She could not believe that this was happening.
Her fiancé was insane.
Insane and evil.
“Hope.”
Someone called her name. Maybe had been calling it for a while, but she struggled to get her mind to hold on to anything. It kept slipping back to what had just happened.
The man she loved had just murdered someone in front of her. Hacked him to death in a frenzy. Then he raped her.
She’d had sex with Chance plenty of times before, but this had felt completely different. There was no connection, no emotion, no love. What he had done to her was just sex. Rough, violent, horrible sex.
“Hope.”
Why was someone calling her name? She didn’t want to crawl out of the hazy hole she had tucked herself away in. If she came out of it, she would have to face what had happened. Right now, she was clinging to denial, hoping this was all some horrible nightmare or hallucination, letting shock cover her in a comfortable cloak. She did not want to be prodded back into reality.
“Hope, come on, please.”
The insistent voice finally prodded her out of her little bubble. She cracked an eye open, then moaned when she saw the blood all over the floor.
“Hope, please.” This time the voice ended with a sob.
Even though she didn’t want to, Hope opened her eyes and lifted her head. Avoiding the bloody mess, she looked over at the wooden box where she knew Summer was trapped.
“Hope, the handcuffs,” Summer called out. “The bar on the bed, I think it’s loose. Can you get free?”
She hadn’t even noticed that. Well, really, she hadn’t noticed much of anything, but now that her friend had drawn her attention to it, she realized that one of the bars at the head of the bed was loose. “Where’s Chance?” she asked. She was afraid to try and escape only to run headlong into her crazy fiancé.
“He’s gone. He collected all of the, uh, body pieces, and left.”
Relieved and hopeful that he would be gone for a long time, long enough for her to get free, get Summer free, and get out of here, Hope concentrated all of her energy on wiggling the iron bar. It felt like it was taking hours, and she was so scared that she wouldn’t be free before Chance returned.
Her persistence eventually paid off, and she was rewarded with the bottom of the bar coming away. Quickly, she slid the cuff down and sighed in relief. She was free.
She knew there wasn't time to waste, so she jumped off the bed and hurried to Summer, the handcuff dangling from her wrist.
“Summer, are you okay?”
“My arm is broken,” her friend replied, her voice tight with pain.
“Hold on and I’ll get you out.” She gave the padlock a couple of jiggles, then started searching the room for a key. “I can't find it,” she said helplessly a few minutes later. “He must have taken it with him.”
“Don’t worry about me, Hope. Just go. Run. Get help,” Summer said.
Her friend sounded weak, and she didn’t want to leave her. What if Chance came back? If he returned to find her gone, he would take out his anger on Summer.
“Really.” Summer pressed her face to the small opening. “It’s fine, just go, find someone and get help.”
She knew there was no other choice. Shehadto run. If she didn’t get help, then both of them would die.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she promised, putting her fingers through the opening to touch her friend’s face.
Reluctantly, she stood and walked to the door. With a last look back she left the cabin.
Which way to run?She wasn't sure, she had no idea which direction the road was. Shedidn’t know where they were.
Hope picked a direction and started walking, she hadn’t gone more than a few yards when she heard a car. Chance’s car. He was back. She’d taken too long to snap out of her shock-induced haze, and then too long to work the bar on the bed free.