Koral's Escape

Prologue

The sun had begun its slow ascent down toward the western horizon. The light was slowly leaving and there was no way we could continue on any longer. It was official. We were lost. There was no hope in going along any farther. We weren't going to make it back to the rest of the group. We were going to be stuck here overnight with nothing. No provisions. Just Ryan and me.

I looked over at Ryan and couldn't read the blank expression on his face. It was the same expression he always wore and I had never been able to crack it and it frustrated me to no end.

I exhaled and sat down on a rock that was nearby waiting for Ryan to say something. He knew a lot more about surviving in the wilderness than I did. Granted that didn't take much considering I knew next to nothing, but I still needed to know what to do.

"Come on Koral, just get up. We still have some time. We are going to find them." Ryan finally spoke.

I rolled my eyes and continued to sit down. I didn't care whether or not he was actually right because I had already convinced myself that he was wrong and I was going to hold to that. We were done for the day, and we were going to camp out here and then get out in the morning. I knew that much, and there was nothing that he could do to change my mind.

Ryan stared at me. Trying to mentally tell me to get up and go follow him. "What the hell is wrong with you Koral? Just get up! We don't have all day. We maybe only have 30 minutes, we might as well use them to try and find the rest of the group."

 I sighed and reluctantly got up. I still had no desire to go and didn't truly believe that we were going to find them, but I was tired of arguing and figured this would just be easier.

We continued walking for another fifteen minutes, but found absolutely nothing. Ryan seemed to become angrier the longer it took and finally gave up and searched for a place that would be good for maybe making a fire and then sleeping.

**********

I awoke the next morning and stretched my arms out. The sun had risen and it was beginning to get light enough that I knew I couldn't sleep any longer, so I figured I could at least get up, and try to catch my bearings to see how we might be able to get out of here.

I reached up to my hair and ran my hands through it as was an annoying habit of mine. I cursed finding a bunch of leaves and dirt and tangles all over the place. It was at times like this that I hated having my long hair.

I looked over to where Ryan was sleeping the night before and didn't see him. I sat up quickly and began looking in every direction trying to figure out where he would be. It was weird because when we were younger and would stay the night with each other, I was always the one up earlier so I wasn't sure how he could be up now. He had never been an early riser at all.

I then noticed a sheet of white paper over at the place where Ryan had been sleeping and I moved over to get it. He left a note? No, that wasn't possible, we didn't have paper. The only thing we had with us were a water bottle for each of us, but nothing more. What the hell was going on?

The note read:

Dear Koral,

As you can tell Ryan is no longer with you. Instead, he is in my hands and he will remain that way until you come and get him. In order to do that, you will have to follow my rules. Do what I say and you just might make it out alive. And don't try to escape back to the cars with your church. Ryan definitely won't make it out alive then, and it is very unlikely that you would either

For starters, you will need to head northwest from where you are. You will find a cabin after you go about 2 miles or so. You will enter into the cabin and then you will wait for me to give you your next task. You have 2 hours. Don't be late!

Love,

Your Secret Admirer and Worst Nightmare

What had I gotten myself into?