***
Stella knew she was going to die, and she welcomed it. She had watched them butcher Bridgette Carmichael. She watched them turn the woman into a replica, a clone, of Stella herself.
The screams haunted her every moment, awake or asleep. Food left her feeling nauseous and light hurt her eyes.
The monster who had planned all this had come in person to inspect Bridgette’s transformation. He made Stella watch as she was drowned. Stella hadn’t felt anything. After two weeks of watching Bridgette’s body brutalized to match hers, she was certain that the drowning had been a mercy.
Stella shuddered against the dirty mattress in the dark cell. She was afraid of the pain and horrors she might still face before she too was granted the same mercy. The dimpled smile swam before her in the dark, the laugh so inhuman in tone. He had taken such pleasure and joy from Bridgette’s pain.
She shifted and her chains tinkled. She had a sudden flash of memory from before all this, a life now so distant she hardly believed it was her own. She was sitting in the visiting room of the prison in Louisiana, listening to Jay grumble about his life in prison. He had mentioned that the sound of chains, the feel of cuffs, and the sliding of doors were beginning to haunt his nightmares.
She understood what he meant. If there’d ever be a chance that she would leave this cell, she would also be haunted by the sounds and remembered feelings of bondage. Briefly, she wondered if he was dead already to the man that planned all this. A lone tear escaped, but her tortured mind was beyond the ability to feel anything but fear.
As if summoned by her thoughts, the door slid open. Stella cringed into the mattress as bright light fell across her, hoping only that her death would be swift.
Amara Young looked at the woman she had helped keep alive for her master. Long ago, she had left her mother’s side in a park near their home. She had gotten lost until a kind stranger with a dimpled smile offered to help.
At first she had called him a liar, his help had not returned her to her mother, but rather left her in a cell much like this one. But over time, she came to realize that if she listened to him, food would be better, the chains would be removed, and there’d be nothing painful or scary. She learned all he wanted her to learn and took the rewards. Over time, he had trusted her more and more, but warned her, when he had embedded an electronic chip in her body, that he would always know where she was. If she ever lied about it, he would find her much quicker than anyone else and the consequences would be dire.
She had never disobeyed. He had taken her, the first time he had allowed her outside since her capture, to her mother’s tombstone. She had no one in the world but him. So she had stayed, learned medicine at his request, helped him keep himself clear of the law as he moved from hunting ground to hunting ground. It was a life far more fulfilling that the others her various colleagues across so many states had ever seemed to be leading. She planned for the hunt to take down the only threat to their existence.
She glanced at the man who stood beside her and wondered if any of that would matter in the end.
***
Jay logged into Joe’s game and Dave chuckled behind him. “You going to play again?”
Jay threw him a grin. “We’ve won. I’m going to relax, get a good night’s sleep, and then tomorrow, you and I are going to take down Lloyd Bailen and rescue Stella.”
Dave half smiled as he turned away to replace the milk in the fridge.
Jay watched him for a moment and loaded his save. Last night, while Dave had been orchestrating the murder of both Gary and Jack, he had climbed to the top of Serpent’s Peak, in the center of the game world, and released his emergency flare.
Now, as the game world loaded around his avatar, he tilted the camera to look up into the sky. Fireworks broke the darkness. All green. All ready. Jay fought the urge to glance back at Dave who he was certain had spent the night making his final move. Now the results would be coming in and their confrontation ordained.
Jay’s avatar was engaged by a ghost who appeared at his elbow, requesting a hero to gain him vengeance for his murder. It was hard work not to laugh, not least because of the ghost’s chosen appearance.
“Is that meant to be the ghost of Sherlock Holmes?” Dave asked when he returned to his seat across the table.
Jay let out a little of the laugh. “Don’t know. But I’ll have fun anyway.”
Jay accepted the quest and began to read the information, mentally reworking it from in game nonsense to real world facts. His eyes flickered over to Dave only once. Many of his questions were answered.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Jay woke with his heart hammering. He had dreamed of Stella drowning even as he fought to get to her in time. Amara had been in the corner telling him that he ought to have behaved himself better and then she wouldn’t have died. Dave had appeared behind him, smiling with false cheer, as he had the very first time Jay had laid eyes on him. This time, he was trying to sell him a spell that would turn Stella into a goldfish, warning him that the time was running out and the game world would vanish soon.
Jay shook his head and pushed himself out of bed. He felt it a wonder that he had slept at all. He had
