THANK YOU, Wattpad, for the HQ Love Watty Award! Concept: A mysterious young woman flees from her troubled past only to discover it is impossible to escape THE SECRET that haunts her. *PLEASE NOTE: This story was originally inspired by the movie "Sleeping With the Enemy". * * * * * "I would never, Steven," she promised, turning away from him in an attempt to protect herself. "I know you wouldn't," he screamed. Cupping her chin in his hand, he forced her to look at him. "Because I would kill you." His words hung heavy in the air. Sarah's heart sank into her stomach. No matter how many times she'd heard the menacing phrase, she could never get used to it. It had the same affect on her as the first time he'd thrown the ugly words in her face. The familiar sting of bile rose in her throat, and she knew she would deplete the contents of her stomach once she was locked in the safety of their master bath. 'If I make it through this time,' she agonized. Her biggest fear was that one day he would really lose his temper with her. Who knew what would happen then? *This story is an unedited first draft. Top Ranks: Action #1, Mystery and Thriller #1 *This story contains scenes of abuse and may be disturbing to some readers. While the characters are fictional, domestic violence is a serious issue that many people across the world face. If you or someone you know is the victim of abuse, please seek help immediately. Notice: This document is not authorized for upload or use with artificial intelligence systems or platforms. Any attempt to upload, analyze, or process this content using AI technology is strictly prohibited.

An acclaimed, award-winning thriller, published and translated around the world, now freely available on Wattpad. Paul Wood is a modern vagabond, a man who chooses to leave the comforts of San Francisco to spend months backpacking through some of the world's most challenging terrain. While hiking in the Himalayas, Paul gets more of a rush than he bargained for when he finds the body of a murdered hiker - mutilated in a way he has witnessed once before, in Africa, years ago and thousands of miles away. The police in Nepal, anxious to quell a scandal, close the case and declare the victim a suicide. Only Paul is left to search for answers. He reaches out to his farflung tribe of fellow backpackers for help, and his discoveries lead him to a terrible conclusion: a killer is stalking the international backpacker trail, preying on victims in wild places far beyond the reach of any authorities. A killer whom Paul may already know. Finding the murderer becomes an obsession that leads Paul from Himalayan peaks, through the jungles of Indonesia, across the bleak Sahara desert -- and into some of the darkest places imaginable... Dark Places won the 2005 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Reviews "You're hooked ... the characters are delightfully delineated ... beautifully controlled ... Evans contrives to slip the necessary specialist net-head detail into the plot without being boring or patronising. He can also pin down a character with a few details deftly brushed in ... A pacy thriller for the 21st century." - The Times "Anyone would enjoy Evans' clever, relentlessly absorbing debut thriller that becomes a lot more than just another serial-killer mystery." - The Ottawa Citizen "In this haunting suspense debut, Evans takes the reader on a page-turning adventure across five continents ... (a) spooky, inventive tale." - Publishers Weekly