Jade woke up to the clattering of a cast iron pan and sipping of hot coffee…the man had his back turned toward her, this was her chance…the bacon was sizzling, his back facing her, the steam rising…he would not know. Surprisingly, the ropes were very loose, and she rose to her feet slowly, pain shot up like lightning through her leg which was slightly asleep…she grabbed her dagger quietly and ran as fast as she could, not stopping…just running! It was working, he could not catch her! Then…she woke up.

“Blast!” Jade muttered to herself, the ropes were extremely tight, and her captor was sharpening her dagger…but, the pain was shooting up her leg… “not that part of the dream I wanted to be true.” Jade screamed in her head.

“What are you thinking…going to run? Don’t. It won’t be of use to you.”

“That is always what they say.”

He nodded his head slowly. She stared him down meeting his gaze, that was unexpected for him. He flung the dagger to her, she jumped, the dagger an inch from her ear…he laughed.

“I was not going to hurt you, just letting you know” he grabbed her chin, “I have amazing aim.” She shook, and she turned her feet inward… (something she did when she was terrified). He kicked her feet. “No point in showing fear…I know it’s there.” She grimaced, and he turned, then he turned again, paused, and then went to the stake and untied her, she immediately went to her feet and did not even get her a full run before he reached out his arm and grabbed her, she jerked back her feet straining for the floor…but he was six feet one when she was five feet four and he lifted her up to his height. He went to about two feet above the ground and then let go and the dust rose as she slapped against the ground, she winced…it had hurt. He shoved his grimy hands toward her holding a small plate of food. One piece of bacon, half a piece of toast…that was it.

“Mine?” Jade skeptically asked.

“I am not wanting you to die.” He shook his head as he drank more coffee.

She stopped herself from eating, then quietly asked: “What do you want with me?” She bit her lip as soon as her small sentence was over…was that a mistake?

“Your father owes us, your mother is unaware, you are unaware, but he knows plenty…and this is his punishment for running away. Now, do you know where he is?” He spun the dagger in his hands.

She gulped, that was not at all creepy. “He left us a little while ago…”

“Probably when he got the threat, super loyal right?”

“No, not really.”

“Hush, I do not wish to speak with you anymore. Get up!” He kicked her side as she got up holding her side yet again biting her lip and slightly swaying as her side seemed to be falling apart.

He grabbed her hands behind her back and sat in his tent with his big and black binoculars. A few minutes of silence later a rider appeared over the hill and the man came to meet him, he must have been a partner. They both had matching tattoos on their wrist, a crooked “S” with a knife stuck in it. It was a strange tattoo, and did not mean anything to her. It donned on her that this would be one of the best chances she had had to escape. The dagger was by the tent, her foot could barely reach it, but it did! She pulled it to herself one eye on it and the other on the rider and his partner. She pushed it past her eagerly grabbing it with her hands, she slowly cut into the rope…and her skin on accident, of course. She got up from her sitting position looping the rope in the daggers hilt hole and ran for her life. Her laced up boots with her tattered dress and warm material did not seem sufficient for the chilly weather, and it was July, in their place where they lived even in July it was cold in the morning, and then would get hot later…it was about seven probably, according to the sun. They were having strange weather. She kept running until she hit another stream at the bottom of a grassland valley, she hopped over a fence thinking about how neighbors must be close… (for even in the modern-day farms they were miles apart). But, to her dismay she had entered the southern way meaning their house was closer to the north…and their ranch was huge, she had a long way to go. Suddenly she heard distant yelling, on the top of the hill she had been on moments before there were her captor and his friend…on two horses! “What?? Where did they get two horses? I only saw one!” She ran as fast as her feet would carry her not caring about the mud spraying on her dress just running. The two horses majestically jumped over the fence like it was a small log she had jumped over in the first chase…they were catching up. The rider who she did not know, a rather tall and thick man with evil green eyes and obvious riding skills grabbed her, barely missing her on the road to both capture and freedom. They were closing in on her, soon they would both be able to grab her…it was over! The one she knew, the man that had taken her to the campsite moved back, his horse went wild…something had spooked him, this was her chance, but just as she turned the other man grabbed at her head but he slipped from his grasp and hit her head on a rock beneath her feet, if she had been three steps more she would have died, but no, it was only a small rock and she “grazed” it. Her head throbbed, for she was still awake, and the man with black leather gloves put her on his horse…she nearly slipped off not having control of her body at all, her head hurt so much…everything seemed circular to her, she shook her head in frustration…what was going on? Jade faded in and out from hearing. The man got on the horse his hand on her back so that she would not nearly slip off again. The other rider replied:

“We need to get her to the next site, where there are more men, she is not giving up.”

At that, they started riding to which way she knew not, she raised her head and the men, (she saw by the shadow), got something out of the horses saddlebags closed something and then put it to her face, she struggled not wanting what he was giving her, he pushed her back to his chest and she shook her head back and forth still dazed, he put a cloth to her mouth and she almost immediately fell asleep, no struggle could withstand it.