Prologue

Icy fingers grip my arm in the darkness, dragging me further into the abyss. My ears strain to hear the shallow footsteps of my kidnapper.
The ground cracks and shifts beneath us as we walk over frozen rocks and branches to an unknown location. The wind pricks my bare skin, like a frosty needle and blister left by the ropes that had been tied fastly around my wrist burn.
I don't remember how long we've been walking, nor how long I've been in their collection. The bandanna around my eyes has not left its place since my capture.
The initial fear of being kidnapped has long subsided. Leaving unknown emotions, I can only relate to emptiness, in its wake. I have been surrounded by darkness for so long, that everything has blurred together, the car, the voices. The last thing that I can fully remember, walking home from school.
It was Friday. A perfect sun filled, joyous Friday. A day so optimistic and perfect, I had thought nothing could go amiss.
How wrong I was...
It still baffles me how they managed to kidnap me in the first place. At the time I had been seconds away from the school gate, kicking and screaming as the man clothed in black, gripped me around the waist and placed his hand over my mouth. I was forcefully shoved into a white van in an area could hardly be considered secluded.
Before now, I had thought the action taken that day, by both the man and I, would have alerted someone. Anyone. But no one came to help me, no one even noticed.
I've read a lot of books, stories like this. Stories about brave people, who fight for freedom, or about a romance between the kidnapper and the kidnapped.
This is real... At least for me.
This story will not be about a courageous fight for freedom, as I am not even brave enough to order at a cafe. Nor will it be about love, as I know for sure, no matter how long I stay in his collection, nor how kind he is to me, I will never love a man, so horrid and heinous as the man clothed in black.

Imprint

Publication Date: 08-30-2017

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
Jordan, Grace, Summer, Katie