Chapter 37

“Jed?” He hears Donnie’s slurred, slightly panicked voice, but when he tries to respond, it’s like his tongue is too heavy, useless in his mouth.

There’s nothing Jed can do but close his eyes and fall into darkness.

* * * *

At first, Jed thinks he’s dreaming when he opens his eyes and finds himself in the desert. He’s on the dusty ground, next to the car he’d been in earlier. He looks around and sees something that makes his blood run cold. Someone has dug a rectangular hole in the ground. It looks like a grave, and the wooden box in it looks like a crude coffin.

Jed panics, looking in it to see if Donnie’s there, but he’s not, and Jed realizes his hands are tied.

“Stay where you are,” a vaguely familiar voice calls out, and Jed freezes. He’s afraid. He doesn’t know what’s going on, why he is here. It would seem he’s been kidnapped.