Prequel to Arctic Absolution. It's Jaye Larson's nineteenth birthday, and all he wants is to spend time with his boyfriend and his mother - the people he loves most and who make life worth living. But, faced by his mother's demons, the imperfections of his relationship with boyfriend, Kris, and dangerous, homophobic strangers, one by one, all of Jaye's dreams are soon derailed. Plunging into a waking nightmare, shortly after going to bed alone, he wakes in an alley, pinned down by two men with slow, bloody rape and murder in mind. It's just the start of Jaye's fight for his life, and his sanity, as time and time again, he's forced to make impossible choices and survive, no matter what it costs. (M/M)