“Cassandra. Not Cassie. Cassandra.” It comes out as a hoarse whisper, her airways blocked by the wire. “My name. Is. Cassandra.”

She felt the wire tighten as he slid even closer. “Cassandra, then.” It’s almost a hiss. “Did you miss me? Come on…you missed me! Say it.”

“I…I missed you.” And she was surprised, the moment the words left her lips, that they were true. She had missed him. Just not in the way that he thought.

He seemed appeased by this answer, and loosed the wire a little. “Hang a right now, ’kay?”

She quickly veered the car to the right, then sucked in her breath. Despite the dark, the landscape was eerily familiar, down to the Y-shaped tree on the side of the road. “Where the hell are you taking me?”

The laugh that escaped him sent chills down her spine. “You recognize it, don’t you, Cassie? You remember this place?”

Yes. No. Of course she remembered! Did he really think she had ever forgotten? The only thing she could think of was to blindly repeat, “Cassandra. I’m called Cassandra.”