Arm in arm, Shanna and I begin the long walk back to our nieghborhood.

My sister clutches me tight, but she doesn't say anything. I don't say anything either. Despite what we'd just gone through, it's hard to describe the joy I feel that Shanna is actually alive, actually at my side, safe. Because her feet are bare, I give her my sandles. They're a perfect fit.

As we walk onward, I think about the amnesic affects the ketamine had on me last time. I know that it's likely that I will soon forget everything that's just happened. And Shanna, because she'd been on the drug constantly all year, probably wouldn't rememeber anything at all since we first disappeared.

It's hard to believe that I could possibly forget the girls held captive, the cigarette boxes containing a finger each at their feet, and, most of all, freeing myself from the guy by severing his thumbs.

It's all so painful to think about, but I don't want to forget. I try to go over everything from the moment I left the appartment to the moment when Shanna and I escaped through the hole in the wall.

But even now I can't really recall how I'd gotten into the basement again in the first place. And a moment later, while I think I may have done something gruesome and violent to the guy, I can't remember what it was. Then the memory of the captive girls fades, and then it's gone. And, now, I can't remember being with anyone recently, except for Shanna.

I look down at the blood on my shirt. I feel my tender, swollen eye and my split lip. And I'm bewildered.

Why are Shanna and I walking the streets in the middle of the night? Covered in blood? Why are my feet bare? Why is she wearing nothing but a nightgown?

How is Shanna even here with me? Wasn't Shanna dead?

She squeezes my arm a little tighter. "Almost there," she says.

I decide that I must be dreaming: a dream where I'm walking through the night with my sister, and all that matters is that we must get home at all costs.

So that's what we do.

We make our way to our neighborhood, then to our street, and finally we reach our apartment building just before dawn. We climb into our bedroom through the open window. We collapse on our beds, and at last we sleep.