No Way Back

A fire broke out, and it quickly spread across the entire room.

Jane Fowler collapsed to the ground, motionless, her body racked by coughing fits from inhaling the thick smoke. Her eyes welled up with tears as she fought for air.

The ash that covered her face and her disheveled hair was not enough to hide the natural and unspoiled beauty of her features.

She was under the influence of something because she was paralyzed and couldn’t move a muscle while wondering when exactly she was drugged.

“Jane, gosh, you look disastrous,” Madelyn Fowler said as she approached, wearing a gas mask.

She was kneeling next to Jane, and from her white dress and gentle tone, she seemed like a sweet, innocent little girl.

Or at least, that was Jane’s long–held belief.

“Did you drug me, Madelyn?” Jane cried out, her expression one of shock and disbelief.

Jane just couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that her sweet, innocent sister could be capable of such vile acts.

“It’s just a test, Jane,” Madelyn replied, removing her gas mask to reveal a sly grin. “I’m interested to see if our family would believe more in you or me when they see this.”

Madelyn then placed her gas mask on Jane’s face and smeared a bit of ash on her own cheeks.

Then, with a gloved hand, she pulled a small knife from her pocket and deliberately sliced open her own arm. The wound was gushing with blood.

Madelyn tossed the knife aside and took off her gloves, which she then slid onto Jane’s paralyzed hands. After that, Madelyn clenched her injured arm and yelled at the top of her lungs, portraying an expression of pure terror.

Madelyn yelled, “Help! Daddy, Mommy! Help me! Janie has gone crazy!”

while he

parents and seven brothers rushed

much… Janie is crazy! She started the fire out of the blue and said she wanted to die with me. Then she cut me with a knife and told

her terrified, deer–like eyes, Jack Fowler glanced over at Jane, who was

in the stomach, growling, “I don’t know how I

the kick nearly

the suffering in her heart far

as if it were being torn in

once taken a

him when Jack attended a business event, and he

broke into the event, brought a gun with him,

bullet, while Jack

police took Jane to the hospital, where she was rushed to intensive care, but she miraculously

her wounds.

see Jane in the hospital until a few days had passed, and they’d had a chance

think about it.

hour away from

said a few words, but he did explain that Madelyn is an adopted daughter, and he hoped Jane would be more accepting of her situation. Madelyn had always feared

later, Madelyn called to say she had an emergency, so the Fowlers left Jane in the

their family history might assume that Madelyn was their biological daughter and

spent so much

abandon her.

to almost everything Madelyn

wanted, Jane always gave it

selected all the gifts first, choosing the

Jane hoped that the Fowlers would feel touched by her gesture and that she would be accepted as a “real daughter” at last.

The whole thing was just a joke, a stupid joke, now that Jane thought about it.

She saw the Fowler family cram Madelyn into their arms and rush her out of the fire, leaving her behind like discarded garbage.

As the flames engulfed her body and the intense pain consumed her senses, Jane could smell the burning.

She blinked back the tear running down her cheek and let out a heavy sigh as she closed her eyes.