The trunk lid flew open, and a bright light shone down on me. I blinked and tried to shield my eyes.

“Get up!” A hand reached down and grabbed the front of my shirt. It yanked me up and dragged me over the edge of the trunk. There, it dropped me in a heap on the dirt at her feet.

“Ooomph” The fall knocked the air out of me, and I gaped like a fish out of water.

“Not so high and mighty now, are you?” A gloating smile spread across her face as she stared down at me.

“Julie?” I shook my head. “Why?”

“Why? You want to know why?” She started to pace, and I used her inattention as an opportunity to look around. We were in the middle of nowhere, up on a hillside with low scrub all around us. The city skyline gleamed way off in the distance.

“Please, Julie. I thought we were friends.” I begged now, this whole situation was out of control.

“Friends? Friends? You thought we were friends?” She tilted her head back and laughed. “I drove you to sing in those bars. I got us those gigs. I sang with you after waiting tables double shifts. I showed up, Maggie! Every single time, I showed up!”

“You’re right. You were a good friend, Julie. You still are.” I looked up at her as she pointed her finger in my face.

“Right. I was a good friend, but what about you?” She resumed pacing, which was creepy and maniacal but at least put some distance between us.

“What do you mean?” I was way too confused to follow her line of thinking.

“Remember that gig I booked? The one the talent scout came to?” She stood with her back to me, looking out over the desert.

“Yeah.” I nodded, thinking back to that night. “He heard us sing a couple of times.” Where is she going with this?

“Right, but I missed that gig. My car broke down. You took what that talent scout offered and left me in the dust.” She stalked towards me. “After all those hours we sang together.”

“Julie, he offered you a contract. You didn’t take it.” How can she blame me for not taking that contract? Seriously? I just gaped at her.

“That piddly thing? Scraps at your feet. That offer wasn't’ worth the paper it was printed on.” When she started pacing again, I noticed a hop in her step. She seemed jittery and jumpy.

“It was the same contract I signed!” I cried. That contract is what got me this far!

“Pffft. He gave you millions!” She waved her hand, dismissing everything I said.

“After ten years of playing every dive bar, rodeo, and fair across the country!” I raised my voice, hoping the volume would knock some sense into her. “It took me years to get to this point, Julie! And I’m still an opening act!”

“And what did you do for me?” She sneered. “Huh?”

“I made you my manager! You didn’t want to be a duo anymore! I did everything I possibly could to bring you with me!”

“Scraps!” she screamed. The veins in her neck and forehead bulged. “You threw me scraps!”

I tried to stand, my hands still tied behind me, but I as soon as I reached my knees, Julie pushed me back into the dirt. I landed on my ass with a painful thud. “You just stay there until I figure out what to do with you.”

“Julie, please untie me.” I lay on my back, stuck like a turtle.

“Untie you? Why do I want to untie you? I want to be you!” She stood next to me, toeing me with one foot. I squirmed until she placed that foot in the center of my chest.

Lying helpless under her shoe, I realized I was in serious trouble. She didn’t want to punish me or teach me a lesson. She wanted to erase me. “Julie, what are you planning to do?” I was nervous before, but now I was completely terrified.

“I should have been the star, Maggie! Me! You don’t deserve any of this! It was all me! I wanted to start a band. I wanted to sing. I hit the pavement and booked all those gigs. And you? All you did was whine.” She made a twisted face I assumed was supposed to be mine and raised the tone of her voice to that of a child. “‘Julie, I’m tired. Julie, I have class. Julie, I have plans Saturday night.’ And what do you do? The one night I can’t make it, you take my big break. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!” She lifted her foot and kicked my bad shoulder.

Oh, God! She is nuts! I am going to die! A vision of my dead, vulture-picked body flashed through my brain. Nothing I said would change her mind, and I was pretty sure arguing with her would only make matters worse.

“What do you want me to do?” There had to be some way to appease her short of my death.

“Nothing! I want you to do nothing! I tried to get that crazy fan to take care of you. I told him where we would be, when you’d be alone in your trailer. Stupid fool got himself caught before he could take care of you.”

“He shot me!”

“No, you idiot.” She slapped her hand against her chest. “I shot you.” She grinned like a lunatic. The whites of her eyes showed, and her smile exposed more teeth than I’d ever noticed she had.

“You shot me?” Any lingering doubts I had about my impending doom instantly disappeared. I was not going to make it out of this alive.

“I followed you and that stupid bodyguard to the club. There were so many people no one saw a thing. My only regret is that you didn’t die. How perfect would that have been? They would have blamed it on your crazy stalker!” She laughed again, and a crazy glint shined in her wild eyes.

I scooted up to a seated position. Glancing around, I searched for anything to cut my wrists or ankles free on. Julie’s insanity was a threat to me, but it was a hindrance to her too. It drove her to pace more and more frantically, and threw her off her game when she started arguing with herself. While she wasn’t paying attention to me, I slowly inched back toward a line of scrub, feeling around the ground for any tool or weapon nature might provide.

“Ouch.” My hand closed around something sharp and I had to stifle my cry. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. The unseen object bit cruelly into the flesh of my palm, but that didn’t stop me from scraping it against the rope around my wrists. I sank my teeth into my lip to keep from crying out as I felt the blood begin to drip from my hands. Eureka! I pulled against the partially severed rope, and it dropped to the dirt without a sound.

I kept my freed arms behind my back and slowly tucked my legs under my butt. This positioned my ankles behind me and out of Julie’s sight. Hands slick with blood, I could barely hold on to the jagged glass as I swiped the sharp edge across rope over and over.

Still fully engaged in conversation with herself, Julie failed to notice my movements. Her arms flew around wildly, and her fingers jabbed at the air. I think she’d finally snapped.

All at once, she swung her head around. Her eyes were rimmed in red, and her mouth was curled into a snarl. “You must die.” She took a step, advancing in my direction, and I cut faster at the tie around my ankles.

“Julie, listen…” I tried slow her advance, but it seemed she couldn’t even hear me.

“You are the reason my life is shit!” She took another step as I sawed frantically. I no longer cared how deep the glass cut into my palms. If I didn’t get free fast, I was going to die. “It’s all your fault! You did this to me!”

“Julie, stop!” Just ten more seconds… please!

“You were supposed to die when those bikers broke in. I paid them five thousand dollars.” She shook her head. “That was everything I had, my whole life’s savings. A total waste. Those morons couldn’t even kill one weak, pathetic little female.”

I gasped. “You hired those men?”

Snap. The rope gave way. Before she could take another step toward me, I awkwardly leapt to my feet. Pins and needles ran up and down my legs, and I lurched to the side. Limping into a trot, I forced myself to go faster, running away from her and hopefully back toward civilization.

“You bitch!” She screamed as she chased after me with clenched fists. I swear I could see steam pouring from her ears.

Looking back at her cost me time, so I focused on my goal—survival. I had to get as far away from her as possible. I ignored the stabbing pain in my shoulder and the burning sensation in my lungs. Forcing my shaky legs forward, I barely felt the stitch in my side. I didn’t have time to hurt if I wanted to live… and I did.

I ran faster than I had ever run in my life. Catching a glimpse of red brake lights through the trees, I veered off the road we’d just driven up and dashed through the scrub. Brake lights meant cars, and cars meant people. People meant help. I had to reach the other road.

Behind me, I heard Julie start her car. Her engine coughed and sputtered to life. Then it roared as she floored it to chase me down like a dog. My heart beat so hard, I thought it would explode. Don’t look back! Just run!