Case chose damnation. He damned me to hell that night. All to save that girl out there in the snow. I was a job and he never finished it. I wasn’t worth it to him. I was nothing to him then and I’m nothing to him now. I lied, Sydney. But if you stay real still and go back to sleep, you’ll never have to think about it again.
“Sydney,” Garrett says, and glances at me for just the splittest of seconds. “If he makes one move towards me—”
Case takes the opportunity and gets off one shot, right through Garrett’s gun hand. Garrett spins as flesh and weapon go flying, drops to the ground, holding his injury as blood spurts out where fingers used to be. He lowers his eyes for a moment and catches his breath. And then he looks up. And the evil in those eyes makes me want to piss myself. “You’re gonna regret that.” His voice is even and steady as ever. “Shoot him, Sydney.”
Case takes a step towards Sasha, his gun aimed at Garrett, but my itchy trigger finger stops him. Sasha yelps as snow and ice splatter across her face from the shot that misses her by inches. And the bullet from the other gun flies past Case, because when I look over, he’s still alive.
What the fuck am I doing? Oh my God, I almost killed them.
“Finish her,” Garrett says, “and then shoot Case.”
My head floods with chaos. Memories. Violence. And more. So, so much more. Humiliation and servitude. My life is a living nightmare.
I have to blink my eyes to stop the spinning.
“Sydney,” Case says. The world is in slow motion as I turn my head. His rifle is trained on me. “Sydney,” he says again. It comes out in slow motion too. Syyyyyddd-neeeee. I find his face, just in time to watch his mouth move. “Hush,” he says. “Huuuuuuuush.”
I am still. The spinning stops for a moment.
“Sydney,” Garrett says, in that low growl he reserves for punishment. “You are my acorn. And you will shoot him.”
I take a step forward.
“Hush,” Case repeats once more. “Take a deep breath and keep still, Sydney.”
My lungs obey him, even though I have no idea what’s happening.
“Shoot. Him,” Garrett orders. “Shoot him or you will hear that rabbit scream for the rest of your life.”
I raise my gun and aim it at Case. I can see down the barrel of his rifle. He shakes his head at me. “I’ll kill you first, cowgirl. My trigger finger is faster. Just hush and stand aside. Let me finish him off. Let me make this right for you. Let me set you free, like the rabbits we set free this morning.”
A long breath rushes out of me and Case starts to relax.
Garrett starts screaming his threats.
I have no clue what to do. But everything suddenly makes perfect sense. The acorn. The hush. Two men with one thing on their minds. Revenge. And two girls caught in the middle.
I walk towards Sasha. “Give me your gun, Case.” I aim mine at Sasha. “Give me your gun or I’ll kill her.”
“Don’t do his dirty work anymore, Syd. I’m here now. I’ll take you away from all this. You will be saved today if you just put that gun down and let me finish him off like I should’ve eight years ago.”
I look down the sight of the FN Five-SeveN that Sasha gave him as a gift. It’s almost more irony than I can take.
“Don’t make me kill you, Sydney.”
“Please,” I say, never taking my eye off Sasha. “Kill me.”
Case drops his rifle in the snow.
“Kick it away,” I demand. He does, and it comes sliding towards me. I’m not stupid enough to pick it up. I keep my eyes on Sasha.
But I have so much to say.
“You too, huh?” I look over at him, aiming the other FN Five-SeveN at Case’s stoic face. No emotion at all. And what did I expect? He’s a cold-blooded killer. He’s got an agenda and nothing else matters. He hates me. The only reason I’m alive right now is because I saved myself and got away. “You brainwashed me too. With that word hush.”
He’s shaking his head as I talk. “It’s not like that, Sydney. You don’t know the whole story.”
“I agree. I don’t know much at all, do I? I’ll probably never know what really happened here. Or in the past. But I do know one thing. You’re not here for me. You’re here for her.” I shake the gun that’s pointing at Sasha. Not a move or a whimper out of her at all.
“He used you, Sydney,” Garrett says.
I change my aim to Garrett and shoot him between the eyes. His head splatters all over Sasha and the front end of the truck. Bits of bone go flying and Sasha’s calm is gone. She wriggles in her bindings, trying to inch away like a worm.
Case comes towards me even though the other gun is still trained on him. “You only had three bullets, cowgirl. Show’s over now.”
“I know,” I say, looking him in the eyes. “And that’s the only reason you’re alive right now.”
I drop the guns and rush him, delivering a two-handed push to his chest. He rocks back, but does not retaliate. I punch him in the face so hard my knuckles split open along with his lip. Blood spurts out and my hand begins to throb.
Nothing from him. I’m not even worth a fight.
The anger, and hate, and feelings of betrayal that I have towards him are seeping out of me like sweat. His cheek turns red where I hit him, but he just stands there.
“I hate you.” And then I spit in his face. “I hate you so fucking much.” The tears start to spill out, running down my cheeks in a way I’ve never experienced before. “This was a game to you. You knew he was coming. You knew I was programmed to do this shit. And you used me. You planted that word in my head. When was it? Huh? Before I woke up in that torture cabin? That place you took me to die?”
Case just stares at me. Guilty. “I thought you were unsalvageable,” he says softly. And that kills me. It fucking kills me that he’s so good at that soft stuff. He uses it like a weapon. And because I need that tenderness so much, I actually hesitate. “I figured it was too risky for you to stay alive. But I had an idea. I wanted to help you—”
“Liar! You’re such a fucking liar! You wanted to kill Garrett, fuck me over again, and save your precious princess here. You used that word to make me love you. That’s why nothing you did back there bothered me, isn’t it?” He stays silent as I put that piece of the puzzle together. “I hate you. And if I ever see your face again, I will blow it right off your head.”
I turn on my heel and walk away, picking up my guns as I go. Wishing he’d shoot me in the back. Take me out of my misery. But he doesn’t.
So I just step over Garrett’s dead body, get into his truck, slam the door, and drive off.
Be the rabbit, Sydney. Be the rabbit.
Oh, I will, I assure that inner psycho in my head. Because running is all I have left.
“It’s a haunting feeling to look back and know you fucked it all up.”
– Case
I watch the truck drive away with more sadness than I’ve ever felt in my life. And then some muffled whimpers make me realize Sasha is still on the ground. She’s just picking a knife out of Garrett’s pocket, trying to get herself free, when I walk up to her and take it out of her hand.
“One sec, Sash, sorry.” I rip the tape off her mouth and even though that must’ve hurt like a bitch, my Sash stays quiet. I cut her hands free, then her feet, and help her up.
She hugs me. No tears. She stopped crying a long time ago over this shit. But the squeeze tells me everything I need to know.