Now she wasn’t so sure.
Everything beautiful seemed to have a dark core that infested her life and damaged it. Even this sanctuary wasn’t safe anymore. It had been infested by the evil that corrupted her life from birth.
Lost to the faux beauty that taunted her outside the window, she didn’t notice the knocking on her door. The slight tapping seemed like something forwarded to the front of her brain from the overwhelming nightmare she had just taken part in.
Why didn’t I wake up?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the tell-tale creak of her large wooden door. Warped over the years, it didn’t quite fit in the frame anymore. The aggressive shove exposed Sister Samantha. The sweet dark-eyed woman met her with a smile.
“Miss, mass is starting shortly, and I was told by Father Samuel to come and make sure you came to join us.”
Her sweet dulcet tones set Elizabeth at ease for the moment, and the dream drifted to the back of her mind. As she rose from the soft comfort of her bed, she felt her body protest. She whimpered and the sister was at her side, lightly taking hold of her upper arms.
“Are you okay, miss? What happened? Can I get you something?”
The woman was honestly the nicest person she had met. The other sisters and the Mother Superior were stern and strong women, but she felt an odd kinship to Samantha. The young girl was like a broken bird that needed shelter, much like herself. Elizabeth reached out a hand and touched it to Sister Samantha’s shoulder.
“I don’t know. Everything seems to ache. My whole body feels like it ran a marathon. I even hurt—” she stopped before she continued that line of thought.
Fighting the urge to reach down between her legs, she pressed her thighs together and whimpered at the hot pain that sliced through her.
“I don’t—” She couldn’t finish. Mostly because she didn’t understand how her dream could have felt so real after the fact.
Then, as if a sledgehammer collided with her head, she had a sudden realization.
“What if that wasn’t a dream?’
A violent shiver took over her body. She fell back down onto the bed. The sister headed over to the washroom and came back with a fresh cup of water.
“Beg your pardon, miss. Can I get you anything? You’ve gone white as a sheet. Shall I get Father Samuel? Or perhaps Father Patrick? I was told to come to Father Samuel if anything were to happen to you.”
Elizabeth felt the walls of darkness closing in on her.
No one could know her predicament until she understood it herself. She had to be sure that the devil had really in fact invaded her dreams and—raped her.
She swallowed hard against the desert that was now her throat. Gingerly, she took a sip of the cool water and nearly gagged on it.
It felt wrong.
This whole place felt wrong now.
She was trapped. Like a pretty little bird for all the world to look at with awe.
The girl who lost her virginity to the devil.
You don’t know that for certain.
Her inner voices were right. She had no clue if the dream had been real, or a fiction created by the beast. If he could create a dream that vivid, he could surely make the pain of rough sex that real—right?
Shaking off the disgust she felt, Elizabeth stood up slowly and grabbed Sister Samantha’s small hand.
“Thank you. I’ll be fine. Go tell the fathers and Mother Superior I will be down to mass soon. I’m going to shower and get all this grime of sleep off me.”
A bright smile filled up the woman’s face.
“I will tell them. They will be so pleased.”
At that, she turned and dashed from the room.
Elizabeth felt the furrow of her brows as the odd statement repeated in her head.
Why would they care so much about me now?
Most of them had left her alone up until yesterday and the incident in the church.
Elizabeth closed her eyes tight. Taking in a deep breath, she headed to the washroom and shut the door tightly behind her. She turned the faucet to scalding and stepped under the violent spray of water. The burning liquid sliced through the pain and sleep-groggy state to wake her up fully. As she washed, she thought about the elements of the dream and found she was getting turned on. It was rough, and yet the possessive way he had owned her did something to her insides. As if her whole life she had been waiting for his touch, his approval, and his cock buried deep inside her.
Fuck that shit. What is wrong with me?
She slammed off the water and yanked the towel off the rack with such force that the weak old metal bar tumbled to the floor.
“Shit!” she mumbled.
Elizabeth stepped out of the shower and mentally filed away telling one of the sisters about this.
Glancing at the small clock on her bedside table, Elizabeth cursed. She had less than ten minutes to get down to mass. They would come, they would hover, and she would snap if that happened. After last night, all bets were off. She was going to get a hold of Jared and get the fuck out of this place. Elizabeth knew that she needed another plan; she just didn’t know what that plan was. She knew that Jared had been coming up with other options and places for her to hide out if push came to shove.