Vanessa tore Mia’s princess dress in front of the whole school.

The steel stairs groaned beneath my boots as I climbed toward the suspended catwalk. The wind through the gorge was howling, throwing icy spray from the waterfall against my face. With every step, the sound of the churning river grew louder, vibrating through the metal frame of the structure like an earthquake.

Mia saw me. Her swollen eyes widened, and she tried to shout, but the heavy duct tape wrapped around her mouth muffled her words into a desperate, strangled sob.

"I'm here, baby," I whispered aloud, though the storm swallowed my voice. "I'm right here."

I reached the top platform. The catwalk was barely four feet wide, a rusted iron grate spanning across the open gorge between the two main pump towers.

Vanessa stood twenty feet away from me. She looked wild, unhinged—her designer coat was soaked through, her blonde hair whipping across her face, her eyes dilated with madness. The silver revolver in her right hand was pressed directly behind Mia’s ear.

"Put the drive on the floor and kick it over," Vanessa shouted over the roar of the water. "Do it now, Sarah!"

"Let Mia take ten steps toward me first," I demanded, holding the cylinder tightly in my fist. "That was the deal!"

"There is no deal!" Vanessa shrieked, her voice cracking with hysteria. "You took everything from me! My family was royalty in this valley! We built this town! And your filthy, pathetic husband dragged our name through the mud because he was too weak to play the game!"

"Your family destroyed themselves, Vanessa!" I yelled back, taking a slow, calculated step forward. "Julian stole the pensions! Your grandmother killed him to cover it up! You're throwing your entire life away for a lie!"

"Shut up!" Vanessa jammed the barrel harder into Mia’s skull, making Mia whimper in agony. "You think I care about the money anymore? The government seized the accounts an hour ago! The Sinclairs are broke, Sarah! We're paupers! Do you know what that feels like?! To have the whole world laugh at you?!"

Suddenly, a muffled gunshot echoed from the darkness below the loading dock. Then another.

Vanessa flinched, her eyes darting toward the edge of the platform. "What was that?!"

A second later, a figure in black tactical gear burst onto the far end of the catwalk behind Vanessa.

It was Daniel.

His face was streaked with soot and blood, his rifle raised and locked onto Vanessa’s torso. "Drop the weapon, Vanessa! The perimeter team is down! You're surrounded!"

Vanessa spun slightly, realizing she was trapped between Daniel on one side and me on the other. But instead of surrendering, a terrifying, grotesque smile spread across her red lips.

"Surrounded?" she whispered. "No, Daniel. You're the ones who don't understand."

She reached into her coat with her left hand and pulled out a small, military-grade radio detonator.

"Julian didn't just leave documents in Locker 412," Vanessa laughed, her voice carrying an eerie, tranquil insanity. "He mined the support pillars of this catwalk twelve years ago. He was going to blow the whole school board to hell before he lost his nerve."

My heart stopped.

"Vanessa, don't!" Daniel shouted, taking a frantic step forward.

"If the Sinclairs don't own this valley..." Vanessa snarled, her thumb hovering over the red toggle switch, "...then no one gets to leave it alive!"

In that split second, Mia acted.

Using every ounce of strength left in her body, Mia threw her weight backward, slamming her head violently into Vanessa’s face.

The sound of cartilage crunching was sickening. Vanessa screamed in agony, stumbling backward against the rusted railing. The revolver flew from her grip, clattering through the iron grating and vanishing into the abyss below.

"Mia, run!" Daniel roared, lunging forward.

Mia scrambled across the wet metal toward me, her bound hands flailing for balance. I dove forward, wrapping my arms around my daughter’s waist, pulling her hard against my chest as we crashed to the floor of the platform.

Behind us, Vanessa pulled herself up along the railing, blood streaming from her broken nose, her face twisted in demonic rage.