When Olivia arrived in the mountain city, she was not surprised to see the number of women with their faces covered and the familiar garb adorning their bodies from head to toe. She remembered the numerous religious sects that were commonplace during the days of her childhood, some seeming to have sprouted up overnight and just as quickly disintegrated. The hippie lifestyle had been popular back then, and the men whose charisma and persuasiveness proved to be ineffective among the wild and free youth seemed to eventually find their way to Utah.
For the most part, the self-proclaimed leaders of their own religions, or cults, wanted little more than easy access to willing young sexual partners, but some had managed to cultivate a true following, and as their number of followers grew, so did their deluded sense of importance. Those were the men who were dangerous and wreaked havoc on sleepy little towns like Horseshoe Hills.
Everyone knew about the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, a constant thorn in the side of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, but very few knew about the other sects. Olivia knew. She knew all about the men who hung out in towns like hers, on college campuses, and anywhere else they thought they would be successful in their quest to get laid. Olivia wondered if the men had unmet relationship issues or perhaps they had felt like outcasts in high school, but whatever the reason they had conjured up in their twisted minds, it had worked more often than not.
Olivia’s best friend, Beth, had fallen for a much older man who was vivacious, charismatic, handsome, and the devil incarnate, but she was still with him. He had convinced her that being with him and bearing his children was her ticket into the kingdom of Heaven. Olivia didn’t even recognize her any longer. She looked twice her age and was never without several screaming children hanging onto her skirt that was so long it dragged the ground.
Olivia had decided long ago that as soon as she graduated from high school in her little town not far from Salt Lake City that she would move to New York. Her parents wanted their only daughter to have a much different life than they knew existed in the mountain cities of Utah, and from the first summer that Olivia could remember, she and her parents had spent a month every summer in Los Angeles, New York City, Milan, London, just about anywhere they could think of so Olivia would know there was life outside of Utah.
It was during the summer following her junior year that she had been in Milan at a fashion show when a modeling agency had spotted her and signed her to begin immediately upon her graduation. After that, it was only two years later that another agency had signed her, and after five years, she was sought by numerous agencies around the world. She traveled extensively and dated some of the wealthiest men in the world. That was the life that Olivia couldn’t wait to return to, but first she had to tie up some loose ends in Horseshoe Hills.
Olivia’s parents were killed by a drunk driver just south of town and it was her job to sell the house. Her parents had moved out of the oversized house a couple of years ago and into a resort community about two hours away. The accident that had taken their lives was bizarre, to say the least. They were taking a walk one evening and a man in a pickup truck had veered off the road and directly into them. The town sheriff said it was an accident and the driver was drunk, but Olivia thought the entire thing sounded too made up. She thought it had been planned by the husband of her friend because she had refused to become a sister wife. When Beth tried to convince Olivia that becoming a sister wife was her path to heaven, Olivia had laughed so hard that tears streamed down her face. Beth was not amused, and neither was her husband. He had wanted Olivia since she was a young girl.
But it was over and done with now. She planned to pack up her parents’ belongings and her childhood memories, sell the house as quickly as possible, and get the hell out of Horseshoe Hills once and for all.
The old house looked the same from the main road and Olivia turned onto the winding lane and drove up the hill to the house she knew well. The view from the hilltop house was fantastic and Olivia had often wondered how things had gotten so twisted in this part of the world. This parcel of paradise could have been a wonder cure for the weary, a retreat for the retired, or a honeymoon destination for the hopelessly romantic if the damned cults hadn’t claimed it. She blamed the citizens of the region just as much as she did the cult leaders. The townspeople had made their beds and now they were forced to lie in them.
Olivia picked up her father’s car at the resort community, parked it in the driveway that formed a circle, and looked up at the old, yellow Victorian house she had once called home. Unlocking the front door, she looked around, but what she saw was not what she had expected to see. The furniture had been removed and in its place were mats or pillows on the floor. Olivia wasn’t sure what they were but she knew that she had not put them there. Family photographs were gone from the walls and in their stead were poorly taken photos of a man dressed in black trousers and a laced up white shirt. He was young and had a pompous smile on his face… somewhat of a sneer. “What are you smiling at?” Olivia wanted to rip the photo off the wall, her wall, but she was curious about who had put it there. “Hello?” she called many times as she walked from room to room. She located some of her parents’ furniture in the basement and in bedrooms on the third floor. The remainder of the house appeared to be occupied, but Olivia had yet to find any human within the Victorian walls.
When she looked outside, in the distance she could see a group of women working in the garden that her mother once loved. She tried to see the women more clearly but the sun reflecting off the top of the mountain prevented a closer view. The women wore bonnets or scarves on their head and the skirts they wore went all the way to the ground. Olivia leaned against the door and watched them for a while, wondering what they were doing in her parents’ yard. She wanted to run outside and scream at them to get out, but something about them was intriguing. They reminded her of the polygamist families that lived in the area when she was growing up. Perhaps these women were sister wives and they shared one husband. Olivia didn’t think she could ever live like that. She was much too jealous to share any man. She certainly couldn’t wear drab clothing every day that covered her from head to toe, and she would die without makeup.
Olivia’s mother had taken her to Salt Lake City for the Little Miss Utah beauty pageant when she was seven and after that Olivia knew she was destined to wear makeup and designer clothes. She was determined to steer clear of a life of polygamy which so many of the young women of the region had thought was the only way of life. Living in New York City was so different from life in the West that Olivia barely recognized her hometown. She felt as if she had lived a lifetime since moving away, and from the looks of things around here, life had stood still in the mountain state she once called home.
She pulled a mirror out of her purse and looked at her reflection. The years had been a friend to her. Her dark eyes still had their sparkle and her hair was just as silky as it had been when she was a girl. She wasn’t old by any means, but the life of a model was fleeting unless she reached the heights of a supermodel, which Olivia intended to do. She fluffed her hair that was thick and shiny and attracted men like bees to honey and pursed her lips until the shine of her gloss sparkled. She began to lower the lid on her mirror when she noticed a reflection that wasn’t hers. She turned around and backed up until she felt the edge of the kitchen counter dig into her back.
“Who are you?”
The man didn’t scare Olivia. She smarted back, “I am the owner of this house. What the hell are you doing here and how did you get a key? And perhaps you can tell me who those women are in my back yard.”
The man was unaccustomed to women questioning him. He gave the orders in his world. He moved a little closer, but there was nowhere for Olivia to go. She had backed up as far as she could. “This house was abandoned… according to the sheriff’s records.”
“Well, the sheriff was wrong. This is my house!”
The man placed his hands firmly on Olivia’s arms and she tried to maintain her composure. She would not allow herself to be intimidated by this man. Who was he, anyway? Nobody, that’s who. Olivia had made a name for herself in the world of modeling, and she had been wined and dined by the wealthy and notable of cities around the world. This man didn’t compare to any one of them.
“What is your name?”
“I am Adal.”
Olivia stifled a giggle. When his name was said really fast, it sounded like, “I am a doll.”
“Why do you laugh?”
“No reason. Get out of my house, Adal!”
Adal raised his hand as if to slap her across the face, but she stopped him in mid swing. “I would think twice about that if I were you.” He wasn’t the first man who had tried to hit her. Some of the wealthiest men in the most beautiful cities in the world had thought he could raise his hand to her when she didn’t comply with his sexual wishes. There was one sad bastard who thought he could tie her up with his belt until she agreed to suck his dick, but Olivia was a real Houdini when it came to wriggling out of tight situations. “Adal, you will take your slaves from my back yard and get the hell out of my house. Do you understand?”
Adal lowered his hand and took Olivia’s hands in his. “My child, perhaps we can work something out. The women, you see, are happy here.”
“I’m not your child. My name is Olivia, and this is my house. How long have you been living here, anyway?”
“How can we measure time, Olivia, when time is immeasurable?”
“Oh, don’t give me that crap. How long?”
Adal let go of Olivia’s hands and took the few steps to the back door. A smile formed on his lips as he watched the women toil in the dirt. They worked hard and their reward was a few hours in his company… in his bed. One by one they were chosen to share his… their master’s bed. They knew what was expected of them. His fleshly desires were theirs to feed and for this honor they would be rewarded in the hereafter. Like his father before him, Adal was destined to father many children, and this house located far from town and away from curious vacationers on the main road was the perfect place for the life of which some disapproved. His women would not be tempted by the evil ways of secular society. He glanced back at Olivia who had not moved from where she stood. She was the epitome of the evils of secular society. She wore too much makeup, and with the clothes she wore, anyone could easily visualize her naked form. Her nipples could be seen through her blouse and her hair was uncovered and flowing freely with loose curls that she was now running her fingers through. Adal realized he was staring and he quickly averted his gaze to the floor. Then he turned and watched the women digging in the earth again. They were his world, the chosen ones, and it was their duty to provide food for him and the others.
“Hey, did you hear me?” Olivia was losing patience with this man who thought he was the Almighty.
Adal turned slightly and raised his eyebrows at her. “Woman, you are not to speak to me in a raised voice.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. All she wanted was to get the hell out of this place. “You have one week to get your things and those women off of my property.”
She stormed out of her own house, slamming the door on her way. She would get a court order if she had to, but she would get those people out. Then she thought of another way. She could charge them an exorbitant amount of rent until the house sold. They wouldn’t have to know the house was for sale. She would do a silent listing with the realtor who had been a close friend to her mother. When she got into her car, she reapplied her lipstick, unaware that Adal was watching her from the living room window.
Olivia sped off in search of the deed to her parents’ home. She supposed someone could have changed the document to show ownership by the group that Adal seemed to have claimed as his own, but she doubted it. It was a scare tactic, but it wouldn’t work with her. She knew how these cults worked and from what she had seen so far, this was definitely a cult. But she wasn’t like the women of the region. They had never known a life beyond the group or cult, and Olivia knew there was a big world out there filled with possibilities. She was a part of that world. She located the deed to her parents’ house locked safely in the safe deposit box her parents had left and it showed clearly that the house belonged to her now. She would love to shove the deed in Adal’s face along with a court order demanding that he get his sorry ass out of her house, but she thought it would be much more fulfilling to sell the house out from under him. Let the new owners deal with the nut job, she said to herself.
After getting things squared away with the realtor and tucking the deed inside her purse, Olivia drove past the entrance to her family home, glancing briefly through the trees. She had driven for only ten minutes before turning the car around. He was chasing her away. Adal had chased her out of her own home and she had allowed it to happen. Well, not anymore. She would stay there as long as she pleased. Once the fanatic got a taste of her secular music blaring from every corner of the house, he and his wives or girlfriends would leave on their own.
