A/N:

****Happy belated 1st Birthday, Saving Me!****

I cannot believe it has been over a year since I've first published this story. Woo hoo! I want to let you all know that this chapter was also very difficult for me to write, and therefore is rated M. Read on with caution. Enjoy!

~Ms. Belikov

Previously on Saving Me…

Abe paused for a nanosecond, but it was already too late. I clutched the weapon with both hands, and plunged the sharp wood straight into his back. He grunted in pain and shock sparkled in his eyes.

My adrenaline was pumping so fast I wasn't really sure all that was going on. All I knew was that I had to get out. Now.

Despite the fact that my father had to weigh over two-hundred pounds, I rolled him off me as if he was merely a feather. Then I jumped to my feet and was ready to bail like the roof was about to cave in.

But then I looked back down at my father, the way he blinked slowly, the painful rise and fall of his impaled chest.

And I couldn't just leave. Revenge burned deep in my body, igniting every fiber of my essence.

I became a monster.

Reaching down, I twisted the chair leg out of his chest, which was harder than I first assumed. Lifting it over my head, I aimed for his head and brought the weight down hard.

"Ughhhhhh." Abe screamed in agony, but soon became quiet after a few more blows.

I continued to mercilessly strike my captor, each blow seeming to carry more force than the last one. Channeling all of my pent up rage, hurt, and betrayal, which turned out to be one hell of a combination, I beat him until I was sure he had stopped breathing. And even then, I didn't quit. Blood splattered with each impact, covering me until my senses were overloaded with the feel, smell, and taste of the vital, crimson liquid.

Distantly, I was aware of the screams and cries exploding from my lips. The sounds, filled with such crippling anguish, would have broken anyone's heart.

"Why, you motherfucker? WHY!" I demanded, still clutching the splintered piece of wood defensively. But then I dropped the makeshift weapon, and completely lost it.

"I didn't deserve this, damn it! Why would you do this to me, daddy? You are supposed to protect me. You are supposed to protect me…" I sobbed, dropping to my knees.

I wanted to lay there and die with my father. Despite the fact that I'd finally defeated the bad guy, this didn't feel like a happy ending, and I lost all will to survive. Slowly, I curled around Abe's disfigured and unrecognizable body, finding myself wanting to join him in the afterlife.

But then Lissa's face came to mind, followed by my mothers. I realized that there was no option but to keep living, because I had to go on for them. Their pleading, tear-filled eyes brought me out of lethargy, and I got to my feet with dragging, robotic movements.

I had a reason to live…they were my reason to live. There was no way I could destroy the two women I loved most by allowing myself to be that selfish as to end my own life. Especially my mother. My innocent, innocent mother. She couldn't lose the only man she had ever loved and her daughter. I couldn't imagine how she'd react to the news of my father's true identity.

I ran out of the basement as fast as I could, taking the steps three at a time. Upstairs, I was shocked at my surroundings. A beautiful, modern cabin with homey furniture. Had I not been in such a hurry to escape, I would have taken the time to appreciate it.

I headed for the first door I saw and nearly plowed through the thing with the momentum and force I threw behind my shoulder. I jiggled the doorknob several more times. "Damn it!"

Not wasting any time, I sprinted for the next one. Locked. Then the next one. Same result.

"Son of a bitch, son of a bitch, son of a bitch, son of a bitch!" I cursed nastily, after having tried every possible door unsuccessfully. "You've got to be kidding me!"

My adrenaline was through the roof, hands shaking uncontrollably, blood pumping, breathing raggedly. I felt powerful, kind of like a super hero.

The next action was to pick up the closest object to me, which happened to be a pretty polished rocking chair, and launch it against the living room window. It didn't shatter like I'd hoped.

Stumped, I grabbed one of the fancy metal tools next to the fire place. Holding the object like a baseball bat, I swung like Babe Ruth, putting all of my weight and strength behind it.

Not even a scratch on the glass.

"What. The. Fuck." I growled. "Bullet proof glass? You cannot be serious." I had to give my father props—that man came prepared.

Figuring that wasn't the only indestructible window in the cabin, I did the last thing I ever wanted to do. I went back into the basement. Right back to my captor.

Nauseated and sweating profusely, I hurriedly searched through his pockets and retrieved the ring of keys with a heart that was racing a million miles an hour.

Maybe it was childish and risky, even a waste of time, but I couldn't leave without doing one last thing—drop kicking my father in his groin area. It did little to satisfy me because he didn't move or even groan.

I didn't have it in me to look back at the chains hooked to the wall, the place where I spent roughly a year of my life. It would only slow me down. So without casting a glance over my shoulder, I ran for the stairs once again.

Something wet, cold and fleshy wrapped around my ankle. I screamed.

"Kiz…help me." Abe pleaded, voice so low and pain filled I could barely hear him. "You can't just leave me here to die. I'm your father."

"Go to hell!" The lockbox was in arms reach, so I grabbed the heavy metal thing, and smashed it as hard as I could against his head, knocking him out cold. If he hadn't been dead before, he certainly was now.

I tore up the stairs and went for the first door I saw. With shaky, bloody hands, I went through four keys before the door swung open.

Outside. I was surrounded by a forest. For the first time in what seemed like forever, I felt the urge to smile and scream with joy. Cold, crisp air blew my matted hair back and I breathed the damp air in deeply. There was a lake nearby, and a light bulb burst in my brain.

"The boat." I gasped, and darted off towards my possible freedom.

"Help me! PLEASE! I need help! Is anyone out there?"

I stopped dead in my tracks.

That voice didn't belong to my fathers.

Oh, God.

Someone else was in that cabin.

I turned around and ran back inside the cabin, only hoping that I hadn't fallen for another one of my captors tricks.

My run back inside was sloppy, yet determined. I spilled through the door of the cabin, my limbs a poor mess. It was beyond me that I hadn't collapsed yet. My body was beyond exhaustion, the need to shut down burning deep in my veins. But the adrenaline igniting my blood on fire wouldn't allow me to stop, and by some miracle I tracked the pleas for help to a locked door at the end of a hallway.

Two hard kicks and the wood splintered all the way down the middle. I was on a roll with my seemingly super hero like strength. I shoved the wood aside; not even registering the bloody splinters planted deep in my palms, and entered the dimly lit room without fear.

A whimper met my ears, and my head snapped over to the side. A naked young woman, no older than I was, hung from a set of shackles that was identical to the ones in the basement.

Disgust pooled in my body, followed by overwhelming waves of acidic hatred. Heat scorched my skin, and my heart turned to ice. Murder was quick on its heels.

Though my brain was a stubborn son of a bitch and didn't want me to accept the fact that my father was my captor, it was something I would eventually have to deal with. But this…this was beyond anything I had ever seen, done, or heard of. It was something out of a horror movie. Something that was very real and happening at this very moment.

Abe hadn't just kidnapped his biological daughter. He'd also kidnapped his biological daughters close friend. And chained her. And tortured her. And by the looks of it, I was lucky—he'd also raped her. The layers of yellowing and fresh, black bruises on the inside of her thighs, along with smudges of dried blood, were proof of it.

"Rose," she whimpered, golden eyes shimmery with unshed tears. "Please help me."

"Sydney," I whispered weakly, my heart breaking at the sight of her. "I'll kill him."

My body flipped around and marched towards the door. My stride was purposeful, my fists clenched and ready to cause Abe all the pain he'd caused both of us naïve, innocent girls. Except that wouldn't make a difference.

"It won't help," Sydney croaked. "You could put a bullet in his head and nothing's going to change, Rose. It will all still be the same."

I turned around and immediately started trying keys to unlock the shackles. "I'm getting you out of here," I told her. "I promise that I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"There's no town around here for at least a hundred and fifty miles," Sydney said. "There's no way we're going to make it."

"Boat. Out on the dock. I have the keys to it." I stated, breathing raggedly. Relief—and a shred of hope—passed over her delicate, small features, and I stopped for a minute and just stared at her.

"I'm so sorry," I said heavily, a painful lump forming in my throat. "I'm so fucking sorry this happened to you."

"Rose, look at me," she commanded. "Did you do this to me?"

"No."

"Then shut the fuck up and pull your shit together because we got a mission to finish."

Very true. And our lives depended on the outcome of the operation. It was a good thing I managed well under pressure.

The last time I had heard from Sydney was graduation back in 2008. Too bad our reunion turned out to be so sour. As a graduation gift, Sydney's parents bought her a one-way ticket to Europe and months after their daughters departure, the town had come to believe she'd met a foreign hunk and decided to stay.

Evidently, that little story was far from the truth.

The heavy chains fell to the ground, and I yelped in victory. Three unlocked cuffs later, she was free.

"Here. Take my clothes." I said, immediately beginning to remove my shirt.

"No. Wait." Sydney's palm locked around my wrist, stopping me. "There's gotta be something out there."

I followed her to the doorframe, where fear stopped her and she warily peaked her head out and checked the surroundings. "The coast is clear," she stuck her thumb up.

"Yeah," I said, remembering the gruesome scene in the basement and my father's unmoving body. "I think he's going to be out for a while."

Sydney visibly shivered, then quickly pulled herself together and began ransacking the cabin. Luckily, there was a robe hanging in the bathroom and she quickly slipped it over her bare body.

Amazement sparkled in her gaze as she smoothed her hands down the soft blue cloth. "This is the first time I've worn something in years," she said.

Anguish weighed heavy in my chest, and the burning curiosity was erased. I'd wanted to ask her how long she'd been in my father's captivity, and now I knew the answer.

"I feel oddly protected because of this," Sydney's voice cracked, and she did her best to force a smile. "Anyways, come on. Let's get the fuck out of here."

Outside, we sprinted as fast as our bodies would take us towards the lake, hands locked together.

"Find out which key it is," I chucked the ring at her as soon as we reached the dock, then made quick work of untying the ropes that were hooked to the boat.

Like a champ, Sydney wasted no time jumping aboard and frantically attending to the task I had assigned for her.

"I got it!" she screamed at the top of her lungs a moment later, and the engine roared to life. "I got it! LET'S GO!"

The final rope came undone, and I was prepared to hop on the water vehicle.

A shot rang out, and my whole world stopped. Everything went by in slow motion, the silence in my ears numbing. Then the peace shattered like glass.

"My shoulder's on fire!" I screamed in agony at the pain exploding on the left side of my body. "My shoulder is on fire!"

But then I looked down, and realized I had been shot. Abe stood there, looking like hell on earth, a rifle at his side.

"Where do you think you're going?" My captor's voice was all gravel.

"How are you still alive?" I voiced aloud. And then it hit me.

He didn't even seem to notice Sydney, and this was her only chance to get away. If you did the math, one life lost was always favorable over two.

"GO!" I screamed so loud it felt as if my lungs would burst. "Go now, while you still have the chance!"

Sydney eyes flickered between Abe and me, an internal war raging in her honey-colored gaze. She was torn between helping her friend and going straight back into the lions den with the man she feared most on this planet.

It was do or die time.

"Get the fuck out of here, idiot! I said go!"

By now, the pain in my shoulder had faded under my hysteria. If she was safe, then I could die peacefully knowing that I had rescued her from a monster. The importance of my life paled significantly in comparison to hers. She was all that mattered.

"I have to keep the promise I made to you," I pleaded. "Please…at least save yourself."

Tears streamed down her face as she said, "I promise that I will come back for you." The boat tore off in the opposite direction, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Multiple gun shots rang out. I looked up in horror. My father was aiming at the boat, one eye shut like a crocodile.

It was unreal and nearly inhuman how fast I moved. Before I'd registered what happened, Abe—along with his deadly weapon—were pushed into the lake.

Knowing that Sydney was free and on her way to freedom, I wasted no time thinking about my own safety for once. Within several seconds, I was deep in the heart of the forest, hidden from my captor's view.

I was safe, for now at least, and that was all that mattered. The legs that felt like jelly gave out under the pressure of my weight, and my body slumped to the damp ground of the earth.

When I gave it some thought, I realized that I should have been in some amount of pain, even if it was in small quantity. Looking down, the left side of my body was a bloody mess. Dry and fresh crimson trails crawled their way down my arm as the cherry-colored liquid continued to pump more out of my gaping wound. Considering how much blood I had lost, it was a miracle I hadn't passed out yet.

Trees and the baby-blue sky spun, and dizziness was all that I knew. "Mother-fucking-fucker. Spoke too soon." I mumbled, as awareness floated farther and father away. That was all that I remembered before my head thumped against the forest floor and everything went black.

When I awoke, it was night outside. The pouring rain was bittersweet—it helped to wash off all the dried blood, but also made me feel as if I'd frozen into an ice-cube.

I went to sit up, and discovered that all feeling had returned to my body. A scream of agony rushed from my lips. Gritting my teeth and telling myself to quit being a little bitch, I inspected the wound.

My jerking movement had torn open the clotted blood on the surface, and fresh blood began to drip out. Tapping into my fighter side, it took everything in me—and several pathetic stumbles—to climb to my feet.

Fresh tears welled in my eyes from the pain, and I felt immensely embarrassed. It was just one lousy bullet in my shoulder. I needed to get over it!

I felt tremendously faint from the blood loss, but there was no way I'd let myself fall down again. Battling through the dizzy spells and temporary blackouts, I put one foot in front of the other and forced myself to keep walking. I had no destination in mind; all I knew was that I had to keep moving because my life depended on it.

Direction was something I had no sense of, and it was just my luck that I made it to my captor's luxurious cabin. Hiding behind a tree, I peaked around and watched Abe.

He appeared a little more than pissed. Shirtless and soaked from head to toe, he slammed the hood of his old red truck shut and hopped into the cab. He turned the keys in the ignition, and the vehicle growled in protest several times before he gave up and cursed nastily.

A little part of me died when I realized he couldn't start the truck, because I was crazy enough in the first place to believe that could have been a possible escape route. But I had to keep hope alive. It was the only thing I had left.

My father stomped to a shed and scrambled noises erupted from there. To get a better view of what was going on, I inched around the tree. I failed to notice a piece of bark sticking out from the trunk, and the sharp edge slid through my laceration like butter.

I cried out viciously, and Abe's head snapped up. We made eye contact.

He advanced on me at a dead run, and I turned around and ran like there was no tomorrow.

I didn't look back, even when I heard his pursuing foot steps grow louder and closer. The rough, uneven ground clawed at my bare feet until they were raw and bleeding. It didn't slow me down in the slightest. However, my father did.

When I knew he was directly behind me and made his move to advance down on me, my body didn't hesitate. I reacted strictly on instinct, and swiftly spun around and clocked him directly in his face with my fist.

Blood sprayed out of his already ruined face, but did little to stop him. Adrenaline and rage were one hell of a cocktail, evidently. This man was a machine, a monster, and it took little effort on his part to throw me to the ground and get on top of me.

All hope vanished when his hands clenched around my throat and began to squeeze the life out of me. I made useless pleads for God to allow me to see one more sunrise.

I reached up far and clawed at his face, aiming for his eyes, but that only seemed to anger him even more.

My lungs burned from lack of oxygen, and dark spots danced before me.

It was all or nothing. Before consciousness floated away from me, I made one last attempt to escape. Bringing both of my arms up, I clapped my hands against his ears as hard as I could. Then kneed him in the groin area, figuring it might buy me some more time.

When Abe roared in pain and rolled off me, clenching the sides of his head, I knew I had busted his eardrums.

I jumped to my feet and headed for the lake, as my captor rolled around on the ground.

He wouldn't be down for long.

"Fuck!" The mud slowed me down. It grew to be so heavy and thick as I neared the edge of the forest that it reached past my knees. The pouring rain didn't help, either.

I eventually made it out towards shore and jumped into the ice-cold water.

"Rosemarie!"

Fear threatened to cripple me, but I continued to slip lower and lower into the water. The bitter temperature made my limbs stiff and teeth chatter as it reached to just below my nose.

"You think you can hide from me?" Abe asked, stumbling towards the beach.

I inched below the dock and prayed the shadows of the dark waters would camouflage me. Hiding was my best option. From all the stress and overexertion my body had been put through, I knew death was creeping up on me. I prayed but didn't think I could go on much longer. There's only so much one person can take, both mentally and physically.

"How long do you think you will survive?" My captor demanded, stepping onto the long, narrow dock. He looked all around him, at the forest, far out in the water, where the water met the sand, and I breathed a sigh of relief. He had no clue where I might be, he just pretended like he did to intimidate me.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Kiz. I need you to let me help you." Abe said in his calming voice. He waited several heavy moments in silence for a response, and when there wasn't one, he showed his true sinister self.

"You'll have to come out eventually!" he growled. "If that wound isn't patched up soon, you will bleed to death."

As he talked, he unknowingly drew closer to where I floated. The old wood creaked beneath the weight of him, and his heavy boots cast a shadow on my face. He stopped and became deadly silent.

I held my breath.

Abe swore and stomped back to land and lay down on the beach, crossing his arms behind his head.

"I will wait for you, my love." he said finally, a dark smile curving his mouth. "I just know you'll come around. There is no escaping me…even in death."

I stayed exactly where I was. Better to be killed by hypothermia than by the hands of my own father.

Noise.

I gasped, my eyelids flew open. The water was a deep navy-blue, the sky a pale, misty gray.

Engines.

It had to be no later than six AM, considering the sun hadn't peaked over the mountains yet.

Sirens.

Had I actually fallen asleep? How had I not drowned? I gazed up at my hands, which were locked so tightly around the wood of the dock that they were bleeding and sprinkled with splinters.

Voices.

My head snapped up. There was a swarm of police vehicles, and more continued to magically show. I smiled, a sense of safety blanketing me. Sydney had went all out. I expected nothing less from the girl.

The noise was deafening. How had Abe not woken up?

I didn't care. I emerged from the water and ran up the beach as fast as I could, crying out with joy and relief.

Everything happened so fast there was no time to register it.

Something changed in the police officers' expressions, they became more tense, more alarmed.

The one closest shouted something at me, but I didn't hear it.

My whole world went backwards as something grabbed onto my hair and yanked me to a stop. Then I felt a stabbing pain in my back as the blade plunged deep into me.

A popping noise rang out, and I looked over my shoulder.

A small red dot formed on the left side of Abe's chest. He blinked heavily once, and slumped to the ground.

I turned around and continued towards the cops. A smile appeared on my face when I saw Sydney exit the back of a flashing vehicle, the expression on her face frantic. She had come back for me just like she'd promised. She had saved me.

Snap.

I looked down. "A bear trap. You've got to be fucking kidding me."

My body collapsed, the pain unlike anything I had ever known. The world spun wildly and I blinked slowly. Something flashed before my vision, and I used my last bit of consciousness to see what it was.

A very tall, gorgeous man came at me.

"Hey Comrade," I grinned stupidly. "Good to have you back."

And then I blacked out.