Free The Three by Meghan O'Brien

arguing about what to do with me. The man with the knife wanted to kill me. The first one wanted to take me with the other women from my tribe.”
    She had lain on the ground, bleeding and in pain, listening to the two men argue her fate. She remembered praying they would just kill her. “Then, all of sudden I heard a sound. One of the men was on the ground.
    Garrett killed the other one in front of me. He shoved his knife right into his stomach.”
    “Thank God he was there.”
    “Yeah. Thank God.” Recalling that terrible day, she felt a familiar pang of guilt. “It was too late to save the others. Garrett had been knocked out during the fighting, and they left him for dead. That’s how he came to survive and save me.”
    “And then you lost him.” Elin’s voice broke with sorrow on her next words. “God, Anna, I’m so sorry, baby.”
    “It was my fault.” Anna closed her eyes, even as she felt the unburdening of a giant weight from her soul at the confession. “There were only three of them, not many. They ambushed us while we were eating. I don’t know what happened. One minute we were fighting, then the next…Garrett got hit. Right in the head, like the man I killed. I watched him fall. I knew right away that he was dead.”
    “That’s not your fault,” Elin whispered. “You were outnumbered. Please don’t ever think it was your fault.”
    “He saved my life. I couldn’t save his.”
    “Sometimes there’s nothing you can do to stop something horrible from happening.” Elin stayed curled around Anna’s body, her steady heartbeat thumping against Anna’s side. “You can’t play God, no matter how much you may wish you could. And that means you can’t accept that responsibility, either.”
    “But I did play God.” Anna swallowed in a desperate attempt to moisten her throat and ease the way for a final confession. “I went crazy. I killed every one of them. I still don’t know how I did it. It was like I was possessed. Judge, jury, executioner…they killed Garrett, and so I made sure they died.”
    “Do you feel guilty about that?”
    Anna met Elin’s gaze in the dark. Her eyes shone with empathetic emotion. “Only that I don’t feel more guilty, I think.”
    “Do you feel better now that you’ve said it out loud?”
    Anna didn’t even have to think about that one. “Yeah.” She stared deep into Elin’s eyes. “Do you…are you—” Do I disgust you?
    “I love you, Anna.” Elin brushed away Anna’s fears with three little words. “You’re a survivor. You’ve got a good heart. You’ve had a lot of bad things happen to you, but you’re a good person. I know I haven’t known you long, but…I love you very much.”
    Anna started to cry, but these were different from any tears she’d ever shed before. It was joy. It welled up inside of her, filling her heart until she had no choice but to release the pressure through quiet sobbing. “I love you, too,” she managed to say, and grabbed Elin with both arms, holding on tight.
    Elin cooed nonsense words of comfort into her ear and stroked her hair, slow and measured, until Anna nearly felt hypnotized by the peace her touch instilled. “Close your eyes, baby,” she whispered after some time, and Anna was helpless to do anything but obey. “Let’s see if we can’t get a couple more hours of sleep, okay? I promise nothing is going to hurt you tonight.”

    Believing every word that came out of Elin’s mouth, Anna slipped into an exhausted, but surprising, slumber. There were no more dreams that night.

Chapter Four
    Two days outside of Sullivan, an hours-long hike through thick forest ended with the most spectacular view of a sparkling blue lake. Kael broke through the trees first and stopped, staring out at the water while he wiped sweat from his brow. Elin and Anna followed, and their friendly chatter died as they took in the blue horizon.
    “Wow.” Elin put her hand on Kael’s lower back and grinned behind his