Mrs Ryman began to fret as the night progressed and Christina failed to return home. She was just about to call Cassandra down to ask her advice when there was a knock at the door, she rushed across to open it with the word Christina on her lips, but it wasn`t Christina standing there, it was two women, strangers who pushed passed her. They were followed by three men; one of them was Bourbon the new owner of the manor house. Mrs Ryman didn`t even have time to protest before she was grabbed by the other two men, one on either side of her. Bourbon then pulled out a large knife and put it against her throat.
“Please be very quiet and no one needs to get hurt Mrs Ryman.” Bourbon warned her while her hands were tied tightly behind her back by one of the women. The two women then quickly checked the other rooms in the downstairs part of the house and then disappeared upstairs. Moments later, she heard a muffled cry followed by a loud slap, and then all was quiet until the two women appeared with Cassie who looked very scared. Her hands were bound behind her back, and a gag had been pushed into her mouth and tied there with the help of a pillowcase. A large red mark on her face told where she had been slapped. Tears slipped down her young face as she looked across at her mother in the hope of getting her help against these people, but at the sight of her mother similarly bound, she found a new source of strength, anger, and began to struggle against her captors.
“Cut it out girly or I will hit you even harder.” The older of the two women threatened her.
Cassie looked fearfully at her and immediately stopped struggling. Then one of the women went across to Mrs Ryman, she had one of Mrs Ryman’s own silk handkerchiefs and also another of her pillowcases. After being warned not to cause any trouble, she too was then gagged. Moments later Mrs Ryman was sitting in the back of one of the two cars while her youngest daughter was taken to the other car. Minutes later and they were being led down into the cellar of the manor house, and then taken through it until they came to an open doorway. They were then pushed through the doorway and into a room, which had a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling, and a small nightlight on the wall. There were two single cots, one in each corner; also within the room they saw a small washroom with a curtain to offer some privacy. Their hands were untied and the gags removed, and moments later Christina was led into the room. The three of them rushed forward and stood there hugging one another and crying, happy at least to see one another, to comfort one another. As they stood there another man entered, he had brought with him one more cot, which he put down between the other two cots. He then left and the door was bolted shut from the outside. They hadn`t the faintest idea of what was happening to them, or the reason behind their confinement, but they all feared for their lives. Christina`s one hope was that Rob would come to rescue them.
With at least a dim light to see by Christina looks at her wounds that had been inflicted by the fire flies, and what she saw made her gasp out loud. Her mother seeing her look of consternation moved over to her, and seeing her daughter looking down at her hands she held one of Christina`s hands and looked at it.
“Why there are tiny teeth marks all over your hands Christina, have you been bitten by rats?” She asked fearfully. She feared that her daughter might have contracted some nasty disease from their attack.
“No mother, it was just some sort of large fire fly, or at least that is what they looked like.”
Cassie walked over and looked at the bite marks on her sisters hands and she too gasped out in surprise at what she saw.
“Then they must be breeding one hell of a fire fly around here, Chrissie.”
Christina then told her mother and Cassie just what sort of party she had witnessed, and of Cassie`s friend Moira, and how she had acted towards her.
“That bitch, and I thought that she was my friend, you just wait until I get my hands on her, I`ll teach her to bad mouth you mummy.” Cassie screamed out in rage.
The Ryman family then sat on their cots and tried to make sense of everything, of the Satanists, what the Satanists had planned for them, everything other than the fears that now gnawed at each of them, that they were going to be killed.