‘Wait,’ Linda’s voice cracked. ‘I remember now – I heard the doorbell and then a weird sound, but you didn’t answer me when I called out, so I went to see what was going on and …’ her bound hands flew to her mouth. ‘Oh my God. You were on the ground.’ Tears poured from Linda’s eyes. ‘I felt someone grab me from behind and a sharp pain in my neck. I think he injected me with something. I remember trying to fight him off but he was so much bigger than me and my arms and legs felt so weak.’ She paused, taking a deep shuddering breath. ‘I don’t know what happened after that, I must have passed out.’ The car rocked them from side to side as it hit a bump in the road. ‘How long have we been in here?’

‘I don’t know,’ Julie said, her eyes darting around the small dark space. ‘I think I woke up like a half hour ago, maybe? It’s hard to tell. I tried to wake you, but couldn’t … I was so scared you were—’

Julie was cut off by the surprise of an amber light intermittently filling the trunk as the turn signal clicked on. They felt the car changing direction as it turned and rumbled over an uneven surface.

‘Where’s he taking us?’ Linda asked.

‘It feels like we’re on a dirt road or something.’

The car hit a large hole and the girls smashed into one another, both grunting out in pain as they smacked foreheads before being bounced up against the hood. They lay in a fearful silence as the bumpy terrain in the car’s path continued to roll their bodies back and forth in the confined space for about twenty more long, torturous minutes.

‘Julie, what are we going to do?’ Linda finally whispered through her tears.

Julie was silent for a moment, then replied. ‘Feel around and see if there’s something we can use as a weapon. Or something that will release the trunk from inside. Maybe we can roll out and make a run for it.’

The women felt around their heads and then their feet as much as possible with their wrists bound, pushing their hands into the crevices of the small space. ‘There’s nothing in here, Julie,’ Linda whispered frantically.

‘You’re closer to that tail light than me, can you kick it out with your foot? Then maybe we can signal someone nearby through the hole.’

Linda turned, pulling her leg back and slamming the toe of her brown leather Doc Martens into the amber light. It didn’t budge. She tried three more times but she couldn’t get enough strength behind her foot with the limited space available in the trunk. Linda rolled back over to face Julie and started crying.