She also figured shed been here for at least three days. She had her own clock worked out in her head. The times he came and spoke to her, it was probably sometime during the dayduring the waking hours. Then, later, there would be the sounds of crickets and tree frogs and the world would go quiet. That was the night. And she had experienced three of them.

Now, though, she assumed it was the day. She could hear his footfalls. He was coming back to speak with her. Every time she had heard him walking, it was followed by his tapping on the outside of the container and speaking with her.

Thirsty?

She had been expecting his voice but even then, it chilled her. It made her want to start crying. She was not a stupid girl. He was keeping her for some damned reason. To rape her or abuse her or kill her. None of those options were great ones and she did not want to find out what he had in mind.

Im going to let you out, he said. You and I, we need to figure out what were going to dowhere we go from here. I might…well, I might ask you to do some things to me. I dont know yet. But Im not a savage. Im not going to keep you in there, in that dark place. So Im going to open this door and you and I are going into my house. Ill give you some of the cornbread I have left over from dinner. I have some Cokes in there, too. Beer, too…but I guess youre too young for that. So…yeah. Im going to open this thing up. You try to run, I will catch you. And I will kill you. I have a rifle right here in my hand and Ill use it. Do you believe me?

The mere idea of being out of the dark was enough to make her answer. The rifle did not bother her. Hell, in that moment, any crude and psycho things he wanted her to do to him didnt bother her. She just wanted out of the darkness.

She listened to keys jangling and then something heavy making a clunk sound. And then, holy of holies, there was light. Not a lot of it, but it was more than the absolute darkness she had been living inside for the last several days. Wherever she was, it was night. The air was relatively cool and smelled mustynot too dissimilar from the smell of the trailer shed been in.

You can come out, his voice said.