Ella Descending

I tried hard to get through my statement to the police but I just couldn't. The full realisation of what had happened to me and then to Mother was too much for me and I just couldn't do it. A psychologist was arranged to provide trauma counselling for me and it was several days before I could make a coherent statement. The Sergeant spoke to his superior, "I think we should have charges of rape filed against him as well."

"I'll talk it over with them, after all it is their jurisdiction."

I was taken back to the campus. "You will have to give evidence at the arraignment hearing and then at the trial so you'd better be prepared for some hard times ahead. You will be taken back home to speak to the prosecutors there."

I was taken to the house and shown where it had all happened. There was still an outline on the floor where the body had been found and it sent shivers up my spine. There was no way that I was going to stay in that house for a minute longer than necessary and, apart from Uncle Brian and Aunty Trish, there were no relatives for me to stay with. The police contacted the church to see if anyone there could take me in but there seemed to be a general reluctance from them to get involved, so I was put up in a hotel.

I spent days going over the evidence with the DA's office and with each day my depression grew to the point where I had to tell them that enough was enough and to leave me be. In hindsight this probably wasn't a wise move because I needed a distraction, something to take my mind off all of this, not to be left on my own to wallow in self pity. I needed support, someone to tell me that this wasn't my fault and that my writing the letter wasn't the direct cause of Mother's death. I wanted, needed all of this but, because I didn't have the self-confidence to ask for it I never got it. As I sat in the hotel restaurant trying to enjoy what would have been a perfectly good meal and ignore everyone around me, this man came and stood next to me. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

"Yes I do mind, I want to be left alone."

"Aren't you the girl whose father killed his wife recently?"

"If I am do you think that I would talk about it to some total stranger, you could be a reporter wanting a scoop, or some sort of pervert who gets his jollies by hearing about another person's misfortunes, particularly if they involve sex, or you could, just because it would make you vicariously famous to fuck me, be trying to hit on me. Either way I'm not interested in talking to you so fuck off!" I swallowed the last of my coffee and stormed out of the restaurant and, as soon as I could, out of the hotel. I had to get out of town and fast. I caught a cab home and, letting myself in, I quickly packed some clothes into a backpack and grabbed my mother's car keys and drove out of town.

I called by college to arrange to defer my studies and left. I didn't tell anyone where I was going because I didn't know where I was going, I just drove.

Eventually I stopped driving. I had been driving for days and after spending most of the day winding my way along twisting mountain roads I decided that I would stop at the next town. It was cold, there was a light fall of snow when I pulled up to the pump at a small gas station in Sweet River Falls. I filled the tank and went inside to pay. "I don't suppose that there's a place around here where I can stay for a few days?"

"Well little lady, there's plenty of hunting cabins hereabouts and I'm sure that you can rent one for a few days. This time a year there's precious little to hunt, the bears have holed up for the winter and there's the odd jack rabbit out and about but we ain't that desperate yet. If you wants I can make a call and see if I can find one for you."

"Would you?"

"Sure thing, soon as you pay me for the gas." Financial transaction completed he made the call and told me that the 'old Springer place' was available and it was close by. He directed me to a small store about a hundred yards down the road where I could buy provisions and the owner would direct me to the house. I wouldn't need a key 'cause folks trust each other around here' and no-one would think of stealing from his neighbour.

I bought enough food for three days and drove to the cabin. News travels fast in small villages, by the time I had reached the cabin there was a fire going and the kettle had almost reached the boil. A middle aged woman showed me around, told me that the water in the creek was fine for drinking. I paid her. "I don't need to know what it is that you're running away from, that's your business but if you need someone to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, then I'm right next door."

"I'll be fine thank you."

I don't know when I'd slept so well, I was dead to the world within minutes of my head hitting the pillow and didn't wake until late the next morning. I had a wash, I remembered seeing it done in old movies, standing in a basin on the floor and pouring warm water over me to rinse off the suds. After breakfast I sat on the back porch for an hour just letting the sights, sounds and smells of nature wash over and through me until all of my cares seemed to vanish. For the first time in days I was at peace with myself but then my mind drifted to the trials ahead of me. The prosecutors hadn't held back when they told of the tactics that would be used to discredit me and the evidence that I would give, they would question my friends in college to find out if I really was a virgin and even if my friends supported me there would be the inference that I had kicked over the traces once I left the confines of my rigid upbringing. They even suggested that the defence would stoop to paying someone close to me, who may have been vulnerable financially, to fabricate a story of me and him going to a motel off-campus for a night of unbridled lust. No financial stone would be left unturned to diminish my credibility.

I decided to go far a walk. I could hear the sounds of the waterfall that gave this village its name so I decided to go and check it out. It was a wonderful feeling standing at the edge of the ravine into which the waters fell, feeling the spray in my face, I stood there for ages taking this all in until I suddenly realised that I was standing very close to the edge and my mind was urging me to take that step into oblivion. It would have been so easy to throw myself into the raging torrent and be swept downstream to freedom but I stepped back and turned to retrace my steps back to the cabin.

Somehow the path didn't look familiar to me, I must have taken a wrong turning somewhere. I was lost and it was getting dark and I definitely wasn't dressed for a night in the forest. I panicked and turned back the way I had come to see if I could find where I had made the wrong turning but nothing looked as I had remembered it and I realised that, because I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings as I walked to the falls, I could not hope to remember how to find my way out of there, I would have to spend the night in the forest. Suddenly I was scared, more scared than I had ever been, what if a bear came on me in the night, would it kill me? What about a wolf or even a coyote? My mind was focussed on all of the potential dangers, what could I do?

It took a lot of effort to force my mind to focus on survival but I eventually began to seek protection from the elements. I found a rock overhang that would shelter me from the rain or snow if it fell during the night, I dragged as many leaves and fern fronds as I could into my makeshift shelter to provide some warmth and settled down for the night, and dragging ferns over me I tried to sleep.

It seemed like hours later that I heard a male voice calling, "Ella, Ella can you hear me?" I scrambled to my feet, I was saved. "Here, I'm here!" Minutes later I was in the arms, sobbing in the arms of a policeman who led me back to the cabin. The fire was roaring in the hearth and a blanket was wrapped around my shivering body. My teeth stopped chattering long enough to stammer out my thanks to my rescuer and the people who had formed the search party when it was realised that I wasn't in the cabin at nightfall.

"Ella, we were so worried about you. We know who you are and what you've been going through and we're here to help you get through this and get better." It was my neighbour and the owner of the cabin, Mrs Springer.

"But how do you know about me?"

"We check up on lost people who come into town, you see two years ago a young girl stopped here, not unlike yourself, and we let her be, she was a troubled soul and I guess we just didn't want to get involved. She did something similar to what you did today except that she jumped to her death in the ravine below the falls. We vowed never to let that happen again. So when you came in we made a point of finding who you were and contacted the authorities to let them know that you were here. They told us to keep a close eye on you, they are worried that you will do something silly. So, when you weren't in the cabin we panicked and organised a search party."

"I'm sure glad you did, I was freezing to death out there and I was scared that a bear or a wolf was coming to eat me."

"You get some rest. There'll be a person from the DA's office here sometime tomorrow to speak to you. I expect he'll have something to say about you letting them know your whereabouts in future. In the mean time Troy here," she indicated the policeman, "will look after you and make sure that you don't get eaten by a bear or a wolf." Everyone there burst into laughter, I didn't know why.

If last night's sleep was the best I'd ever had this night would rank as one of the worst. I tossed and turned as my mind kept drifting back to my thinking how easy it would have been to jump to my death and not have to go through all of this. I didn't mind so much giving evidence against my father, he deserved it, but I was scared when I thought of the lengths he would go to in an effort to discredit me, after all he did have the money to buy evidence.

I must have eventually fallen asleep because me next waking experience was the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and bead being toasted on the open fire. "Good morning sleepy head, rise and shine breakfast is just about ready."

"Oh God, you're not one of those disgusting morning people are you?" I scrambled from my bed and wrapped a blanket around me and shuffled into the living room and plonked myself down on the couch.

"Hey, none of that, I know the badge says 'serve and protect' but that doesn't mean that I'm your man servant, I need you to butter the toast while I pour the coffee." I grumbled my way to the kitchen bench and spread butter on the toast for us. It was while we ate that I noticed his name badge was the same as my neighbour; 'Springer'. What was he, her son or grandson?

Troy left for work after making sure that I had enough firewood for the day. "I'll drop by after work, would you like to come with me to Gran's place for dinner?"

"That would be nice, but you don't need to put yourself out on my account."

"No problem, I'll let her know to expect us." I wondered about that statement, was he deliberate in his use of the first person plural or was it a slip of the tongue? Hmm.

I had just finished washing up my lunch cup and plate when there was a knock on the door. A man stood there looking very official in his suit and with his attaché case in hand. "Can I help you?"

"Are you Ella Thornton?"

"Yes. What is this about?"

"I'm Connor Bradley from the District Attorneys office and I've been sent to go over your statement again to make sure that we haven't missed anything. We have decided that, for the time being you are to be left here out of sight, but we need to be able to contact you if we need to speak to you. Is there somewhere comfortable we can sit and go over this?" I led the way to the sofa. "Now could you describe the events of that first Monday after you returned home from college on vacation?"

"Well, I prepared dinner for my father. . ."

"That would be Peter Thornton your adoptive father would it not?"

"Yes. We had dinner and sat for a while watching TV and at around 10.00pm I went to bed. Half an hour later he, my father, came into my room and sat on my bed. He said that he wanted to talk to me about him and Mother, he told me that they weren't getting on well and that he was sleeping in my bed. At first I didn't take much notice but when he leant across me his hand brushed against my breast, it was under the sheet. I didn't think much about this but on thinking about in the context of what happened later, I think this was deliberate."

"He told me that they hadn't had sex for some time and that he was afraid of losing her. While we were talking he slipped under the sheets and he tried to fondle me. I told him to stop and when he didn't I got out of bed and locked myself in the bathroom."

"When you say he tried to fondle you, what do you mean, did he place his hands on your breast?"

"Not at first, he had it on my stomach but he was moving it toward my breast."

"Was he doing this?" He placed his hand on my stomach and began to move it slowly toward my breast so I did to him what I did to Father, I grabbed his hand and stopped it moving. "Then what happened, after you locked yourself in the bathroom?"

"He pleaded with me, telling me that he loved me and when he was in my bed he imagined what it would be like making love to me. I told him that it was sick but he said that because he wasn't my biological parent it was okay. When I opened the door he was standing there with his erect cock poking out in front of him. He took my hand and put it on his cock, that was the first time that I'd ever handled a cock."

"And you let him make love to you?"

"No, I allowed him to have sex with me because I was afraid of what he would do if I didn't."

"And before this happened you were a virgin?"

"Yes. My parents impressed on me the need for me to remain pure for my future husband."

"You never had sex at college?"

"No."

"You were never involved in heavy petting sessions where a boy fondled you, maybe stroked your genital region or you stroked his penis?"

"No! How many times do I have to tell you that I was a virgin."

"I find that hard to believe, a beautiful girl like you, away from a strict home life for the first time, the temptation to experiment with sex must have been there, and yet you want me to believe that you never once had anything that even remotely resembled a sexual encounter. You would have had to fight them off with a baseball bat."

"No it wasn't like that, my friends were all of the same belief and we were comfortable with those beliefs. Nothing happened to any of us."

"Really, what about your friend Amy Vincent, how is it that she's pregnant, huh? Is this the second coming of Jesus Christ, another virgin birth?"

"No, she can't be."

"She is. How did that start I wonder? With a kiss like this." He leant over and kissed me on the neck, his hand grabbing my shoulder so I couldn't pull away. "And move on to this." His hand dropped to cup my breast. I reached down and grabbed his balls and squeezed them as hard as I could, I hoped that it hurt him. "You fucking bitch!" He hit me with the back of his hand and I tried to get away from him but he threw himself on top of me. "I'll teach you not to resist." His hand was between my legs as he tried to get his fingers inside me.

"Get away from her!" I felt him being dragged off me and thrown face down onto the floor, Troy had him hand-cuffed. "You are under arrest, you will be charged with the attempted rape of Ella Thornton." His rights were spelled out to him as he was dragged to his feet and dumped unceremoniously onto a chair. Troy turned to me, "Luckily we are nosey around here, I was told about this guy turning up, I know we were expecting someone from the DA's office, but he was delayed and contacted me to tell me that he won't be here until tomorrow, so when this guy turned up pretending to be the DA's man we did some checking. We checked the vehicle registration and found that it was a renter so we checked with the rental agency to find out who hired it. It appears that he was hired by your father's lawyers to 'seduce' you to demonstrate your promiscuity and cast doubts on your evidence. You did well by the way."

"If you were to ask me to rate my level of fear on a one to ten basis, I'd have to put it at eleven, it was scarier than being lost in the forest, or my father raping me. How is it that you always seem to manage to save me in the nick of time?" He blushed and mumbled something about serve and protect. I was again shaking but this time it wasn't from the cold. When will this all end and how much more would I have to cope with, and, more to the point, could I cope with it. I was on my way down again and Troy could see it in my face.

"What did you plan to do today?"

"Nothing I guess."

"Nothing is not the best thing for you, have you got any hiking clothes?"

"No, I didn't really plan this trip."

"No problem, come with me." He grabbed the man and marched him outside and up the street to the small police station where he pushed him into the one cell and, un-cuffing him, locked him in. We then went to the store. "Mrs Jenkins, can you fit this young lady out with hiking clothes?"

"What are you planning to do Troy?"

"I'm planning to show Ella some of our wonderful scenery."

"Come this way miss," Mrs Jenkins led me to a rack of clothes. They weren't the kind that I would normally wear but I realised that mine were not designed for hiking in the forest on a day when it could snow at any time, so kitted out in a plaid shirt and heavy jacket, jeans and hiking boots and a fur-lined cap I have to admit that I looked the part. We called into the police station where Troy made a flask of coffee and took a rifle from the gun rack, checked that it was loaded and slung it over his shoulder.

He could have got a job as a tour guide because he knew so much about the forest, he pointed out details that I would have missed if I was walking on my own. As we walked he would slip a question into the conversation that I would answer before I realised that it was in connection with the investigation, this was definitely not what I would have expected from a small town cop, so I decided on a few questions of my own. "You were raised around here?"

"Yes. You've probably worked out that I have relatives around here. My great-grandfather was one of the first to settle here, he was a hunter, after bear mainly, and he found the game to be plentiful and, to use the modern term, sustainable. The family has been here ever since."

"Your police training, that wasn't from around here was it?"

"No. I did what many small town kids have done before me, I went to the big city to seek fame and fortune. I ended up in a police academy and spent five years in the force there before I just got so depressed with the amount of crime that I decided to come home, I figured I could work as a park ranger or tour guide, but the family had other ideas. The town needed some form of law enforcement, mainly during the hunting season when the hunters, with a little alcoholic motivation, got a little exuberant and shot at things that weren't meant to be shot at, sometimes each other."

"What do you do the rest of the time?"

"Protect beautiful young ladies from nasty men." Suddenly he got serious. "I didn't mean that to come out the way that it did. You have just had a frightening experience on top of what you have already been through recently and here I was flirting with you, I'm sorry."

I grabbed his hand and turned him to face me. "Look, Troy, I can call you that can't I? You don't want me to call you Officer Springer do you?" I didn't wait for him to answer. "Troy, you are difference from my father, Uncle Brian and that sleaze you have in your cell. I know that you have a job to do and need to lighten the mood so that I'm comfortable with you so that you can ask me questions without me freaking out and clamming up, and if that requires you to flirt a little I understand that. I know that I can trust you not to try anything, and anyway, what girl doesn't like to have someone as tall and handsome and wonderfully gorgeous as you flirt with her?"