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CHAPTER ONE
Joy stumbled a little to the side and considered the idea that maybe that last drink had been one too many.
She blinked her eyes and tried to focus. The cold night air was helping some, but not enough. She still felt way too drunk. She’d been aiming for tipsy and somehow managed to sail right over it to the wrong side. Not a smart idea when she had a long walk home. The kind of long walk she wouldn’t normally consider if she hadn’t been drinking too much to drive back.
A long walk home around the very outskirts of town that passed right by the woods, no less.
Joy cleared her throat out loud, just for something to hear, and dragged her thin jacket tighter around her shoulders.
A car passed by fast, the headlights sweeping over and past her, and Joy found herself stumbling closer to the trees – afraid for a moment that she would sway into the path of the car if she wasn’t careful.
This wasn’t a fun walk at the best of times. Her feet were numbed by the alcohol and so she couldn’t quite yet feel the pain she logically knew her high heels must be inflicting, but she would soon. As soon as she sobered up just a little bit more. And there was still far to go, past the woods and on down a few blocks.
Only one way through, though, and that was onwards.
Joy clattered her heels against the sidewalk as she attempted to speed up, trying to tell herself she would never do this again but equally wondering if she was even going to remember that thought in the morning.
There was a crunch somewhere behind her – a shoe coming down on a loose pebble.
Joy glanced over her shoulder, her long, heavy hair moving with her, and saw a man. At least, she assumed it was a man. He was walking behind her, but he was wearing a big dark coat and a hat, and she couldn’t make out anything more than that.
Joy looked ahead and tried to focus on going forward, trying desperately not to sway on her feet even though she knew she already was. If she went too fast, she felt like she was going to fall over or stumble into one of the trees on her left. She was walking in and out of the circles of illumination under streetlights, plunging into darkness between them, and the glare of the lights made it almost impossible to see anything past the nearest line of trees.
She glanced back over her shoulder again.
He was getting closer.
Joy wasn’t sure she could speed up anymore, not in these heels and not with this drink running through her veins – even though she was already starting to feel a little more sober.
Which was kind of the problem, because now her feet were hurting and she felt the cold, and she was starting to feel a lot more scared than brave.
She glanced ahead. There was a row of stores on the other side of the road, Mickey’s and a few other places, but they were all dark. Empty. The lights off, no one home. There was no one there to help her. And past them, she knew from experience, there wasn’t much of anything for a bit. No cars had gone past since that last one. It could be a while before another one came.
She could be on her own with this man for long enough for him to do anything to her, before another witness came by, if she didn’t try to get away.
Joy glanced back again and her heart thudded painfully against her chest. He was closer still. He had his hands shoved in his pockets as if he was hiding something, and he was looking right at her.
Rightat her.
Joy wasn’t going to take any chances. She looked ahead again and then did the only thing she could think of.
She plunged off the path and into the woods, the darkness quickly swallowing her up as she moved out of the range of the streetlights, so thick she couldn’t see where she was putting her feet. She stumbled a few times, grabbing onto tree trunks to keep herself upright, her heels sinking slightly into soft patches of the ground.
Joy turned to look over her shoulder and stopped. She turned around fully to watch. The man in the black coat – she could still see him through the trunks of the trees. He was right under one of the streetlights. Walking.
Walking forward along the path as though nothing had happened.
Joy let out a ragged breath, then covered her mouth with a relieved gasp. He wasn’t coming after her, after all. She’d been afraid for no reason.
He wasn’t following her at all.
There was a crack in the trees near her, and Joy turned her head sharply in that direction. It was dark under the foliage, but somehow she glimpsed him. Another man. Another man in dark clothing.
And this one…
This one was running right at her with something in his hand, and Joy wasn’t going to wait around to find out what it was.
She turned and ran at full speed away from him, deeper into the woods, feeling instinctively that this time was the real thing. She had to put as much distance between the two of them as possible. She felt one of her heels come loose and let it go, kicking her other foot on the next step to get rid of that one too so she would be even. The ground was alternating hard and soft under her bare feet, bouncy moss that seemed to propel her forward but roots and sharp twigs scratching at her and threatening to make her fall. She had never felt more sober in her life.
