CHAPTER 1
Abigail’s insides felt like they were burning up with fever. She felt a pair of eyes sweltering against the small of her back, shadows following her. She froze in place, ridged with fear. There were footprints in the soil, she held her breath. The sound of her own heart beating pounded in her ears. Someone was close. Then Abigail ran. Stalks of yellow corn stood in long neat rows in front of her, swaying. She knelt, hiding amongst them, clutching a small ruby pyramid in her left hand. She started praying leaning forward a little, clutching her hands in front of her and twisting around to look behind, “our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be ….” someone grabbed her from behind, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. I’m going to die, Abigail drew in a deep breath, but I’m going to die fighting, she resolved. Large hands pinned her down and smothered her mouth with an empty sack of flour then grabbed her wrists and held her down. White powder covered her face and she sneezed. Abigail scrunched her knees up into her chest gathering her strength before thrusting her legs out in front of her and kicking her attacker in the stomach. He fell backwards, the sack rolled off her face, it was dark, a waning silver white moon hung above them. Abigail couldn’t see his face. “Get away from me!” she screamed.
“Quiet!” The man wasn’t tall, but he was bigger than she was, he slammed his heavy palm over her mouth and thrust a knife into her ribs. Abigail bit his hand, her fists pounding on his chest and face, she scrambled backwards, still holding the pyramid. She had lured him away from the house, from her family.
“Just hand it over.” The man said, “this doesn’t have to be hard.” He held the knife to her throat, but Abigail was not afraid, she dug her nails into his forearm and turned the knife back toward him. He turned it back and cut her neck, just the epidermal layer but there was bleeding, and it scared her.
Abigail screamed, grabbing handfuls of his shoulder length hair, he pulled away and she yanked a gold chain off his neck. A dog barked in the distance, and there was someone else, she curled her toes tightly, a shadow crept from behind, then something hit her head, and everything went black.
Wisdom’s Quest 