Somewhere deep within the North Pennines, Jessica Finch opened her eyes wondering if she was still asleep, her terror and confusion part of a bad dream. She tried to focus, tried to make out where she was. She could hear a noise she couldn’t immediately identify, the same sound that had woken her. The drip, drip, drip of liquid as it plopped heavily into the moving body of black water she was standing in.
Jessica moved her head to the left, her eyes following the dim pool of light reflected on the wet wall opposite. Her only source of light was coming from the cap lamp attached to the hard hat on her head, the chin strap of which was hanging loose around her neck.
Something slithered past her right calf.
She was sure it was nibbling at her skin.
A rat?
Something worse than a rat?
Jessica struggled but the shackles held firm. She screamed at the top of her voice, trying to look down without knocking off the hat, her terrified eyes searching the water below. Whatever it was, it slithered past again and she screamed even louder, her voice echoing in the chamber beyond . . .
HELP!
And then she noticed something else. Something even more terrifying than whatever was swimming around her in the water below. It was the colour that caught her eye, one she’d hated all her life. To some it signified triumph, courage and determination. To others, danger, rage, malevolence . . . blood. To her it was the colour of nightmares since the night her mother passed away. At first she thought she was seeing things. Fear did that to people, didn’t it? Surely her mind was playing tricks. But as she strained her eyes to look again, she realized she was right. Her dress. No . . . not her dress. Someone else’s.
Why?
And why hadn’t her abductors gagged her?
There could be only one possible explanation.
She was in a place too remote to be heard.