Brook gripped the key tightly in her hand, the metal digging into her palm. She swallowed hard and reached for the tap, turning off the faucet. In the absence of the running water, she could hear her own heart beating in her chest.

“Alright, bath time.”

Her hands were trembling as she reached the key for the first lock. Kelsey stared back at her, panting around the rubber bone strapped between her teeth. It was her first bath since Brook had started Sean’s alternate method of motivating her friend to be a better behaved, happier member of the household. Ever since then things had changed.

Ever since Sean had showed Brook the fate of their predecessors.

Kelsey offered up her left hand, and on the third attempt Brook got the key into the lock, letting her peel off the skin tight PVC sleeve and mitten. She watched Kelsey stretch her fingers, extending each of them in turn before curling back into a tight first.

She’d bathed Kelsey plenty of times before, and Kelsey had always seemed grateful for the brief reprieve from her suit. This time was different.

He’d be watching them live for sure. Not in person; Sean wanted to see how Brook handled Kelsey. It took everything she had to not glance at the camera as she unlocked each of Kelsey’s restraints and got her out of the sweaty PVC suit. Soon Kelsey was naked save for her bone gag and the shock collar. She didn’t have the keys for those. Those were for Sean alone.

“It’s time.” Her mouth was dry.

Kelsey nodded and turned her back on Brook to climb into the tub. Brook leaned forward to help, but couldn’t find a good place to put her hands. She was staring at Kelsey’s ass, her hands hovering inches from her naked flesh, when Kelsey’s knee slammed backwards into her nose.

“Fuck!” Brook reeled backwards, falling on the hard tile floor as she grasped at her face. She could feel the warm wetness of blood on her hands.

Kelsey tried to stand, clinging to the edge of the tub for support as she tried to get her shaky legs under her.

Brook looked at the open doorway. Surely she would hear Sean coming, but it was quiet save for the two of them breathing heavily and the gentle sloshing of the bath water. Kelsey was looking at the door too, still bent over as she tried to stand. Sean wasn’t coming to her rescue. Kelsey grabbed onto the sink and pulled herself up, standing on two legs for the first time since Sean had taken them. She towered over Brook.

“Kelsey! Don’t!” Brook screamed, scrambling backwards across the floor, her hands leaving bloody prints on the white tile.

Finally, there came the heavy footsteps, running down the hall. Sean burst into the bathroom, his right hand held high, the familiar black remote clutched in his fist as he surveyed the scene. “Oh, you’ve done it now, bitch!”

With a pained yelp, Kelsey dropped to the ground, clutching at her throat. Sean held the button down, watching as Kelsey writhed and screamed in agony on the floor. “You told me you could get her in line.”

His back was still to her, and Brook couldn’t blame him. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Kelsey even as she carefully pushed herself up the wall until she was standing. The other girl looked like she was in hell.

“I think you like this.” He pointed the remote at Kelsey as he dug his thumb harder into the button, as if trying to force even more pain into the seizing girl. “That’s why you keep acting out. You’re just a glutton for punishment, a real pain slut.”

Brook’s hands, still tacky with blood, wrapped around the towel bar. It was the same towel bar she’d ripped out of the wall and tried to attack him with on that first day he’d kidnapped them. He’d patched the drywall but he’d made her repaint the wall, and she’d made sure she could still get it out of the wall when the time came. She’d learned a lot since that first day, and she wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

“Is this what you wanted, bitch!?” Sean shouted at the writhing girl on the floor.

“It is!” Brook shouted. She wrenched as hard as she could, ripping the chrome fixture free from its mountings, carrying the momentum through into a powerful swing, the end connecting with Sean’s face just as he turned to face her. The metal bracket collided with his nose, and blood splattered on the floor, staining the white bathmat crimson.

“What the fuck!” Sean reeled, flailing his arms up as Brook rained blows down on him. His forearms took the brunt of her attack, largely absorbing the blows but on the fifth swing Brook drove the mounting screws deep into his arm, drawing blood.

Brook didn’t even realize she was screaming, inarticulate roars of primal fury. She’d been planning for this, rehearsing it in her mind over and over, but in the moment, all that preparation and planning meant nothing. She just kept hitting, wailing away on him until he managed to catch the rod, fighting with her for control. For a moment she thought she might wrench it back from him, so unprepared was her captor for her sudden, adrenaline-fueled attack. But even surprised and injured, he was stronger, riding out her flailing attempts to wrest the improvised weapon back from him until he inevitably got control and pulled both her and the towel rod in close.

“Oh, you disobedient cunt,” he spat, spraying blood onto her face. “Things are gonna change. I’ve been being too nice to you.” He widened his grip on the metal rod, grabbing the ends before shoving back hard, slamming Brook against the wall. She’d never had any doubt in her mind that he could easily physically overpower her, but he’d always been measured, using restraints and threats to keep her in line. Now he was angry, and no longer holding back. “But that’s all going to change.” He pressed the bar up against her throat, pinning her in place and slowly choking her.

“Kelsey,” Brook gasped.

“She’s not gonna help...” Sean’s words trailed off as he turned his head towards where he’d left Kelsey spasming on the floor.

Kelsey was back on her hands and knees, glaring up at him with her hate-filled eyes as she pried the rubber bone from between her teeth.

“I’ve been waiting for this, asshole,” she growled.

Sean’s eyes flicked back to Brook as his lips curled upwards in a sadistic smile. The fingers on his right hand slowly unfurled, revealing the small black remote clutched in his palm. “This is on you,” he whispered to Brook, and he moved his thumb to the button.

Even though she was gasping for air Brook held her breath. She couldn’t take Kelsey’s pained screams again, and for a second she was sure they’d start anew, that Sean had known their plan and had replaced the batteries in Kelsey’s shock collar. Her reactions had been so realistic, so visceral. As Brook waited for the button to depress, she doubted that Kelsey had been acting when he’d shocked her before. She watched as Sean’s smile slowly fell from his face when nothing happened. He took his eyes off of them to look at the device in his hand, as though he was doing something wrong.

Kelsey dropped her head and charged. Weeks of repeatedly shocking herself and she’d done it, she’d killed the battery on her shock collar. She’d communicated it to Brook yesterday, and they’d decided it was time, before he figured out his torture device was no longer working. Brook had started it, and now it was Kelsey’s turn.

She didn’t even attempt to stand up, moving more comfortably on all fours. Sean had turned her into an animal, not the obedient puppy he wanted, but a feral wolf, hurt and cornered, but not broken yet. With startling speed, she traversed the small space of the bathroom and dove into a flying tackle, hitting Sean like a bullet at the waist. Brook sucked in a lungful of air as the weight was suddenly lifted when Kelsey tore him off of her. She saw the stunned bastard was still pressing the button on the remote rapidly, as if through sheer determination he could get the control device working again.

“How does it feel!?” Kelsey was screaming as she wailed on his throat, slamming her fists down on him in a savage frenzy. It had worked. They’d gotten her out of her bonds, removed Sean’s method of control, and trapped him in an enclosed space with her. Brook watched for way too long, still unable to believe that they’d actually done it, before moving to join. The edge the element of surprise had given her had worn off quickly, and Sean was quickly regaining the upper hand. He managed to get out from under the furious girl and rolled on top of her, pinning her and grabbing at her wildly flailing hands. Brook didn’t have time to regret not jumping in to help sooner, seeing his open back, she attacked, launching herself on him and wrapping her arms around his throat.

Even two on one, the fight didn’t last long. Sean reached back and grabbed Brook by her hair, pulling her off him while he kept Kelsey trapped under him. Brook caught a glimpse of Sean landing a heavy blow to Kelsey’s face before she found herself slammed against the side of the bathtub, knocking the wind out of her.

“Now you’ve gone and done it,” Sean growled. He was dragging her by the hair across the bathroom floor. She was screaming for Kelsey while she tried to grab onto something, anything to keep him from dragging her off. Kelsey wasn’t responding, just the sound of labored breathing coming from her friend’s limp form the in the brief seconds Brook managed to cling onto the doorframe, until the pain in her scalp was too much and she let go, scuttling to keep up as Sean dragged her towards the kitchen.

“I was mistaken to treat you so nice,” he snarled, yanking harder on her hair. “I won’t make that mistake again. No more wandering around on your own, no more freedom for you. You’re gonna spend every second tied up. Maybe you’ll get your own shock collar. And you can bet I’ll be changing the batteries every fucking day.”

He slammed her against the counter. Brook scrambled into a sitting position, feeling her back pressed against the stove. She looked up at him. He’d always been a monster, but now he finally looked like the twisted creature he’d always been inside. Bruised and bloodied, his bloodshot eyes were bright with manic rage while he spit promises and threats of torture. Brook pressed herself harder against the oven door. They’d known they probably couldn’t beat him in a fight. He was stronger than them, had spent too long weakening them and breaking them.

“And that bitch, I’ll just chop her legs and hands off. She won’t need the bitch suit anymore!”

Brook grabbed onto the over door handle with one hand, the other feeling along for the dials. All she could smell was blood from her own broken nose, but she offered a silent prayer to a god she no longer believed in as she turned the stovetop burner knob. She couldn’t smell gas, but she had to believe that leaving the gas on earlier had worked, that it would be enough.

There was a click. Brook rolled down flat on the floor, pulling the oven door down over top of her.

“Please,” she whispered.

The sound of the ensuing explosion was deafening.

Their pact had been simple. Sean had to die, at any cost. All three of them understood that if they failed, Sean might make their lives worse for a little while, but eventually, inevitably they’d die in his care. And then he’d start all over again. With new girls. It was about more than them. Escape was a nice idea, but the plan had always been to kill Sean.

Brook smiled as she felt the heat of the fireball envelope the kitchen.

Everything went black.

***

The blare of a horn cut through the dull roar. Brook blinked, staring out from under the oven door. The wreckage of the kitchen was lit with flickering orange flames and choked with black smoke.

She tried to push the oven door off of her, but it wouldn’t move. Coughing, she crawled out from under it. Flames licked along the ceiling, spreading quickly to the cabinets.

“Kelsey!” she called, looking around. Everything looked different, the explosion having made the kitchen almost unrecognizable, but she spotted the door, and began crawling forward, keeping low beneath the choking smoke.

The insistent honk of a car horn cut through the crackling of fire. Sara must’ve made it to the garage. Brook had told her where Sean kept the keys to the car, hoping her friend would at least get out while she and Kelsey enacted their plan to blow up the house, and Sean with it. Brook hadn’t expected to survive herself, hell, she hadn’t even planned for it, not really, but she supposed she’d had enough desire to survive to pull the oven door down to protect herself, and now she had to find Kelsey.

She found her where she’d seen her last, on her back on the bathroom floor, her breathing shallow. “Kelsey!” Brook shouted, shaking her.

Kelsey coughed weakly, her eyes blinking open and slowly focusing on Brook’s face. She looked around, taking in the smoke rapidly filling the room. “Did we do it?”

“I think so.” Brook grabbed her hands, trying to tug her up.

Kelsey’s atrophied legs collapsed almost immediately. “I can’t stand.”

“Probably just as well,” Brook noted, getting one of Kelsey’s arms over her shoulder. “We’ll crawl together.”

The horn blared again. Part of her wanted Sara to just go, to save herself and the hell out of there, but she and Kelsey were so close, they just had to crawl a little bit further, through the smoke and flames. The fire was spreading quickly, the wooden cabin was a tinderbox just waiting to go up, as if the fires of hell were eager to lick up the wicked place for the sins committed within its walls.

“We should—” Kelsey started trying to say something before she was wracked with a fit of coughing.

“Don’t speak,” Brook said. Kelsey’s vocal cords already had to be so frayed from all the shocks, breathing the smoke seemed especially painful. “We’re almost free.”

She could feel the heat of the flames against her skin, the flimsy dress she wore offering her next to no protection. Brook rubbed her eyes and followed the sound of the beeping horn, a beacon to safety. Freedom. It didn’t feel real. But there it was, beneath the black cloud, she could see daylight through the door at the end of the hall. A newfound strength surged through her, and she stood up, lifting Kelsey with her, supporting her companion as she made the last few limping steps into the garage. The two girls threw themselves on the hood of the waiting SUV, where Sara was waiting behind the wheel, her face lighting up as she saw them.

“Brook! Kelsey!” she screamed, slamming the horn again in elation.

Brook helped Kelsey along the side of the car and opened the door for her, helping her into the back seat.

“Are you guys alright?!” Sara asked, trying awkwardly help from the driver’s seat.

“Yes,” Brook answered quickly. None of them were alright, but they were alive, and they had to get out of there. Now. “Scoot over,” she demanded, opening the driver’s door. Sara might not have just been in an explosion, but Brook wasn’t going to leave the driving to the girl still dressed in only a diaper. Sara didn’t hesitate, sliding over into the passenger seat as Brook got into the driver’s seat. They were her responsibility, and she was going to get them out of there.

“Is he?” Sara dared to ask as Brook settled in behind the wheel.

Brook didn’t have time to answer before a mangled, burned figure burst through the door, slamming two charred and bloodied fists down on the hood of the car.

All three of them screamed.

“Where do you think you’re going!?”

“Drive!” Sara was screaming, shielding her face.

“Kill him!” Kelsey was screaming from the back seat.

Brook felt oddly calm as she put the car in drive and slammed her foot on the gas. The car shot forward, slamming the monster on their hood into the wall of the garage.

Flames were licking around the door, spreading from the house to the garage. Sean was still screaming, inarticulate sounds of pure fury. Kelsey and Sara were still screaming in her ears. Brook put the car in reverse, backed up a few feet, switched to drive, and slammed her foot down on the gas pedal again.

That had been their number one goal.

Kill Sean.

It ended there.

A chunk of the ceiling collapsed on the roof of the car.

Brook backed up and plowed forward.

“Drive!”

“Kill!!”

“AAAAAAUUGHHHHHHH!!!”

Brook smiled.