Chapter 1

Back when I was younger, my parents bought a new house on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs where the houses were spread apart by at least an acre. I was the only girl in a mile radius and was forced to play with the neighbor boys, Derek who was my age, and his brother, Adam, who was two years younger. It was actually a lot of fun. We played basketball and hit tennis balls over the house, I learned how to catch salamanders and toads from the pond down the road, we attempted homemade science experiments that I'm certain were not approved by their parents, and we played games. Lots of games. I must admit, I made a pretty good tomboy and hardly missed all of my girlfriends back at the old house. We were the three musketeers: Derek, Adam and Sarah.

My favorite time of year was summer. All of us were allowed to stay up later than normal and that was the time of year when we played Kick The Can. In our version, Kick The Can was a combination of Tag, Hide and Seek, and Ding Dong Ditch, minus the ding dong. It was an outdoor game, and as a rule, it was only held at night. Between our family's two yards, we had about 3 acres that were considered in bounds, plus an additional 20 feet into the tree line at the back of our properties.

Kick The Can became a tradition every summer. Even into high school when we all ended up in different clicks and rarely spoke during the school year, Kick The Can always brought us together. And the more the merrier. Jake and Johnny from the neighborhood over tried to bike over whenever they could, as did the Stevens brothers from down the block. The Stevens brothers were a little older than us and had a wild streak that ran deep in them. They often stressed me out when they were around because they were so unpredictable. I suppose the fact that they had more cop cars parked in front of their house than a coffee shop didn't help my impression of them either. Thankfully we started seeing less and less of them as the years went on.

It was the summer after my second year away at college and I was house sitting for my parents while they were away in Greece for two weeks. Derek called earlier in the day to say he was organizing a Kick The Can reunion - the drinking version. It sounded like fun. There had always been some sexual tension between me and Derek in high school and I couldn't wait to see him.

That night was a surprisingly chilly summer's night so I was wearing my jeans and a long sleeved top. We met up in the cul-de-sac around 9:30pm: me, Derek, Adam, and the Stevens brothers, Chris and Joe. Apparently the others weren't around. While it was really nice to see Derek and Adam again, I'm not gonna lie. I found Chris and Joe to be rather intimidating. They were much taller than I remembered, a little scruffy around the edges, and their smiles felt insincere. My gut immediately told me we shouldn't be playing with these guys, but I didn't listen to my intuition. They'd know something was up if I suddenly decided I wasn't going to play and I didn't want to hurt their feelings.

We each had a shot of tequila before the games commenced and then once we got started, the rule was that the loser (who was then the counter) had to take another shot. Unfortunately for me, I lost a lot. These guys are fast runners! It didn't matter, though, because I was having so much fun. I couldn't remember the last time I laughed so much.

It was my turn again to count to 100. I was so tipsy I began to repeat numbers, which added at least 4 minutes to my count. They were really good hiders, too. It must have been 10 minutes before I noticed a flashlight in the tree line. Aha! As I moved closer, the flashlight turned off. I ran toward the last place I saw it lit. My eyes were opened as wide as I could make them. While they had adjusted to the night out in the yard, the forest was significantly darker and I was having trouble seeing. I could hear a rustling in the bushes close to me. I had an uneasy feeling about the whole thing and decided to run back to the house, when someone slapped me on the butt and said "Tag, you're it." That wasn't Derek or Adam. I know them too well. A) they would never do or say something like that, and B) it wasn't their voice. I tore off toward the house as fast as I could. I was motivated to run by the footsteps and panting behind me. I was only several yards away from my back door when Joe jumped out from behind a pine tree, forcing me to change directions. Now I've got two guys chasing me! I'm losing steam and I can hear them catching up on me. One of them grabbed my arm and yanked me back toward him. My instinct to scream was immediately covered by a rag to muffle the sound. I tried to pull free, but my actions felt sluggish and heavy due to all of the tequila I had consumed over the course of the night.

I attempted to fight them off as Chris and Joe dragged me to the edge of the yard, through the trees, and out into the field beyond. I could smell someone was having a bonfire down the hill, over in the next neighborhood. I knew if I could just scream ... Once we had gotten a little further, Chris threw me to the ground. I finally had a chance to yell, "HEL-", but he pinned me down so fast and his hand was over my mouth. "Listen to me," he said. "We're not going to hurt you and we don't have much further to go. We're going to walk there together and you're not going to fight us. If you do, I'll let Joe over there do what ever he wants." I looked over at Joe who was grinning at me and I could see the gleam of his big hunter's knife in the moonlight. "Do you hear me?" I nodded. Panic set in and tears began to form in the corners of my eyes. I didn't buck the rest of the way as each of them had me by an arm. It was no use. We walked a little further until there was a clearing next to a small grouping of trees. As we got closer, I saw Derek and Adam standing, tied to two young elm trees with their mouths taped shut. They were making 'mmmmm' noises as if trying to warn me, but it was obviously too late. I was already captured. Chris and Joe tossed me to the ground in front of them. Not knowing exactly what they had in mind yet, I tried to plead with them, "Please don't do this, I'm begging you."

Chris pulled out a gun and held it up in front of me. He must have been hiding it somewhere in the forest and picked it up along the way because I never saw it on him when we were running around earlier. "Stand up." I did. "Here's how it's going to work. You're not gonna scream, you're gonna play nice, and you're gonna do what we say, otherwise I'm going to shoot one." Chris then held out the gun and pointed it in the direction of Derek and Adam. "The good news for you is there's two of them so you have two chances. The bad news is they'll be dead and I know how to make it look like a hunting accident."

Joe came up behind me and grabbed my arms back as Chris came in close. His breath smelled like tequila and chewing tobacco. "Got it?" I nodded my head with a whimper. "Good."