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It was Tuesday evening, and her mother was closing the curtains in the front room, it was just as the sun was slipping down beneath the hills that enclosed the western edge of the village. From out of the corner of her eye she saw a large expensive car stop momentarily in front of the house, as it waited for her next-door neighbour to drive into his small driveway. Inside the expensive car were four foreign people, two men and two women.
“Look Christina, there are some more of those weird people driving up to the manor house.” Her mother called. Christina walked across the room to peer out of the front room window at the strangers.
“Well they are foreign, mother, but they appear to be normal people, I still say that you are imagining it.” Her mother looked angrily across at her eldest daughter but didn`t say anything. It was two hours later that Christina noticed the glow of a fire deep within Ten Acre Woods.
“Mother, they have another of your bonfires up at the woods, I think I`ll take a stroll up that way and see if I can find a devil or two.” Her mother looked quickly at her, annoyed at her daughters facetious words.
“Be careful Christina, I know you think me foolish but I had hoped that you would have come home with your Rob.” Her mother rather liked Christina`s fiancé, even if he did keep on disappearing for weeks at a time.
“Afraid not mother, he`s in deepest Europe doing untold secret things on behalf of Her Majesty`s government.” Christina was only going out to try and quell her mother`s fears, she certainly didn`t believe that she would find anything other than a bonfire party.
The walk up to the woods was uneventful, and by the time she reached them she was decided chilled, for the June air was as usual in England, rather cool. From deep within the woods she could hear the faint sounds of revelry, but she couldn`t make out what was being said, it could just have been a loud radio. Being so close to the woods she could no longer see the glow of the bonfire, it was quite dark here and it felt decidedly spooky, probably because of her mother`s fears affecting her, Christina thought. The old fence that had once run around the woods looked to have been replaced with a much more solid affair, one that was too high for her to climb without snagging her dress on it. Christina followed it round until she came to a large heavy looking wooden gate that allowed the law abiding citizen entrance, at the moment it was locked. Christina used an equally solid looking litterbin that was to one side of the gate to help her climb over, and then she followed the track into the wood. As she walked deeper into the wood so the sounds of revelry grew louder, and the light from the bonfire began to show through the trees. She wondered what Rob would do in this situation, and she wished that he were here beside her. He would move off the track and seek the protection offered by the darkness under the trees, Christina decided. With this thought she plunged in amongst the trees, and she did feel a little safer hidden within the trees, as she trespassed nearer and nearer to the bonfire and its flickering light. Christina still felt that she was putting up with all of this discomfort for no good reason. When finally the clearing came into view, and the revellers were revealed to her, she was still of this opinion, although now she was also shocked by what she saw going on around the bonfire.
There before her was not the typical bonfire party, what she saw was a group of people in various stages of undress, some wore animal masks, this was mostly the men, some wore festival masks, this was mostly the women, who mostly seemed to be auditioning for a part in a porn movie. They were frolicking around the bonfire shrieking and cavorting, and the tempo even over the short time that Christina had been watching was definitely picking up. Soon, Christina thought, she wouldn`t be surprised to see them all strip off their remaining clothes and begin having sex right there on the bare earth. Christina realised that what she was watching was what she could only term a bacchanalian orgy. To one side of the bonfire someone was seated upon a raised chair that Christina could only suppose was supposed to be a throne of some sort. The person had a strange costume on, the clothes looked to be made out of goatskin and instead of normal shoes, the person wore footwear that were shaped to resemble hoofed feet. Upon his head, for Christina was now of the opinion that the person was a man, he appeared to have a mask depicting the head of a goat. Then she realised that the mask must mostly be make up, for she saw the face change as the figure laughed as one of the female dancers rushed across to him and prostrated herself before him, before raising her head and begging him to take her. This wasn`t a bacchanalian orgy Christina realised, it was a Satanic one, she was shocked that such a thing could be happening in her own boredomville. The figure before her seemed about to take the young woman up on the offer when he suddenly raised his head, and it appeared to Christina that he was looking directly at her, she felt his eyes boring into her own, red eyes that burned with a fire of their own. She thought that she heard a voice in her head bidding her welcome, and asking her to enter the clearing, join the merriment. Christina felt more at ease than she ever had before, she walked happily towards the figure, but all the time a quiet voice inside her head was urging her to turn and flee, as she ought to have done the moment that she was detected, instead she just walked forward towards the party.
One of the masked revellers noticed Christina as she stepped out from the trees and cried out to the other revellers, he then pointed directly towards her. The Satanists around the bonfire immediately stopped their gyrations and calls of adoration to the masked figure on the throne, and en masse rushed towards her. For a moment more, she was still under the hypnotic spell of the figure on the throne, but for an instant the figure turned its head away from her, the figure seemed annoyed by the Satanists for stopping their riotous adoration of it when they rushed towards Christina. This moment was enough to break whatever spell had fallen over Christina, and she turned and plunged back through the woods, not caring that the bushes were tearing at her clothes and body, fear for her life lending strength to her young muscles. Christina was sure that she would make it back to the gate and escape the baying pack of Satanists behind her, but as she ran even faster, she noticed that a number of what she could only assume were some sort of firefly racing alongside her. They bussed around her head and body and began to bite her, Christina cried out in pain at their furious and very painful attack. She could still hear her chasers following on behind her, and she despaired of ever reaching the gate when there it was just yards in front her. She leapt up towards the top of the gate and was already pulling her body up it when some of the fireflies bit her hands, and she screamed out in pain and inadvertently let go of the gate, then she felt strong hands grab her waist and drag her back. Before she could even think about screaming a filthy hand covered her mouth and her attacker forced her to ground, there face down her hands were bound and a dirty rag forced into her mouth.
“Who is she, does anyone know?” An old woman asked in a high-pitched voice. Just then a young girl appeared.
“She is the older sister of Cassie Ryman; I met her the other day.” Moira Bourbon said. “That old bitch of a mother must have set her to spy on us, she never liked me.”
Christina glared at Moira, she was supposed to be her sister`s friend, but their mother had been correct all along.
Christina couldn`t believe what was happening to her, it was like a scene out of a black magic film. She noticed a tall well-built man striding towards her, she immediately recognised him as Mr Bourbon. He was the new owner of the manor house and the cause of her being there. Bourbon walked quickly along the track and when he reached the group, she could see that he was obviously angry.
“Don`t just stand here, take her to the house before someone comes along the road.” Bourbon commanded her captors.
Was he the demon, if he was then he had washed the makeup off fast, Christina thought as she fought against the two men who had dragged her to her feet and then pulled her away from the safety of the road. She managed to get rid of her gag to plead with the men who were manhandling her.
&
nbsp; “Please let me go, I won`t cause you any trouble, this is madness, please.” Christina pleaded but none of the growing group of people answered her.
Christina began to feel scared now, just what were these perverts going to do with her? She now realised that they were a satanic cult of some sort, using it as an excuse to behave in whatever manner they chose, but she hoped that after scaring her they would then release her with a warning not to tell of her ordeal. Well she would tell Rob, and he would make these perverts wish that they had never heard of Lower Boulding. From what she saw of them around the bonfire, it was obvious to her that they were only interested in sex, in any form. As this thought entered her mind, another chased it away. What were they going to do to her? Pictures sprang into her mind of the bodies of women raped by animals such as these appeared to be, the women had finally been killed and mutilated; she shuddered and tried to force such thoughts from her mind.
“Moira did I hear you say that you know who the bitch is that desecrated our mass and insulted our lord?” Bourbon asked angrily looking across at Christina. He looked so angry that she feared that he might attack her on the spot.
“Yes father she is Christina Ryman, Cassie`s elder sister.” Moira replied in a smug voice.
“The Ryman family again, right well that means that we will have to collect Mrs Ryman and her younger daughter sooner that we planned.” Bourbon said furiously.
Just then two cars drew up, they had been a precaution in case Christina had made it across the fence, and inside each car were three partly dressed people, and they looked to Christina like escapees from an asylum. They were all very happy to see that Christina hadn`t escaped them, and all of them were offering advice as to how she should be treated, now that she had decided to stay a while. The fear within Christina grew as their words reached her, she watched, her body shaking from these new fears as Bourbon walked across to them.
“Our plans have just changed; because of our snooper here we will have to collect the young Ryman girl and her mother tonight.” Bourbon told them.
With that, he unlocked the gate and opened it wide, and then he got into the leading car. His words had carried in the still night air to Christina who struggled again to get free of her captors.
“No, please no, leave them alone.” Unfortunately, these pleas also went unanswered, and as she disappeared back along the track she saw the two cars drive away. A woman who looked ancient walked up to her and forced the gag back into her mouth. Christina lashed out with her foot and was happy to hear the cry of pain from the woman.
“You bitch, I`ll have fun seeing to you during the coming days.” The old woman said slapping Christina hard around the face stunning her for a moment, for never had she been hit round the face before. Christina saw another woman pick up her small handbag and carry it back with her.
“Hey that is mine.” Christina wanted to protest except the gag prevented her doing more than grunt. Christina strained against her captors, as she fought to move over to the woman with her handbag, but she only got a smirk from the woman in answer to her efforts. When they reached the large manor house she was taken downstairs into the cellar, and then they pushed her into a cupboard, which was then locked. Standing there in the dark Christina wept for herself, and then for her mother and sister. She felt around with her feet and found that it was mostly empty, so she moved into the corner by the door and slid down and finally sat with her back to the wall. The only light that she could see was the line around the door, and even this disappeared when the Satanists turned the light off when they left the cellar. What the future held for her she dreaded to think, but she knew that it couldn`t be good. Why did they want her family, Bourbon had stated that they were going to kidnap them anyway; her intrusion into their Satanic party had nothing to do with their plans, except to expedite them.
Kidnapped and Bound for Hell Page 7