Diana groggily woke up on a couch. A familiar couch. Nadroj’s couch. Diana bolted up onto her feet and almost immediately fell down to the floor, nearly hitting her head on the coffee table. She felt slow and hazy, like her brain was covered in a layer of fog. Even laying down, the world seemed tilty to her.

“Oh babe, don’t try to get up like that!” Nadroj cried out, rushing to Diana’s side and helping her on the couch. Diana tried to shove her off and get away, but felt way too weak.

“Get… get away…” She still felt weak and a bit loopy. She started falling over again, and Nadroj caught her, tucking Diana back into the couch.

“Shh, just sleep,” Nadroj said in a disturbingly soothing tone. “I used some pretty strong stuff on you, and it might not wear off for a while.”

“What… what did…” Diana was having a hard time just catching her breath.

“Take it easy,” Nadroj comforted, laying a blanket on top of her. Though with how weak she felt, it was more like a lead weight to her. “Finally we can be together. I knew you weren’t just another victim.”

“I… you…”

“Oh my little Ana,” she said, voice bursting with pride. “You were the one that got away from me. On my serial killing spree, you were the chosen one to survive. Doesn’t that mean we just belong together?! Not even death could separate us!”

Diana’s vision was going blurry again, and the world around her spun faster. She could smell something sickening; something that was really threatening to give her a headache. Against her fighting efforts, she slipped back into a sleep, the image of a fanatic Nadroj’s smile burning itself into her mind. This time though, Diana hoped she’d never wake up to the nightmare again.

*   *   *   *   *

Diana had spent a week straight doing everything she could to get out of the house, but nothing worked. First off, the doors and windows were locked. Thoroughly. When Nadroj went out, she locked Diana in her basement so she couldn’t escape. No matter how hard she tried, the door was damn sturdy. No phones were left out either. When Diana found her own phone, Nadroj smashed it in front of her. On top of that, she really couldn’t do much with Nadroj there for obvious reasons. She wasn’t afraid to hurt Diana to keep her there with her.

But Diana found out about something though. A burner phone that Nadroj kept locked up just in case. Once she found out about it, Diana was set on getting to it. So one day while Nadroj wanted to go out, Diana pretended to be asleep on the couch when it was time for her to leave. Nadroj gave her a heartwarming look.

“Aww…” She kissed Diana on the forehead. “Sleep up, baby.”

As soon as Nadroj went out of the house, Diana got to work. She jumped off the couch and went to the kitchen to grab a knife. Then in a flash, she used it to bust the lock on one of Nadroj’s drawers. She had like a half dozen locked drawers, so she had to start. This one had… a bunch of pictures of nude females…

Diana shoved the drawer back shut, not wanting to think about it. Especially not wanting to think about how a couple of them were her with fresh scars. Eventually, she finally got to it. The drawer with the phone. Just three numbers and-

“I’m back, babe!” Nadroj smiled, walking through the door and putting the deadbolts back in. “I got those Cheesies you said you lo-”

Nadroj dropped the gas station grocery bags when she saw Diana standing there, desperately trying to dial the phone. The cupboard Nadroj had chained shut had the door broken off its small hinges. As soon as Diana saw her, she bolted into the next room, terrified of what she’d do.

“BABE!” Nadroj screamed, rushing forward and swiftly grabbing a knife in her chase. “You’d better not be calling anyone!”

“Let me go!” cried Diana, slamming the bedroom door shut and locking it. Nadroj fiddled with the doorknob before slamming her body into it.

“Open the door right now and I won’t punish you too hard!” she threatened.

“Go away!” the frightened girl sobbed, trying to call 911, but her hands were too shaky and kept misdialing.

After one big push, Nadroj forced the door open to her bedroom and whipped around, giving Diana a deadly glare as she tried to dial for help. For the first time, Diana truly felt like Nadroj was about to kill her.

Right before Diana could call, Nadroj grabbed her wrist, pinned it against the bedside table, and stabbed the knife down. Right through the phone, shattering the glass and electronics, and right through Diana’s hand, tearing skin, muscle, and tendons.

“AAAAAHHH” cried Diana in the most blood-curdling shriek as Nadroj covered her mouth.

“You said you’d be a good girl,” Nadroj growled. “Now I have to punish you…” She let go of the knife, which had been partially embedded into the table, and started to walk away. “I’ll leave you to think about what you’ve done this time.”

Nadroj left Diana there, sobbing furiously while trying to shakily remove the knife from the table without cutting her hand more. All while having to get past how much she was bleeding out, and how angry she had made her captor.

*   *   *   *   *

Diana found a recent trick that really set off Nadroj and frustrated her, which was refusing to eat her meals when the woman tried to force it on her. For a week straight, Diana did her best to refuse food when it was shoved her way so she’d get too sick to stay at the house and live. It pissed Nadroj off to no end. Her little escape attempts were like a cute game, but hurting herself like this wasn’t. To Nadroj, scars and pain were special, but Diana was being selfish about it.

“C’mon,” growled Nadroj, shoving the food in front of Diana again. “Eat it.”

“No,” Diana said, turning her head away. “You’ll have to take me to the hospital if you want me to live.”

“I’ll feed you like a baby myself if I have to!”

Nadroj took a spoon and scooped up some mashed potatoes with it. Then, she opened Diana’s jaw herself and forced the food inside. The whole time, Diana was kicking and screaming for Nadroj to get her hands off of her. Diana spit out all the food into Nadroj’s hair.

“What’s with you?!” Nadroj screamed, throwing the plate against the wall, shattering it. “You had no problems eating a couple weeks ago!”

“You should’ve thought about that before killing my parents!” Diana shot back. “And prevented me from seeing my friends!”

“Is this about them?” she asked, tightening her jaw. “I can get rid of them. I’ll get rid of all of them if it keeps them off your mind.”

“No!” Diana cried, trying to hold Nadroj back. 

“Maybe I’ll go for the redheads first,” hissed Nadroj. “Ann, right?”

“Stop!” she said, sobbing now as Nadroj was starting to go for her knife.

Nadroj just threw Diana off. She grabbed a rope and tied Diana down to a chair without much problem. Diana wasn’t in peak physical condition anymore, and being on a hunger strike to get taken to a hospital had taken a toll on her body.

“Don’t worry, baby,” Nadroj laughed sadistically as she picked through knives and chemicals. “All those friends of yours… you won’t have to worry about them soon enough.” She looked back at Diana with a frighteningly wide smile. “Then it’ll be just you and me.”

*   *   *   *   *

Lonnie groaned as she got home and locked the door. Between the huge business rush today, her stupid manager who couldn’t tell his ass from his elbow, and pretentious Karens out there, work was hell. Punching the clock was truly her favorite part of the day. She couldn’t wait to move up in life and not have to put up with their bullshit ever again. She’d give anything to have that.

“Ann!” she called out. Ann got home a few hours before she did, and was usually doing her homework at the kitchen table. Today though, she wasn’t there. A weird occurrence for such an extreme creature of habit like her. “Ann, where are you?”

Lonnie walked into Ann’s room, and realized why she wasn’t doing work. She was curled up in a ball still crying. Since the Hawthorne’s were murdered a week ago and Diana went missing, everyone was searching, but no answers turned up. Ann took it pretty badly. She hadn’t known Diana for long or anything, but Lonnie knew how she formed quick, strong attachments to things, including people.

“C’mon Ann, let’s get dinner,” sighed Lonnie. “I’m going to go take a quick shower, and when I’m out I’ll make the good mac and cheese tonight.”

“I don’t wanna eat…” the little girl mumbled. “I want Diana…”

“Leaving people behind is hard. We learned that with Mom and Dad.”

“…”

“Just stay strong Ann,” Lonnie whispered. “For both of our sakes.”

Lonnie kissed her sister on the forehead and walked out to shower. Ann seemed dramatic to Lonnie, but she meant every word of what she said. She didn’t want food. She wanted her friend back.

All of a sudden, Ann heard a knock at the door. She didn’t feel like answering though. Lonnie told her to stop answering the door to strangers anyway, because you don’t know who’d be knocking around an apartment building like this. But the knocking didn’t stop. It kept going and going and going. In annoyance, Ann went to the door and spoke through it.

“Stop knocking and go away,” she spat.

“Ann?” asked a familiar voice. It was that woman. Diana’s girlfriend! “You’re Ann, right?”

“Yeah, I’m her!”

“Hey Ann, I think I’ll have news you’d love.”

“Yeah?”

“How’d you like to see Diana?”

Ann’s heart skipped a beat. She could see Diana again? This woman could show her?! Ann nearly unlocked the door there and then, but hesitated. She remembered Lonnie’s words.

“I’ll be right back!” she promised. “I need to do something first!”

Ann dashed into the bathroom and threw the shower curtains to the side, making Lonnie scream and curse at Ann. For once though, she didn’t really care. She kept explaining to her sister how this woman who could take her to Diana was at the door. And she wouldn’t stop explaining either, even when Lonnie demanded a towel before just getting it herself.

“Ann, stop!” Lonnie demanded, shutting her up. “I know you really miss Diana, and I feel bad for her, but this is not the way to-”

She was interrupted by a loud knock at the door. Lonnie clenched her fists and marched to the door. Ann knew the look she had in her eyes. The look that said she’d had a bad day and was ready to yell at a stranger for it.

“Sis, I-”

“Room. Now,” Lonnie commanded. “We’ll continue talking about Diana in a second, ok?”

A knock at the door came one last time, and Lonnie unlocked the door and yanked the door handle, a look of fury on her face. She didn’t even see Nadroj before she launched into a vehement rage.

“Can you fucking not knock on my-”

Lonnie didn’t get to finish her sentence before Ann saw a knife plunge into the base of her throat. Blood sprayed into Nadroj’s face as she twisted the knife and yanked it out. Lonnie tried to scream, but couldn’t; a sickening gurgle came out instead. Even still, Lonnie clutched her throat and grabbed Nadroj as she fell to the floor.

Ann wanted to help her sister, but she knew what Lonnie was doing. While Nadroj was finishing Lonnie off by twisting the knife around her chest, Ann ran away to her room, grabbing a phone on the way there. She tried hard to not cry while she held the phone and dialed 911. But suddenly, she could hear Nadroj walking to her bedroom, and she had to think fast. What would Lonnie try to do?

“Annie, c’mon,” Nadroj said sweetly, turning the doorknob. “Don’t you wanna see Diana again? Stop the hide-and-seek and I can take you to her…”

As Nadroj started opening the door, she heard a metal clanging. Then she shoved the door open to see the bedroom window open onto the fire escape. Sinisterly, she crept towards the window and climbed out, tapping her knife on the rails.

“Where are you hid-”

A hair clip hit the floor of the fire escape and bounced off the side of the building. Nadroj grinned and looked up.

“Annie, don’t run!”

Nadroj eagerly hurried up the fire escape, ready to catch the little girl. Silently though, Ann’s window slid shut and locked. Ann retreated back to her closet right across from the window and closed herself in it again. Her heart was pounding and she couldn’t hold back the tears anymore as she talked to the 911 operator.

*   *   *   *   *

Nadroj burst into her home, locking the doors in a rush. Diana was still tied to the chair and couldn’t see her, but she could hear the panting. Nadroj roared in frustration as she threw something against the wall.

“Argh!” She turned Diana’s chair around to face her. “I hope you’re happy! Your friend called the cops to get us!”

Diana felt a flicker of hope. Were Ann and Lonnie ok?! At least one of them called the police, and they were coming to rescue her. She’d finally be out of Nadroj’s arms-

“It’s ok babe, they won’t get us,” Nadroj said, scarily determined. She grabbed a few knives, using one to cut the knot on the rope that held down Diana. “I’m not letting them separate us! Go to the basement, now!”

Diana knew she couldn’t just grab a knife and defend herself. Nadroj was still too strong for her. But she knew Nadroj had one weakness.

“They won’t separate us,” Diana said, dramatically grabbing a knife. “We can’t fight them off, honey. You know that.”

“I know…” Nadroj heaved, a hopeless look in her eyes. “But I can try…”

“They can’t separate us if we do this,” she said, holding the knife over her heart. “Don’t let them end us. We can go together. We can live our life after we die.”

“Maybe…” It was clear Nadroj wasn’t sure about it, but was just almost convinced. Diana needed to seal the bill. She gently put her hand on Nadroj’s cheek, forcing her to look her in the eyes.

“Remember what you told me? Not even death can separate us.”

Nadroj put on a sweet smile, pulled into her honeyed words. Her eyes were almost in tears at her girlfriend’s conviction to stay with her. She really did love her. She really did…

“On the count of three,” Nadroj said, poising the knife to her own heart. Diana nodded and started the countdown.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three!”

Without a hint of hesitation, Nadroj pulled the knife into her heart. Her bittersweet smile faded as Diana dropped her own knife and helped Nadroj push the knife into her own chest. She screamed and fell over, trying to claw at a knife to use on Diana, but felt her strength draining as fast as her blood. Diana was surprised to see her sobbing.

“I… I thought… we…”

Nadroj lost consciousness, and Diana took her hand off the knife handle embedded in the woman’s heart. She started sobbing herself and huddled herself in a corner of the room, where she rocked back and forth until the sirens in the distance stopped in front of the house. It was over… Finally over…