A sharp letter-opener, but still a letter-opener.
And you’re so exhausted, you can barely put any force into it.
Maybe it’s because you’re so far from Ziros. The magical link between you is stretched so far, it feels like it could snap at any moment.
There’s no way you can use any magic now. No way you can get that sword to grow bigger, even if you were good at doing it on command.
“One more time,” you mutter to yourself, gripping the tiny sword as tightly as you can as you hold it up against the door again, heartened by a thin stream of cold, fresh night air drifting through the miniscule gap in the frame. “Let’s do this thing.”
With a heave, you lean into it, pressing all your weight against it, when suddenly, finally—
The door gives!
You tumble outside into the deep darkness of late night in the middle of nowhere.
“Dammit, Jerry,” Ski Mask Guy grumbles as he and his partner haul you roughly up by your arms. “Why the hell didn’t you search her? She’s got a weapon, for Christ’s sake!”
“Don’t be so damn dramatic. It’s a damn letter opener, not a sword,” he says, picking up the tiny blade from where it fell to the gravel beside the van. “Ouch, damn stupid thing.” He must have cut himself. Serves him right. “Why the hell is a letter opener so damn sharp?”
You groan, lamenting the loss of your only weapon—no matter how tiny.
“What do you…want with me?” You manage, surprised at how strained and weak your voice sounds.
“Don’t worry, pumpkin,” Ski Mask says, binding your wrists behind your back with a length of rope. “We won’t be seeing each other much longer.”
Pumpkin?
You’re about to come up with some sort of witty response, or maybe try to get your still-tiny sword back, but the world is getting darker and dizzier at the edges with every passing second. You stumble, held up only by the kidnapper’s painfully firm grip digging into your upper arms.
As it is, it’s so pitch dark out here—wherever you are—you can barely see the side of the van.
Are they planning to dump your body out in the middle of nowhere where no one but the buzzards will ever find you?
That’s a chilling thought.
Ziros, you think as loudly as you can, stumbling again as the world darkens.Save me, Ziros!
You know he won’t be able to hear you.
But it’s all you can do, the only hope you have.
And…
To your surprise, you swear you hear a distant, ever-so-faint voice echoing back.
It’s him.
It’s Ziros.
Hold on, Anzelika, rings his voice in your head.I’m going to find you.
Maybe reaching out to him took the last of your strength, because as soon as his voice fades away, the world darkens further, spinning up around you.
The last thing you hear is one of the kidnappers saying, “They should be here any minute now.”
Ziros
—A Little While Earlier—
