Mercy tried to make sense of what was going on. Her captor must have some sort of plan for her, a plan that he kept changing. Last night, he had let her inside and gave her dinner. Cornbread, tomato soup, bacon, and a Coke. Shed eaten so much that shed nearly gotten sick. Hed invited her to sleep in his house, in his bed, assuring her that he would not rape her. When she had asked instead to sleep on the couch, hed lost his mind. Hed slapped her hard enough to bust her lip all over again and then ended up giving her his bed while he slept on the couch. He had tied her legs together so she could not escape and had kept his rifle by the couch just in case she managed to walk through the house with any ideas of escape.

But then this morning, he hadnt said a word to her. He had allowed her to eat a bowl of Cheerios and then hauled her out to the barn. There, hed duct-taped her mouth and then taped her wrists together. He did it all in a hurry and she had prayed the entire time that hed make a mistake. But no…he had been thorough. Her legs were tied together with just a little slack and her wrists were bound in front of herthe one thing she thought he might have screwed up on because with her bound arms in front of her, she was at least a bit more mobile than she would have been if he had taped them behind her back.

He had been working with the lock on the old trailer at the back of the barn when he heard the car turn onto his driveway. Thats when hed thrown her to the ground, apparently not feeling that he had time to mess with the busted old lock on the trailer. Hed gone to the side of the barn, bent down, and opened up what looked like a trapdoor. He had grabbed her up and nearly thrown her down the shallow set of stairs. Shed hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of her. Shed also twisted her right wrist in the fall and it currently ached like hell. Before slamming the hidden door shut, he had looked down at her and said the first words of the morning to her.

You try coming out and doing anything stupid, Ill rape you and then kill you. Slow. Youll beg for the rifle.