He’d made a decent amount of progress in that time. Jack had expected to catch him halfway up the staircase, but he’d already made it to the boys’ door. With a twist of the knob, it groaned open. He slipped inside. A minute later, he appeared in the doorway again, and Conner was with him. Jack’s youngest brother was squirming to get out of the man’s grip, but his wrist was clasped as if in a vise. The man loomed over him. Pulled Conner close and hissed about wasteful little boys who didn’t finish their dinner. Jack narrowed her eyes, thinking back to earlier that evening. Conner had refused to finish the meat loaf the man had brought him from the diner where he worked because it had mold on the corner.

“I’m doing everything I can to provide for this family,” the man snarled, while Conner cowered beneath him. “Your mother would starve without me taking care of her. Is that what you want?”

Conner shook his head, tears streaming down his cheeks. He was wearing his superhero pajamas. It broke Jack’s heart to look at him, so little and so terrified. He jerked away from the man for the briefest instant, backing against the window near the top of the stairs.

That was when Jack noticed the vine. One year earlier, Raven had helped her plant that small packet of beans, and now that spring had come again, the vine was climbing up the side of the house. It peeked through the window where Conner was cowering. When the man’s temper calmed, and he ushered Conner back through the doorway to the attic, Jack didn’t pause to think. She simply crept up the attic stairs, opened the window farther, and pulled that long, twisting vine into the house. She guided it across the third stair from the top, tying the end to the banister, but not too tight. Then she rapped her knuckles against the boys’ bedroom door. The man barked at Conner to stay inside the room, and a moment later, Jack heard the whisper of soft, slippery footsteps approaching. She raced down the stairs, out the side door, and into the yard. The door had just closed behind her when she heard the scream.

There came a single thud, followed by tumbling. Groans. An instant later, she heard the sharp cracking of a bone. It was remarkably loud, considering all sound was making its way to her through the window, and when the man started to cry, she crept up to the side of the house, tugging at the vine.