Hell Hole

Chapter Three. The Key

  Parker felt her body being dragged across a combination of wet cold grass, dirt, and mud as she slowly began to regain consciousness . All the memories of what just occurred came flooding back at once, her head throbbing in pain. She kept her eyes shut and tried to listen to what was happening, her throat itching and burning taking everything in her not to cough, clear her throat, or even shiver. She slowly cracked her eyes open to see where she was.

She saw James's house roughly a half mile behind her, a trail of mud where her body had been pulled . She felt the cold mud on her bare arms, and the tight grip of James's large hand around her ankles , painfully binding them together. She couldn't have been unconscious too long surely. There was still light outside but it was getting dark fast and in the distance, a far distance she could still see her car lights running. The sun had already set leaving a misty grey sky slowly closing in with the nights darkness. It was freezing, and humid.

She was in an open field. What she thought was grass earlier she now deduced to be the early stages of growing wheat from the perfectly tilled lines every so many inches apart. She felt the gravel and mud that had collected in her hair, at the back of her neck, then a searing pain in her left temple.

She was so uncomfortable and felt completely exposed to the elements as her blue tank top rolled up past her stomach, almost exposing her breast but she couldn't move to adjust it. No noise, movement , and steady breathing was the only advantage she had if she was successfully going to make a run for it.

God please make this end soon. Why is this even happening?! God please I don't want to die. She thought, trying not to cry or move a muscle despite the shooting pain from her ankles being pressed together which hurt the most.

James came to a halt and released Parker's legs. They fell to the ground like dead weight and she immediately cracked her eyes open slowly to see what direction he was in and why he had literally dragged her out to the middle of this wheat field. His back was turned, this was it.

Parker squirmed quietly as she inched her way away from him. He turned around to check on her but she was quick to see his positions change and played dead. He raised his brow in suspicion and starred at her for a grimly long time, grunted and turned back around to what he was doing originally. She squinted her eyes to watch his movements.

One,

Two

Three!

She quickly found her footing and began to fully sprint back towards her car. Instantly she felt dizzy and fell to the ground. Her head pounding, pulse racing, she picked herself back up and kept running. James turned around at the sound of her movements behind him and immediately began to lunge after her.

Something was off. She couldn't think correctly and or stay balanced. Her heart pounded. James quickly made his way to her wrapping his arms around hers, picking her flailing body up as she kicked and screamed for him to let her go.

"Might not want to use so much energy like that. Looks like you have a concussion." He stated while holding her tightly as she squirmed and screamed, walking back to where he'd originally dropped her.

She could see now what he'd been doing. A small boulder roughly the size of a microwave was covered in the mud and he'd been trying to uncover it. He threw her down and pinned his forearm against her chest. "Quit running! I'm almost done!" He screamed in her face splashing the slightest drop of saliva on her cheek.