Chapter Two
My eyes snapped open the instant the truck shuddered to a stop.
My heart slammed into my chest at the sound of the door opening and someone stepping out of the vehicle.
Gravel crunched underneath their feet as they walked to the back of the truck.
I could barely breathe as the tailgate screeched open and light flooded the bed.
Harsh white beams from a flashlight poured in. An instant shock to my system. Time stood still as my eyes adjusted to the light. And then, suddenly, there he was in front of me.
A man standing there in a black ski mask.
Cheap black fabric clung to his jawline. Two jagged holes for eyes stared straight at me. His eyes were flat and unblinking. My stomach dropped like someone had shoved me off a cliff.
I scurried backward, smashing into the cab.
The gag throttled my screams. My gaze darted everywhere, searching for a way to escape.
I spotted a fluorescent-orange safety vest crumpled in the corner of the truck bed.
Was this a city worker’s truck? Had he stolen it?
Or was this his? What if he was the one that leered at me and gave me the creeps every time I ran by?
But none of that mattered as he climbed into the truck and stepped toward me.
Every muscle shook with fear. Even my teeth chattered. I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t watch him kill me.
Fake dead. Animals did it all the time. Opossums. Birds. It worked for them. Maybe it could work for me. The moment his hand touched my body, that’s what I did. Just went limp and left my body like it didn’t even belong to me.
He grabbed underneath my arms and hoisted me up, dragging me like a bag of trash through the back of the truck. My shoulder blades scraped against the metal ridges. My head throbbed with every jolt. Lights danced in front of my eyes. Everything rolled.
Cold air smacked me first as he yanked me out of the truck.
The mountain air was sharp and I gulped it in hungrily.
The sky was dark, pressing down on us like a heavy blanket.
He hoisted me over his shoulders like I weighed nothing, and my body twitched with the desire to fight.
To pummel him with my hands or bash my face into his.
But what would I do if he dropped me? Belly crawl through the forest? I wouldn’t get far.
I had to think. Figure out a way to escape, and I couldn’t do that when I was totally panicked. I had to be smarter than him. One step ahead.
Stay calm, I screamed at myself. Resisting the urge to beat on him.
Then, I saw a cabin looming in front of us, and terror hijacked all reason.
I jerked sideways and twisted my wrists to smack his back, shoving my legs into his stomach as hard as I could. He staggered forward, losing his grip.
“Shit!” he cursed as he struggled to hold me.
I flung myself even harder against him, and he dropped me this time.
I hit the dirt face-first. The ground knocked all the air out of my lungs.
Pine needles stabbed into my skin. I quickly rolled away.
Flopping and crawling on my elbows and knees.
My eyes on the tree line in front of me, screaming for help.
The gag strangled my cries, but I let them go anyway.
Guttural animal sounds ripping through the night.
I made it a few feet before his boot slammed into my ribs. I doubled over, gasping and gagging. He kicked me again. Even harder this time. I curled up tighter. Every nerve shrieking and on fire, but I didn’t care. I refused to give up.
I smacked my head into his nose. He yelled in pain and released me. I twisted free from his grip. My nails clawed at the dirt as I tried to scurry away again, but he was on me within seconds. He flipped me onto my back and slapped me across the face. The sting stunned me into submission.
He grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back. “Don’t you dare fight me, do you understand?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please don’t hurt me,” I babbled, but you couldn’t tell what I was saying through the gag in my mouth. That didn’t matter anyway. He wasn’t listening. His eyes were furious and focused on one thing and one thing only—getting me inside the cabin.
He looped his arms underneath my armpits and started dragging me toward the cabin like he’d dragged me through the back of the truck.
His breath came ragged through his mask.
Hot and furious against the back of my neck.
I made my body as heavy as possible, trying to become deadweight so that I’d tire him out even more. I’d do whatever I could to exhaust him.
I didn’t complete seven triathlons and twelve marathons for nothing. I can endure pain. Pressure. The urge to quit.
I know how to fight and keep fighting. I could outlast him.
I dug my heels even farther into the ground. Digging deeper trenches into the dirt as he pulled me along, grunting and heaving hard. Maybe my shoes were leaving pieces of me behind in the dirt. A trail of evidence so people could find me. They had to be looking for me by now.
The cabin was crouched at the edge of a clearing and swallowed up by huge, towering pine trees.
The windows were dark and grimy like they hadn’t been cleaned for years.
The porch steps leaned, crooked and half rotted, covered in cobwebs.
The railing split. A single bulb hung over the door and cast the entry in a sick yellow halo.
For the first time, I really looked around at our surroundings. I recognized the mountains and the water in the background. I knew exactly where we were.
Big Bear Lake.
My aunt Georgia had a cabin on the south side when I was growing up, and my family used it as an escape from all the madness and stress of Los Angeles every summer.
I’d spent weeks here since I was six. Memories of the hikes that lasted forever and the smell of campfires around the lake rushed through me, unbidden.
Quickly followed by the crushing blow that my safe place had turned into my worst nightmare.
The man forced me up the rickety stairs.
They sagged under the pressure of our feet.
He kicked the door open and I clawed at the doorframe as he tried to shove me inside.
I knew I couldn’t fight him off, but I was hoping my fingernails scraped the wood and left more traces of me behind.
He quickly ripped me free and shoved me over the threshold.
Everything inside me shrank as he slammed the door behind us, and the cabin swallowed me whole.