With a heavy sack covering my head, I search for any hint of light in this sea of black that engulfs me, but there is no light. No way to know where this man is taking me. No sign of rescue. Amid the terror that laces through me like poisonous venom, I remind myself that I don’t want to be rescued—not just yet anyway. I need to find out who is behind this and where we are going, and in addition to saving my own life, I need to try to save Rosie’s and Frances’s lives as well. That is, if I am even given the chance. At the moment, the only sounds passing through my ears are my abductor’s barbaric, labored grunts and the crunching of our feet over snow and branches as he pushes me up a steep incline and farther into the freezing abyss. The rope he has tied around my wrists digs mercilessly into my raw skin, and the bitter wind bites at my fingertips, turning them numb with each passing second.
