Miranda did not dare look back. She knew that she didn’t have time to figure out if one of the keys on the ring fit the car; he may have kept those separate. Instead she scrambled forward faster, the drugs in her system making her vision waver slightly. She made it past the clearing and hobbled down a path.

‘You’ll regret this!’ the man called out again, closer than before.

She jumped at the sound of his fury. Miranda darted into the woods and found a bank of large boulders with a deep crevice on the other side. She ducked behind it and crouched down low. She gripped the keys, frantically flipping through them until she found one small enough to fit the keyhole in her shackles. Her hands were shaking so badly, it took her three tries to unlock them. His footsteps were louder now on the path, getting closer every second. Miranda clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle her rapid breathing. I can do this, I’m almost free. Just keep quiet. The thumping of her heartbeat banged so loudly in her ears she could barely hear anything else, afraid he too would hear it and find her.

‘Where are you, Fourteen? It’s no use, you can’t beat me. And if you do manage to escape, I’ll torture your friend. Is that what you want? They’ll hear her screams for miles.’

Miranda’s heart jumped into her throat. Oh no, I can’t let him do that to Laura. But this could be our only shot to get out of here. She heard some nearby bushes rustle in front of her, and she froze, her panic ratcheting up a notch. Maybe it was an animal, she tried to convince herself. Doing a quick visual search of the area, she tried to come up with a plan. Miranda knew she would have to leave Laura behind and go get help. Surely there was a house somewhere nearby? Feeling bolstered by her decision, Miranda inched forward and peeked around the rocks. Her eyes scanned left to right. The coast was clear. She straightened and broke into a run, dodging around trees. She looked all around her. Where is he? Her arms pumped as her feet plowed through the underbrush. Rocks and twigs tore up the bottoms of her feet, a stabbing pain bearing down on her chest, her lungs not used to working so hard. She barely felt any of it with the adrenaline coursing through her veins, clearing the haze from the drugs.