Some time after we fell asleep, something tugged my legs.
I woke up instantly. Sophia was not on the bed beside Arthur.
The moment I saw the empty space, I understood what had happened.
I ran toward his room as fast as my legs allowed and stopped at the door, peeking through the narrow gap.
I saw him tying her to the bed.I saw him sitting on her, pressing her cheeks with his fingers.I saw him smiling while she struggled.I saw him biting her ear.I saw him climb off the bed and pick up the whip.
And yet I did nothing. I stood there trembling.
While I was frozen in that gap, someone tugged my sleeve.
It was Arthur. He was drenched in sweat and panting hard. He grabbed my collar, looked straight into my eyes, but my vision was blurred with tears.
When I wiped them away, I saw him lift his hand, ready to bang the door open.
It was strange how quickly my mind worked at that moment. Maybe it was the panic, or maybe the months of planning my escape finally helped me think clearly. If he barged in, things could become far worse. And I remembered the window I had unscrewed.
Before his hand touched the door, I pulled him back, dragged him to the playground window, and pushed the frame out. The window was already loose because of my secret attempts. In seconds, we slipped inside.
Arthur did not hesitate. He grabbed a vase near the bed and, with every bit of strength in his small body, smashed it on the back of the beast's head.
The vase shattered loudly. A shard flew across the room and cut my hand, making me stumble backward out of the window.
When I climbed back inside, the beast was already on his feet. His pants were around his ankles. Arthur and Sophia were lying near his legs. His face was twisted with rage.
He stepped hard on Arthur's leg.
Arthur let out a scream that tore through the entire building. That sound did not just echo in the hallway. It echoed inside my heart. It awakened every buried nightmare. Every night I had suffered. Every scream I had swallowed.
I saw the blood on his head.I felt the wrench in my hand.And something inside me snapped.
I swung the wrench with all my strength and struck him exactly where the blood was flowing from his head. The impact made a loud crack. The wrench sank slightly into his skull.
He staggered and tried to turn, but Sophia kicked his leg, knocking him off balance. He toppled onto both of them and fell silent. His body did not move. His lungs did not pull in air.
He was dead.
A moment later, Arthur and Sophia tried to push him aside. And then, suddenly, a powerful stream of blood erupted from his neck. It sprayed onto Sophia's gown and drenched her in red. They dropped him immediately, horrified.
He fell on them again, lifeless and heavy. Blood poured over the floor, over their hands, over their feet.
Arthur managed to scramble away, trembling.
But Sophia was still trapped beneath the corpse.
I rushed in, pulled her out, and checked her face. She was shaking, but she was safe.
There was no time to think. No time to breathe.
I ran back to the forest window, unscrewed the last bolts as fast as I could, and lowered Sophia safely into the darkness of the trees.
Arthur had not moved. He stood beside the body as if his mind had frozen completely. I grabbed his wrist and dragged him outside. He stumbled once, but I did not let go.
And together, drenched in blood and shaking, the three of us escaped into the night.
We three ran into the dense forest. Branches whipped our arms and the ground swallowed our footsteps, yet we did not stop. In that darkness where a person could not see danger even one step ahead, we sprinted as if it was the last day of our lives. Our lungs burned, our legs trembled, and the forest kept stretching without end, but we ran. We ran until the trees thinned and a narrow road appeared beside a huge building rising like a shadow in the night.
We did not know what to do. We only knew we could not go back, so we wandered around the building with no plan, no thought, only fear. That was when we found a truck with its rear doors wide open. Without thinking, without even exchanging a glance, we climbed inside.
We hid behind the metal trays already stacked inside. A moment later a man came, threw more trays in, and shut the doors, trapping us in complete darkness.
When the truck began moving, the three of us curled into a corner, trying to merge with the shadows. Arthur held Sophia close, his arms wrapped around her as if she might vanish. She clung to my hand with trembling fingers, squeezing tighter every time the truck rattled.
But slowly, her hands grew warmer. Her breathing steadied. Her head leaned against Arthur's chest. And for me, the warmth of her touch pushed away the horror that had swallowed my world. For the first time since Mom and Dad died, I slept peacefully. It felt like the quiet sleep I used to have in our home, safe between my parents. I did not dream. I simply drifted.