Samantha's mouth opened, but no words would come out. She thought back to her dreams and could now hear the reverend's voice sparing her life. "You brought me here. You did this to me." She leapt from the bed, her outstretched hands clawing for his throat. Reverend Crane didn't move. An instant before she would have wrapped her hands around his neck, Pryde burst into the room and hauled her down onto the bed. No matter how hard Samantha struggled, she could not break Pryde's grip. He tied her to a bedpost and then looked over at the reverend, who dismissed him with a nod of his head.
"I did not intend to bring you here, but Miss Brigham insisted you could be of use. I see now she was correct. You are indeed strong." Reverend Crane sat down on his chair again. "I offer you a choice: serve me willingly as you are or join the others and serve me anyway."
"I'm not going to serve you!"
"My child, please consider this. Do you want to end up in a crib, unable to walk or speak or feed yourself?" The reverend looked into her eyes, his voice taking on the friendly tones he had used in his kitchen. "At the moment Miss Brigham is useless to me except to change diapers. The children need a teacher, a leader they can look up to. You can be that leader. Imagine it, all the other children would admire you as their mother. And I can make certain they stay that way forever. Accept my offer and you will be respected and loved. Deny me and spend eternity as a toddler wailing for her mother."
Samantha didn't need a moment to consider his words. "I'll never serve you. Go ahead and make me a baby. I'll uncover your evil all over again and next time I'll stop you."
"Perhaps you need time alone to think about this more carefully," Reverend Crane said. He snapped his fingers and like one of his dogs, Pryde appeared on command. He untied Samantha from the bedpost and lashed her hands behind her back. "I will give you twelve hours to consider your fate."
Pryde dragged Samantha out of the room and opened the door to what she assumed was a closet. Instead, she saw a staircase made of stone spiraling into the darkness. Pryde threw her over his shoulder like a sack of grain, lit a torch, and then descended the steps. At the bottom she found a hallway paved with ancient bricks and cells on either side.
Pryde stomped down the hall to the last cell on the left and opened the wooden door. He dumped her to the ground like a sack of grain and then untied her hands. "I'll be back soon," he said with another dry-leaf chuckle. The door slammed shut, plunging Samantha into darkness again.