Coming Home

Chapter 20 - Happy In Love

I was running through the forest, it was so dark I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. Why was I running? I couldn't remember. All I knew was that I couldn't stop.

I heard the sound of twigs snapping ahead of me, the distinct sound of a body moving through the trees. The sound grew louder - no, it was moving closer. Closer and closer and I was running further and further toward it. I tried to stop but I couldn't. Sweat ran down my face, I could hear the sound of my heart beating in my chest and my breath as it sawed in and out of my lungs. I stumbled, my foot caught on something. I went down hard, the impact knocked the breath from my lungs. Sitting up I twisted around to see what I had fallen over. In the darkness I couldn't see so I reached out and felt it. My hand drifted over cold skin. I had to fight back sudden nausea as I realised it was a body. I turned it over and there was a shrill scream.

It was my brother. It was Jack.

"Cassie, wake up. You're starting to scare me now." Hands shook me and opened my eyes to see only a deep, sky blue. I blinked and sat up, looking away from the sheer blue of Logan's eyes that held more emotion that I wanted to think about. There was a ringing in my ears from my scream, which had obviously woken Logan.

"It's okay now, you were just dreaming." Logan gently brushed the strands of hair back from my face. I turned to him and let him take me in his arms, trying to fight back the sobs that were lodged in my chest. I let myself just be held by him, just for a moment.

"What did you dream?" His accent was more pronounced than usual because he was still half asleep, his body resting heavily against mine.

"I was looking for Jack, I was too late."I sobbed. "Do you think we're too late? That he's dead?"

Logan was shaking his head before I had finished the sentence.

"No, I know he's not. You would know it here." He placed his hand over my heart. I caught his wrist and brought his hand to my mouth, placing a kiss on each finger.

He rested his forehead against mine. "I know that we're close now." He whispered. "So close."

I hoped so.

"Sorry, I woke you. You don't get enough sleep as it is. I'm fine now." I brushed back the hair that had fallen into his eyes.

"It's almost getting light now anyway. I think we should drive home, it's no good us blindly trying to chase George around and it's got us nowhere. I need to see some people there anyway, find out more about what we saw earlier. I think he's mixed up in dealing drug to people and that makes everything far more dangerous than we thought."

I took a second to let this sink in. Something wasn't adding up, I couldn't understand why Logan would want to suddenly go home now, after we had come all this way. I knew he could contact those people from here just as well as at home.

"Logan, why do you really want to go back home now? What aren't you telling me?"

He sighed. "It's Geoff; I can't get hold of him. He's not been himself recently."

"I know. He was...off when I spoke to him last."Logan nodded, frowning to himself.

"Okay then, let's go. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get back." I got up and quickly dressed, packing all of mine and Logan's things away. I found him in the bathroom shaving.

"I'll go and check us out of the room." It was a little early but I was sure someone would be on reception.

"I'll meet you at the truck."

There was someone at reception, an overweight teenage boy who had his head in on the desk and was fast asleep. Obviously the late shift wasn't very exciting. I cleared my throat loudly but he only snored louder.