Author's Notes:

Contains amputation and suggestions of rape of minors.

I promise I don’t like writing about this.

Starlight bursts through the double doors of the mansion brining a smile to Shade’s face. A smile that soon turns to a frown when Shade notices the fear on Starlight’s face. Starlight wraps Shade in a tight hug as she sobs.

“Sunset’s been kidnapped!”

Sunset runs down the hallway as tears blur her vision. She ignores the protests and shouts telling her to stop running. Not wanting to deal with others, Sunset decides to take the stairs. Her momentum screeches to a halt when she crashes into someone. Her vision fills with the steps of the stairs coming up to greet her. Preparing for the worse she clenches her eyes shut.

Instead of the pain of tumbling down the stairs, warmth spreads across her body. A hand rubs the top of her head gently. That is when she notices someone hugging her. She looks up to see a comforting face and serene, light sea green eyes.

“Mommy?” She croaks.

The young woman laughs. “I’m way too young to be your ‘mommy’! I’ll settle for big sister.”

Wiping away her tears, Sunset takes a closer inspection of the girl. While she appears like her mother, the orange and light orange hair along with the light apricot skin set this person apart from her mother. Sunset scrunches her face as the gears turn in her head.

The older teen smiles. “Ever since you showed up to school, everyone one has been asking me if you were my little sister. I guess the resemblance is a little uncanny.” The teen releases her embrace of Sunset. “My name is Autumn Spice.”

“I’m—“ A hug interrupts Sunset’s introduction.

“I know who you are, silly!”

Sunset chuckles. “R-right. Everyone thinks I’m—“ A sting in her neck prevents her from talking. She feels her body and world go numb.

“Bait. A hunter needs bait.” Autumn Spice carefully places Sunset on the ground. “Nothing better than live bait.”

A tear drips from the corner of Sunset’s eye when she feels her shirt pull up. Flashbacks of those guys play in her mind.

“To think the cops would stoop so low as to get you to spy on your own friend. Tsk. Tsk.”

“How did she know about that?” Sunset wonders. A small flame of hope burns in her chest “Hopefully, the cops heard all this and are on their way!”

The sound of a plastic crunch fills the stairwell. Duct tape ripping follows next. Autumn Spice’s sadistic grin fills Sunset’s vision.

“You’ll be a good girl now, won’t you?” Sunset’s pupils shrink hearing her father’s words drip from Autumn’s lips.

More tears well up in Sunset’s eyes as the tape smacks against her mouth. She lays there powerless as tape winds around her wrist and ankles. Darkness comes when a black sack covers her head. A whine squeaks from her throat.

“Shhh. Plenty of time for that later.” Autumn comforts Sunset.

A field of wildflowers surrounds Sunset. Clear blue skies stretch out above her. She sits on a white floral print blanket with a woman wearing a long white dress and hat wide enough to hide her face. A sunflower wraps around the crown. The sunflower Sunset had picked earlier for her mother.

Mother and daughter sit on the blanket crafting dandelion crowns. The mother, with greater experience, finishes first and sets the crown on her daughter’s head. Sunset beams up at her mother with a few missing teeth. This is happiness. This is bliss.

A jolt of electricity surges through her body ripping her away from her dream. She screams for the hundredth time today. Her body convulses as she stares at the bloody concrete floor.

All of the blood. All of her blood. All of her blood mixing with urine, bile, and poop—most of it belonging to her.

Most of it.

Boots scape against the ground and appear at the edge of her vision and the illumination of the single, dangling lightbulb above her. Warm hands grab her face and force her to look up. Light sea green eyes sparkle with mirth.

“So... twenty-seven hours later and still no Shade. You’d think the arms and legs would have brought her here faster.” Autumn Spice shrugs her shoulders. “Oh well.”

Sunset’s puffy, pink eyes sting from the dryness of having no more tears to produce. During the amputations, Autumn Spice had put Sunset under. However, Autumn Spice had kept Sunset awake for the meat hooks that are now holding her up; along with the whipping, flogging, and shocking. An orange glowing fire iron tip waves in front of her.

Autumn Spice unbuttons the top button of her mauve shirt to reveal a large, white, broken wishbone tattoo on her chest missing a quarter of the bone. “For the longest time I always wondered what this meant. I finally figured it out two years ago. It means I’m lucky.” The fire iron hovers close to Sunset’s bare chest. “And you. You are unlucky.”

Sunset’s raw throat wretches out a wail as Autumn carves a horse shoe with the ends pointing down on Sunset’s chest. Autumn steps away to admire her work when she kicks something making a metallic noise scraping along the ground. She turns around in time to side step a knife thrust.

“Shade! You made it!” Autumn exclaims. She blocks a swipe with the fire iron. “Ooh! You’re eyes send shivers down my spine!”

Shade roars as she thrusts and swipes with her knife. Autumn parries each attack. Pressing up against a workbench, Autumn grabs a small box of broken glass and throws it at Shade’s face. Shade ducks only for her head to connect with the fire iron. Shade crumples to the cold, hard ground.

“Aw, Shade! Surely you have more fight than that!” Autumn calls out with sadness in her voice. She steps closer to Shade and bats away the thrown knife.

Autumn yelps when a kick to the back of her knee drops her. Shade lurches up to grab Autumn’s head. Before she can properly lock her arms for the hold, Autumn grabs Shade’s legs to pick her up and ram her back into a workbench. This happens twice before Shade releases her hold and drives an elbow to the back of Autumn’s head.

The fire iron Autumn holds with both hands misses her mark and embeds itself in the wooden underside of the workbench. A kick to the ribs pushes Autumn back. Using her red belt knowledge of karate, she steps under the fist flying towards her face to position herself close to Shade. Her sensei has taught her well—not well enough to fight a master.

Shade reverses the throw into her own takedown, bringing Autumn’s face to greet the concrete floor. Wasting no time, Shade locks Autumn’s left arm and snaps the elbow backwards making Autumn wail in pain. A hand pulls back Autumn’s hair and slams her face into the ground four times.

Jumping off Autumn, Shade steps over to the fire iron. A bang and smoke clouds her vision. She holds her ground. When the smoke clears, the spot where Autumn had been is empty. Choking catches her ear and she turns to see a river off blood cascading down Sunset’s neck down her naked body.

Shade rushes over to Sunset to clamp a hand over the cut. Years of doing the same to her enemies, Shade knows there is nothing she can do to save her friend—not without the abilities she once had. She watches helplessly as the life fades from Sunset’s cyan eyes and slips between her fingers.

A vengeful wail pierces through the night and shakes the heavens.