“No!” Zoe wasn’t convinced. “We’ve got to get out of here,” she shrieked, her arm scrabbling in the air, searching in the direction from which she thought she’d heard Chloe’s voice. “Run!”

“Don’t leave me!” Chloe cried.

Zoe turned and plunged into the dense growth, racing toward the sound of her sister’s voice. A few steps in her legs met the resistance of something heavy and cold. By the time she realized it was a fallen log, she was going down.

Crap! She tumbled down, rolling to a stop against a stump. “Oooph!” Sharp pain splintered through her ankle.

“Zoe!” Chloe cried as the beam of the flashlight strobed through the trees, searching.

No!

They were seconds away from being discovered, and Zoe couldn’t let the searcher find her twin. No way! Zoe stood a chance against whoever was hunting them down, but she had to think fast to save her sister. Forcing herself back onto her feet, she tried to keep weight off her tender ankle as she waved and yelled and screamed to divert the hunter’s attention from Chloe. “Hey!” she shouted at the beam of light. It moved quickly, bouncing as if whoever was holding it was running. “Hey! Over here!”

But the light didn’t swing in her direction. Instead, it veered over into the brush many yards from her, toward her sister. Horrified, Zoe watched the watery beam shift and circle, homing in.

Suddenly the beam landed on Chloe. Cowering and ghostly in the light, she seemed rooted to the spot, frozen in fear.

“Chloe, run!” Zoe screamed as she struggled to see the hunter in the thin moonlight. It was a big, hulking form. The hairy man in an apron. The monster was alive! Somehow he’d survived!

Sick inside, she screamed at the top of her lungs for her sister to get on her feet and escape. “Go! Run!”

But it was too late. In the next instant the freak pounced on his prey, springing with the agility of a lion.

Chloe let out a shriek as the light cut out.

Oh, God!

“There’s still time!” he growled, his voice a gravelly whisper in the damp night.

Instinctively, Zoe had lurched toward her sister, but now, trapped in the muddy darkness, she froze. She’d lost her bearings! She stared into the night, willing her eyes to focus in the moonlight. As her eyes adjusted she saw him hovering over her shocked twin. It looked as if he were striking her again and again, but as her focus sharpened Zoe realized he was tying Chloe up. The beast was subduing her, trapping her, just as a spider traps its prey . . . for later.