Chapter Seven – The Fate Of The Young Sorceress

I see you are all still wondering what happened to Hope’s daughter. Well, if you remember, the mad wizard had taken Lucy while Hope, blissfully unaware, was asleep after a very long day of being a single mother. I’m sure in the meantime since he kidnapped her you have imagined all kinds of terrible things he might have done to the girl. I’ll be very interested to see whether the truth of it comes close to what your minds have come up with.

Let me start by explaining Lucy’s living arrangements to you. Maybe they will already give you a good idea of what this mad wizard had in mind.

Yes, these are exactly what you think. They are all photos from the actual cellar he was keeping her in. Hm? You want to know how I got my hands on these? Well, truth be told, I would like to know the answer to this as well. As I’m sure you will agree very soon, Lucy had no reason to take pictures of this place which had been her only home since her father had taken her. If anything, she would have wanted to get as far and as quickly away from him as possibly. Also, can you imagine him giving her a camera? A camera which would serve as excellent prove should she ever get out? Not that he anticipated her ever being able to leave the basement, of course. But things happen, and just as Sosostra and Hope were immensely unlucky this wizard was immensely full of himself. I wish I could tell you how these photographs found their way into my family’s possession, but I can’t. I can only guess that someone would have given them to us a some point, but there is no record as to say who this person was, when it happened or why they did as they did.

But I’m rambling, and I’m sure you’d much rather hear about Lucy.

Do you remember, in the beginning, when we first met? I warned you that my family’s history wasn’t a happy story to tell. That it would hurt you deeply, and that I would not be able to give you the heart warming tale so many people seek. Well, I’m afraid Lucy’s story is one of the best examples for why this warning was necessary.

I wasn’t joking when I said that the basement you’ve just seen was the only home she’d ever known. The mad wizard had taken her far away from her mother, and far away from civilisation. He had a small cabin outside of a small town, on the very outskirts, and because he was not very well known amongst the other townspeople no one ever came to visit him. He had used magic to get there, which meant that no one could track him down. Not even Hope’s vampire friend, Lucinda, after whom she had named her daughter. Vampires have excellent tracking skills, in case you didn’t know, which just proves how well he was really hiding the girl.

I understand. You’re confused about why he would do this, what he wanted to achieve by kidnapping a little girl and locking her away. Well, truth be told, I’m still partly wondering myself. I know what his motivation was likely to be of course, but I always hoped that maybe, there was a reason I could understand. Something that might help me forgive him for what he did, but I just can’t get myself to do it. No matter how sick or mentally ill this man was.

But enough of that, let’s continue. You’ve waited so patiently, I can’t see you wanting to be patient much longer.

As you all know, the wizard had broken one very simple rule of common sense. Never fall in love with a whore. For some reason, he had fallen very hard for Hope, so much so that he had begun obsessing over her. So much so, even, that he believed in his sick mind that he had a right to her, that she was rightfully his. By his logic, the child was his, and Hope’s attempts at an abortion made her immediately undesirable to him. He no longer wanted Hope. He wanted Lucy. Yes, I know, of course she really was his daughter, but no one in their right mind would have declared him stable enough to raise a child!

And yes, I’m afraid you’re right. Exactly in that way.

He hated the toddler years, but he told himself that his patience would be rewarded – and I suppose you could argue that in his own little world, it was.

From the moment Lucy could walk and talk, and understood what was happening around her, he… He touched her. He abused her. He didn’t beat her, not right away. Only once she had gathered the courage to tell him that she didn’t want him to do what he did, he beat her. And he beat her hard. The poor girl was soon too terrified of him to object.

She hated the clothes he demanded she wear. She lived in a filthy basement and had never once seen the outside world, a shower or felt the fresh breeze on her skin, but to him, somehow, she was his princess. His price to be locked away from the greedy eyes of the world. A price for what I can’t say. Not because I don’t want to, I just simply don’t know. I’m not sure I’d want to know even if it was written somewhere. Would you? Would it really change anything? Exactly.

He dressed her in pretty dresses. The kind of clothes that any other modern spoiled child would die to wear, or own, but Lucy hated them. She wanted out of them, but she knew he would only hurt her more if she disobeyed his demands.

He did have some goals, of course. He wanted to rule the world, and in his deluded mind he believed that together with Lucy as his wife, he could have everything he ever wanted. Yes, you heard right. It wasn’t enough for him to rape his child. He wanted to marry her, and rule the world.

Well, I told you he was deranged, didn’t I? There’s a reason I was calling him a mad wizard all this time! He thought he could build a dynasty. And the day she became a teenager he felt all the more like his dreams were on the verge of becoming a reality. She was finally old enough to carry his children, and he was ecstatic.

But, you see, he was nowhere near as clever as he felt, and there was one rather big detail he was missing. Thinking yourself a wizard of great ability doesn’t make you one, after all! Who’d have thought!

Lucy had inherited his gift for magic. She was a young sorceress, right there, under his nose, and he never even once suspected. I doubt Lucy had any idea until she was a teenager and her magic began pouring out of her. She had seen magic done by him several times when he had been trying to impress her – I will leave the details to your own imagination; chances are you are right – and knew what it looked like. It came as a surprise to her, too, and at first she didn’t think that it would do her any good.

But Lucy was a clever one. She knew when he left the house, and soon she had his routine figured out. He slammed the doors when he went out, you see, and one afternoon when he left Lucy got up and made her way outside. She wanted nothing more than to get away from him, as I’m sure you can understand, and she ran as fast as she could.

I’m sure if she had known that he h-

Oh, hang on. There’s someone at the door. I bet it’s that same beggar again, but you never know. I did order something of Simazon the other day, maybe it’s… Just wait a minute, I’ll be right back.