There’s blood everywhere. It’s running from my wrists, where the grind of the cuffs has cut through my skin, onto my palm and down my arms in long streams. And it’s not by accident.

I clench my teeth harder as I try to use the sticky, red lubricant to slip my hand through one cuff. “Argh!” I scream. It’s still too tight. Yanking again against the rock, I feel more of the base where the metal plate is secured to the wall crumble.

Oh my God. Did I do it? Elation flits through me. Looking up, I yank on the cuffs again, then again. Each time, more rocks fall, until it feels like the plate is hanging on by a thread. One more tug, and it comes loose completely.

My heart pounds as my hand, which is still attached to the cuff and plate, falls to my side, pulling on my arm with its weight. I groan and pull the limb up as I face my other arm. Using the weight of the metal as a hammer against the other base, I detach it quicker than the first one.

Both my hands are now free, but the heavy metal plates are slowing me down. I moan and cross my arms, grabbing the plates with opposite hands to free myself from the heavy objects tearing at my wrists. Shuffling around, I try to find a way out. The terrain is flatter than I imagined, but I stumble over several objects on my path. Rocks, plastic bags, tools—at least, I think that’s what I see in the dark, but I don’t stop to take to a closer look. My goal is to get the hell out of here, get help, and come back for the girl.

I use the wall to feel my way in one direction, moving slowly but still stumbling along the way. And then I see it. A tiny sliver of dim moonlight filtering into the dark space. And then another. And another. I realize I’m no longer staring at a rock wall, but a thin sort of curtain I can’t quite make out.

As I near the light, my senses come back to me in a rush, and I realize where I am now. It’s the cave from my drawing, but the entrance, which was wide open in my dream, is now covered with what looks like a curtain of vines. A few feet more, and I’m there.

A loud bark from just outside the entrance makes me halt my tracks. “Lacey?” Hope and panic fill my lungs as I clamp a palm to my mouth with regret. If Brooks hears us, we’re both dead.

I can see her, just a faint outline, but she’s staring right at me, as if unsure at first. My heart jumps into my throat and I fall to my knees, dropping my shackles to the ground. “It’s just me, baby girl. C’mere,” I say softly.

Lacey lets out a cry and then pads over, licking my face and nuzzling into my neck. “You found me again,” I whisper with a smile. “This time I won’t forget. I promise.”

“Where are you, you little shit?” a voice roars from deep in the woods. But it’s close enough for me to begin looking for an escape plan. We could make a run for it. That might be our only hope. We could try to find a place to hide. But where? I look around and remember the girl still unconscious in the cave. We’ll come back for her. First, we need to escape Brooks and get help.

Then something dawns on me as I’m scratching the backs of Lacey’s ears. “Where’s your daddy, huh? Where’s Jaxon?”

Lacey whimpers in reaction to my words. My heart does a deep dive into the pit of my stomach. He better be okay. But one thing’s for sure; if Lacey’s here, Jaxon’s nearby too. Her whimper morphs into a growl as the vines covering the cave entrance part to reveal Brooks. His flashlight catches Lacey almost immediately, blinding us both, but a second later I hear his footsteps charging toward us at full speed.

“No!” I scream.

It’s enough to make him look up. To give us time. I cross my arms and grip the metal plates again so I can stand without the weight bearing down on me.

Then everything happens so fast.

Brooks nears me and wraps his hands around my neck. Lacey charges Brooks with a growl and jumps onto his back. And then I swing my left arm up, bashing the side of his skull with the metal plate.

He falls back, and Lacey’s snout opens in a snarl before her bright white teeth, dripping with saliva, chomp down, piercing Brooks’ neck. His yell is so loud that it seems to reverberate off every surface of the cave.

I reach down and fumble for his flashlight, which went dark when it hit the ground. If I can find it and it still works, it will help us get out of here much faster. Mud and rocks scrape against my knees as I crawl until my palm hits hard plastic. The object rolls against the ground, and I chase it. The moment my fingers wrap the circumference I let out a deep breath. With a lightness in my chest, I successfully flick on the light and leave it facing the front of the cave. It’s emitting enough light that I can leave it here to guide us out, thank God. I don’t think I could carry the flashlight too.

I turn to the battle between Lacey and Brooks just in time to see Brooks backhand Lacey the same way he did me earlier. A yelp tears through the cave, echoing off every wall as my heart howls in response.

“Don’t touch her!” I scream, my voice no longer my own. I’ve been possessed by the seventeen-year-old still kicking around inside me. She never died. There were moments when she wanted to, but she continued to float until the time was right to fight back against the current. She’s not going to let history repeat itself.

Lacey doesn’t waste a second as she pounces on Brooks again. Before he can hit her, I roar and shoot forward, slamming the plate in my right hand against his head. He grunts, stunned by another blow, but he’s focused on Lacey, who’s now got a good grip on his leg. She sinks her teeth into it, and his pants darken as blood seeps through the cloth.

He mewls, and I charge forward again just as another figure approaches the entrance to the cave.

“Jaxon,” I gasp, my throat thick with a multitude of emotions that all but strangle me in this moment.

Jaxon is standing in the path of the flashlight’s beam, and he doesn’t look right. He’s cloaked in blood, but I can’t tell where it’s coming from. His eyes are glazed over, like he’s not quite awake.

“Jax,” I say again, fighting through the emotions to try and get to him. To get him to hear me. As I stumble toward him, my foot kicks the flashlight, turning it in the opposite direction.

Another tortured yelp escapes Lacey’s mouth. Horror ricochets through my chest when I see her lifted in Brooks’ grip. He’s holding her by the neck, dangling her in the air, and his gun is pointed directly in her mouth. A roaring heat licks at the inside walls of my chest, thawing whatever kept me frozen, then feeds my adrenaline like gas on a fire.

“Come and get her, asshole,” Brooks sneers at Jaxon. “She’ll die first. You’ll die second. And this little bitch behind me goes last. You ready? ’Cause I sure as hell am.”

Jaxon’s face twists in angry determination just as a cry slips past my throat, just as I turn my head in the wrong direction and see Scott lit up by the only glow in the cave that’s now pointed at him, his lifeless body propped up against the rock wall, his tongue pinched between his teeth. Dead.

A gasp slips from my throat and acid crawls up behind it, stirring a liquid poison in my belly. A sob comes next as guilt wraps its ugly scales around my still-beating and undeserving heart. Scott is dead. He’s dead, and it’s all because of me.

Another shot fires; I vaguely hear it, but I don’t know where it comes from. I’m frozen in grief at the sight of my oldest friend and the circle of blood soaking through the shirt that covers his chest.

For the first time in seven years, my world doesn’t go blank. There’s no panic attack or amnesia to blame. Clarity washes over me. So much clarity now that even in the darkest cave I can see. I can hear. I can feel it all. And this time, I just want to forget.

The shot flies past my ear. I can feel the whoosh of air before the bullet hits its target: Brooks.

I swirl around to find the gunman. I should duck, but I can barely move as it is. When Brooks shot his gun at me, I was already on my way to the ground. His bullet may not have struck me, but that big rock sure as hell nailed me in the chest and arm as I hit the ground. By the searing pain radiating through my arm, I know it’s broken.

Broken or not, I’m not letting Brooks touch another hair on Aurora’s head.

Limping through the entrance of the cave comes Tanner, one knee bloodied, his eyes hard and trained on his father as he shoots him again and again, closing the gap between them.

“Thanks for confirming everything I already knew, Dad. You dirty fuck,” he yells like he’s fighting back a different emotion—guilt, grief, I’m not sure.

I don’t count the gunshots, but I know Tanner finishes his round, signaled by the click-clicking of his gun before he tosses it to the ground. His face is still hard as Brooks stares back at him, eyes wide and unbelieving. Brooks’ mouth opens as if to speak, but all that comes out is a gurgle of blood as Brooks chokes on the thick liquid filling his throat.

The gun that nearly shot Lacey falls from his hand as he teeters off balance, and Aurora jumps for it, grabbing it and kicking it to me. Then she scrambles to Lacey and wraps her in her arms, cradling her as she whimpers in pain. Aurora’s wrists are still shackled and the metal plates attached to the chains are prohibiting her from doing much more than that, so I move quickly to their side, just as Brooks faceplants into a large rock.

Tanner falls with him, landing on his ass with a thud. His eyes glaze over like he’s in shock at what he just did, watching his father’s blood pool around his dead body.

Tanner’s face crumbles, then twists, and then a heart-wrenching sob tears from his throat.