Ellie had fantasized about what she was going to say in that prison. She was going to get justice for Anna and show Him the person she'd grown into since he tried to kill her.

"My name is Ellie, and I know you killed Anna," she was supposed to say. She did not expect it to be easy, because nothing in her life was. She expected him to push back, and she was ready for it... or so she thought.

In the end, it was all for nothing. She failed painfully and embarrassingly.

She wished she had been stronger. If she didn't have Joe and Tessa's voices in the back of her head telling her it was a bad idea, maybe she wouldn't have panicked. She could have looked Him right in the eye and finally be the hero in someone else's story.

"El, dinner's ready."

Ellie rolled her eyes at the sound of Joe's voice calling for her. She kept her eyes on her book and ignored the summons from downstairs. Shifting her back against the bed's headboard, she sank lower into the mattress to find the ideal reading angle. Her stomach growled in protest, but she told herself she would get leftovers later that night.

As she tried to concentrate on the words on the page, footsteps clamored to the top of the stairs. She suddenly regretted not closing her door sooner when Joe stood in the open frame.

"El, dinner."

"I'm not hungry," she said, refusing to look up from her book.

"Don't be ridiculous. You haven't eaten today. Of course you're hungry."

"You don't know that," she retorted, even though what he said was true. But she certainly wasn't going to admit it.

Joe let out a deep sigh before heading back downstairs, knowing that pushing back wouldn't do any good. Ellie stared at the words in front of her until they turned into a jumbled mess of letters. She wanted to be happy about her triumph, but she wasn't.

One week after she left the prison against her will, Ellie had no desire to be around the person who carried her away. Joe showed no remorse over making her look weak and helpless. She wasn't weak and helpless; she just needed more time. That was what she told herself, anyway.

If Joe hadn't forced her away, she could have gone back in and gotten the confession she wanted. Instead, the awkwardly silent two-hour drive home allowed too much fear to creep in. It didn't help that nobody thought the prison visit was a good idea in the first place. She couldn't remember exactly what happened in those last few minutes; all she heard was a chorus of voices telling her she couldn't do it until they overwhelmed her. The next thing she knew, Joe was picking her up off the prison floor.

She'd imagined every scenario possible going in, but none of them involved her being dragged outside against her wishes. Sure, she thought there was a possibility of Him breaking out of his restraints and bashing her head against the wall, but that was a risk she was willing to take.

Not wanting to face either Joe or Tessa—but especially the former—Ellie waited to forage for food until well after sunset. With the pitch-black view outside her window, she finally set her book down and ventured downstairs. She peered around the staircase's banister to check that the coast was clear, but as she rounded off the last step towards the kitchen, Joe seemed to appear in front of her out of nowhere.

"El, you need to eat something."

"I am." She scowled and pushed past him, not leaving any room for him to object again. His command made her want to turn around and go back to her room, but her stomach finally protested enough to send her straight to the fridge for the container of leftover pasta.

Ellie ate alone and pretended to enjoy the silence that used to bring her comfort. But now, the same silence that used to tell her she was safe only reminded her of her failure.

As Ellie sat in solitude, the chair next to hers scraped against the floor, and she felt an unwelcome presence take a seat. But the voice caught her off guard when she realized it was Tessa, not Joe.

"Are you going to tell me what's been going on with you the last few days, or do I have to pull it out of you?" Ellie hunched over and shoveled a pile of spaghetti into her mouth, prompting Tessa to lean in closer. "If this is about what happened last week, you know you can talk about it with us."

"There's nothing to talk about," Ellie said between bites.

"Apparently there is, because there's a lot you're not saying right now."

Ellie dropped her fork with an exaggerated sigh. She was right; there were a lot of things she wasn't saying, but that was because Tessa wasn't the person she wanted to say them to.

As if his "people are talking about me" radar sent an alert, Ellie heard footsteps approaching from behind that belonged to the only other member of the household. Ellie kept her head down in the hopes he would go away.

"You two need to talk about whatever is going on between you," Tessa said, excusing herself from the conversation and room. Ellie crossed her arms and averted her eyes.

"Tessa's right," Joe said as she walked away. The calmness in his voice reignited Ellie's irritation. "You can't stay mad forever. What happened at the prison—"

"What happened was that you ruined my only chance to help Anna," Ellie snapped. She turned to face Joe to find his eyebrows knit together, a look of betrayal plastered on his face.

"You need to stop being so stubborn," he said, his voice sharper than normal and filled with annoyance.

"You're the stubborn one. I could have gotten that confession by myself."

"No, you couldn't," he said, gesturing towards nothing while his tone continued to rise. "You were on the floor! I wasn't going to sit back and let you be a martyr for someone who's been dead for as long as you've been alive."

"You didn't think I could do it, so you sabotaged me and pulled me out before I was ready."

"I don't think you can do it because you couldn't. You didn't. Besides, the cops are the ones who pulled you out, not me."

"But you told them to! You were against me from the start. At least Tessa and Freya believed in me."

Joe sucked in a breath and looked ready to pull out another excuse, but he stopped himself. His frustration dissolved, replaced by a softened gaze, his mouth turned down. His shoulders fell, and when he spoke again, he sounded defeated.

"I only wanted to keep you safe."

Ellie won again, but she still could not relish in her triumph. She did not want to win, but she couldn't stop herself from making sure Joe knew how angry she was at him.

"It's your fault Anna's family still don't know who killed her, your fault I failed, and your fault that I don't want to talk to you." She pushed her chair away from the counter, letting the legs scrape against the floor hard enough to leave a scratch. "I'm going to Freya's."

Her last statement caused him to shake his head in disbelief and follow her to the stairs.

"Ellie, no, it's ten o'clock at night."

She ignored him as he followed her up the stairs and into her room, where she shoved the first set of clothes she saw into a backpack. "You don't even drive. Can you just chill out and think for a minute?"

Ellie's anger had reached a boiling point. She wanted the conversation to be over and to be far away from Joe, so she pulled out what she knew would hurt him the most.

"If you know what's best for me, then make me stay. Go ahead. Lock me in my room. Treat me like He did. You both think I'm weak and pathetic, anyway."

As predicted, Joe backed down, and he looked like he'd just been shot. His mouth fell open and he took a step back, taken off guard by Ellie's accusation. She did not believe her own words, but he didn't know that.

Ellie turned with a huff and left him alone and stunned. Joe was right; she didn't know how she would get there, but she would figure out a way. Luckily, Tessa was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, keys in hand. Ellie eyed her suspiciously, gauging if she was trying to trick her.

"That wasn't fair and you know it," Tessa said, her tone low and accusatory. The keys jingled as they hung from her finger. "I don't want you to go, but I'd rather see you get there safely than leave behind our backs."

With her backpack slung over one shoulder, Ellie trudged out the front door while Tessa followed closely behind. As the car backed out of the dark drive and onto the street, Ellie searched for a sign of Joe in the windows, but she saw none. Her stomach sank at the realization of what she'd done.

The silent ride to Freya's didn't take as long as usual, but it felt like hours. Ellie waited for Tessa to tell her what she should or should not do, but neither of them said anything. At times, Ellie considered changing her mind and asking Tessa to turn around, but she was too deep to pull back now.

The car's headlights illuminated the front of Freya's apartment building as it rolled to a stop outside her door. Ellie briefly turned to Tessa, but could not meet her stare before she stepped outside and knocked on the apartment door.

Enrique Iglesias' low barks and growls sounded from inside. Several knocks and a few minutes later, there was still no sign of Freya, and she knew Tessa wouldn't leave until she was inside. Nervous sweat gathered under her arms. Considering that Ellie did not text Freya ahead of time, she began to worry that she'd have to go back to the car and return home. She stared at her side of the peephole that stood almost a foot taller than her as if she could see through to the other side for whether her friend was actually home or not.

Luckily, after the sixth series of knocks, the door crept open, and in front of her stood a sleepy Freya holding a metal baseball bat at her side.

"What the fuck," she grumbled as she rubbed her eyes with her free hand. Her disheveled hair didn't look as vibrant when it stuck out in all directions, exposing her dark roots.

Ellie clutched the straps of her backpack, suddenly fearful that she'd been overly confident in Freya's openness to invite her inside. The car's engine idled and hummed in the night's silence as a reminder that she knew how stubborn and irrational she was acting.

"Can I stay here tonight?"

Through squinted eyes, Freya peered past Ellie at the blinding headlights. The glare was enough to conceal the driver, but it was obvious that the vehicle belonged to a Holland.

Freya looked back at Ellie, sighed, and then gestured towards the inside of her apartment. Ellie stepped in and Freya closed the door, mumbling something in Spanish that she was probably too tired to realize did not come out in English.

Ellie separated the blinds that covered one of the windows as she peeked through to watch Tessa pull away. The headlights flashed through the windshield as the car turned to drive away, then it disappeared beyond the streetlight.

"Couch is comfy enough," Freya said, tossing a pillow and blanket onto the only sofa she owned. "I'm going back to bed."

As Freya sauntered down a short hallway with a couple of doors, she dragged the bat on the carpet and the dog's short, stout frame hobbled behind her. Ellie curled into herself on the sofa and tried to ignore the inner voice telling her that she was making yet another mistake.