Quantum Entanglement ~ Tamber

Chapter 18

She was beaten, broken, exhausted, dying of thirst, but most of all, she was fucking sick of it. She was in hell; she expected to be tortured. She expected the pain and anguish, despite her family insisting that hell didn't exist. She had always known that she'd end up there, and massacring everyone she knew in one way or another pretty much guaranteed it.

So far, she had fought two demons. She still both loved and loathed that she lost to Wes, because she hated losing anything to that cunt. But at least it meant he was dead. Besides, she had gathered her strength and made her comeback against who she assumed to be Vince. It was an easy fight, mostly because she didn't care about the kid one way or another.

Amber was battered and in never-ending pain. But why was Tara? Why the fuck was the best person she had ever known being tortured almost as much as she was? All she'd done was love the wrong person; all she did was believe in a monster. Yet there she was, collapsing on the big screen as she watched her girlfriend being dragged away.

She seriously wanted to punch something, but she knew it wouldn't help. So instead, Amber gritted her teeth and forced herself to watch the love of her life's hell on earth play out. Her eyes flickered between several screens – paying closest attention to those containing Tara. It was almost pathetic how just seeing the girl still made her heart skip a beat – as if they hadn't spent more than a decade staring at each other all day. At that moment, the girl she loved was safe but hyperventilating. In the present or future or whatever the fuck it was, she was still not awake. Sam was by her side, reading her some law articles. Amber had managed to figure out that her girl was studying law, and she couldn't have been prouder. It was even more reason to fix things and make sure the girl lived.

Moments earlier, Amber had watched Richie slit the throat of the sheriff's son: Wes. The boy had been sleeping and didn't see it coming. Neither had the guard he'd slaughtered just to make his way to the boy. Unbeknownst to the groomer, it was a mercy killing. By Richie killing Wes, Amber and Tara avoided the inevitable of the kid dying due to the injuries she'd given him earlier. The little rat had done them a huge favor, saving Tara's life and giving her more time to make things right. In this reality, Richie was still a pussy, but at least he was a pussy who actually managed to kill someone.

The man-child had gone to the hospital to find them, leaving Sam behind at the hotel. She had to keep reminding herself that this version of the eldest Carpenter sister didn't yet know that Richie really was a killer; this one only had the word of her estranged sister and said estranged sister's psychopathic girlfriend to go on.

When Richie made his way to the hospital, he was disappointed to discover that Tara was already gone. He had had a whole game planned out; he'd make Sam choose between him and her sister. It was the same game he convinced Amber to play. At the time, it made so much sense. Sam had abandoned Tara without a fucking word. Her best friend had been devastated, crying for months over the loss. She hadn't understood why Sam left, so she blamed herself. She imagined her sister just didn't want anything to do with her because of something she did wrong. It killed Amber to hear Tara put herself down and doubt herself, when in reality she was the everything good about that shit town.

While the girl she loved had been crying and destroying her self-image over her sister, Sam had actually just shacked up with some loser and couldn't even be bothered to leave him behind for some one-on-one time with the sister who had just been stabbed. She remembered being furious at the fact that she wouldn't just choose Tara – something she still struggled with, even if she understood now that Sam did, in fact, love her little sister.

The good news was that Tara was okay. The small girl collapsed upon hearing that Wes had died – likely assuming that she was close behind – but she was fine. That was a tiny bit of relief to Amber, but she still hated the thought of the girl she loved being in any kind of distress. She had always wanted to protect her from pain, even if she was the source of most of it in the end. The road to hell is paved in good intentions, or so she learned the hard way.