"You got lots of tricks, Mrs Volkov. But they won't work now."
I could only hear his voice. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't move a single muscle.
My body felt completely paralysed, all I could do was blink slowly, helplessly, as if someone had flipped a switch and shut everything down.
He grabbed one of my legs and started dragging me back toward the car like a dead body. My face scraped against the rough ground, bumping over sharp stones and roots.
I could feel the cuts opening up, warm blood trickling down my cheek and mixing with dirt. The pain was sharp and stinging, but I couldn't even scream.
Dust clung to the fresh wounds, making the burning worse with every jolt. After what felt like an endless, agonising drag, I found myself dumped into the back seat of the car again.
Everything felt like it was on fast-forward, like I was watching a movie at 2x speed.
"I was planning to kill you here as per the boss's orders, but now I'm going to torture you to death."
