Secrets and Lies - 7. Sally Hills (Not Guilty)

Sally Hills

(Not Guilty)

It started a couple of months ago. We had read and discussed a text about an ancient prophecy. The text was dark and mysterious and I wanted to know more about it. Had someone just made it up or did it contain a grain of salt? Was it really supposed to come true? The text had disturbed me and that was why I approached him after class.

I’m usually shy and don’t talk a lot. I usually do not approach other people. But I dared to speak to him and he responded kindly. I didn’t feel intimidated by him. I trusted my teacher. He was warm-hearted and a nice person. He was the age of my father. I didn’t worry a bit when he invited me to his house the following day. He told me that others would come also. He said we would discuss the text that we had read in class.

I told my parents that I went to see a friend in the afternoon. It was a lie. I went to his house instead. Like he had said, others were present, two girls, both my age. He introduced me to them and they welcomed me warmly. I liked them at once. We discussed the text that we had read in class the previous day. The afternoon passed quickly and I felt more at ease when I left. The prophecy did not frighten me anymore. I went to his house again the following week. The two girls had come and also a young man, two or three years older than I was. The afternoon was enjoyable and I went to see him again. It became a regular habit.

I went there yesterday also. This time, however, no one else was present. I was alone with him, but I didn’t feel intimidated and I did not worry at all. I liked him a lot. We had become friends in a sense. The afternoon passed and I wanted to leave at five o’clock, the time I usually left, but he didn’t want to let me go. I was uncertain, but then I stayed because he gave me another text that totally intrigued me. It was about a girl that had been sacrificed in ancient times. The text said that she had turned into a ghost and would come back to seek revenge. He said he had a short movie that was about the old story. He asked me if I wanted to see it and I couldn’t resist.

We sat down on the couch and he started the movie. It showed a dark room. A door opened and a girl entered the chamber. She was my age and she was naked and her hands were bound. A man pushed her forward. His chest was bare, he wore black leather pants, and his face was hooded. He pressed the girl against a wall. She did not struggle or fight. She just stood and gazed at the man with her eyes wide open. The man took a knife from a table and showed it to her. The girl gave a nod. He reached out his hand and pressed the knife against her naked skin, and then he made a cut between her breasts.

My body tensed. I felt totally worried. I told him that I wanted to leave. He stopped the movie and smiled at me. And then he asked me if I wanted to play with him the scene we had just seen in the movie. I shook my head and said that I wanted to go. His smile disappeared and he looked at me gravely. He said that I was not permitted to leave. He said I had to obey his commands. His voice had changed. It was cold and so were his eyes that he fixed on me. My heart beat faster and my thoughts were running. I was desperately looking for an escape. That was when his telephone rang.

The sound came from the corridor. He gave me a dark look and commanded me to stay in the room and wait for him. I did not respond. I just looked at him with widened eyes like the girl in the movie had looked at her tormentor. He studied me and gave me a smile. I realized that he felt contented. He left the room and locked the door. I looked around in terror.

I heard him speaking. I turned my head and looked at the window. My heart beat faster when I realized that the window was my only escape. I had no idea if I was able to climb out and down to ground as his apartment was in the second floor. He was still speaking. I rose to my feet and like in a trance walked to the window. My hands were trembling as I opened it. I looked outside and listened. He had stopped talking.

I followed an impulse and climbed on the window sill. I was about to jump down when I saw that the wall was overgrown with climbing roses. I seized a branch and climbed out of the window. I placed a foot in the tangled mass of flowers. It seemed to work out. The branches were strong and I was able to climb down the wall. The thorns cut my hands and my face, but I ignored the pain. I cannot say for sure, but it seemed to me that I reached the ground in almost no time.

I saw a streetlight in the distance and I ran as fast as I could. I ignored the people that came my way. I ran on in terror until a man seized my arm and stopped me. I shrieked and struggled. His wife seized my hand and spoke to me like to a very young child. I told them all. I spoke rapidly and repeated myself. They led me into a coffee shop and pushed me on a chair. The woman brought me a drink while the man called the police with his cell phone. Police came a couple of minutes later and I was taken to a hospital and my parents were called.

Police went to his apartment, but he had fled the place. They found more of his dark movies and they found a disturbing studio. Police questioned the two girls and the young man who had visited him also. He had never approached them, but one of the girls said that he had offered to show her a special movie some day. Police tracked him down and they found him finally. He confessed that he and a like-minded man had made the movies for their own pleasure. He said that he loved the jeopardy. The secrecy and the civil wrong gave him a thrill of excitement. He saw no wrong in what he had done. He felt no regret and he pleaded not guilty.