Together they whispered ‘yes,’ and for the next twenty minutes, Alyssa and Cord listened as they recounted the horrible events of that fateful night.

‘Okay, I know this has been a lot, but tell us about the night you and Emerson escaped.’

Alyssa was surprised to see Addis and Emerson share a smile. Then Addis’s hand emerged from beneath the blanket holding something in her palm. ‘We found a shard of glass in the crawl space, and we used that to help saw through the ropes.’ Light pink suddenly stained Addis’s cheeks as she showed Alyssa what she held. ‘We found this under the cabin, and I know it wasn’t much in the way of real protection, but it was like our good luck charm, and so I kept it.’

‘Do you mind if I take a look at that?’ Alyssa asked.

‘Sure.’

Examining it, Alyssa knew Addis was correct in her assumption that the personalized gift-shop knife would’ve offered no assistance since its rusted blade was far from sharp. Most of the lettering had worn off, but she could make out an A and an E. Alex? Something stirred inside her. Careful to keep her tone even, she said, ‘Addis, Cord and I are going to need to hold onto this for a bit, okay?’

If Addis was confused, she didn’t show it.

‘What made you crawl under the cabin the night you escaped?’ Cord asked.

‘We’d just gotten to the porch when we saw headlights. It was too dark to see where it was safe to go, so we decided to hide beside the house, and that’s when Addis fell and realized we could crawl under it, so we did.’

‘It was stupid dark under there, and it didn’t help that something sharp kept poking us.’ Addis shuddered. ‘The guy who kidnapped us sounded angry at the other person.’

‘What did he say that makes you think that?’ Alyssa asked when Addis hesitated.

The girls looked at each other before Addis shrugged. ‘Um, I think it’s because he said, “What the hell are you doing here, Alex” or something like that, anyway.’

Even beneath the hospital blanket, it was easy to see the girls trembling, and Alyssa wondered if either of them was aware that they’d simultaneously inched closer to each other as, whispering, Emerson repeated Alex’s threat. ‘Alex was the one who said they had to kill us like they killed Ad’s mom and dad.’ A knock on the door distracted everyone. When Mrs. Childress called for the visitor to enter, Tony and Sandra walked in together.

‘Hey. I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d come and see for myself how the two of you are doing.’ The girls wore matching smiles at Tony’s greeting.