8 Days For Salvation Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  8 DAYS FOR SALVATION

  First edition. September 24, 2016.

  Copyright © 2016 Yolanda Olson.

  ISBN: 978-1536550160

  Written by Yolanda Olson.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Acknowledgments

  Dedication

  8 Days | For Salvation

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Lis Garcia, Brittany Reece, Linda Cotter, and Beth Sterry for keeping my head screwed on tightly while I wrote this one! You gals are the best P.A.’s a girl could ask for!

  Word Wench Services for editing this one for me! Thank you for going through my disjointed mind and making it all look so pretty. And thanks for making it fun too.

  Funky Book Designs for the amazing cover that I knew I just had to have when I laid eyes on it.

  Dedication

  For the Irish girl with the pretty blue eyes that once told me she likes the darker things in life.

  “We do whatever we enjoy doing. Whether it happens to be judged good or evil is a matter for others to decide.” - Ian Brady

  8 Days

  For Salvation

  Prologue

  I’m a collector.

  I take beautiful things that need to be saved and I help them. I wouldn’t say that I’m a thief, but there are times when stealing those that I need is pertinent to what I do.

  I started ten years ago and I still have my very first one. I was a younger man then, barely twenty years of age when I felt the need to do something great—something meaningful.

  The crown jewel of my collection is a beautiful, small woman. Her name when I took her was Ione Winslow, but she made me believe in the light hidden in the darkness again so I changed her name to Faith.

  Faith is a beautiful thing if you can sustain it, and I did my best to sustain her for as long as I could.

  The others have served their purposes and I only have one left before I go to Faith; before I save her.

  August 10, 1986 is when I saw her. It was when I fell in love with her as soon as I laid eyes on her beautiful face. It’s also how I knew that she would be perfect for my collection. I almost had an even number of girls and I needed one more.

  She had been walking with a large man who seemed to be too muscular to walk normally, but I knew he would be easy enough to dispose of.

  It was simple enough for me because I have always been an intelligent man. I approached them, spoke to Faith like she was an old friend, and invited myself along on their dinner date. I convinced them that it would be to “catch up on old times,” and they believed me.

  The way she looked at me made me smile on the inside. My outward appearance was a thing of delight, as I had been told numerous times before. Black hair that I kept neatly combed, light-brown eyes that hid the evil intentions inside of me, and a smile that shone brightly whenever I chose to display it. I would concede that I’m a bit taller than most men, and I keep my body toned and fit. Not for vain purposes, but because of what I do, I have to be stronger than who I take.

  We sat in an old bar that smelled of beer and sweat. The man I assumed to be her boyfriend drank himself into a stupor in no time, leaving me to watch over Faith who was well on her way to becoming drunk herself.

  He excused himself to go to the restroom at one point, and Faith followed closely behind him. I rolled my eyes at the obvious implication that they were going to fuck, but it also gave me the opening I needed.

  I glanced up and down the bar and noticed that the bartender was nowhere to be seen—there were barely any patrons in the bar—and dropped a tablet into each beer bottle.

  They didn’t return for another fifteen minutes which gave the tablets plenty of time to dissolve. I forced a smile as they returned to the table we had been seated at, her shirt on inside out, hair disheveled, and a never-ending giggle escaping her in hiccups.

  Yes, she definitely was a soul in desperate need of salvation. It was confirmed when I saw the horrendous track marks on her arms. She didn’t even bother to hide them which meant she was proud of wasting her life away.

  The mindless chatter progressed as they continued to drink from their half empty amber bottles and I waited patiently. Eventually, I would be able to see their eyes become pinned and that’s when I would offer them a ride home.

  It came an hour later when I felt like my brain was going to melt out of my skull. All of the slurring and blatant sexual contact in front of me—in front of the few others in the bar—was starting to make me feel sick. I never understood the basic human need to touch each other as much as these two did. Then again, I didn’t understand a lot of why people did what they did.

  The drug kicked in after they got into my car, and I managed to drive the hour to my property without them even so much as moving. Once there, I took the girl out first and placed her just inside. She wouldn’t wake for another few hours, so I had no worries that she would try to escape.

  He, however, had a different path to follow. Those that don’t get saved go into the fire and I had a wonderful incinerator on my property. He went in alive because he needed to feel the cleansing. He needed to feel that just because he was larger than most men, he wasn’t any better, stronger, or worthy.

  The flames of over eight hundred degrees snapped him out of his sleep. His screams were something of a melody. I smiled as he burned and inhaled deeply when the smell of his singed flesh started to fill my nose.

  Once that chore was taken care of, I went back into my home and picked Faith up off the floor. I closed the door behind me and locked it before turning to take her beneath my home. I knew exactly what room to put her in and she would stay there until it was her time.

  I hummed quietly to myself as I descended the stairs and glanced into each room as I walked by. Most of the pieces I had managed to find were sitting in silence on the dirty floor, not causing any trouble. However when I entered the room that Faith would call her home, I saw an infuriating sight.

  Charity and Grace were touching each other in ways that I would never allow. Charity was lying flat on her back squeezing her own nipples tightly and moaning loudly while Grace used her fingers inside of her.

  I said nothing when I entered, instead walking past them and placing Faith against the wall. By default, she would be See No Evil because I refused to let her succumb to the visual stimulation of these two harlots. After I secured her with chains against the wall, I left the room again and went to the office I kept locked at the other end of the hallway.

  I slid the key in and opened the door, glancing around the room for something that would help me get those two apart and that’s when I saw it.

  Glistening in a dark place, the shining edge so smooth and sharp begged to be used. I grabbed the meat cleaver off of the old desk and locked the door behind me before I went back into the room of sexual depravity.

  Reaching down, I grabbed a fistful of Grace’s hair and pulled her off of Char
ity, who was attempting to scramble to her feet. One swift, clean swing of the cleaver and I was able to cut her neck just deeply enough to wound her and keep her from making those disgusting noises ever again.

  Speak No Evil, I thought with a grim smile as I grabbed her by the hair and roughly dragged her to the other side of the room, chaining her to the wall, far away from Grace.

  She almost escaped from the room when my back was turned, but I managed to stop her in time. I smacked Grace’s face against the wall and dragged her half-limp body back to the other side before grabbing my set of keys and jamming them into her ears. She would be my Hear No Evil because she had already heard the moans of a whore due to her touch, and that should be enough to carry her until her dying day.

  I let the set of keys soaked in blood and sinew fall to the ground as I reached down and pulled part of her skirt off. I walked over to Faith and bound the cloth around her head tightly, pulling back as hard as I could without snapping her neck. I would keep her as pure as I could for now and wouldn’t let her see what their punishments were for doing this to each other. It wasn’t her fault that they had committed such atrocities and as such, I wouldn’t make her see it.

  As an afterthought—before I left the three in the room alone—I grabbed the cleaver, held Grace’s hand over her head, and chopped it off at the wrist. Her screams didn’t bother me; it was her manner that offended and she would never use that hand on anyone ever again.

  Not in my home.

  It was a week ago today when I caught the two of them together. And as I now stand in the doorway of their room watching Faith with her chin slumped against her chest, I couldn’t help but smile at how far I had come. Ten years was a long time to wait, a lot of patience to maintain, and a lot of planning to do. I only had Grace left to deal with, and then I would be able to come back for her.

  If you believe the bedtime stories, God created the heavens and earth in seven days. I had started to perfect my craft and was down to eight days. We were almost equal now and I would surpass the legend soon enough.

  My name is Daniel Delaney and I am the deliverer of wayward souls.

  Chapter One

  The stench of sex permeated throughout the room filling my nose and making me gag. It hung low, like a cloud of sin that threatened to choke the life out of me if I let it. Not that he would let it happen; I knew he wouldn’t let me die this way. I was part of a grander design he had been creating and he wanted me to be around for it. At least, that’s what he told me the first night I was here—the night he took my eyes. He told me that to keep me pure of heart, a good girl, he would take my eyes so that I wouldn’t see the degradation around me. He said it would heighten my sense of touch, which would be more important when he decided it would be time to deliver me.

  I wasn’t sure what that meant, nor did I care. He was kind to me; even when he robbed me of my sight, he had done it differently than he had done to the others so I wouldn’t feel any pain. A simple dirty rag tied firmly around the eyes, pulled back so far into my flesh that after time, it started to become a part of me. I wouldn’t be able to rip it off if I wanted to because it would most likely blind me permanently.

  It was all a lie, though. The psychological pain of being in a perpetual darkness; the bland, black color of being in a constant void that would stay with me forever, was more painful than anything he could do to me.

  His soft whispers, the screams of pain, the smells that would surround me were almost too much to bear in the darkness, but I endured. I didn’t have a choice because my will to live was stronger than he knew. The time would definitely come when I would have to face him like all the others had, and he would deliver me from this cruel world.

  But for now, I waited trying to find solace in the dark world that surrounded me. Trying to convince myself that being blind now would be much better than seeing what horrors were being performed around me.

  I don’t know what he looks like. I don’t know if his hair is black, brown, red, or blonde. I don’t know if his eyes are green, blue, gray, or brown. I have no clue of the shape of his face or any scars that may adorn it. I only know the tips of his fingers as they graze my bare skin from time to time, assuring me that he’s still with me.

  And it was what I felt now coupled with the feeling of a lingering gaze on me. I heard his steady breathing, and I felt his presence as he hovered over me.

  Was it my turn now? Was he going to deliver me? I was afraid to ask, but assumed that I wouldn’t have to wait long for an answer.

  He lowered himself onto the ground next to me, pushing my chains to the side. He liked to keep us chained to the wall in the room damp with sex and death until it was our turn to be saved by him.

  He cleared his throat gently as he leaned his back against the wall. “I like these moments with you. The quiet calm before the world comes crashing down.”

  I didn’t reply. I was actually waiting for some semblance of permission because he didn’t like it when we spoke out of turn. It was a punishable offense to him since he worked so hard to keep us free of sin.

  “Do you like these moments too?” he prodded gently.

  “Yes,” I lied. “They’re what I look forward to the most.”

  He let out a happy sigh which told me that my response was the right one. What scared me the most about my little white lie was that if he kept me here long enough, it could become a stark truth.

  “How I wish I could keep you,” he said gently. I could tell in his tone that he was feeling genuinely conflicted. “But you’re too much of a temptation, I can’t let you go, so I have to set you free.”

  I bit my lower lip to stop the tremble. The fear was gripping me and I knew exactly what his intentions were. The only thing that would solidify and confirm everything I was feeling would be the simple sentence that he would always tell us when it was time.

  Would he say it? Could he? If he cared about these moments as much as he said he did, he would know that delivering me would end them.

  “I admire your fortitude, Faith. I’ve learned a great deal from you,” he said, running a hand gently over my hair. I immediately started to pray a silent prayer that something would come over him and he’d change his mind.

  But he didn’t.

  “I’ll come for you in the morning.”

  Chapter Two

  On my first day, he took me out of the room. I was so thankful to not to be left in the putrid smell anymore that I didn’t care what he had in store for me. The loud clink of the chains as they fell from my wrists to the floor, the flow of circulation again as I got unsteadily on my feet, was the greatest kindness he had done for me so far.

  “You’ll never have to be in that room again,” he promised me as he led me ... outside? Yes, we were definitely outside; the cool breeze that slowly wrapped its welcoming arms around me, the fresh air that I was inhaling, were precious gifts he was granting me.

  “You’re probably wondering why we’re out here,” he said, his voice slick with amusement.

  I turned my face toward the sound of his voice and nodded. His hands were strong as they held me by my arms, his thumb gently rubbing up and down my skin leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake.

  “I wanted you to have this moment, Faith. I wanted you to know that even though the world is a filthy place full of sinners and evil, that there is still something pure about it. Something worth remembering. Like you.”

  I looked away. The gesture would say the words I was afraid to speak to him and I hoped would hurt him deeply. He definitely had a fondness for me and he never liked to do whatever he would deem disappointing to me.

  “What’s your name?” I asked softly.

  “Daniel,” came the kind reply.

  “Are you the devil, Daniel?”

  “Not today. Today, I’m simply a man,” he responded with a chuckle.

  “And when do you become the devil?” I asked, turning my body back toward him.

  “Soon.”

&nbs
p; A trembling sigh escaped from deep within me. I didn’t know much about him when he became pure evil, but I know that none of the others had ever come back. I was going to be no different; no matter how much he told me he enjoyed my company, he wouldn’t let me live. He couldn’t. Even though I didn’t know what he looked like, I knew too much about what he did here.

  “Do I have to die?” I asked softly.

  I felt his hands run up and down my arm before firmly gripping my wrists. Daniel pulled me against him and rested his cheek on the top of my head. It gave me some idea of how tall he was, which was something I had never known before.

  “Don’t think about those things now, Faith. Let’s enjoy our time together. Would you like to go for a walk around the property?” he asked gently.

  “No thank you,” I replied, lowering my head. I wouldn’t pull away from him even though I wanted to, but I wouldn’t accept anymore false gestures of kindness. I refused to be whatever it was that he was attempting to mold me into.

  “You mistook that for a request. Granted, I may have asked you, but you don’t have a choice in the matter,” he said with a laugh.

  “I don’t want to, Daniel,” I said softly.

  “On your knees, Faith. I won’t have you being disobedient,” he said in a much sterner tone than I had ever heard from him before. “Stay here and wait for me to come back. Don’t try to escape. The property is surrounded by barbed wire and you have to be able to see it to keep from running into it.”

  I took an unsteady breath and slowly got to my knees. It was an unintentional kindness he did by telling me about the barbed wire. I wonder how many of the others had tried to run away only to become tangled in the erected fences, cutting themselves deeply and bleeding out. I wondered if he would have left the bodies there since we had to be somewhere that was remote enough for him to bring us outside.

  I wondered a lot of things about Daniel, but I just wouldn’t ask. Some things need to be kept secret within the devil that harbors the madness for others to remain safe. Could his words damage me more than any physical thing he could do to me? Most likely; so I decided not to test his patience anymore. I would accept whatever discipline he would put me through, for declining his suggestion of taking a walk and I would endure it. I had come this far and I intended to make it to the eighth day.