...but then, strong hands grabbed her by the shoulders and sharply hauled her to the left, chair and all. Melanie felt herself go airborne and crash through several wooden planks, but she landed on her side in a large patch of snow. The flames on her jeans were rapidly stomped out. Melanie moaned, partially in gratitude and partially in pain from the burns. The headphones were removed from her ears, bringing the sound of loud shouts and a few gunshots to her attention. "Melanie, you OK?" came a familiar voice in her ear. Melanie's heart leaped: Walton! And sure enough, as the blindfold was pulled from her eyes, there was the policewoman, agony on her face and a hand over the bloody wound on her upper chest, but alive. She whipped off Melanie's gag in a flash, then yanked the wad of cloth out of her mouth. "How did you...I saw you...!" Melanie gushed in a hyper voice. Then something else hit her mind. "Rick...!?"

Loud shrieks made her turn to the right to see Sydney and Emily come flying out the window in their chairs. And after them, gasping and bleeding but alive, was Rick. "Melanie!" he rushed to her and kissed her hard, then assisted Walton in untying Melanie and Marti from their chairs. "Thank God we were able to follow the trail quickly enough!" he gasped in relief.

"What's going on!? How'd the other cops get here!?" Marti exclaimed once Walton had pulled her gag off, staring around at the S.W.A.T. units chasing after Bishop's followers and bringing them into custody.

"I had them on standby; I texted in an S.O.S. after we were shot, and they were there in a flash. I couldn't give that away earlier, or I'd've given away the whole sting; I just wish it hadn't meant putting you girls in danger. Are you all right?" Walton asked them with concern.

"Yeah, you got here just in time...Rick!" Melanie threw her arms around him once they'd been freed.

"Melanie," he gushed, kissing her repeatedly, "I thought I'd lost you..."

"And you're still going to!" from out of nowhere, Rhonda shoved him aside, grabbed hold of Melanie, and hurled her into the arms of her uncle behind them. Bishop thrust a very large knife to Melanie's throat. "Ladies, gentlemen, weapons on the ground, now!" he ordered the police, who slowly complied. "OK, this lovely lady and I are walking out of here together, and nobody's going to follow, or she dies instantly, understand!?" he bellowed, "Let's go, sweetheart," he started dragging Melanie away.

"I'm not going with you!" Melanie squirmed to get out of his grip, "Get your hands off me now, or...!"

"Or what, your precious God will save you? I don't think so...uh oh," Bishop laughed as the ice of the small pond he'd stepped on started cracking, "We've got a weak ice layer here. Wouldn't it be tragic if something happened...?

He abruptly smashed the ice with his foot, leaving a large hole, and shoved Melanie in with a shriek. "Down you go!" he planted a foot on her head and tried to shove her under. Melanie gargled the brutally cold water, straining against the pressure of his foot. "Just once more, God, please, give me the strength to resist him!" she begged for one more miracle. Pushing up with all her strength, she managed to force her head above the water. "How do you have the strength!? Bishop was stunned, "Under, you little rat, to your grave...!"

"NO!" she yelled, kicking hard to keep her head above the ice. Bishop growled and pushed harder...

...but was blindsided from behind and sent toppling into the hole himself. Strong hands grabbed Melanie and pulled her out. "You all right!?" Rick hugged her hard.

"I am now," Melanie kissed him in gratitude. She turned at a shriek to see Bishop thrashing and kicking. "Help! I can't swim!" the killer gasped, looking terrified. Walton frowned down at him for a second, then shook her head and extended an arm, but it was too late; Bishop slipped under the surface and sank down out of sight. Walton stared down at the hole for about a minute, but he did not return. "He's gone. It's over," she declared, relief washing over her face. She turned towards Melanie. "You OK?"

"Yeah, I'm OK, thanks," Melanie told her.

"You're a very brave girl, Melanie. I'll try and give you some credit for this arrest," the policewoman told her with a smile, "Come on, the ambulance is this way; we'll get you back to Shadyside."

She took Melanie's arm and helped Rick escort her toward the ambulance in question. "Take your hands off me!" Rhonda was shouting, trying to resist the police officers trying to load her onto a snowmobile in handcuffs, "I've done nothing wrong here...!"

"She helped Bishop pick out his victims, and helped him try and kill me and my friends," Melanie spoke up, glaring at Rhonda, "And committed the cold-blooded murder of Roxanne Parker. I'll testify in court to it all."

"And like I said, Rhonda, it's over for good," Rick added, turning his back on his former girlfriend and walking away towards the ambulance. "Up you go," he helped lift Melanie up into the back, where the other girls were huddled together, wrapped in blankets.

"We'd like a statement from you too, son," another officer called to him. Rick nodded. "Be right back, Melanie," he told her, bustling off. Melanie turned towards Marti, Sydney, and Emily next to her. The four of them stared at each other for half a minute, then embraced each other with low gasps. "We made it," Emily gushed through tears.

"Yeah, see, you didn't die at the killer's hands, Emily," Sydney told her, rubbing the brunette's shoulder. "Still," she exhaled with a sigh, "I think I'm adventured out for a while. I say we go over to Melanie's and go to sleep for a month once we're out of the hospital. Everything OK, Melanie?" she asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine now, Sydney, thank you. How about you?"

"My heart's still going a million beats a minute; I've never been more scared than I was back there, thinking I was about to get roasted alive," Sydney confessed, and indeed she was visibly shaking, "But we're alive, and that's all that matters. I guess God's real after all and got us out of there alive."

"Yeah, I guess he was watching over us," Marti agreed. She pivoted towards Melanie and hugged her. "I don't know what I'd've done if I'd lost my best friend...!"

Melanie could only sniff in gratitude, still touched beyond words at Marti's and the other girls' devotion to her. With a low thump, Rick slid into the ambulance with them. "They said it was OK for me to take a ride with you girls," he said, giving Melanie another kiss and hug, "So let's head on home to Shadyside, and see what we can do to make it a better place once we're out of the hospital."

"Make Shadyside better? Don't make me laugh; it's beyond saving," Emily snorted, jerking to the right as the ambulance started bumping over the uneven terrain.

"Even lost causes as worth fighting for, and if we believe God can help, what can't we do?" Marti countered.

"Yeah, God makes everything possible," Melanie agreed, leaning her head against Rick's shoulder again as he squeezed her in close and her friends put their arms around her. God had dispelled the darkness for her and shown her the way home...

THE END