Chapter 19

“Sophie, you might know me as Stanley, and for now, that’s what you can call me until we decide what’s next for you. I won’t leave you in limbo forever, don’t worry.” Pembroke flashed a sympathetic smile, the same smile he’d used in front of his dimmer students when they gave him a hopeful but very wrong answer.

“Now, I know you’re a good girl, so you understand that in class, you don’t speak without permission, and you answer when asked. So, I’m going to repeat the question: Have you used the shower in your cell to clean yourself?”

Sophie hesitated, her voice barely above a whisper. “No, I didn’t. I don’t need to. But I’m hurt. I need a doctor. Please, can I get out of here? Please don’t ... don’t hurt me. I just want to go home.” Her voice was cracking, and she was fighting back tears at Pembroke’s unnervingly cheerful yet authoritarian demeanor.

Pembroke’s smile widened slightly, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Sophie. We’ll address your needs soon enough. But for now, I just need you to answer my question. Have you used the shower? It’s important to stay clean, especially when you’re injured.”

Sophie’s mood then changed, she changed from a frightened captive to surly schoolgirl. She pulled down her skirt, hugged her shoulders, and looked down at the ground beside her, tightening her crossed legs together. “I don’t need a shower. I need you to let me go.” She did not meet his eye, but there was a touch of anger in her voice. He knew from experience from his pupils he had to nip this in the bud.

“LISTEN, GIRL!” Pembroke shouted as he shot to his feet. Sophie jolted, her eyes going wide with shock and terror. Her legs snapped open, and she quickly planted both feet firmly on the ground to steady herself. Her hands clenched into tight fists, which she held close to her chest, as if bracing for a blow. The sudden shift in Pembroke’s mood caught her off guard, as she stared up at him like a deer in headlights, unsure of what he might do next.

Pembroke enjoyed her discomfort, and he relaxed his face to a smile. She really was a meek, timid little girl who could be threatened and bullied. Her splayed legs now revealed her white panties up her skirt. As he sat down, his eyes fixated on them.

“It’s a little unladylike to reveal yourself like that Sophie” he chuckled. She instinctively shot her arms down, pulled her skirt forward up her thighs, and brought her knees together, flustered. “Haha, I much prefer those cute white knickers I put on you, to those boring blue shorts you wore. Why did you wear those, by the way? I told you to wear something sexy. You weren’t ... disobeying me were you?”

“No ... no ... sorry.” Sophie could barely get the words out. She felt naked in front of this man, she could only hope he would not rape her, or hurt her. She had no weapons to use on him, she was completely at his mercy.

“Anyway, I think this is the third or fourth time I have asked you this. Have you taken a shower? If you don’t answer this time, I may have to discipline you, and I don’t want to do that, I have been very tolerant to you so far. So please answer the question.”

“No” was Sopie’s soft response.

“Well don’t worry, I’ll make sure your wounds are cleaned up when I lock you back in your cell. Let’s take care of those nasty cuts and bruises.” Pembroke briefly disappeared behind the curtained area and emerged with a wad of cotton wool and a bottle of antiseptic. “Stay put and don’t make a fuss. I won’t make you undress, but I do need you to sit still. Be a good girl, won’t you?”

Sophie sat rigidly, her heart hammering in her chest as Pembroke dabbed the foul-smelling antiseptic on her scabbed, scraped, and bleeding knees, elbows, and arms, and finally, her bruised and cut face. The stinging pain was nothing compared to the revulsion she felt as he leaned in, his sour breath hot on her skin. His eyes bored into hers, dark and hollow, filled with a perverse sense of control.

“Look at me,” he whispered as his face loomed close to hers. He pressed the cotton against a cut on her forehead, grinding it into her skin. The antiseptic burned, but Sophie didn’t flinch. She locked eyes with him, trying to suppress the rising bile in her throat as she caught the stench of cheap alcohol on his breath. It made her stomach turn. All she could think about was escape, not just from this filthy room, but from her own body, as if her mind could flee to a place where his leering presence couldn’t follow.

Each swab felt like a deliberate act of cruelty, a taunting punishment. Sophie bit her lip to keep from crying out, her nails digging into the armrest of the chair. She forced herself to maintain eye contact, even as her skin crawled with fear and loathing, for fear of this anger. She felt so exposed and could not see his other hand, and dreaded to think where it might go at any second as she tried to squeeze her thighs as close together as she could.

“Alright, now that you’re all cleaned up, we can get started,” he said with a smile, his voice dripping with false cheerfulness. “Wouldn’t want you getting infected, would we? And I can’t stand dirty girls, it is one thing I will not tolerate in the future.” He flashed her a grin as if they shared a private joke, but there was a hint of malice in his eyes. “Today was a special day, though so I can make an exception. We both got a little messy during our romp in the bushes, didn’t we?” He giggled, pointing at the scratch marks that crisscrossed his face.

“Don’t worry,” he said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, “I won’t hold it against you. We both know who came out on top, don’t we? After all, I brought you here safe and sound, didn’t I?” His eyes sparkled with sinister glee as he spoke.

Sophie winced at his sickening attempt at playfulness, remembering all too well the violent struggle that had led to her capture. The way he talked about it, you’d think it was just a bit of harmless fun. She tried to keep her expression neutral, as he continued to gloat about his so-called victory. She sat with her back straight, both hands on her knees as they stayed together. “Ah, not letting me have any more glimpses up your skirt, I see? Haha, I must say I admire your optimism!”

Sophie’s impassive expression began to falter at that last line, she tried to believe there was a way out of the inevitable.

Pembroke went back to his laptop and the room went back to silence as he tapped away looking at his screen. He snapped back to attention and looked at her for several seconds, then broke into an enthusiastic smile.

“Miss Sophie Yildiz,” he said with a hint of mock formality, “I won’t bother with full introductions. Perhaps I never will. You don’t really need to know who I am, do you? What matters is that you’re here, and that’s not by chance. I’ve been watching you for quite some time. Months, actually. I chose you, if you will. So don’t feel too bad. It’s who you are that drew me to you. Both physically and mentally. The rest, well, let’s just call it good luck on my part, and, I suppose, a bit of bad luck on yours.”

Sophie listened, transfixed.

“As you might have guessed, there’s been a lot of planning involved in your, uh, abduction. But I don’t see myself as a kidnapper,” he continued, his eyes narrowing with a hint of amusement. “I prefer to think of myself as a collector of beautiful things. And you, my dear, are a very rare find.”

His words sent a shiver down Sophie’s spine. The way he spoke about her as if she were an object, a trophy, made her skin crawl.

“If I liked cats,” he went on, “I’d collect a cute, fluffy kitten. I wouldn’t get a tiger. If I wanted a plant, I’d choose a delicate flower, not a cactus. And you, Sophie, you’re the perfect addition to my collection. I spent a great deal of time learning about you, not just to plan your ... arrival, but to ensure you’d fit in just right down here with me.”

His eyes glistened with a perverse satisfaction, and Sophie could feel the walls of the room closing in on her. He wasn’t just a kidnapper—he was a predator who had meticulously chosen his prey.

“To demonstrate, I want you to look at this screen right here—if I can get this thing to work, haha.” Pembroke gave a mocking chuckle as he fumbled with his laptop. The large screen suddenly flickered to life. It was about four feet high and eight feet wide, looming over the space like a menacing monolith. It was mounted on the side of the wall, forcing Sophie to turn her head to the right to see it.

“What is this?” she thought, a cold shiver running down her spine. The screen displayed what looked like a typical computer desktop, with a few generic icons and folders. But Sophie had a sinking feeling that something sinister was about to unfold. Pembroke’s behavior was unpredictable, and the screen seemed to promise a glimpse into something much darker than a simple computer interface.

“I’ve always been a computer guy,” Pembroke said, his voice tinged with a strange mix of pride and disdain. “It’s made me a lot of money over the years, but you girls never seem interested in this sort of thing, do you? Well, Sophie, I think you’re about to get quite the education, though it might be a bit too late for you, haha.”

“But you know,” he continued, puffing his chest out a bit, “I’m pretty advanced at this. I’m an expert in my field.” He sounded almost like a child bragging about a new toy, except his eyes were gleaming with something far more disturbing. “So don’t feel too bad if you can’t keep up. A young girl like you wouldn’t understand, but that’s okay. I guess this lesson might be more for the other ladies out there. Just remember—never underestimate nerds like me, haha!” He was thinking of the bored schoolgirls who ignored his enthusiastic explanations about binary code and computer science, while he had just wanted was to have them smile at him for once.

His words dripped with arrogance, but beneath the boasting, Sophie could sense the menace in his voice. He seemed to relish the idea of lording his supposed expertise over her, like it gave him some twisted justification for what he’d done.

“This might interest you!” On the screen, to Sophie’s surprise, a school hockey match, recorded as if on a phone, was playing. She quickly realized it was an amateur game, and then realized with a shock it was her school playing. And then she saw herself! It was her, her hair tied back in pigtails, in her black and white hockey outfit, carrying her stick. The camera seemed to focus entirely on her. Sophie watched aghast as it followed her around, and heard the sounds of the match as other parents cheered their children. There was a sudden close-up of her, perfectly framed, standing on the wing, holding her stick in one hand, and calling out to her teammate for a pass. The screen paused on the image. Sophie slowly turned to see Pembroke grinning wickedly at her, with the widest smile she had seen from him so far.

“Please, what are you doing?”

“Now, Sophie, don’t interrupt. I am going to show you more things. And of course, I think you know that I have much more intimate footage of you, haha. Don’t worry, we’ll get to those ... eventually.”

He pressed some buttons and the screen changed to another part of the match. It was still focused on Sophie, and it showed he being bundled over by another girl on the wing, taking a tumble, and falling very close to whoever the cameraman was. The screen froze, and Sophie swallowed as she saw the huge screen showing her on the ground, legs akimbo, her face clenched in pain, and giving an unrestricted view up her skirt. Suddenly a red pen mark appeared on screen drawing a circle around her crotch, and she looked over at Pembroke, who was drawing it on his mousepad. This was so odd, he was so odd. She just wanted him to get to whatever he was going to do now, she thought.

“I have always been, what you might call, a pervert” he sighed.”You young girls, you don’t know what you do to men like me. It’s not just you Sophie, it’s all those other girls out there, you must know when you wear these skimpy clothes, you just ... well, you are asking to be raped! My school pupils, my word! I see up their skirts all the time, without even wanting to!” Pembroke’s off-tangent rant perplexed Sophie, so he was a teacher? None of this was making her feel any better...

“They sit there, and I have to pretend I think of them like a child, to teach stuff to, and all I want to do is just bury my face between their legs!” Pembroke was getting more agitated as if he was speaking to himself. Sophie was the first person he had ever opened up to like this, and there was a good reason why a kidnap victim entirely at his mercy was the best choice. She was disgusted and grossed out. She tried to remain calm, maybe there was still a way out, but she had to remember to give him a way out too, so she stayed quiet.

“Anyway,” he calmed down and smiled. “It does give me great pleasure sometimes. I like filming girls you see, I have a lot more videos like this, not just of you, but other girls for years. I hope you don’t feel jealous haha.”

Sophie had no desire to speak or say anything anymore.

“Well on the day I recorded this, I am not sure you remember, but I got even more than some photos and videos. Do you remember your bag went missing?”

Sophie had remembered, she guessed what was coming next. She was feeling sick now, and concentrated on not throwing up rather than show any emotion.

Pembroke played another video, this time of Sophie in jeans and a T-shirt, walking around a mall with her two friends from earlier that day. Sophie watched, wondering why she hadn’t noticed someone filming her. Meanwhile, Pembroke disappeared behind the curtains again and returned with an envelope in hand. The sights and sounds of the busy mall on screen, along with the faint chatter of her friends—who seemed to be about fifteen meters from the camera—felt strangely out of place given her current predicament. It was almost enough to make her forget, if only for a moment, the grim reality of her captivity.

Pembroke turned down the volume as the video continued playing. Out of the envelope, he pulled out a pair of black sports underwear and held them up in triumph, like a small child impressing his mother. “Look, remember the close-up of your knickers while you were on the ground! I bet you never thought you would see them again, haha.” Sophie’s eyes grew wide as saucers, not just at the sight of her lost sorts knickers, but at Pembroke as he held them to his face, and loudly inhaled through the material. “Hmmmm, they still have your scent on them. I’ve been keeping them sealed up. I did not want to lose your smell, but now you are here I don’t need to worry about that anymore.” His eyes lowered to her waist and Sophie drew her knees tighter together and blushed. “Hahah, but of course you were wearing more than just those black knickers weren’t you!” With a flourish he brought out a pair of grey panties. “You had these on underneath!” He smiled at her like he had just announced he had won the lottery. He put them to his face and inhaled, and suddenly his face contorted obscenely and he opened his mouth and licked at the insides of the panties. “Hmmmmm” he hummed, completely unembarrassed by his revolting behaviour in front of a young girl.

Sophie’s face turned from pink to beetroot red. Her mouth dropped open in shock. This man was insane—what could she do? He was stronger than her, and he seemed completely unrestrained, like a wild, weird animal released from the confines of normal society. How could she have been so careless? She knew what was coming next—he would tell her about his interaction with her on the bus. She should have called the police right then and there, but now it was too late.

“I’m sure you remember me from the bus, Sophie,” he said with a smile that made her skin crawl. “I don’t usually have the courage to stare at girls the way I did with you, but you seemed so shy and quiet that I just felt so free around you. You just looked away and blushed, just like you’re doing now. It’s cute!”

Sophie tried to recall the encounter on the bus. It was true—men often stared at her, and she usually just bowed her head and scurried away. But the fact that she hadn’t stood up to him had brought her to this terrible moment.

“It was a test,” Pembroke continued, his voice casual yet sinister. “If you had told me to fuck off, or tried to stare me down, or even answered back when I spoke to you, well, ironically, you might not be here today. Some other girl would have taken your place eventually, but not you.” He watched Sophie’s lips tremble. “Don’t feel bad, Sophie. It’s just who you are. You needed someone to look after you, and it turned out to be me. If it hadn’t been me, maybe it would’ve been some abusive boyfriend, but one way or another, someone would have gotten to you.”

His words were like a punch to the gut. “There’s nothing you could have done,” he added, his tone almost comforting. “You can’t change who you are. You’re shy, timid, a good little girl who just needs a bit of discipline and to be told what to do, whether she likes it or not. Isn’t that right?”

Sophie did not answer, tears were starting to stream down her face.

“I have so much on you Sophie. Honestly, I know you better than your own mother! It would take weeks to go through it, though I think time might be one thing you will have a lot of! Anyway, Let’s move on to happier times.”

Pembroke changed the screen, and it now showed Sophie in summer clothes at the park with her friends. A different video played, showing Sophie and her friends hanging out by a lido. “I enjoyed this,” he said with a grin. “Of course, I had to be inconspicuous at the time, so I couldn’t really enjoy myself too much. But watching it back later gave me great pleasure.”

The footage continued; the screams, laughs and chat of the girls amid the sunshine again contrasted with the sinister atmosphere in the dungeon. “Such pretty lithe bodies” said Pembroke sadly. “Your friends are all gorgeous, God, look at that girl in pink, such a toned stomach! and great tits for her age as well! But of course ... ah there you are, you really are a stunner you could be a model! Nice outfit, it really suits your figure.”

Sophie wasn’t sure if Pembroke’s commentary was for her benefit or just his internal monologue spilling out. He advanced the footage, now showing her with her friends from a distance. The camera zoomed in on her smiling face, capturing her open-mouthed laughter. It felt surreal, seeing herself so carefree in the video, recalling how happy she had been that day, as if it were a lifetime ago.

“Nice. Such a sweet young creature you are. I hope I see that smile again sometime! It won’t all be pain and misery down here I hope!” he laughed. “Now, by now you know that I have a penchant for young girl’s undies. I have collected so many over the years! So I am a skilled thief, you must have wondered how I did it! Well, here was my trophy!”

Pembroke again pulled out a pair of purple panties from the envelope. “Tada!” He chortled at himself. Sophie remained impassive, her mouth turned downwards. Was this what all men were like when they could do what they wanted?

“These taste so sweet! Hmmmm” He repeated the lewd gesture of licking the panties, this time, though, he looked at her as he did so. Sophie tried her hardest not to vomit.

“I’m very interested in what you taste like, Sophie. You see I have tasted you, second hand, after the exertion of a sporting match, and after a lovely summer day with your friends when you were happiest.” He paused and again his eyes went to her knees, still guarding her crotch, this time his lips were glistening with saliva. “After all the stress of today, I wonder what those white panties are going to taste like when I get them off you.” His eyes flashed back up to meet hers, and she suddenly wretched.

She bent forwards, and some sick came out onto the floor. “Now, now, that is to be expected. Stay in your seat.” Pembroke was also moved back to reality. Of course, this girl found him disgusting. They all did! He would have to control her with violence if necessary. He took a cloth and some water and cleaned up the floor. He grabbed her head and wiped her mouth down. He then brought her some water.

“Drink up. Get your composure back, and stay with me, OK?”

Sophie’s hands trembled as she took a sip, some water spilling onto her skirt and mixing with the tears now freely flowing down her cheeks. She wiped her nose and tried to steady her breathing.

“That’s it,” he said, watching her carefully. “Trust me, crying won’t do any good down here. It’s not something I particularly enjoy.”

He allowed Sophie a few moments. She gazed at him again, her stolen underwear strewn around his desk now. He seemed fully at ease with himself despite the horror he induced in Sophie.

“Now at this point, I think you should ask me something. I am sure you have question for me, and are probably thinking you won’t like the answers! The girls in my class hardly ever ask questions, though in this case you must be bursting with curiosity.”

Sophie wondered what to say. His affable face had switched back from the clownish animalism of when he was sucking on her panties. She barely got the words out. “Are you ... are going to rape me?”

“Perhaps, yes I think so.” said Pembroke as if mulling it over in is head. “But maybe not as well, maybe I’ll even let you go!”

Sophie was confused, this must be some trick. “How ... I was going to meet you, why did you attack em, how did you know where I was?”

Pembroke smiled and flexed his fingers. “It’s a long story. To be honest, just meeting you and having sex with you was never really my plan A. I was always intending to kidnap you. But getting you to that spot on the road? At that time? Making sure you weren’t followed? That took a lot of planning and a lot of money! That phone I have you...” he trailed off and grabbed it from behind the curtain to show it off to her. “I built that myself! You couldn’t contact anyone yourself and I knew exactly where you were the whole time! I could listen in on everything! Honestly, I should work for MI6 like James Bond!”

“Why did you choose me? There are millons of girls like me. And I’m only fourteen, I’m too young, please I never ... I don’t deserve this...”

“Well Sophie, I think we have gone through this, but a lot of it was just luck. You answered the wrong online messages I am afraid, and fate just kept me tagging along. I hadn’t even built anything when I first found you, honest! This basement was normal, why I couldn’t have had friends down here then, if I had any friends haha.”

“But I’m only fourteen” wailed Sophie.

“And? You’re hot, and you have many years ahead of you he winked at her.

“You must have money, you must have friends outside, why couldn’t you meet someone else, why do you have to ... to ruin my life...”

Pembroke sighed. “The truth is, Sophie, I’m a bit odd. I’ve never had many friends. And as for girls? Pah! Forget it! I’ve never had a girlfriend, and I’m fifty-five.” He looked at Sophie with a sad expression, as if seeking sympathy. “And you haven’t had a boyfriend, so we make a great match.” He slapped his thigh and chuckled. Sophie desperately wondered how to appeal to this madman. Surely, there must be a human in there somewhere.

“Are you ... are you Luke?” Sophie didn’t want to ask, but she had to know. Just thinking about it broke her heart, but as soon as the words left her mouth, she knew the answer. The realization was crushing. Could this monstrous, ugly old man really be the same person?