Prologue

I had always been the quiet kid. Not because I was mysterious or secretive, but simply because I didn’t have much to say. I kept my head down and my opinions to myself, letting my own thoughts fester and irritate my brain in silence. I stayed out of trouble that way. It kept me from friends that might one day betray me or boyfriends who would eventually break my heart.

I graduated high school two years early with no friends, no job, no extracurriculars, no picture in the yearbook, and no future ahead of me. Dad suggested I pursue a communications major, ironically enough. He thought it would be good for me. But just as I was a nobody in high school, I was a nobody at college. A fully online community college was hardly the place to make a name for myself; I couldn’t seem to ever find my footing. My professors ignored my questions, my emails, and even my assignments sometimes. My classmates didn’t even notice I was there sometimes. It was as if I were a ghost haunting their classrooms.

I didn’t have anyone in my life besides Dad. No one else would be out there looking for me, wondering where I was, what had happened, or when I’d be back. I liked it that way. No one to tie me down or dominate my life. I was my own person—if I even was a person at all. Besides, Dad deserved a better life than to be stuck with a black hole for a daughter. Everything would be better for the both of us if I disappeared.

So I left home one night, sneaking away when Dad was fast asleep and unsuspecting. With a single backpack’s worth of clothes, I slipped into the night in hopes of creating myself anew.

I thought I was keeping myself safe. But instead, I was placing a target on my back.

One moment, I was barreling down a dusty, abandoned highway walled in by sand and cacti as far as the eye could see, and the next, I was plunging off the road with four flat tires, a spike strip in my rearview mirror, and a white van waiting just over the hill. I didn’t crash, thankfully; I only spun out. No injuries, just disorientation. And that was all they needed. Those monsters were at my car doors before I could get my eyes to steady themselves, punching in the glass and pulling me out like a NASCAR driver trying to bail. My wrists and ankles were bound in leather, my mouth was gagged with my own shirt, and a heavy black hood was thrown over my head. I hit the floor of the van with a hard thump before a sharp pain erupted from my neck, turning everything black within seconds.