No Happily Ever After

Chapter 33

Inno time, Bar Estate loomed into view.

With a fingerpressed cautiously to her lips, Zoe led them to the hole in the gatethat, fortunately, had not been repaired. Hanley went through theopening first, and then paused to motion them all through, one byone.

They darted throughthe yard and against the log side of the home. Pressed to it, theymade their way to the same door Zoe had once found unlocked. Notsurprisingly, the door was locked. Apparently the Bar's had at leastgotten some small clue that they weren't entirely safe out there inthe woods. Not as safe as they'd thought they were.

The group circledthe house looking for any door or window left unlocked and foundnone. They had to resort to their plan B. They found a sideentrance with panes of glass in the door. With one brief motion,Giselle put the handle of her blade through one of the panes. Theglass shattered and tinkled into the darkness on the other side ofthe door. She reached through the hole, unlocked the door, andquietly swung it open.

Once inside, theyfound themselves in a pitch black hallway. They all stood perfectlystill looking around and waiting. Waiting to hear an alarm go off. Or an occupant of the house coming to respond to the out of placesound in the night. But, Zoe had already known they didn't have asecurity system. After all, psychotic murders wouldn't ever wantpolice randomly summoned to their house. And, if anybody had heardthem break in, it seemed they were pretending they did not. They'dalmost hoped to have the Bars charge at them out of the darkness. Toend it quickly. But apparently, that was not to be.

Hanley held hisfinger to his lips, once again reminding everybody to remainabsolutely quiet. He peered around the circle of them wide eyed asif to ask them if they all remembered what to do. One by one, theygave one another thumbs up.

And so they puttheir plan into action.

***

Zoe led Jennifer,who wore murder on her fairylike freckled face, straight through thehouse, down the seemingly ordinary set of finished basement steps,and to the door of the torture chamber. They took no detours, asthey were the decoys being used in hopes of luring Mr. and Mrs. Barout into the open. Meanwhile, Hanley, following the description ofthe house that Zoe had provided was creeping toward the upstairs insearch of the Bar's. And, together, Detective Piper and Gisellesearched the rest of the house.

Zoe trembled withanticipation as the door to the basement came into view. Finally,her friend would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had notlied. And her classmates would be found. She just prayed beyondhope that they were all alive. And well.

Jennifer watchedZoe rhythmically swing her crutches first and then her body. Shecouldn't believe the girl had come so far. The group had begged Zoeto stay behind, let them take care of it. With her injured leg,they'd all worried she'd never make the trip through the forest. Yetshe had. Zoe was a true hero.

She took her eyesoff Zoe and regarded the door they advanced upon. She knew they werealmost there. She shook from head to toe, and tears welled in hereyes as she contemplated any number of horrible things they mightencounter on the other side. She couldn't erase the image of Eric'sfrozen bloodied corpse from her darkened mind. Jennifer threw backher shoulders with a new murderous resolve. Zoe cast one last glanceover her shoulder. Jennifer nodded, and together, they threw openthe door.

As planned, theylet the door bang into the wall and plowed straight through the smallfinished atrium that Zoe knew lead to the death chamber. With ashriek, Zoe thrust open that door as well.

Already knowingwhat to expect, Zoe rushed inside and burst straight past the devicesof torture to the bars of the adjacent cells. But Jennifer stoppeddead in her tracks, just inside the door.

Cailyn, Ella,Nicholas, Kimberly, and Aspen all struggled off of the various spotson the dirty floor where they'd lay. Their filthy, gaunt, pale facesall fell in complete shock, as though witnessing ghosts walk in thedoor. Jennifer returned their mystified look.

"THEY'REHERE!" Zoe screamed.

"Shhh!"Cailyn demanded, a look of terror crossing her sorrowful face. "You'll wake them! Please!"

"HANLEY!"Zoe screamed again, not fazed by any sort of fear of her classmates'captors. "WE FOUND THEM!"

"There!"Nicholas cried urgently, pointing toward the door. "Get thekeys! Let us out!"

Finally snappingfrom her reverie, Jennifer spun around and snatched the key ring thathe pointed to. She rushed to the cells, and the prisoners were ableto easily tell her which key to use to unlock them. They chatteredwith incredible excitement as finally, their captivity came to anend.

Except that, justthen, Abraham Bar crashed into the room with a bellow that sounded asthough it could only have come straight from the depths of hell.

He slammed intoNicholas, barreling him back into the cell he'd just exited. The twoof them crashed into the wall with a force that cracked several ofNicholas' ribs. Nicholas and Bar flew to the floor where theytangled violently in the grime and the dried blood. All the girlsscurried away from the fight, uncertain of what to do.

Then Hanley dartedinto the room. He came silently and gracefully like the skilledhunter that he was. Without even a pause, he lifted his bow and putan arrow through Abraham Bar's head.

The man fell stillinstantly, heavily lying across Nicholas Monarch on the floor.

For a few harrowingseconds every eye in the room rested on the dead monster as Nicholasrolled him off and stood. But then came a ragged breath.

"My husband."

Their attention allsnapped back to the doorway of the torture chamber.

"You've killedhim. You little monsters, you've killed him."

Madre Bar stoodthere looking frail in her filmy pink nightgown. Her eyes were wildand incoherent, her hair a stringy rat's nest, and her face hadstreaks of blood still from her efforts earlier in the night todispose of her own son's body. She looked positively awful; not atall like the woman they'd known for many years. Worst of all, theunhinged wraith leveled a shot gun on them with two shaking hands.

"Put yourweapon on the floor," she told Hanley, who stared darkly at herbut complied. "He was all that I had left," she wept.

"Mrs. Bar..."Zoe said cautiously.

"SHUT UP!"Mrs. Bar shrieked, thrusting the gun at them. "Get in thecells. Get back in, all of you!" she demanded.

Cailyn released agreat, choking sob. Ella cried as well, uttering incoherent pleas. Kimberly stared evilly at the woman, thinking she'd rather just dieright then, if the only alternative was the cell again.

"MOVE!"Madre brayed.

The thing that Mrs.Bar didn't realize was that still another hunter lurked about herhome. And this one came so quickly, so quietly; that nobody realizedshe was there... Until, with one fluid swoop, Giselle Durand slitMadre Bar's throat.

The shot gunclattered to the floor as Madre dropped to her knees. She totteredfor several agonizing seconds and everyone watched with gruesomecuriosity as blood spurted from her gaping neck.

Then she fellforward as would a tree in the forest, meeting the floor so hard thatevery single bone in her face shattered.