Excerpt
She moved blindly, unable to hear anything over her own ragged breathing. Branches and thorns tore her skin, but she barely felt it-the advantage of being numb. Part of the duct tape had come off her mouth, and a monotonous droning sound turned out to be the chattering of her teeth. When she became still, she could hear the footsteps. She turned in the other direction and started to run as fast as her frozen, barefoot body would allow, scarcely more than a limping trot. She had covered perhaps five feet when he grabbed her by the back of her sodden T-shirt and tripped her. He straddled her back. She heard an almost gentle clinking sound and then the chain passed around her neck. He pulled the ends taut but not yet tight.
"You can't do this." She fought one last time to get to her feet, tearing at the skin of her own neck as she tried to pull the chains away with her right hand. "Do you know what will happen to you?"
He said nothing.
"Don't you know who I am?"
The chains tightened.