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the car back into park, she leaned her head against the steering wheel.  It felt cool and hard under her wet cheek. She spent that next five minutes crying, screaming, and beating the seats with her fists.

     
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    (I)
     
     
    A crow cawed, pulling Dawn from her slumber.  It hurt to open her eyes, but when she did she discovered that not only had morning replaced the night, but she was still naked.  The sun sparkled off the dew-slick trees and her sweat-layered skin, casting a golden glow in the light mist.  Pine needles carpeted the ground and felt soft and prickly under her feet.
    She could vaguely remember diving into water so cold that it felt as if her body was being punched by icy fists, and making it across the lake only to be ambushed by a rather attractive man who was probably in his thirties.  He’d been waiting for her with a smile on his pleasant face.  She’d thought he was there to help, but she couldn’t have been more wrong.  
    A twig snapped somewhere in the distance. Dawn whipped her head around, expecting someone to be there, but no one was.  Her neck was tight and sore, and her head felt as if it had been pounded against concrete for hours.  Her long hair, caked with mud and congealed blood, was glued to the sides of her pretty, yet bruised and scabbed face. Both eyes were blackened and swollen. The vision was blurred in the left.  A trickle of blood slid down her head, down the nape of her neck.
    She had no clue exactly where she was, but it was deep backwoods, where all she could see was thick walls of green and brown, choked with a calm miasma.  It was almost beautiful.  A perfect morning .  The kind she enjoyed with Kevin and some coffee.  The thought of Kevin brought a fresh batch of tears to her already stinging eyes.  She was surprised there were tears left to shed.
    She went to wipe her eyes, but found her arms felt jellied and artificial.  Looking up, she saw both wrists had been bound to opposing trees by barbwire in a Jesus Christ pose, and then looped over two separate tree limbs.  She scanned her body.  Leads of barbwire had been wrapped around her naked chest, and were pricking her breasts, fastening her to the tree behind her.  Tiny rivulets of blood tapered down the valley between her breasts. 
    It hadn’t hurt until noticing it, but now she felt every puncture and poke to the slopes of her breasts and dark coins of her nipples.  She tried pulling away, but it only made the sharp jabs even worse. 
    Dawn tugged at her wrists, feeling her flesh ripping through the numbness of her hands.  She bit her lip to stop from screaming.  She tried with the other hand this time, only to have the same result.  The barbwire was just wrapped too tightly to wrench her hands free.
    She let her weight drop into her knees.  It wasn’t the best position to be in, but she was exhausted, and her legs felt too weak and stringy to stand.  Bending them at the knees felt much better, but the incisive points of barbwire burrowed even deeper into her wrists and breasts, but at the moment, she didn’t care. 
    When the burning from the penetrating points became too much, she stood up straight again. 
    Her eyes surveyed the area, searching for him.  Turning right, then left, she didn’t find anybody. He’d stayed with her most of the night, watching her writhing against the tree, making her scream. She’d passed out after he’d used the machete to saw into her left calf muscle.  She tried looking back to check on it, but couldn’t bend back that far. 
    Dawn looked for him, again, but he still wasn’t there.  Just be glad he’s gone. He must have hung her up while she was unconscious.  If she’d been coherent, she sure couldn’t remember him doing it, but it might be for the best that she couldn’t.
    How close to the lake was she? It felt like she was miles away from anywhere, a secluded planet where she’d been dumped.  She wondered what they’d done with