over to me but try to be quiet. We don’t know where he is or when he’ll come back.”
I nodded and started to hop. It felt like it took a hundred years to get over to Addy and what I saw when I got there made a sour taste fill my mouth, so much so I had to spit on the ground in order to avoid being sick.
Her beautiful, long, elegant forearms had been destroyed by cigarette burns, the skin and flesh molten and black. Some of the wounds were deep enough he must have used the same spot more than once because I could see straight to the meat of her. I spat again and turned around.
Her fingers tugged on my zip ties to no avail.
“It’s not working.” Her voice cracked, and tears slid down her cheeks.
“Just keep trying.” I looked around the open space to see if there was anything sharp I could grate the plastic against but didn’t see anything but pipes, concrete bricks, rat droppings, garbage, and water dripping randomly from pipes. “Where are we?”
“Not sure. I think an old basement, where the heating and pipes run. I just barely got the gag out of my mouth right before you woke up. But he’s rarely gone for more than an hour or two. I passed the time by counting the minutes. He must live in this building. We have to get out of here, Si.”
I nodded and my body started to shake when we heard a door creak open somewhere in the back of the space and a quick sliver of unnatural yellow light broke through the dark. The light came and went so fast I barely had a chance to notice there must have been a door in the back of the room, behind the big pipes and metal, square-shaped machinery.
I stood in front of Addison, ready to take on whatever this monster had in store as long as he spared my sister.
What I saw made tears fill my eyes and fall down my face.
Tabby.
Dressed in black from head to toe, like I’d seen her at the bar. Her dark cap of short hair spiked up all over her head. Her body was barely skin and bones and yet she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in that moment.
A huge wave of relief poured over my form.
“Tabby!” I cried out, tears falling down my cheeks.
She ran over to us, reached into her back pocket, and pulled out a switchblade. “Fucking hell, what did he do to you, Addy?” She swore, her hands behind me cutting the plastic.
Pain and pleasure shot to my aching shoulders in ribbons of heat, ice, and sizzling pin pricks the moment they were released.
Before long she’d cut the ties around my ankles and set about releasing Addison.
I moved around to the back of the chair to work on unknotting the huge rope he’d used to keep her upper body in the chair.
We couldn’t have noticed we weren’t alone.
The door didn’t make a single noise.
No light streaked across the room warning of his presence.
While I was bent behind Addison’s chair, Tabby was crouched over working on the ropes around each of Addison’s wounded arms.
“Stand up, skank,” I heard called out from somewhere behind Tabby.
My body reacted before I did, jolting to attention. I stood up, as did Tabby. Addison choked out a sob. Her shoulders sinking in defeat.
Tabby held her knife in her hand, gripping the small blade as though she were holding a kitchen butcher knife ready to strike. Her nostrils flared and she stared into my eyes. Hers were the deepest, darkest midnight blue and filled with determination. Her skin was pale. Cheeks hollow. There were smudges under her eyes but it didn’t take one speck away from her strength of character. The arrogant confidence exuding from every one of her pores.
“Remember, this was my choice. I love you all so much.” Her words were whispered but direct.
“Now turn around, bitch,” the man behind her demanded, his voice oily and gritty. I could see he was still wearing a mask. I shook, my body trembling in fear.
Tabby licked her lips and gripped the knife. “Mama Kerri and my sisters were the best thing to ever happen in my life.”
“Tabby…” I choked out. “Do what he says. Just follow along,” I begged.
She sniffed, firmed her jaw. “My love will never die,” she promised us. Then, she spun around on a booted heal and pushed her body to move at