Joe knew that letting Ellie face her abuser in prison was a mistake. But she insisted on doing so, even though she was scared out of her mind. Based on what Joe gathered from what she showed him and Tessa, she felt a sense of responsibility to Anna, even though she never knew her. He voiced his objections every step of the way, but she refused to budge.

Along with a group of police officers, Joe, Tessa, and Freya all hovered around a screen that displayed a livestream from the next room over, where Ellie was alone with the only person in the world who wanted her dead. The cramped room's cold, gray walls resembled what they saw on the screen, like it was designed to make sure whoever those four walls held would not forget they were in a prison.

The grainy video showed the man who kidnapped Ellie and Lizzie exactly where he belonged: in a neon orange prison uniform with his hands and feet chained together and secured to the floor. As twisted as it was, Joe thought it would be cathartic to see that monster receive the same treatment he gave Ellie. Instead, Joe was too worried about her making it out of there unscathed. No matter how optimistic he forced himself to be, he could not ease his doubts over her trying to get a belated murder confession out of him nearly two decades later.

Tessa pressed against Joe's side. He responded by wrapping an arm around her back and holding her close. His wife clung to him as they watched Ellie slowly turn from the doorway to face the man before her. Even through the video stream, Joe could tell she was trembling by how her shoulders moved with every shallow breath.

Staticy audio came through the speakers, but the sound of his voice ignited a surge of anger within Joe. He could not tell exactly what was said, but he made out one word clear as day: Anna.

Joe pulled Tessa closer so that her hair brushed against his clenched jaw. He turned to the detective who first suggested to Ellie that she was the only one who could get a confession out of him.

"Aren't you going to do something," he said in a harsh tone, careful not to let his voice travel beyond the four walls around him. "He just called her Anna. To her face."

To Joe's dismay, the detective seemed relatively unbothered by the monster's blatant disregard for Ellie.

Freya shifted restlessly next to him. Her arms crossed over her chest like she were hugging herself and her eyes darted back and forth across the screen. She'd put up a tougher exterior than usual since they arrived, but Joe saw through it. With his free hand, he grasped her shoulder closest to him to let her know she did not have to worry alone. Freya may have been a thorn in Joe's side since the moment she met Ellie, but she'd grown on him in the past few months.

Freya turned to Joe, surprised by his gesture, but she quickly masked her bewilderment behind sealed lips and a scrunched forehead. Still, she did not pull away, and allowed Joe to hold onto her. In an effort to maintain some sort of balance, he raised an eyebrow at her, but Ellie's quiet, stuttering voice brought them back to the screen.

"M-my name is E-Ellie."

Joe wanted to be proud of Ellie for saying what she'd practiced for hours on end, but the way she said it would have its own consequences. She was riding a slippery slope and she was dangerously close to falling off.

"I don't like this," Joe said, refusing to take his eyes off the screen. "Something's wrong. She's not ready." His grip around Tessa unintentionally tightened, as did his hold on Freya, prompting her to shimmy away from his palm.

"She can do it," Freya said once she was free, though she did not seem to believe her own words. Joe furrowed his brow at the image of Ellie shrinking in on herself, as if she could hide her neck behind her shoulders.

"I hope you're right."

They watched with bated breath, waiting for Ellie to make any sort of move. But she stayed where she was, showing her abuser that he still had control over her.

Joe did not try to hide his disgust as he looked at the detectives standing next to Freya. They were the ones who told Ellie she was the only one who could get a confession. Not them, not Anna's family, not Lizzie... just Ellie. He doubted they even tried. In their minds, why wouldn't they take the easiest way out? Let the child he tortured for seven years do all the talking. It didn't matter if it broke her in the process, so long as they got what they needed, because they couldn't find the evidence themselves. The man was nothing more than a pathetic stain on society, yet somehow he got away with murdering a child, and would have gotten away with kidnapping two others if Ellie hadn't gotten them out.

Maybe Freya was right. Even with the monster behind bars and in chains, they still couldn't do right by Ellie. It didn't seem like they were doing right by Anna, either, considering that their secret weapon was an eighteen-year-old girl with PTSD. But Ellie, with all her compassion and empathy, had it in her mind that she would seek justice for a girl she never met, even though it meant facing down her Goliath before she was ready.

"She's not doing anything," Tessa said, concern etched in her voice. "She needs to do something."

"She will. She has to." Joe rubbed her arm up and down, hoping the gesture gave her more comfort than his words could.

On the screen, Ellie finally took a step forward, though she still held her arms close to her body.

"I-I know you did it."

He leaned forward in his chair and rested his arms against the table that separated them.

Ellie visibly recoiled at his silence, as if he'd said something despicable only she could hear. The coolness of his expression sent a chill coursing through Joe's body.

"I know you did it," Ellie repeated, unable to go any further with her statement.

A breathy huff that sounded like it was meant to be a laugh came through the speakers. What looked like a smirk spread across his disgusting face as he sat back in the chair.

Joe wanted to reach into the screen and strangle the life out of his smug eyes. Not only was he flippant about what he did to Ellie, but now he was mocking her. He still knew how to use Ellie's weaknesses against her, and he was succeeding.

"You have to do something," Joe said, turning to the detectives again. "She's failing."

"Give her a minute," the first detective said, brushing him off.

"You don't understand. She's too vulnerable in there. At least let me talk to her."

Dropping his arm from around Tessa, Joe headed straight for the door, but the detectives blocked his path. "Let me through."

"He'll only admit to killing Anna if she's in there alone. She knows him better than anyone."

"And you don't see the problem with that? She's eighteen and a victim; she shouldn't have to know him at all! I never should have let you talk her into doing this."

"Keep your voice down," Tessa said in a hushed whisper.

Checking the screen for any indication that his outburst traveled through the gray cinder block walls, Joe was afraid he'd done more harm than good.

"Do something, El," he coaxed under his breath with his hand covering his mouth and arms crossed over his chest.

But Ellie stood there, barely breathing, refusing to lift her head enough to look her captor in the eye. After a few more unbearable seconds of silence that dragged on for eternity, Freya stepped in, an unexpected sense of urgency in her tone.

"Get her out."

Joe looked to Freya and searched her expression for what she saw that the rest of them overlooked. Ellie's position hadn't changed, but her chest rose and fell through breaths that came faster than usual. She looked frozen in place, like she was incapable of moving or speaking. "Get her out now."

Before the detectives had a chance to object again, Ellie stumbled backwards against a wall and sank to the concrete floor.

"You heard her," Joe demanded. "Get her out of there!"

The next few seconds happened in a flurry. Doors flew open and people rushed in and out of the two rooms. Joe, Tessa, and Freya followed the detectives and correctional officers just in time for the door that concealed Ellie to swing open. Joe peered inside, hoping that what they saw on the screen was a trick, and that they'd find Ellie standing upright and totally fine. But as the door began to slide shut again, Ellie's panicked voice and cries of desperation slipped into the hallway.

"No! Don't touch me! Stop!"

The breath in Joe's lungs caught when he looked up and accidentally made eye contact with the monster in chains on the other side of the room. With the man's head bowed, he glared towards the shrinking crack in the doorway. Joe glared back at him, sickened and enraged by the stoic look masking his psychotic eyes.

A corner of his mouth twitched into a sneer, which filled Joe with the urge to rush in and actually strangle him. Being behind bars wasn't enough. He wanted to make him suffer the same way Ellie suffered.

Before Joe could act on impulse, the door slid shut enough to block his view of the rest of the room. It opened again just before it could latch as the officers dragged Ellie's cowering, whimpering body into the hallway. The door behind them clicked shut, but Joe's hand trembled as he resisted the urge to barge in and take matters into his own hands. Finally, he forced himself to turn away and focus on the newly rebroken girl huddled on the dirty floor.

Laying with her back to the wall, Ellie had curled into herself as tightly as she could. She squeezed her eyes shut like she was afraid to open them. Quick, ragged breaths made her body tremble. When Freya rested a hand against Ellie's shoulder, she flinched away.

"Ellie," Tessa said, kneeling in front of her with Joe and Freya, "you're safe. He's gone. Nobody's going to hurt you."

"Did I do it," Ellie asked between tremors in a voice even smaller and more terrified than usual. Her eyes blinked open to stare up at the trio crouched in front of her. "Did H-He confess?" Tessa's eyebrows scrunched into a show of sorrow.

"No, he didn't."

Ellie's eyes widened in realization before she squeezed them shut again.

"I have to go back."

Joe clenched his jaw at the same time he felt his heart shatter. Ellie really was willing to do whatever it took to bring the truth to light, even if it meant putting herself in jeopardy. That was just who she was. She put her life on the line for Lizzie, now she wanted to put her sanity at risk for Anna. At that moment, Joe knew he could never let her go back.

Joe turned to Freya, who was the one who predicted Ellie's collapse in the first place, hoping she could see something the rest of them couldn't. Freya shook her head at him, telling Joe everything he needed to know.

"We're leaving," Joe said. He did not wait for anyone else's approval before scooping Ellie into his arms. Despite her cries of protest, he carried her small, shaking body back down the hallway, through the waiting room, and as far away from prison as possible.