and had kept it on file. Everyone involved, including Roland's lawyer believed her side of the story and Roland was sentenced to spend several years in a psychiatric "hospital" for minors where he would be re-evaluated on a regular basis and kept until it was determined that he could be released or moved to an adult facility.

He was eventually re-located to the sanitarium where he remained for 15 years, until the voices started calling on him to finish what he had started. On a rainy night in April he simply walked away from custody and made his way to New York. Once there, he was led to Ellie by some power that he did not question and shortly after, he gained access to the offices of Dr. Sebastian Stan, where he used his now considerably stronger abilities to get all the information he needed on both of them and then work up a plan to use Sebastian to get to Ellie....

And so, here he was, wondering what had gone wrong?!! He knew Sebastian was not a 'believer' in any real sense of the word. He should have been able to influence the doctor to follow his bidding with little resistance. Instead, he was continually surprised by Sebastian's reluctance to do anything to hurt Ellie. Even when Roland had managed to 'replace' one of the waiters at the fancy dinner, and drug the man's drinks with his most potent elixir, he had still let the girl get away. Roland realized he was going to have to come up with something soon or risk disappointing the voices that came to him in the night; this might be his last chance. Even more frightening than the thought that he might be caught again, was his new found belief that Dr. Stan would hurt him much worse than they would.