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.

“You OK?” I ask her.

She nods into my coat. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too, kid.” And then I give her a little push and we start walking back to the snow machine I left on the trail.

“What about him?” Sasha asks, gesturing behind us once we get into the trees.

“Wolves will take care of him. It’s better than he deserves.”

The silence overtakes us as we make our way back to the house and when Sasha gets off the snow machine behind me, I can’t seem to make myself move.

“I’ll be inside,” she says.

“Sure,” I say back, propping my hands on the front of the machine, then dropping my head into them.

I have no idea how long I stay out there, running the day back to the beginning, wishing I could do things different.

Hell, I know I did the right thing when I killed that girl all those years ago. She would’ve ended up just like Sydney. She knew. Her mother told her everything and they were caught trying to escape the compound where they were held. Death or sexual servitude. They both wanted death.

The daughter got off easy, because at least she didn’t end her life being raped by that monster. Garrett would’ve never let her go.

Still, I killed her.

How many people have I killed over the years? Way more than I can remember, that’s for sure.

I think back on my conversations with Sydney. Not the ones out in the cabin, but the ones here at my home.

Are you a Simple Man, Case?

Yeah, sure. I’m fucking simple, all right. Kill or be killed. That’s the rule I live by.

My mother would be so proud.

It’s well past dark when Sasha appears in the garage doorway. The lights have been off for hours. I’ve been sitting out here in the cold. The wolves started howling a little while ago and I know, if I were to ride back down the trail, they’d be having a feast.

I momentarily think of joining Garrett out on the dinner table. It would be better than I deserve, and that’s the only thing that stops me.