Free From Pharaoh's Hand by Cynthia Green

hands were headed down the back of her sweatpants. He was rubbing his beard against her neck and making noises in his throat like he was enjoying making her squirm. The bile rose up in Beth’s throat.
                  “Oh God, Stop! I’m going to be...” but before she could finish her sentence, the vomit was up and out and all over the two of them, splattering all over Catfish and Beth. He let her go. She was choking and bent double. She could not breathe. Catfish was stunned by this event. He had never had a woman throw up at the thought of being with him. Shame burned bright in his cheeks.
         “ I weren’t gonna hurt ya, missy. I swear. I thought you might like it. Might need some comfortin’.”
              “ I’m seventeen. I’m only in high school,” she choked out. “I don’t want you. Why would I want you? You’re dirty. You stink. You chew tobacco and drink beer. Oh no...” and she bent double and heaved again. By this time she was dry-heaving and hurting.
         “ I suppose you’re right.  Been a long time since I cleaned up.” His pride was wounded, what little he had. But at least she hadn’t called him stupid.
                  “I’ll get some water heated up to put in the tub. I got a flannel shirt you can wear. Don’t cry. I won’t touch you no more. Just stop crying, for Pete’s sake.”
    Beth took long deep breaths, sighing with relief that he was not going to rape her, at least not tonight. For the first time this week, she thanked the Lord for the life that was growing inside her.  Only morning sickness had stopped this ruthless man from taking her and making her a slave to his fleshly lusts.
                               
                 
                 
     
                               
                                                           
                 
                 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
    The Search
     
    “And it came to pass...”
     
     
                  Months had passed since Elizabeth’s disappearance. The investigation had started with a flurry of activity, then slowed to a crawl.  Finally the trail had ended with a reference to Mr. Merriweather’s Mastercard being used at the Wingate Inn right outside of Memphis on the day of Beth’s disappearance.  A girl fitting that description had spent the night at the Wingate, and to the clerk’s recollection, she was alone. The clerk could give only the date of checkout and had no knowledge of Beth leaving. She had not worked the weekend shift, the other clerk had; she had not noticed anything out of the ordinary either. This confirmed the police’s suspicions that Elizabeth was a runaway. The police questioned Elizabeth’s closest friends; they questioned her parents, her relatives, and her teachers. None could give them any reason why Beth would run away from home.
                  Her textbooks were in her car, as well as her gym clothes thrown in the backseat.  There were no notes to indicate why she had left or where she had gone. They rang her cell phone number , to no avail. They tracked her cell phone usage.  She had not used the phone since the day she left. There was one call that day to the Wingate Inn at 8:45 p.m. Other than that, there was a call from her boyfriend, Chris at 9:40, Saturday morning with a message for Beth to call him, and numerous messages from Beth’s parents begging her to call home. All of those had gone to voice mail. Either Beth had ditched the phone, which was unlikely, or she had it turned off. The police noted that unless she had taken the charger with her, it would soon be of little value to her anyway. The charger was found plugged into the cigarette lighter of her