This chapter contains an explicit writing choice of abuse. I advise you to not read this chapter if you find this topic too triggering.

———

"What do you mean 24 hours? Where are they?"

Mrs Hayes demanded as she stared at the policewoman in rage. She had only received of the information that her son, Violet and her friend went missing from the police less than five hours ago.

Mr and Mrs Hayes arrived at the police station after hearing the terrifying news. She felt like she was losing a part of herself, which made her mentally unstable.

The policewoman, wearing a perfectly ironed uniform, sat opposite to Mr and Mrs Hayes, at her polished desk. A nameplate displayed her full name, Alicia Stone. She and her team had been assigned for this case less than 24 hours ago and she was determined to solve this case as soon as she began it.

But it wasn't proving to be that easy, it would cost some important time and work. Her police badge was clipped onto her vest with an embedded crest that was shining proudly within the white gleam of the bulb that was installed on the ceiling. Her eyes were glued in concentration to a document that was placed on the desk and she lifted her chin up when she heard Mrs Hayes speak.

"This document states that it has officially been 24 hours since the disappearance of Adrian Hayes and Darcy Steve, Mrs Hayes. Violet Cherie was already missing from 30 minutes prior to the disappearance, according to Lexie Anally."

The policewoman pointed a hand at Lexie, who sat on one of the benches that was propped up against a wall situated behind their seats. Worry and tension was evident upon Lexie's face as she held onto Alora, who was asleep in her arms.

When she didn't see Adrian or Darcy coming back to Adrian's house, she dialed the emergency number. At that moment of time, she felt a horrible feeling settle within her stomach and she knew that something was awfully wrong.

The police took little time to show up at the foot of Adrian's house. Though it was quick, it felt like hours for Lexie. Calming Alora down wasn't easy either. Alora was repeatedly whining Mama and Da.

The policewoman sighed, shaking her head sympathetically. "Although, we haven't found any traces of the victims' whereabouts, we do have CCTV footage of the last spot where Adrian Hayes and Darcy Steve disappeared. Unfortunately, there were no signs of Violet Cherie." Even though it was compulsory to remain formal during cases, she felt sad for the family. She had her own family and she couldn't abide the emotions of losing her own children.

Mrs Hayes frowned. "You have footage? What exactly happened?" She questioned as her face molded into trepidation. "Well..." The policewoman glanced briefly down at the document upon her table and continued. "At 6:35 PM, both Adrian Hayes and Darcy Steve were sighted running around the estate in various CCTV cameras. However, the last one, CCTV 8 was recording near a dumpster and it contained the evidence to what had happened."

The entire room went silent. Everyone sat still and expectantly looked at the policewoman to continue. An uncertain feeling settled within the policewoman whether or not to tell them about the footage.

It was graphic and could haunt their minds."Unfortunately, this information is exclusive. I must keep it confidential for now, until I get the permission to share it."

Mr Hayes suddenly stood up from his seat, anger coursing through his veins. "How can you tell us that we have no access to the footage? My son, daughter in law and her friend are missing. All the vital information as to why they disappeared is in the footage, and as their parents, we have every right to know." His hands were clenched into fists and chest heaved up and down rapidly.

"Mr Hayes, like I said I cannot disclos-" the policewoman began but was cut off. "Please tell us. My boyfriend, Violet and Adrian are gone. I'm worried and scared for them." Lexie's voice quivered as she spoke in a low voice.

The policewoman pursed her lips in thought and sighed, ready to give the information. "Alright, I'll tell you. The footage spotted a white van which was pulling up behind Adrian and Darcy. Two unidentifiable men stepped out of the van and,"

She coughed awkwardly in order to ease the tension sprouting in her voice. "Hit both Adrian and Darcy with shovels on their heads and due to the power of the impact, they are believed to have fallen unconscious. The men dragged them inside the van and left. There was no nameplate for the unregistered van."

By the time the policewoman had finished her explanation, she saw the terror surface in each of them. Mrs Hayes placed a hand over her mouth, Mr Hayes held his head in his hands and Lexie stared ahead, her mouth agape.

"T-they were kidnapped?" Lexie asked in an audible whisper. Her heart shredding bit by bit as the sick events were being told. The policewoman nodded remorsefully. "We also believe that Violet Cherie was kidnapped too, according to your statement cause of several sightings of the van around the estate."

"Were are they?" Lexie asked, the three words were difficult to pronounce at that moment for her. The policewoman pointed at the document, and shot Lexie a grim expression. "No traces yet. We have to keep on investigating for new leads but time is very-" The black and metallic door that led to Alicia Stone's office slammed open, stopping the her from speaking.

A man with dark hair, wearing a similar attire to the policewoman emerged from behind the door briskly, his right hand clutching several papers. "Mrs Stone, we have a new lead!" He exclaimed in a fit of urgency.

The policewoman stood up and walked over to the man. "Mr Jackson," She nodded as she acknowledged him. "What lead is it?"

"The victims' phones have been successfully tracked down and we have their current location."

———

An anguished scream sliced through the air like a knife. It sounded as if the voice had been through pain and torture. Although it wasn't the first time the voice had screamed, it had startled someone to consciousness.

When Adrian recouped his consciousness, he felt drained. His throat felt as if swords were piercing through his neck.

He groaned, feeling weary. He tried to open his eyes out of instinct, but failed to do so. He had no energy stored within him to open his eyes and notice his surroundings, instead he was cocooned within an orange colored lighting.

For sometime, he had forgotten about everything that happened prior. He thought that he was in his bed, wrapped up in his comfy blankets and within the safety of his home.

But those thoughts were slammed when he heard another ear splitting scream from a distance. All of a sudden, the events taken place before crashed down upon him.

Violet... Missing... Search... Blackout.

His chest heaved up and down as visions bombarded his mind. He had no idea where he was, but he knew that he was taken somewhere. At one moment, he felt as if it was all a dream but there was no way that it was a dream. The excruciating pain that he had felt before blacking out was too real.

Adrian began to fight against his fatigued body and soon discovered that he couldn't even move. He was sitting down with his two hands that were restrained behind his back and around what he assumed to be a pole.

He grit his teeth whilst trying to rattle his hands away from the pole, but it took too much power. Adrian realized his weak position and stopped resisting, he felt his blood throbbing against the skin of his wrist.

"Help!" The same voice that screamed before yelled, followed by a whine. A horrible thought consumed Adrian.

Could it be Violet?

He needed to see for himself. Adrian used up all of his energy and forced his heavy eyelids to open. It was a successful try cause he opened his eyes and caught a glimpse of light. But the light was anything but pure.

He blinked his eyes in order to see his surroundings without a blurry vision. He noticed a cliff, hanging a few meters away from him. The yellow gloom the setting sun engulfed the sky completely, casting a blindingly bright light upon the ground.

Adrian looked down and found that his hands were clasped together behind his back with the help of duct tape, around a thick decaying tree. He had a piece of cloth wrapped around his mouth, muffling his voice. This confirmed his suspicion that he was kidnapped by someone.

Who did this and why?

The clothes Adrian wore the day before were ripped and dusty. He looked at his side and froze when he saw another man sitting beside him. The man had his head tilted away from Adrian and his hands were also bound behind his back.

There was no doubt that it was Darcy. Darcy's hair was ruffled with a mixture of blood and mud, another cloth covered his mouth. Adrian shivered, that wasn't a good sign.

Adrian shook his head off that thought and proceeded to scrutinize his surroundings. He didn't want to panic, it would just make him more terrified of what may lay ahead of his inspection.

He twisted his head and followed his gaze upon the rough land in front of him, multiple rocks in all shapes and sizes decorated the land. There was another tree, standing close to the tree he was trapped around. But this tree had more flourished leaves entwined around the broad branches of the tree.

The wind was blowing clouds of dust from the land and into the air, making a powdery mist. A few more inches down, and that was where he saw her.

His eyes widened as a queasy feeling dawned upon him. When he digested the putrid scene ahead, his mouth unknowingly dropped and he cried out in a raspy tone, even though it was muffled by the cloth. He winced as he felt his throat burn, but it was nothing compared to what he had just seen. Nothing.

Violet laid on the dirty ground with her arms stretched outwards. Her body was battered, to the point where she was limp.

She was still conscious, alive. Her hair was sprawled around her head, as if she were an angel. But this scene was nowhere near angelic, it was gruesome.

The white dress that she had worn the last time she was seen, was soaked in her blood and torn. Blood was gushing out of various places of wounds on her fragile body.

As Adrian studied Violet, his heart shattered into pieces that were too small to even be in existence. He had a hard time breathing. It was like someone was stepping on his throat. It had to be the worst thing that he had seen in his entire life.

"Violet..." He whimpered as hot tears made their way down his cheeks, one at a time. He thought about who would do such a thing to an innocent person. His palms fisted in anger behind his back, just thinking about what he would do to the person who harmed his Violet.

It was torture to look at Violet in this position, Adrian couldn't even think about how she was tolerating her injuries. Several emotions raced through his head. Fury, sorrow and most of all, helplessness was how he felt. He felt helpless cause of his disadvantage of being tied up. He couldn't save Violet unless he broke free out of this trap.

For how long had she been tortured for? And by who?

Violet slowly sat up onto her knees and hung her head low. Adrian saw a blue bruise circling her right eye.

"Let me go mom... please." Her voice changing into a strained sob, it was as if she had been repeating the words for a while. "Please, I beg you. Mom!" She screamed when a punch was thrown at her jaw.

Mark Cherie emerged from a shadow beneath the tree and attacked Violet. A smirk plastered onto his disgustingly, unkept face. "Shut up!" He snarled, kicking her in the stomach. He was clearly entertaining himself with watching Violet scramble around the ground, waiting for a second of mercy from their torture. "You deserve this. For all that we've been through. For all Audrey has been through."

It was right then when the woman herself stepped beside him. Her face was elated watching her own daughter hurt.

She was a devil.

A devil who wanted to kill an angel.

Christy followed her with a face replicating her. Audrey and Christy stood in their full glory, excitement running through their rotten nerves.

"Oh dear," Audrey chuckled as she wickedly walked toward Violet. Her face twisted into a grin when she saw Violet frantically push herself away. "L-let me g-go." Violet pleaded desperately.

Audrey bent down to Violet's height and stared soullessly into her eyes, not an ounce of pity. "Let you go? Honey, we haven't even started the fun yet." She grabbed ahold of Violet's hair and yanked her to her full height.

On the other hand, Adrian gaped fearfully at the ongoing scene. It was getting worse and worse by the second. How had he been so blind to not notice the danger that her family held.

How did they capture her? Why were they doing this?

He heard Violet scream as she was pinned down by Mark and Christy. Audrey produced a deadly object in between her hands. And Adrian knew what was going to happen as soon as he saw it flexing in her hands.

It was a whip.