Kip stared at the lifeless body, at the mutilated head.

He felt cramped, inside and out. He couldn't utter a word, couldn't move a muscle... All he could do was stare. To that innocent little girl, that single piece of joy on this godforsaken island. And...

Kip jumped up as the door opened. The shreds of his nightmare slowly faded away, although that didn't change the cramping feeling in his chest. It was just a nightmare. Tabitha and Dana are fine. All this is my fault, I caused this. I'm the one that will be punished. Taking a deep breath, he let the oxygen flow inside. His whole body was shaking, his sight hampered by tears called up by that lifelike dream. Who had entered the room, he couldn't see.

Although it could be only one person.

He had came in earlier, a few hours ago. Had given him a choice: Maddox would tear his eyes out or he would crush Tabitha's skull. There had been no second thoughts. Of course he would protect the little one, at all costs. Besides, he already knew he wouldn't get out here alive. What did it matter if the man took his eyes?

"Go comfort her," a grim voice sounded.

Dazed, Kip looked up. "W-what?"

A hand grabbed him by the collar and dragged him on his feet. Maddox's pitch black eyes drilled into his. "I can't lose her. If she kills herself, I'm not responsible for the consequences. You are. I will let her brother get raped by every guy around, I will let her former lover drown in the blood of his new whore and I will burn your own ratting bitch alive."

Every threat stabbed him like a knife in the heart as images of Happy, Juice and Cherry flashed by. Kip looked away. His fighting spirit was broken, he was broken. He had failed, he had made Dana's life ten times worse.

"Why... why would she want to kill herself?" he muttered. "Tabitha... did you..."

"Yeah, that little parasite is gone."

"But you said... you said I had to choose... between myself and her..." With wide, defeated eyes he stared at the other, his brain being unable to process his words. The kid couldn't be dead... that wasn't what they had agreed.

Maddox snorted disdainfully. "You tried to take her away from me. You really think I'll ever do you a favor? The last thing I want, is meeting your requests."

Kip bent his head. If he had told Maddox to kill the baby, keeping his eyes intact, would the opposite have happened? Would Tabitha have been alive? Was this another way that Dana could blame him for her loss?

A hard push against his shoulder forced him towards the door. He should lash out at the guy, should try to murder him until his final breathe, but there was no spirit inside him anymore. He was empty, burnt out. And Maddox's threats were raging in his head. Cherry's burnt body...

In silence, Kip dragged himself through the hallway, until he ended up at the room where Maddox had held him captive for months. There she was sitting on her knees, the child rocking in her arms. The movements of her lips told him that she was sobbing, that she was screaming, but it felt like he had gone deaf. He couldn't hear a single thing – and as it seemed she neither heard him.

For minutes he was standing in the doorway, his heart crumbled as he watched how the woman he had fallen in love with, was going through the deepest pain a human being could experience. Guilt was burying him, he didn't dare to move.

He had sworn to protect her daughter, that he would take them away from here. He hadn't. If he hadn't been as steadfast to play the hero, Tabitha would have laid in her crib right now; Dana standing next to her with a sweet smile on her face as her finger caressed the soft cheek while she told her daughter about her father and how badly he wanted to see her.

Kip had no idea how long he was staring forward. At some point, Dana felt his presence and looked up. The moment she looked him in the eye, his knees started to feel weak. His lips trembled, and even before he could try to man up, he was crying like a baby. She looked so lost, so heartbroken. Without knowing whether she wanted him close or not, he walked towards her, kneeling down beside her. He ran his hand across his chin, across his mouth, but the sight of the mutilated little girl was so gruesome that his fingers cramped up against his lips.

Bent over, he leaned against her, feeling her shaking shoulder against his. Sobbing, he caressed the cold, stiff hand of the little girl with his thumb.

"We did this, Kip," she cried. "We did this. All because I was so selfish. All because I wanted to go back to Juice."

Her self-recrimination torn his heart. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest. Sobbing she leaned against him, her baby in her arms. He didn't know what to say, not a single word slipped his lips. Instead, he held her as tight as he could, just as desperately as she was holding her daughter, like an inconsolable, devastated family. His heart was bleeding as the tears kept running down his cheeks. How could she ever overcome this?

And again the images flashed by. Of Happy. Of Juice. Of Cherry.