The Cult

Stories

That same day...

I haven't moved at all since I realized what's happening. My brain feels like mush and I just feel completely useless. Hero just sits there and I look around.

It's like something takes over me, and I don't know what just something but I just start freaking out and start pacing. "They're gonna find me, oh my god they're gonna find me and try to kill me. They're gonna bring me back and kill me." I keep crying.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

He quickly stands up, and comes towards me. "Hey it's okay, no one is gonna kill you." He says and comes closer to me.

I turn around, "Don't touch me!" I yell with more tears and back into some wall and fall to my knees. He watches me, practically shaking. Well not practically, I am shaking, a lot.

He gets on his knees, slowly coming towards me. "You're gonna be okay, I'm not gonna hurt you and I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you okay?" He says softly and I nod slowly. "For me to help you, you're gonna have to explain to me what you've been through, can you do that for me?" He says and I nod, still shaking.

He holds his hand out, and I know what this means. He's asking me to trust him. I bite my lip, taking a deep breath.

Do I trust him?

I do, he saved me.

I take his hand, and wipe my eyes with my other hand. This is the first time someone who wasn't brainwashing me has touched me, or really the first time someone has touched me from that night.

He helps me stand up and brings me to sit in the chair I was sitting in before. I take a few deep breaths, closing my eyes and then I eventually look around. There's a big window behind him, and the floors are a beige carpet. His desk is wood with a polish on it, just like the wall I walked into. A lot of the walls are lined with shelves of the same polished wood, with books filling them. There's a computer on his desk, and a pen jar that's black. Other then that the desk is mostly clear except for a coffee that's no longer steaming.

  "You can start whenever you're ready, and from wherever you want too, I want you to feel safe here because I don't wanna hurt you." I nod, taking a deep breath before I start.

  "My name is Josephine Langford, but I like being called Jo. I'm from Australia, but- but I can't remember where. I have a sister named Katherine, but she lets me call her Kat. She moved here before I did. I don't remember when, or really why, but I came her the next year." I wipe my eyes as my vision gets fuzzy. "A guy named Mason told me that he wanted me to join his church. I've never been that religious but Kat said she was joining so I thought it would a good idea."

  I shake my head before I continue. "It- it wasn't. A lot happened to me in my hometown, so I guess I was looking for a new start at life but that didn't happen. Things only got worse." I wipe my eyes, as single tears fall. "In- in the beginning, Mason was a decent person. He care about all of us there, and no one batted an eye at him. No one saw anything wrong with him. One night he gave me and Kat white dresses and blue ribbons, telling the other girls to help us with our hair. They weren't wearing the same thing as us though, it was weird." I try to think of what comes next before I say it. Things aren't slipping from me, but I feel like I'm chasing the memories.

  "They had blue dresses on with white ribbons tied at the end of their normal braided hair. They did ours in French braids, weaving the ribbon through. When we got down to dinner, they sat me, Kat, and a few younger girls at a table in the front. We were the only ones eating, the rest were drinking god knows what. Mason said a bunch of stuff I don't remember, and then told us to eat. I- I didn't know any better so I did. I didn't even know I passed out until I woke up with Kat next to me. There was a glaze over her eyes, and when Mason whispered in her ear, she slapped me." I look down, not looking at him anymore. I'm happy he's just letting me talk though. I needed this.