Someone Just Followed You

Prologue

Maple’s eyelids flicker but she won’t open them.

She wants to live here, in her happy memory, not in the stifling, claustrophobic darkness that actually swamps her.

The door to the outside isn’t far away, just a few steps maybe, but it’s too far for her.

For the shackles on her wrists and ankles, chaining her to the bed.

But the memory has gone now, reality back behind her eyelids, so she gives in, opens her eyes. Takes in her shadowy surroundings. Within seconds the tears start, like always, hot and sticky on her cheeks.

She’s lying on her back. There’s just enough length in the chains to roll onto her side, but she doesn’t. Her whole body feels too heavy, like her muscles are still asleep and her limbs belong to someone else.

She stares at the ceiling. How long has she been here? Her brain is too sluggish; she can’t figure it out. She wants to fight against it, to think straight, to find a way to escape.

To pray for someone to come save her.

But she hasn’t got the strength to think. She’s too tired.

She closes her eyes again. Drifts off.