She would not cry.

And then she heard that rattle and rustle again from the corner and her frenzied panic turned to cold, cringing dread.

Someone, something was in here with her.

The sounds became more frenzied, and through the thrashing she caught muffled growls and whines, and whistling breaths. Whatever it was it sounded furious, but at least it wasn’t coming any closer. Maybe it was leashed in the corner. Maybe—

Cell phone! Yes! She could call for help! She reached for her bag and then realized with a groan it was in the car. Now she truly wanted to cry.

More thrashing from the corner.

God, if she could only see! Slivers of daylight seeping through the boarded-up windows provided the only illumination, and what little there was only made matters worse as her eyes adjusted. Whatever was thrashing in the corner looked big.

Nadia felt around her and found a counter and a sink. She must be in the kitchen area. She found drawers and pulled them open, searching for a weapon or even a flashlight, but all she found were food crumbs and dust.

She turned and felt around behind her. A table and—thank you, God!—a candle, maybe three inches long, in some sort of glass holder. She ran her fingers across the tabletop and knocked something to the floor. Bending she patted around and came up with a plastic cylinder. A lighter.

Her initial joy quickly faded when she realized that light would reveal what they’d locked her up with. But as she listened to the hissing, whining, thrashing thing at the other end of the trailer she knew she had no choice. Not knowing was worse.

She flicked the wheel and held the flame before her. It revealed nothing, but all noise except for the hissing breaths ceased.

Was it afraid? Afraid of fire?

The silence was almost worse than the noise. She didn’t know how much butane she had left, so she lit the candle. Then, holding it at arm’s length before her, she edged toward the far end of the trailer, moving inches at a time.

And slowly on the right she began to make out a shape… and it was human-shaped rather than animal, stretched out on some sort of bed… and as she moved closer she saw that it was a man and he was bound hand and foot, spread-eagle on the bed… and she saw a mouth sealed with silver duct tape, and above the tape wide blue eyes glistening in the light… She knew those eyes and the sandy hair falling over the forehead.

“Doug!”

The candle slipped from her fingers but she caught it again, barely noticing the splash of hot wax across her wrist as she leaped to his side. She was sobbing as she peeled the tape from his mouth.

“Oh, Nadj, I’m so sorry!” he half gasped, half sobbed. “I had no idea!”

She kissed him. “Doug, what happened? Why are we here?”

“I don’t know,” he said as she began to work on the knot on his right wrist. “I never got to see whoever snatched me.”