Kelsey settled at the base of a tree, wide-eyed, her heart thundering. She saw the wash of headlights from the edge of the field. The car hadn't moved. Where was the man?

A current of wind came off the field, bending the tall grass before it infiltrated the forest. The branches above her whined and creaked. The damp, cold air she'd barely noticed minutes ago made its presence known. Her legs trembled, and goosebumps rose on her arms. Cold fear held her in place. He was out there somewhere and he was furious. She knew by his wild eyes, his abrupt mood swings, and his nonsensical chattering that he was unbalanced and dangerous.

Kelsey jerked when a mouse skittered in her direction, turned when it noticed her and disappeared into a clump of leaves. When she looked up, she saw a hazy silhouette appear in the headlights and then vanish.

The primal urge to run consumed her but she suppressed it. He hadn't seen her. She felt relatively certain of that.

Be still. Conserve your energy.

Dozens of horrifying thoughts scrambled through her brain as her eyes searched the blackness for the man. She swiveled her head, peering over her shoulder for some sign of a way out, for some shred of hope. Kelsey leaned against the trunk of the tree and shivered. She needed to get up and move. She got to her knees and when she stood she felt the dull ache of her swollen ankle.

Walk it off.

Fighting the pain, she knew that if she didn't move, her injured ligaments and tendons would become frozen, immobile.

She heard the car door close. The engine revved and the headlights slowly swept to the left. He was backing up. The vehicle's wheels spun on the slippery grass and finally found traction. She watched the red tail lights grow smaller through the cloud of fog and a few moments later, the vehicle was gone. She hobbled in the opposite direction, limping across a carpet of leaves and pine needles.

It wasn't long before she feared she'd lost her way. Was she walking in circles, unintentionally backtracking? Without the vehicle's headlights as a marker, she couldn't be sure she was moving further away from the man and from the horrid small brick building where he'd kept her.

She ventured further into the forest, wincing each time she put weight on her sprained ankle. It hurt and despite the numbing cold, the pain was getting worse.

Try not to think about it. Think about something else like how will you get out of here?

Kelsey's wobbly legs stopped working. She toppled to the forest floor, wheezing, her naked skin striped with lacerations. She trembled. It was her body's way of informing her she had no more calories to burn. She was out of fuel, in fact, she'd been running on empty. Her world was dimming and becoming blurry.

She raised her head when she heard it. The sound of a car in the distance. A flicker of headlights strobed through the trees one hundred yards away and then faded into the blackness. She rotated her hips and got to her knees. She drew a deep gulp of cold air, pushed herself onto her feet, and stumbled in the direction of the road. She managed five clumsy steps before landing on her forearms, skidding to a stop. Back up onto her knees, she began to crawl, her breath ragged. Her fingers had gone numb and she bit her lower lip as the forest floor ripped her knees.

She'd logged another twenty yards when she went down hard on her chin. She rolled onto her back, rubbing her burning shoulder, fighting to catch her breath. High above her, a shroud of skeletal branches disappeared into the black heart of the starless sky, a black hole. She fought the urge to close her eyes, to surrender to the grip of exhaustion. Her lip trembled and her eyes filled. She chastised herself.

No. You're not gonna cry. You're gonna pull yourself together and you're gonna find a way out of here. 

Alive.