The silence of his office wore down upon Stephen as he sat at his desk, pouring over every detail he could find. The young man could not help but obsess, this is what he needed to make it in the oversaturated world of journalism, a real story, not a sleazy piece of gossip about some celebrity to be sold to a rag mag. The dreams about forging a reputation as a beacon of truth refused to leave him but if his story were true then he would have to exercise great caution, lest it be the end of his short life of twenty-two years.
Strewn across his desk were photos of people, places and statements from the families of people who had joined this group. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for these people to leave their jobs, families, their very way of life, all in order to join this "group" and from what he could tell, most of these people seemed to be stable individuals. Not the traditional cult indoctrination that he had read about. Tonight though, he would find out.
Stephen had come to know this story through his girlfriend, the two had been dating for a year and Emily had talked about her sister and just how much she missed her. Over the course of this discussion, the idea formed. He could try to rescue his girlfriends' sister by exposing this cult! This would make his career; this would open so many doors and Emily was on board to help expose them.
What surprised Stephen more than anything was not in fact the seemingly endless parade of people coming and going from the house over the weeklong stakeout but just how normal it seemed. It was a large suburban house with a picket fence and as they left they entered the nearby homes. It looked like the whole neighbourhood was part of this cult and this house they all went into seems to be where the leader of this cult resided.
Waiting until night Emily would enter whilst wearing a hidden camera, she had already been in contact with another cult member for a few weeks now, who promised that she could help her "find her place in the world." He just had to wait until the night was done and Emily was back in the car before he could go over the information, can't get too close with the entire neighbourhood acting as this leaders' eyes and ears. According to Emily, she was told that the leader was called Mistress Lexi and this I can only assume was her house. Maybe if he had not been blinded by the alure of success, he might have been more wary about sending in someone with no training into a potentially dangerous situation.
The wait was torturous but eventually the adrenalin that had sustained his body through the day had run out and sleep took him as gentle rain fell upon the car. The distinctive sound of a car door opening shook him from unconsciousness, he was greeted with the sight of Emily entering his car. As he was trying to regain his faculties Stephen groggily sat up and tried to focus, failing to notice the moment of Emily looking doe eyed and mouthing a mantra before adopting a face of normality. Rubbing the sleep from his eye he quickly bombarded her with questions "Emily! What happened? Are you okay? Was Lexi there? How long were-" Stephen was quickly shushed by Emily, "I'm okay, Lexi was there but I didn't get to speak to her, she was there only for a bit and I did some light talking with the members there. There's another meeting tonight and I've already agreed to go back. I need to know what happened to my sister and she has the answers I need."
He nodded his head as he started the car, Emily kept quiet in the car ride claiming to be tired and that she would meet him tomorrow to answer more of his questions, but Mistress Lexi had already begun working on her that in the meeting. She knew to put up a façade but her subconscious was repeating the Mistresses words over and over again. A prayer to a dark Goddess, one that had her mind and would soon have her body and her soul.
It's right to want to be hypnotized.
