I felt like I'd been dreaming—a long, dark dream. Or maybe it was all too real. In my vision, I floated above the school, watching as a burlap sack was pulled over my head. I saw myself slung over someone's shoulder, dragged through that narrow door behind the gym. Abel unlocked it, and outside, a carpet of blood-red leaves covered the ground. The curly-haired man carried me all the way to the lake, where an old, beat-up car with a rusted body and dents waited at the edge of the trees.
When I came to, everything was pitch black. My legs and arms were tightly bound, the scratchy burlap sack still covering my head. It stank of something rotten, a smell that made me gag. My head pounded with a dull ache where I'd been hit, and I felt sick. I realized I must have been thrown onto the backseat
