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"Ah, Amber," her captor sighed, an odd note of regret in his voice. "If only things were that simple."
The sound of water grew louder, and the air around her felt colder, damper. She shivered involuntarily, her body shaking with terror and the chill in the air. Was he going to throw her into the water? Was this how she was going to die?
"Please," she whimpered one last time, her voice barely audible even to herself. "Please don't do this..."
"Shh," he whispered, his breath hot against her ear, making her shudder. "There's no point in begging any longer, Amber. It won't change anything."
Amber's heart pounded in her chest as she desperately tried to speak, to plead with her captor once more. But the gag in her mouth stifled her words, reducing them to pitiful, unintelligible whimpers.
"Please," she thought, praying that whoever had taken her would somehow understand her silent plea. "Please, let me go."
But there was no response, and the sound of water continued to swell around her, heightening her fear. She could feel the dampness in the air clinging to her skin, chilling her to the bone.
Suddenly, the blindfold was yanked away, and harsh sunlight assaulted her eyes. Amber squinted against the brightness, trying to make sense of her surroundings.
"Where am I?" she wondered, struggling to focus on the details of the unfamiliar landscape before her.
As her vision cleared, she realized she was standing on a wooden dock at the edge of an eerily still lake. The water was dark and foreboding, a stark contrast to the clear blue sky overhead. There was no sign of civilization anywhere – just trees and the seemingly endless expanse of water.
"Wh-where are we?" she managed to choke out, her voice muffled by the gag but marginally more audible than before.
"Does it matter?" her captor asked, his tone almost conversational. "You won't be here much longer, anyway."
"Stop this," she begged silently, her mind racing as she tried to come up with some way to escape, to save herself from whatever fate he had planned for her. "I can't die like this. Not now."
"Look around you, Amber," the man continued, seemingly unaware of her internal struggle. "No one will find you here. No one will even hear you scream."
Her heart sank at the cold truth of his words. All the hope she'd been clinging to vanished in an instant, replaced by a crushing sense of despair. She was utterly alone, abandoned to the mercy of a man who seemingly had none.
The man's ice-cold eyes seemed to drill holes straight through Amber's skull as he reached down and removed the gag from her mouth. She gulped in a breath of fresh air, feeling the sting of tears at the corners of her eyes. The rough fabric had left her lips raw and chapped, and she fought to suppress the urge to scream.
"Go ahead," her captor said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Scream your lungs out. No one will hear you."
Amber hesitated, weighing her options. A part of her wanted to heed his words, to release the fear and rage that was bubbling beneath the surface. But another part of her, a small glimmer of hope, whispered that perhaps there was still a chance for escape.
"Please," she stammered, her voice barely more than a whisper. "Please, let me go. I'll do anything. I won't tell anyone about this, I swear."
The man eyed her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Amber's heart raced in her chest, each beat a desperate prayer for survival. She couldn't bear the thought of dying here, alone and helpless, her parents' memory tainted by the violence of her own end.
"Anything?" he finally replied, the ghost of a smile playing on his lips.
"Y-yes," Amber answered, her voice trembling with fear. "Just… just let me live, please."
For a moment, the world seemed to hang in the balance. Amber held her breath, waiting for the verdict that would decide her fate.
"Look at me," he commanded, his smile growing wider and colder. Amber forced herself to meet his gaze, her eyes wide with terror. She searched for any trace of mercy in the depths of his dark, unfeeling eyes, but found nothing.
As she stared into the void that was her captor's soul, Amber felt something shift within her. It was as if the light inside her – the hope, the love, the very essence of who she was – was being slowly choked out, leaving only darkness and despair.
"Please," she whispered again, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I don't want to die."
"Life is full of disappointments," he replied, his voice a cold, emotionless monotone. "You can't always get what you want."
Amber clenched her jaw, trying to find the strength to fight back, to resist this man who held her life in his hands. But she was bound, blindfolded, and utterly powerless, and she knew that there was no escape from this nightmare.
"Remember my face," he said, his tone taunting. "Remember it as the last thing you'll ever see."
Before Amber could respond, before she could beg or plead or curse him to hell, she felt a strong push against her chest. Her heart leaped to her throat as she fell backward, the air around her suddenly replaced by the shockingly cold water of the lake.
