Chapter 36

It was still dark when she woke up. The sky was still clear and the moon still full and high overhead. She tried to rise and found it impossible. She was securely staked out on the beach and surrounded by the thirteen hooded men. It began to sink in that this time she was appearing for real in a genuine pagan sacrifice! With relief she saw that none of the men seemed to be carrying a whip! She did see that one of them had a very nasty looking knife stuck in the belt of his monk's habit, though, and guessed she would soon be getting a very much closer view of it as it gleamed over her stomach in the ghastly moonlight.

"If only I had not been so greedy." she thought. "All this would not be happening. Oh, my darling Douglass. We would have been so happy if only I had not been so horrible to you! If only you knew how sorry I am and how much I love you!"

"Let me up!" she said out loud, although not imagining for a second that she would be released. This had obviously all been arranged for some time. She wondered how many of these people were members of the film crew! Probably they all were and the whole thing had just been a cover for this dreadful scene in which she was shortly to be killed for real.

"Sorry, Veronica. We've been to too much trouble to stop now. The Dark One needs His virgin offering and you are it! Soon it will be Thirteen O'clock and your big moment will have arrived. And - not that it matters - but none of these Brethren are your fellow film-makers. They are all fast asleep; I saw to that. This place is far from the nearest habitation and the locals have never liked it anyway. It has a special meaning for us of the Dark Brotherhood, but the general run of folks hate it, as would you have done if you had not been drugged!"

This was true. Now that Veronica was her normal self, she could feel the evil of this spot. Even without the presence of this hellish group of wicked depraved men it would be a foul and evil place to be. It reeked of infamy here.

Jeremy turned to the rest of the group and motioned them all to approach Veronica one by one. Each one knelt down, shone a flashlight on her and probed her secret place to examine for himself the evidence of her virginity. By the time all thirteen had satisfied themselves as to the genuineness of the sacrifice, she was close to throwing up. Only the thought that if she did she might choke on her own vomit enabled her to stop her nausea getting the better of her. Although why she bothered, she couldn't imagine. She only had a short time to live and now was as good a time to die as any, in fact it would be better as she would deprive them of the chance to kill her at the appointed hour of Thirteen O'clock - whatever or whenever that was.

And then she recalled to mind a film she had seen many years ago, as a terrified little girl. How they had let her in to the cinema to watch such a scary film was still a mystery. This had been about a nest of witches in New England. At one hour past midnight the clock, instead of chiming once, had struck thirteen times and the hapless heroine been stabbed on the stroke of thirteen!

She wondered what time it was now! It had been close to ten when she had left the hotel, that place of warmth and safety which might as well be a million miles away now. But she had no idea how long she had been unconscious. It must be about midnight already, maybe much later and close to the dreaded Thirteen O'clock!

Now that the Brethren had examined her they started chanting some ritualistic incantation and walking around her in an anti-clockwise direction. Widdershins, she thought. That word had always sounded sinister to her and it certainly would even more so in the future, if there was still a future for her!

Looking desperately around her she could see on the cliff top a dark and ruined tower. From the tower came the sound of a bell tolling the three quarter. Only fifteen minutes to go! Veronica started to think back over her life and all the wasted opportunities, especially her ultimate stupidity in rejecting Douglass. She knew she deserved to be punished for her sins, but wondered if this penalty were not, perhaps, a little excessive!