Believe Me

Note to readers:

All characters in this story are over the age of 18. This story (either in this chapter or others) will deal with a variety of subjects that may make many people feel uncomfortable (particularly in this context), such as kidnapping, non-consensual sex, whipping, beating, branding, religion and death. There are large parts of this story that are not primarily focused on sexual activity, so if that is not what you're looking for, you may want to turn back now.

For anyone still interested enough to read on, I hope you enjoy and welcome your feedback.

*****

***Chapter One: When It Rains***

April 23, 2013

10:56 PM

Somewhere near Loxley, Alabama

"Please, turn on..."

I twisted the key in the ignition again but it didn't even make a sound. The lights flickered for half a second and went out. I should have seen this coming. The damn clunker had been grinding and whining at me for the last hundred miles. It had been fine for weeks before I left for college-sure, it was a real piece, but for the most part it ran okay-and of course it would pick the evening I left for my new university to completely crap out on me.

"Fuuuuck," I let the word drag out, squinting to peer through the windshield at the dark road ahead. I had been sitting along an empty stretch of highway for what felt like hours, but was probably more like 20 minutes or so. Rain saturated the ground and was still falling so heavily that visibility was near to none.

I instinctively reached into my purse for my cell phone before remembering that my only tiny, plastic lifeline had been missing for the last few days. Anyway, who was I going to call? Mom had been in the hospital for months now, she was practically a bedridden and 100% out of her mind, my distant father probably wouldn't answer the phone if the world was ending, much less be willing to come pick me up in the middle of the night, in the rain, in the middle of no where, hours from his house. Of course, Megan, my best friend since we were children, would have absolutely made the trip. If we were still on speaking terms. We had something of a falling out, accompanied by a rather nasty argument, and hadn't spoken in longer than either of us cared to admit.

I thought I could see the glow of a neon sign ahead, but it was hard to say just how far away it was with all the rain. It equally seemed that it could be just a few feet away as much as it did several miles down the road. I debated waiting it out until morning and sleeping in the back seat, but I knew I wouldn't be any more comfortable with that idea as I would with walking ahead to try and find a building with a phone that I could use to call for a tow truck. Ever a fan of the more productive route, I reached into the back seat and rustled through my bags until I pulled out an old green rain coat. Checking the glove box revealed that I had at least had enough foresight to keep a flashlight tucked in there.

With a sigh, I opened the door and hopped out. The second my tattered converse hit the ground I slipped and clung to the door to hold me up in the muddy grass. A mixture of water and mud splashed up and soaked my pants legs-a fact that hardly mattered because the rain was still coming down so hard that I was drenched in a matter of seconds anyway.

"Great," I glared out into the night, "just great." I slammed the door harder than I needed to, fuming at the giant hunk of junk, and clicked on the flashlight before heading down the darkened road. My long, black hair clung limply to my face and neck and as an after thought I pulled up the hood of my coat. It wasn't a particularly cold evening, but being soaked to the bone certainly didn't help keep me warm and soon I was shivering. I trudged on, mad at... who? Myself? I should had been having regular maintenance done to my car, I guess, but I just didn't have that kind of cash. The only thing paying for my college was a scholarship and the car had just been passed along from my mother, who was clearly unable to use it any more.

There was something very unsettling about walking down such an empty road, alone, at night. I was between two towns I had never heard of and the road was lined with trees that, in the day, probably seemed very friendly and beautiful, but right now felt ominous and oppressive. I almost jumped out of my skin when I thought I saw a shadow shoot across the road ahead and stopped dead in my tracks. I scanned from left to right with my flashlight, in a slow arc along the ground, hoping to see a rabbit or deer-hell, a frog would be more reassuring than what I found. Or didn't find. There wasn't anything there. After a moment, I pressed on, until a sound from behind me had me wheeling around to shine the light back down in the direction from where I had just come. The hair stood on the back of my neck and a terrifying chill crept down my spine.

I could have sworn I had heard... something. Footsteps? And a soft clink of metal on metal, perhaps. It's just your imagination, playing tricks on you. You're 18 years old, calm down and act like an adult. Still, something just didn't feel right. I pulled together enough courage to call out, "Is... is somebody out there?"

The question fell into relative silence, the only sound being the steady rhythm of the rain on the pavement. It must have been nothing. I finally went to turn and head back towards the neon sign, but as I did the glow from my flashlight passed over the silhouette of a dark figure. I tried to turn it back to the same place, drawing in a sharp breath of air as I did, but there was no one there. "I didn't imagine that..." I whispered to myself, then raised my voice again, "Is there... I -know- there's someone out there..." I kept moving the flashlight, swiping left and right in time. "I have a gun," I fibbed, "so you'd better stay-"

My voice was cut off. Something... no, someone, was behind me. They had wrapped their arms around my shoulders and shoved a wet cloth against my nose and mouth. I tried to flail my arms and when the stranger tilted back and pulled me off of my feet, I swung my legs and kicked at his knees. I thought I was putting up a pretty good fight but none of it was any use. In a short time I began to feel weak. To my dismay, my legs stopped kicking and my arms fell limp, my head sagging forward against the towel. A face barely came in to focus in front of me, a tall man in his late 30s, grinning at me with greedy eyes, before the darkness closed in and I lost consciousness.

*********************

November 13, 2012

11:27 AM

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Cherish Specialty Hospital

...5 MONTHS EARLIER...

"She's pretty coherent right now. You picked a good time to visit."

I looked up from the visitor log where I had just signed 'Jessica Cabey' next to Megan's name and regarded the bubbly young nurse on the other side of the counter. "We're lucky then," I said with a smile but I knew the words sounded dry. I didn't want to get my hopes up too soon that it was going to be a good day.

"Come on, Jessie." Megan grabbed my hand, swiftly steering me away from the nurse's station and down the long hallway towards Mom's room. "I know you're ready to see your mom. We haven't been up here in weeks."

"I almost can't take it, seeing her in here."

"Don't talk like that... You should be excited to see her. If it was my mom..."

"It's not your mom, Meg, it's mine," I snapped and instantly regretted it. Megan and I had been best friends since we were both knee high to a grasshopper. We had gone to school together since kindergarten, spent every Sunday in Grace Baptist Community Church together and when Mom and Dad had started to argue, Megan's house was my home away from home. Lately, though, there was a lot of tension between us. We both knew it was just the stress from all of Mom's medical problems, I think, but that didn't mean it wasn't wearing on us.

"Sorry," Meg said softly.

We walked on in silence for a few moments before I wrapped my arms around Meg's shoulders, "I'm sorry, too."

It wasn't long before we were at room 347. We sucked in a collective breath before knocking and peeking around the door frame.

All seemed calm in the room. There had been times where we had walked in on bed pans being thrown and orderlies being cursed at but, at the moment, Mom was just laying there, quietly staring out the window. It took a few seconds before she realized someone had opened the door. Feeling reassured, we pushed the door all the way open and made our way over to the bed, our arms locked in each other's and moving as one.

The hospital was an unsettling place for anyone, but in sections like these it could feel even worse. It seemed as though someone came in the room every ten minutes, filling out paperwork, checking IVs, cleaning the floors, bringing food, taking food, adjusting the bed. Luckily, the three of us were the only ones the room right now.

"Hey Momma..." I reached out to hold my mother's hand, pulling together the biggest smile I could muster. "It's me, Jess..."

"You think I don't recognize my own baby?" she said, squinting at me. At first, I winced. Sometimes Mom was out of it and would get upset very easily. This wasn't one of those times and when the smile broke out on her face, my heart soared.

"Meg came to visit you, too."

"Hi, Mrs. Cabey," Meg chimed in a cheerful tone.

Mom turned her attention to Meg. "Oh Megan Elizabeth Comeau, aren't you just the prettiest little thing! You look so beautiful, just like always."

It was true. The two of us were very much alike and at the same time, very different. Megan was tall, well tanned and had a thick head of red-blond hair that fell in perfect waves past her shoulder. She had a tiny waist and curves in all the right places, a regular southern bell. It would have been a lie to say that I wasn't a little bit jealous.

I wasn't exactly at the opposite end of the spectrum, just at the different spot. I knew I wasn't ugly, by any means, just plain. I hadn't taken much effort since Mom got sick and I let my long, black hair fall flat and straight to my waist line, where it was scraggly and in desperate need of a trim. I had green eyes-Meg swore they were blue at times but I never saw it-fair skin and a round face. Prominent cheek bones were my defining feature but these days I rarely, if ever, put make up on and when I bothered to do it, it was eye liner and mascara and nothing else. I wasn't fat but I was far from a size 6. Mom always reminded me that I could have been a stunner if I put more effort into it but these days it was trouble enough to pull on a clean pair of jeans, t-shirt and slip on my shoes in the morning.

Hearing Mom give Meg a compliment and not me did hurt a little but I tried to brush it off.

We all sat and talked for a while, trying to catch up all we could while we had a brief moment of sanity. Before we knew it, there was another cluster of doctors and nurses poking their heads into the room. This was the most annoying part about it all. They would come in, a whole heard of them, staring and prodding. If it had been me, I knew I would have felt humiliated by the whole situation.

Mom seemed to like them attention. She tried to introduce us to everyone, even if she didn't know their names. "This is Benji, she's my nurse today."

"This is Martha, she checks my blood pressure."

"This is Portia."

"This is Liz."

The list went on and on. Suddenly, Mom grabbed my hand and shook it, pointing to a group of doctors standing in the hallway. "Those are the important people," She announced loudly. Meg and I cringed, looking at one of the nurses that were still in the room apologetically. "That man with the blond hair is one of the top surgeons and that tall man owns the whole hospital." The men were already looking into the room and one of them met my gaze and smiled at me.

"Cute doctors," Meg whispered in my ear. I laughed and nodded before turning my attention back to Mom.

There was a five minute period where she tried to remember the men's names before she finally gave up-by which time everyone had cleared out and away from the room again.

Deciding it was time to leave and let Mom rest, we both stood, kissed my mother goodbye and headed out of the hospital. I couldn't help but to feel as though I had been holding my breath the entire time we were inside and I let it out now, slowly, looking up at the oak trees that lined the driveway into the hospital.

"Well, it was a pretty good day, right?" Meg asked as she climbed into the driver's side of her old ford.

"Calm. Uneventful. Yeah, I guess it was pretty good."

"You didn't tell her you're leaving for college in a few months..."

"She doesn't need to know that right now, it'll just upset her. Besides, by the time I leave, her doctor said she might not even recognize me any more. She isn't going to miss me."

"...It's gunna be okay, Jessie..."

*********************

April 24, 2013

2:03 AM

Somewhere in Louisiana

...PRESENT DAY...

I awoke with my arms stretched above my head in a Y position. I had plenty of room to stand but the drugs that had knocked me out were still doing their job and left me groggy and tired. My knees pressed in to cold, hard concrete and a chill passed over me, making me shiver. I fought to get my wits about me and a take in my surroundings, trying to understand what had happened. The room was dark and it was difficult to see the walls. I wasn't sure if that was the actual lighting or the drugs. Either way, I couldn't help but to feel like a sardine shoved inside of a tiny can, giving me the impression that the room... cage?... was quite small. I strained to look behind myself and could only just make out the edge of a door frame.

I twisted back around and realized that my raincoat had been removed, probably the reason I was so cold now. I still had on my muddy jeans and t-shirt from the moment I had been snatched from the roadside, but my cloths were relatively dry now and my hair wasn't even damp.

How long have I been here? Where am I? Who took me? The questions swirled through my mind in a rush. I shook my head, trying to clear the daze that shrouded me and turned my attention to more pressing matters. How do I get out of here?

I looked up to see the binding around my wrists and my world spun dizzyingly. It didn't matter, it felt like rope and that was easy enough to tell. I forced myself to my feet, so that my hands were now at shoulder level with the rest of me. I tried tugging on the ropes as hard as I could but I guess I knew it wouldn't be that easy. I then tried to lean over and chew the rope off but with both arms stretched in opposite directions, there simply wasn't enough slack for me to even get that close to my hands, and the ropes were so thick that going that route would have taken all day.

I did everything I could think of-even tried lifting my legs up to kick at the ropes but let's be honest, I wasn't athlete of the year and my slightly-below-average lower body strength just wasn't enough to get my legs up that high in the air. I let out a frustrated groan and gave one final tug on the ropes before falling back to my knees in defeat.

A soft chuckle rose up from behind me, near the door. My shoulders stiffened and there was that hair raising sensation again. I suddenly realized how exposed and vulnerable I felt in this position. I turned to try and see behind me but it was unnecessary. The source of the laughter was circling around to come up in front of me. His face seemed... extraordinarily familiar but I chalked it up to that brief glimpse of him that I had seen on the road as the chloroformed towel was being pressed into my face.

It was hard to tell from the angle but I stood about 5'2 and I figured the man in front of me-my captor, I realized-had to be about a foot taller than me. He had dark brown eyes and darker haired that seemed strategically careless and unruly. There was light stubble on his face and a strong brow that made his expression seem extremely intense, even when laughing and smiling, as he was now.

He was slender but looked like he still had plenty of muscle. He wore a white button up and the sleeves had been rolled back. It gave off the impression that he normally wore a suit and had only removed his jacket and rolled up to sleeves in order to come and deal with his new prisoner. The thought made me want to tremble but I tried to hold still.

'Be strong,' I said to myself, trying to gather up my nerve, and I fixed him with an angry glare that I hoped looked dangerous and uninviting.

"Well, that was fun to watch. You gave up a little sooner than I expected, but still... plenty of spunk. I'll have to tell Maghiel that he won the bet though..." He leaned close to me and winked, as if giving me a compliment, and whispered, "I thought you'd get out."

Rage flared up inside of me and I lunged forward at him, until the ropes caught me and yanked me back. The man watched, unflinching.

"You bastard! Let me go! Let me go right now, you sick fuck!" I screamed and carried on like this until my face was red, my throat was sore and I was almost crying through my words. When I finally trailed off, the man reached out, gently caressing the sides of my face until I turned my head away.

"Are you done? Get it all out now, dear, because I won't tolerate that kind of language or that raised voice in the future."

I drew in a shaky breath and looked up at him again. "Who are you...? What do you want from me?"

"There, that tone is much better." He walked away and grabbed a chair from against the wall, pulling it over to sit in front of me. "My name is Gabriel. You will call me master or sir, I'll let you decide which one you like better."

The thought of calling this man Master made my skin crawl and a wave of nausea passed over me. I opened my mouth to argue, but he continued on, "As for what I want from you... it isn't so much a matter of wanting as it is a matter of taking. You are mine now. My slave, my pet, plaything... property. Whatever you want to think of yourself as, there's no difference really. The point is, from this moment forward, you will be nothing without me and you will bend over backwards to meet my will and desires." He shrugged and added, "Or you will be punished. Don't think that I will have a problem with the latter. I will tear you apart and I won't bat an eye."

I assumed he expected some sort of affirmation that I understood and agreed with him, but I didn't want to give him that. Instead, I decided to lie. "People will come to get me... They'll be missing me and start to look! When I don't show up to college, my family will get worried and..."

Before I had time to see it coming, Gabriel reached over and smacked me across the face with the back of his hand. I let out a soft grunt and once more hung silently in my bonds.

"Don't EVER lie to me again," He snapped, his voice raised and fury flaring in his eyes as he stared me down. "We both know that no one has any idea where you really are. Your mother's in the hospital, hardly capable of wiping her own ass, and daddy... well he just doesn't care anyway, does he? Your enrollment to Stetson has been delayed indefinitely and since your cell phone went missing..." at that moment, he reached into his pocket and pulled out my phone, "no one is expecting to be able to get in touch with you, even if you and Megan had been able to patch things up."

I couldn't help but to stare at the phone wide-eyed, confusion spreading across my face and Gabriel added, "I have been following you for... quite some time. Or rather, some of my employees have. I've watched you at your school, at home... in your bedroom. I know everything about you. EVERYthing. Even the tattoo..." He pulled my shirt up, causing more cool air to race up my stomach, to just below the breast line, where he eyed the colorful bird that flew over my right ribcage. "Cute, by the way, but I don't think mommy would have approved."