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“Kamden.”

My name.

My entire body seizes for a half-second, frozen in pure shock. He knows my name. That knowledge is a colder dread than any other. A ragged sob is torn from my throat, muffled by the cloth.

“Please,” the man murmurs against my hair. His voice is oddly tight. “Just—fuck. Easy, sweetheart. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Sweetheart…?

The word makes no sense.

Nothing does.

My arms feel so heavy.

No.

I can’t—

Dad’s box.

The rabbit.

I dropped—

I try to reach down.

The man pulls me tighter against him.

“I’ve got you.”

No.

No, he doesn’t.

He doesn’t get to say that.

I fight again, but my body doesn’t respond properly. My hand flails uselessly against his wrist. I hear my own frightened little sounds as though they belong to somebody several feet away.

“Please,” I whimper. The word is a wet, broken thing, muffled by the cloth and the panic closing my throat. I don’t know if it’s even audible.

The man’s voice gentles. “It’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Liar.

Everyone says things like that right before they hurt you.

Mom says stop being dramatic.

Wade says I’m trying to help you.

Men say whatever makes you hold still.

I know better than to believe it.

I know—

My knees buckle, the bones turning to liquid. He catches my weight easily before I can crumple onto the wet pavement, one arm hooked firmly under my legs. A wave of unnatural warmth floods my limbs. The darkness isn’t just above me anymore—it presses in from the sides, narrowing the world to a fuzzy tunnel with his jacket collar at the center.