I pull the girls down the stairs, pushing forward like a man possessed before our feet pound against the old muddy ground, racing through the dark tunnel. The sound of Dr Moss’s laughter is swallowed by the thunderous roar that follows—a deafening blast shakes the entire underground like a fist slamming into the earth.
Then I hear it.
Bang!
The explosion rips through the air, the shockwave hitting us hard, a deep shudder that rattles every bone in my body. Dust rains down on us, making it harder to see, to breathe. The rumble comes next, closer and closer, the ground beneath us shaking with the fury of the blast.
I grit my teeth, my heart hammering, very muscle and the wound in my leg screams at me, but I won’t stop until we’re out. We’re so close—just a little further. A sharp crack sounds behind us, followed by a tremor that nearly knocks me off balance. I glance back and that’s when I see it, the tunnel collapsing. The walls crash and buckle, the ceiling giving way with terrifying speed.
Shit.
I pull them up the stairs, pushing with everything I have left. As soon as we reach the top, I shove them both forward, their bodies smacking onto the muddy ground of the woods as they tumble down.
Without thinking, I shield them with my body as the massive explosion erupts behind us. A shockwave blasts out of the tunnel, debris flying like shrapnel. The force is enough to knock the wind out of me as chunks of stone rain down on us. I can hear it—splintering wood, screaming metal, the thunderous roar of the collapse.
We lay there, bodies pressed into the dirt, the world shaking around us as the explosion surges. When things quiet down, I finally raise my head, eyes scanning the devastation behind us. The tunnel is gone. Collapsed into nothing but rubble, the gaping hole where it used to be is now a graveyard of stone and twisted metal.
I look down at Raven, trying to shake the dirt from my face, her hoodie pulled over her head. I move it away gently, my hands shaking from the adrenaline.
“You good?” I ask, my voice hoarse as I search her face, trying to find any sign of injury, any sign of pain.
“Yeah,” she groans, pushing herself up slowly, her body heavy from the impact. All that fucking matters is she’s alive and here. She slowly gets to her knees, trying to shake the dizziness from her head.
I take a deep breath, forcing myself to stand and offer a hand. I turn around slowly until I’m staring up at Sacred Heights through the tree’s, still looming on the hill above us. But now, it’s nothing more than a pile of crumbling stone and debris, smoke billowing into the air, black and thick, as flames flicker in the distance.
“Selfish, sick prick!” Raven screams beside me, her voice cracking as she chokes back a sob. “He killed them all…”
I pull her into me, wrapping my arms tightly around her. I kiss the top of her head, the only part of her I can reach right now. But then, instinct kicks in. I turn, warily scanning the space around us, and that’s when my eyes land on the girl standing a few feet behind us. Her head is lowered, her hands trembling as they clutch her hoodie and my eyes narrow as I size her up.
“Take your hood down,” I say, my voice steady but laced with suspicion. She doesn’t move immediately, hesitation in every inch of her, but eventually, she gently lowers it. I take in her long black hair, shining and straight. But when she lifts her eyes to mine, I feel my heart stops dead in my chest.
“Penny?” The word escapes me as a shaky whisper.
She blinks at me, and I see it in her eyes. It’s her. It’s fucking her. I don’t know what the fuck is happening. My whole world just tilted, but there she is, standing in front of me like some ghost come back to life. All those years. My eyes burn, and before I can stop myself, I grab her, yanking her into me with a force that makes her gasp.
“Penny,” I whisper again as I cradle her against me and I bury my face in her hair, my heart thundering as I realize that she’s here. She’s really here.
I grab her face, scanning her eyes frantically, “You a-fucking-live?”
She looks at me blankly like she doesn’t know who the fuck I am, like she’s trying to figure everything out. As if she’s trying to make out the features of my face.
I glance down at Raven, still beside me, and she’s staring at us both, her eyes wide with shock. The moment hangs there, and I try to calm myself, but I can’t. All the grief, all theloss, everything I thought I had buried deep inside me comes crashing to the surface.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Raven
Late at the motel, the atmosphere feels strangely peaceful after everything that’s happened. Me and Ty sit on the double bed and is Penny laid down with Midnight curled up beside her, slowly drifting off to sleep, exhaustion pulling her into a deeper slumber. I glance at Ty, and for a brief second, we share a knowing smile, one of those silent exchanges that says everything without a word. It’s bittersweet, watching Penny finally get the rest she deserves.
We’d had a long conversation before Penny finally passed out, and the pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. It turns out Penny was put into Sacred Heights shortly after the night she was taken, then she forced into Sacred Heights to be ‘taught obedience’ by their parents. I can see now that Ty feels some guilt about it. He said he was the one who encouraged her to be rebellious, to push back against the system, but none of that was his fault. None of this nightmare was. It wasn’t his fault that they twisted everything so badly.
But the truth was darker than we could’ve imagined. When Ty killed his parents, believing they had sold Penny off to some horrible fate, Dr Moss saw an opportunity. He decidedto keep Penny and take Ty as well—one to experiment on and manipulate, and the other to try to ‘rebuild’ and play games with. He could’ve even manipulated the documents, the court system, to get Ty the insanity plea he needed, to send him straight to Sacred Heights. Which, in turn, makes me wonder: was Ty’s diagnosis ever accurate, or was it just another lie to keep him there? Was any of this real, or just part of the twisted game Dr Moss and everyone else played with their lives?
Dr Moss was a sick man, no doubt about it. But he was something far worse than just a mad doctor. His twisted outlook, his manipulation, it runs deeper than we thought. His methods were part of a larger, more insidious system—one linked to corruption, sex trafficking, and more. It’s too much to process, too many unanswered questions, and some things we might never figure out. But right now, all that matters is this. Us three. Together. Ty and Penny, reunited, and maybe, just maybe, Ty will start to feel whole again.
It’s been a long road to get here, filled with madness, with chaos, but somehow, we’ve made it. I can’t even begin to imagine what Ty feels in this moment. Relief? Sadness? Regret? It’s all swirling inside him, I know it. But time will heal those wounds. They have to.
As Penny’s breathing evens out and she falls into a deeper sleep, Ty stands up from the bed and looks down at me. He holds his hand out, and without thinking, I slide mine into his. It feels right—natural, even. Without a word, he pulls me to my feet, leading me to the door.