The Price of Safety-Part 2

What does freedom mean to you? That was the writing prompt that inspired me to write about Maggie and Spencer. I know that a story of abuse has been told a million times before, but I wanted to learn more about how far I could push my own limits. This is the final in the series for Maggie and Spencer. To catch up on the story read Leaving Spencer and Finding Maggie. This final story was so long I have decided to split it into three parts so check out last weeks and come back for the rest of the story.

However, in the house Maggie was sobbing watching what she thought was her only hope driving away from the house. Spencer had seen the headlights pull into the drive was first. He was so fast climbing on top of Maggie and covering her mouth.

“Stay silent or I kill him.” Spencer hissed in Maggie’s ear.

The half hour Deputy John had been there knocking on the doors and windows; Maggie was praying he would just break the door in. When she first got to town he had promised her safety. She did everything he had told her to do. She put a restraining order against Spencer, his parents, and all the guys working for them she could remember. She didn’t have recent photos, but the deputy had pulled Spencer’s DMV photo and had it pinned in the sheriff’s office. He had even put the security deposit down on this place so she could get back on her feet.

She had felt seen and heard and safe here. She had let down her guard. She felt so stupid now. Especially now that he was driving away, she felt the only future left for her would be to go back with Spencer and prayed he would manage to kill her somehow. At least she would be with her parents again.

“Good, he’s gone. Luckily, he finally left. Cole should be here tomorrow afternoon. You’ll be taken home and my father to have his way with you. And then you’ll be shown your new room as my whore.” Spencer was caressing Maggie’s body with every word. She wanted to die right now. “So, until he gets here you will start learning your role now. Get up and make me some food. Then as I eat you will be on your knees pleasuring me. If you cry at any point, I will beat you worse than you have ever seen before.

Then he punched her hard in the side and pushed her out of bed. She thought of running again, but her body was so weak from the torture she had endured for the last 24 hours she didn’t think she would even make it to the door.

Maggie did everything she was told until Spencer fell asleep. And she was able to pass out onto the floor.

The next morning, Mrs. Ruth was making her morning rounds with the housekeeping staff when the noticed that it had been a couple days since they had seen the man that was travelling solo. Mrs. Ruth was not upset that she hadn’t seen him. Really his charm seemed forced, like he expected to be worshiped. Mrs. Ruth did her best to reserve judgment on anyone, but she just had a bad gut feeling about him. If she didn’t hear from him by lunch, she would call him. Just to be sure he was safe.

Over at the dine Miss Ann is already trying to call Maggie. But the call kept going straight to voicemail. She then called the bookstore and Ryan answered.

“Ryan, did you hear from Maggie yet?”

“No Ann, sorry. I am worried she has never missed a day since she started. I don’t know if I should be mad or worried.” Ryan said. “We put a lot of faith in her when she came to town and she was proving herself. But now I wonder if we misplaced that trust.”

“Absolutely not!” Ann almost screamed at him. “That girl has worked so hard to build herself up. She wouldn’t compromise that out of nowhere.”

“Your right, I’m sorry.” Ryan replied, ashamed. “But what else is there we can do. Deputy John said there was nothing alarming at the house, except that it was quite.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep asking around. That’s all I can do for now. If I hear anything ill let you know.” And Ann hung up the phone trying to decide who to call next.

A burley man walked in just then and sat down at the end of the counter. Miss Ann took his order and went back to texting Maggie’s friends.

Deputy John, at the sheriff’s office, couldn’t shake the feeling that he missed something last night. He was getting ready to head to the diner for the office lunch but before that he pulled out Maggie’s file just so that he could understand what he may have missed. The top page on the file was the license photo of her ex. Now looking again, John felt like he had seen him before. Just not sure when of how. He also remembered he hadn’t thought that when he first pulled the photo. He decided to bring it to the diner with him. Maybe Miss Ann or Mrs. Ruth could identify him.

Ten minutes later John walks into the diner and sees Mrs. Ruth and Miss Ann at one end of the counter and someone eating at the other end.

Miss Ann goes to refill that customers drink and get him a dessert.

“I’m sorry honey. I’m not normally distracted. What brings you to town?” Miss Ann was still trying to give this guy the same welcome as everyone else but knew she was not as interested as normal.

“Just needing to pick up a friend. He was here visiting for a few weeks but needs to go home now.” The man said, “I got here early so I’m waiting on him to be ready.”

“Oh well, that makes sense. Do you know what he was doing in town?” Miss Ann asked.

“That’s privet.” He said in a flat tone that implied Ann was asking too many questions. Ann knew when to stop pushing.

“Very well. Wave me down if you need anything else.”

The tone of the man’s voice had put Deputy John on guard. When Miss Ann had joined them again, he showed them the photo and asked if they had seen him recently.

“Yes,” Miss Ann replied “he has been in most days for almost a month now. He is polite and charming but has kept to himself mostly.”

“Me too,” Mrs. Ruth said “he is staying with me. Yes, he is charming, but that seems to be forced to me. The weird thing is I haven’t seen him coming or going the last couple of days.”

“He’s missing too!” Deputy John knows what happened now.

“Yes. Who is he?” the two women asked together. John was already heading out the door.

“Maggie’s ex! He found her. Call the doctor to make sure he is ready. Mrs. Ruth, close his room to anyone else from entering. I’m going to call for backup now.”

There was a flurry of sudden activity in the diner, that no one noticed when the man at the counter got up. He went to his car and made a call. When he hung up he got on the highway and started driving west, without waiting for the friend he was supposed to be picking up.