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Flipping open my eyes to a dimly lit room, the blinds had been pulled, but the edges shone with light. I kept searching for the clock I kept on my bedside table, convinced I was home, but my head was still dizzy with confusion. Finding a bedside table and clock that weren’t mine made me sit up abruptly, my heart pounding louder.
Panic collided with me as I swept my gaze across the strange room. This wasn’t home or a hospital room.
Where the hell am I?
Glancing around the unfamiliar room, I tried to remember what had happened after I crashed. I moved to get out of bed and realized I wore unfamiliar clothes that were three sizes too big and hung off me. I tugged up on the sweatpants that kept trying to slip down my hips.
Had I been carried from my car, then dressed in some huge men’s clothes?
A ripple of fear snaked down my spine as I made my way out of the bedroom door into a hallway lined by doors. I hurried down the hall ahead and found a kitchen and living room to the left. There was no one around as I frantically searched left and right, feeling an urgency to run, except I had no idea where to go.
“Hello?”
I was almost afraid to say anything. What if I wasn’t supposed to be out of my room?
I’d seen a lot of horror movies in my life, some about kidnappings, and they all seemed to start like this. An unsuspecting woman just walking along, searching for signs of life, confused about where she was, and getting smacked or dragged off to be chained to a bed.
Weapon.
I needed a weapon.
Quickly making my way to the fireplace, I snatched the iron poker, and the handle fit nicely in my hand. I walked around the cabin, which appeared minimalistic, but the furniture it did have was expensive—leather, rugs, and light fixtures that might easily have cost more than my weekly salary at the nursery.
I checked for a bathroom because, despite the panic growing inside of me, my bladder was demanding I pay attention to it. When you gotta go… I found the bathroom and hurriedly did my business before I went back to the kitchen door, propping the iron poker against the wall.
I hadn’t seen any of my clothes or shoes, and I was barefoot, so I didn’t want to walk outside, but I would if I had to. Leaning on the wall by the window, I pushed the curtain carefully away to take a peek into the yard since it seemed I was alone in the house.
Snow blanketed everything—the ground, the trees, the shrubs, and I was talking about knee-high snow. More of it was coming down fast as the trees around the property swayed from the wind, which whistled in the gaps of the door.
I’d never get far in that snowstorm, and by the looks of the dark clouds, it wasn’t going anywhere.
When I shifted to glance at the other end of the yard, I shuddered at the sight of a mountain of a man dressed only in boots, jeans, and a brown hat with ear flaps, no shirt or coat on. He was massive, a monstrously huge man with abdominal muscles I could wash clothes on… or run my hands down. I almost choked on my own ridiculous thoughts.
Standing beneath an extended cover near the house, he was chopping wood, half-facing the house. Despite the fact that snow was blowing everywhere, he was sweating up a storm of his own. Was he the one that… took me? Was he some kind of crazy recluse who decided he needed a bride like I’d seen in some of those exploitative movies about people from the Appalachian Mountains? Movies I hated because they made fun of people like me. Right now, though, it seemed to be a plausible idea.
The mountain man suddenly lifted his head in my direction.
Panic struck, and I threw myself back, the curtain falling back into place.
I waited, my heart pounding in my chest, not recognizing anyone or anything around me, ready for a full-blown panic attack that would have me running out of the house, screaming as I ran barefoot to the nearest road. Which would just be plain stupid in this snow, I reminded myself as I panted with fear.
When the huge man didn’t come crashing into the house, I guessed he hadn’t seen me, so I went to a different window in the living room to gauge my whereabouts. When I spotted my poor car, I sighed.
The front was crunched against the oversized birch tree. The windows had all shattered, and the back end was scratched up. My hand instinctively went to my forehead. The pain there could have come from hitting that ancient torture device of a steering wheel. I just had an accident, hit a mailbox and tree, and the monster outside saved me. But why hadn’t he called 911?
The memory of a scream, an impact, fear, pain, and a… Yeti? The memories flitted through my mind, leaving me more confused. What was the Yeti about? I glanced over at the mountain of a man who had his back to me from his window, and I wondered if he was some kind of mythical creature. I mean, he’s huge enough to be a Yeti, but do they have the ability to look like humans one minute and covered in fur with long fangs and sharp, piercing nails the next?
I needed to get out of here, wherever here was, and go home.
Only another memory finally came to life.
Jason in bed with Lyric. His accusations that it was my fault he got caught flared in my mind, and with it came a burning anger at both of them. A mixture of rage, sorrow, and hurt bled through me. I hated how tears pricked my eyes, when that dickhead didn’t deserve anything else from me. He’d already taken three years of my life, and sure, hindsight was crystal clear, but I wished I’d seen this earlier and left him before he left me feeling embarrassed and doubting myself.
Sighing, I wiped my eyes, slowing my breaths, feeling like absolute shit that he cheated on me. Like, somehow, I wasn’t good enough for an idiot like him. I meant nothing to him; that was clear. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have slept with my friend. I hated them both for making me feel worthless.
I let the curtain drop and moved back toward the bedroom, figuring I had to work out where I was and find a motel to bunk in for a few days. My family lived too far. I’d moved across the country for Jason, leaving behind my family and friends. The tears that fell came with a fiery ache in my chest that I’d ended up like in this situation with him.
Doing my best to focus on anything but Jason, I searched for my clothes, which had to be somewhere in the room, but there was no sign of them or my black Uggs.
