Sabrina's Slip

The basement level of the parking garage was a concrete echo chamber, the air thick with exhaust and the metallic tang of old oil. Iris crouched between two parked cars, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She watched the elevator doors.

They didn't open. The driver was probably sweeping the upper levels, or maybe calling for backup. She didn't have much time.

She scanned the rows of vehicles. Sedans, SUVs, trucks. And there, near the exit ramp, was the silver Lexus.

Sabrina.

She was sitting in the driver's seat, the engine idling. She wasn't leaving. She was staring at her phone, her face illuminated by the pale blue glow. She looked paralyzed.

Iris moved. She stayed low, using the cars as cover, ignoring the fire in her ankle. She reached the Lexus and tapped on the passenger window.

Sabrina jumped, dropping her phone. She stared at Iris, her eyes widening in horror.

"Open the door," Iris said.

Sabrina hesitated. She looked at the lock. She looked at Iris's soot-stained face, her desperate eyes.

"Sabrina, please. He tried to kill me."

The lock clicked.

Iris threw the door open and slid into the passenger seat. "Drive."

"Iris, you can't be here," Sabrina whispered, her hands gripping the wheel. "My father... he said you were sick. He said you set the fire."

"He set the fire," Iris said, fastening her seatbelt. "He poured gasoline down the chimney chase. I saw him."

"That's not... he wouldn't..."

"He locked Elias in a basement for thirty years, Sabrina. What makes you think he wouldn't burn down a house to cover it up?"

Sabrina flinched. She looked away, staring out the windshield. "I didn't know about the basement. Not at first. I was just a kid."

"But you knew later. You knew in 2010. You brought him pizza. You wrote the letters."

"He made me!" Sabrina cried, turning to her. "He said Elias was sick. He said if he got out, he would hurt people. He said he would hurt *me*."

"So you helped him keep a man in a cage?"

"I kept him alive!" Sabrina slammed her hand against the steering wheel. "I brought him books. I brought him food that wasn't sludge. I talked to him when no one else would."

"And now he's in the Carriage House," Iris said. "And Julian is going to move him again. To the farm. Do you know what that means, Sabrina? It means a shallow grave in the woods."

Sabrina went pale. "No. He said he was sending him to a facility. A real one."

"Just like he's sending me to St. Jude’s?" Iris asked. "Look at me, Sabrina. Look at my hands. Look at the soot. I barely got out. Do you think Elias stands a chance?"

A siren wailed outside, close. The police were swarming the hospital entrance.

"We have to get him out," Iris said. "Right now. Before Julian gets back."

"I can't," Sabrina whispered. "He'll kill me. He controls everything. The money. The house. My life."

"He doesn't control this car," Iris said. "And he doesn't know I'm here. Drive us to the Carriage House. Get us past the security. Get us to Elias."

Sabrina stared at her. For a moment, Iris saw the fear in her eyes, the lifetime of conditioning. But beneath it, she saw something else. The same guilt that had made her cry in the driveway. The same guilt that had made her leave the warning card.

*TODAY.*

"He visits him," Sabrina said, her voice trembling. "Every Tuesday. Tonight."

"Who visits him?"

"My father. He goes to the Carriage House. He spends an hour there."

"Doing what?"

Sabrina put the car in gear. She looked at Iris, and the fear was gone, replaced by a cold, hard resolve.

"Dad says he's dangerous. That he killed the girl in 1990."