EPILOGUE MAD MACHINATIONS

Abel shivered inside the cold steel cage, stripped down to his underwear, and exposed to the bitter chill of the dark, eerie room. He couldn't see a thing through the pitch-blackness. The man who put him in the cage had kept it dark. Abel never saw his face, even when he'd grabbed him and Savannah.

Savannah.

The duct tape wrapped tightly around his mouth and entire head prevented him from calling out, but his sister was somewhere in the room as well. He could hear her whimpers, muffled like his own. She was cold and terrified. Had the man stripped her, too? Done things to her?

Abel had initially struggled against the wire binding his hands behind his back but quit when the wire began cutting into his flesh. It was no use, anyway—the only way the wire was coming loose was if someone cut it. His wrists stung with every little movement now and his fingers were sticky with his own blood. If he survived this… he would have permanent scars on his wrists.

Out in the thick darkness, he heard his little sister fighting her restraints as her whimpers of pain swelled. He wanted to tell her to quit struggling and save her strength but could only whimper in response.

Was Maddy here somewhere as well? Abel couldn't hear anyone else in the darkness. The lights had never come on inside this room. The man hadn't come back after locking them up, but Abel thought he'd heard distant, heavily muffled voices earlier. Too muffled to make out the words. Were there two of them? More than two? The thought tortured his mind with images of multiple men raping his sister… maybe raping him, too.

Do what you want to me—but don't hurt my baby sister… please don't…

He had taken her place with a monster once and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. But he didn't think this monster would give him that option.

Abel jumped when the heavy steel door to the room screeched open. His breath stuck in his throat and his lungs locked up. Pale light weakly illuminated the doorway and the silhouette of a man appeared. Savannah's whimpers ceased and Abel suspected she was holding her breath as well. The deafening thud of his pounding heart echoed in Abel's ears, and he grew desperate to draw a breath, but his body and mind were paralyzed.

The silhouetted man stood silently in the doorway. Abel couldn't see his face, but he felt his eyes on him as the pale light spilled into his cage. The man broke from his stance and walked forward, but his face remained a mystery as he kept the light to his back.

Abel scooted to the rear of the cage.

A foot or two from the cage, the man veered left, out of the light, disappearing into the blackness—in Savannah's direction.

Don't you touch her, you motherfucker!His internal scream oozed out of his flaring nostrils in pathetic whimpers.

A flashlight snapped on and blinded Abel as the man directed it at Abel's face. He jerked his head to the side and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Do you want me to leave the light on…" the man spoke quietly as if engaging in a casual conversation. "… so, you can see what I'm doing to your sweet little sister?" A soft chuckle and cluck of his tongue. "Nah. How about you just listen and let your imagination run wild?"

The man turned off the flashlight, casting the room into total darkness but for the weak light from the doorway. Abel's heart hammered his ribs and he shuffled to the front of his cage.

The lock on Savannah's cage door disengaged with a rusty crank of the bolt.

No… no… no!

Savannah whimpered shrilly and scuttled to the back of her iron prison, feet kicking and flailing.

A deep, malevolent chuckle from the man, then the unmistakable sound of a zipper dragging down.

Abel threw himself against his cage door, screaming so hard he felt the pressure in his head.

"Come here, baby girl," the man murmured, panting with excitement. "I've been craving something fresh and innocent for years."

Abel heard him catch her legs and drag her to him, struggling and screaming behind her gag.

Leave her alone! Don't fucking TOUCH HER!! MOTHERFUCKER!!

Abel slammed harder against the steel bars, nearly dislocating his shoulder. He didn't feel the pain through the horror and panic.

"Oh baby, you got me so hard."

Bile filled the back of Abel's throat as he heard the man stroking his dick.

NOOOO!!

"Forgive me if I get a little eager," the man groaned. "Like I said, it's been years. I might lose control a little bit."

Abel's chest heaved and squeezed tighter and tighter. Tears flooded his face, spilling down over the duct tape.

No-no-no-NO-NO-NOOO!! God—DO SOMETHING! DON'T YOU FUCKING LET HIM!! DON'T YOU FUCKING—

A strangled, muffled gag emitted from his sister, and the man exhaled a shuddery groan. "Ooohh, yeesss… fuuuck that feels sooo good." He thrust hard and wrenched a cry from the girl. Her fear and pain fueled him, and he fucked harder, faster, grunting and panting. "Oh baby, yeeess… you're so tight and soft… uuuhhh!... fuck… fuck… I want you… I want all of you…"

Abel thrashed inside his cage, beating his head against the bars, trying to blow out his eardrums so he didn't have to hear.

Stop-stop-STOP! I CAN'T-I CAN'T-I CAN'T!! MAKE IT STOOOPPP!!

He abruptly froze when he heard the knife slip from its leather sheath.

"This is the best part," the man grunted. "What I've truly been craving all this time."

Steel sliced into flesh, stabbing wetly—again and again and again.

Abel exploded into a frenzy, thrashing wildly against the cage. His mind cracked as his sanity slipped away from him. All sounds grew muffled, indistinct as if he were sinking beneath the water… down, down, down…

He was hardly aware when the man emerged from Savannah's cage, not bothering to lock the door. He flicked on the flashlight and held it beneath his chin, so it illuminated his face. Blood splattered his lips, cheeks, nose, and brow. He smiled at Abel then dropped the flashlight and absently kicked it, sending the beam spinning with a kaleidoscope effect as he walked out of the room and closed the heavy metal door behind him.

All was silent inside Savannah's cage.

Abel rolled his body against the cold steel bars and his head lolled, eyes vacant as he stared blankly at the spinning beam of light that steadily slowed and finally came to a stop… shining into his sister's cage.

He tried not to look but he couldn't move. His empty gaze traveled up his little sister's lifeless body, sliding over her dirty, bruised legs, spread wide apart. Everything above the waist… was a mutilated mess—sliced and ripped open, exposing her insides.

Stop… looking…

Abel looked on, his soul fragmenting, his heart gone. His eyes drifted up to her face which was turned his way, staring back at him through dead, glazed eyes that bulged from her head, watery and bloodshot. Messed strands of dark hair clung to her blood-stained cheeks…

Abel twitched, something glitching in his mind. Something isn't right…

His head lay heavily against the bars as he continued to stare at his sister's butchered body.

Dark hair…

Abel twitched again.

Savannah is… blond.

His bleary, vacant eyes struggled to focus as the girl's features became clearer and Abel began to shake uncontrollably.

That isn't Savannah.