Page 40 of Cruel Dominion

The walk to the film store brought me through streets of old warehouses, with crumbling bricks and broken windows. There was an eerie kind of beauty to them. So many places like this were modernized and transformed into breweries or wedding venues. What happened to the places which were truly abandoned?

It was the wisp of an idea that had me aching to get my camera out.

The film store was small, mostly selling vintage cameras and outdated equipment. At least they had more than enough film in stock. I bought a dozen rolls and loaded up the camera in my backpack.

Hurrying back to the warehouses, I got out my camera and checked my watch. I had at least fifteen minutes before David freaked out. More than enough time to get back to those warehouses.

The overgrown bushes and empty sidewalks made it clear that nobody came here anymore. Not even any broken glass or graffiti to suggest teens explored at night.

I started with a few sample shots, playing around with framing. I moved close to the buildings, shooting upward to emphasize their size. Just after I took a round of photos, I felt a strange prickling on the back of my neck.

Someone was watching me.

Pretending to check my focus, I turned around and checked out the sidewalk from where I’d come.

A group of three men were walking directly toward me. They wore baseball caps that left their faces in shadow. Instinct told me these weren’t just casual pedestrians. They wanted something from me.

I wasn’t going to wait around to find out what.

My heartbeat pounded in my ears while I headed back to the sidewalk. I forced myself not to run. They’d just chase me, and I’d escalate things quicker than I had to.

I caught a flash of movement in my peripheral vision. A guy in a blue hat had run to the opposite side of the street, and was walking just ahead of me. It was like they were trying to herd me somewhere. Behind me, I heard rapid footsteps. The other two following me were moving faster.

Oh my god.

The one on the left, he looked the right height. The right build. It couldn’t have been…

He tipped his head up and I breathed a sigh of relief to see that it wasn’t Josh, but the look on his face—the piercing way he was looking at me—like predator watching prey told me Josh or not, these men weren’t here by accident.

Fuck, I had no choice. I broke into a run, adrenaline pumping through me, powering my muscles to spring as fast as I could.

It wasn’t enough.

The guy in the blue hat crossed in front of me, blocking me off, while the other two pushed forward and corralled me against the wall of a warehouse.

I was trapped and my heart sang like caged canary, my vision sharpening even as dark spots began to burst in my field of view.

One of them held a knife, while the other two didn’t have any weapons I could see. I forced myself to take a breath. They were probably just muggers, looking for a payday.

I clutched my camera to my chest.

No. Not my camera.

It was the same one I’d had since I was a teenager. The grips worn. The battery port door held on with a strip of duct tape.

“Here,” I said, reaching into my camera bag to pull out my wallet. I tossed it on the ground, but the men didn’t move to pick it up. “You can take whatever is in it,” I clarified. “Just take it and go.”

Blue hat laughed. It was cold and cruel.

“What we want is you, Annie.”

He lunged toward me, grabbing my arm while the other two pulled rope out of their pockets. My camera fell heavy against my chest as my arms were wrenched behind me.

I struggled, kicking and elbowing wherever I could, but it was too late. Rough rope tightened around my wrists, pulling tight. Blue hat pulled a hood over my head, and the entire world went black.

The sharp bite of panic nipped at my nerve endings, making me hyperventilate beneath the hood as I tripped over my feet, being pulled along by rough hands.

“No. No. Please, you can’t. Please stop. Let me go.”

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