AVA
I was trembling. Disoriented. They had blindfolded me and I’d been wearing it for a really long while. I had no sense of time. I could have
been here for hours or days for all I knew. I was strapped to a chair, hands tied behind my back with thick zip ties. My ankles were similarly bound to the legs of my chair. My restraints were so tight the hard plastic bit angrily into my skin, my joints throbbing and stiff.
“Ava,” a familiar voice said gruffly. “Ava, are you awake?”
“Dad?”
I strained in my chair, turning my head as far as it could go to see him. My father was in a similarly compromising position, backed up against mine in his own chair. Much to my alarm, our captors had roughed him up a great deal. His nose was broken, old and crusted blood staining his upper lip and chin. Hi
