Chapter 2 - The Object in the Dark
The footsteps crunched sharply against the dry pine needles, each heavy stride sending a fresh jolt of terror straight through my chest.
Closer.
My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. The dirt packed tightly around my torso made every breath a calculated agony, compressing my lungs and forcing me to fight for every fraction of oxygen. Just inches away, half-buried in the loose, damp earth near my right hip, lay the one small object they had so arrogantly overlooked.
It was my spare smart-ring—a sleek titanium band embedded with an emergency Bluetooth beacon and micro-microphone, a device my brother had forced me to wear after I mentioned feeling unsafe in the secluded mountain house two months ago. Brandon and his family had stripped my phone, ripped my jewelry off, and thrown my purse into the ravine, but they had completely ignored the unassuming silver ring on my finger, dismissing it as cheap costume trash.
The footsteps stopped abruptly just behind my back.
A heavy, calloused hand suddenly gripped a handful of my hair, yanking my head back so hard a sharp scream tore out of my throat. Warm blood from the cut on my forehead smeared across my cheek, blinding me in one eye.
“Still making noise, huh?”
It was my husband, Mark. His voice wasn't just cold; it was entirely hollow, stripped of any lingering trace of humanity. The man I had married, the man who had promised to love and protect me through sickness and health, was currently looking down at me as if I were a pest to be exterminated.
“Mark... please,” I choked out, coughing as a mouthful of loose dirt drifted into my lips. “The baby... I’m bleeding... please let me out...”
“Shut up, Clara,” Mark hissed, jerking my hair harder before shoving my head back down into the dirt. “My mother said you need to learn what happens when you betray this family. We’ll be back after dark to dig you up—if you’ve spent enough time down here reflecting on your lies.”
He spat into the dirt beside my ear.
Then, the sound of his heavy boots crunching away faded back toward the cabin.
The silence rushed back in, broken only by the distant, mocking call of a crow high up in the pine canopy.
My entire body trembled with shock and adrenaline. My fingers, buried awkwardly beneath the heavy, compressive soil, stretched out toward the smart-ring. The battery indicator LED flickered a faint, intermittent green through a crack in the dirt.
Just an inch...
My fingernails scraped against a sharp tree root. Pain shot up my forearm. I bit my lower lip so hard I tasted copper, forced my shoulder blades down, and thrust my fingers forward one last desperate time.
Click.
My index finger pressed firmly against the emergency activation button embedded on the inner rim of the titanium band.
Three short pulses vibrated against my skin.
Signal sent.
May you like
High up in the atmosphere, bouncing off orbital satellites and relaying directly to an emergency dispatch service monitored by my brother’s private security firm in Seattle, my exact GPS coordinates locked into place.
Hold on, I whispered fiercely to my swollen belly, pressing my chin into the dirt. They’re coming.
