But she wasn't thinking clearly. She had to find a way to leave her mother and sister without resorting to moving in with her father. What she would have to do was take a job where she could save up enough money to return to college in another part of the country. She had about five hundred dollars in her bank account from summer jobs she had worked at during high school and that would be enough to get her settled some place else. New York would certainly be far enough away from her parents and her sister so that she could begin to have a life of her own. She knew that her father would want to help her out, but she just couldn't permit that if she wanted to be independent and prove that she could support herself without parental assistance. Yes, this would resolve so many things. It just might be possible to get a modeling job in New York, but if this didn't work out, her secretarial skills would be helpful in getting work almost immediately.

She was so lost in her thoughts that it happened before she knew it!

"Well, hello there, honey," a low voice suddenly broke through the darkness.

CHAPTER THREE

Ellen stopped in her tracks and jerked around looking to see where the voice was coming from. She heard some rustling in the grass beside the road and made out two dimly silhouetted forms below the culvert.

"What you doing way out here in nowhere, baby?" the voice echoed out across the road.

Ellen quickened her pace, turning away from the two men. She saw lights coming from a beach house up the road but it was quite a distance away from her, and she didn't know if she could make it before the man's comments turned into something more serious. They were probably two drunken college students from the beach party, but she wasn't going to take any chances. She had heard some frightening stories of rapes and murders along these lonely country roads, and she didn't intend to become another unfortunate victim.