Saints: The Devil Next Door

Everything After The SNAP!

Chapter One

Nine Years Later

Sutton

I have done a pretty good job of building a life for myself that does not involve my father in any way but his money. I never returned to that house or even my hometown of Halo after that last night in the tree house. Every so often my mind will drift back to the angel that gave me the resolve to take charge of my own life. I can't help but wonder who Savage turned out to be...how has he changed? I always welcome thoughts of him... it is the other memories I has a problem with. Every day is a precarious balance because I have moments where I have to push the images of what my father did to me from my mind and it seems like lately those moments are happening more often. If I let myself stop or become preoccupied my mind will drift... back to my father, or back to my mother. The closer I get to the age my mother was when she disappeared, the more I have to try not to think about what happened to her. I'm pushing away the painful memories and questions plaguing my mind as I get ready for my day. My small off campus apartment is within walking distant of Austin College where I'm just finishing up my current term in Medical school. The schedule has been brutal, and my days are grueling, but it keeps me busy and a busy mind doesn't have time to think about the past, I tell myself as I select my outfit for the day. A white button-down shirt, knee length plaid pleated skirt and my favorite heels finishes my outfit. Paired with a navy blazer I look a little bit like I might be heading to a private school, but I like to take people off guard with my appearance. When I show up looking like a naïve innocent young girl, they underestimate me. Which gives me an advantage...and I like having the upper hand in all situations. Maybe I'm this way because I was controlled and abused for the first fifteen years of my life... maybe not. All I know is I need to feel some semblance of control over all aspects of every situation I'm in. If I don't, I'm more likely going to snap....and I'm afraid if that snap ever happens...there will be no coming back from it. So, I have kept my life simple and controlled. Simple situations where I can control what is happening or going to happen. I don't go out of my way to make friends or socialize. This keeps me from developing relationships that require me to feel anything emotionally and eliminates the variable of having no control of the outcome. I go to school, do my internships, keeps up with my self-defense training, and work hard at everything. I except a monthly allowance to live on from the monster, and he pays for my schooling, but I do not return his rare calls, the sound of his voice makes me uneasy and I don't like feeling erratic. As far as emails and text messages are concerned, I only responds when it is necessary and thankfully he only has an assistant reach out to me periodically so I have managed to not speak to him directly in nine years, which is how I would like that situation to continue, but it seems my father has other plans. For the last few days I has been receiving urgent texts and missed phone calls from him, not his assistant. I have ignored them, but they are becoming more incessant and I am dreading the thought of actually speaking to him. As I grab my purse and lock my apartment my mind is a jumble of thoughts I would rather not be dealing with. I am lost within them and moving on autopilot which is probably the reason why I never see the two men approaching me. Normally I am aware of my surroundings and on constant guard, but not today, today is the anniversary of my mother's disappearance. The day I always refer to as the worst day of the year. A day I am caught up in, a day I should have stayed home for, called in sick, but I didn't, that's not me. I move forward, power through the pain of the past, ignore it, pretend everything is just fine. I am even tempered Sutton who has spent years keeping it all at bay, staving off the break just lurking on the edges of my reality. So, I don't notice the immediate danger, until it is to late...

Fear is a funny thing, it can sober you mentally, prepare you physically, and break you emotionally. And after being grabbed, gagged, duct taped and thrown into the back of a van, I have a bag over her head, and by my own approximation about four hours of fear. I have no real concept of time but as I listen to my abductor's conversation, the clues they drop give me a potential destination and why I am in this situation where I have no control. I knows who I'm going to see, and I know I have about four hours, give or take, the drive time back to Halo. Back to a son of a bitch arrogant enough to have his own daughter kidnapped, looks like my nine years of perceived freedom is coming to an abrupt end because I am headed to the one place I never wanted to set foot in again, to the one person I never wanted to see, Travis Pope, my father, aka the Devil incarnate...