Coming Home

Chapter 36 - Uninvited

The weather gradually worsened and the temperature in the house fell below freezing. I was cold on the warmest of days, so in temperatures as cold as this my hands and feet seemed to be permanently blue and I was rarely ever without three layers of clothes on - Logan made sure of that. He kept handing me jumpers and would watch me put them on to make sure I wasn't too cold.  

Over dinner the next evening, he suggested confining ourselves to only a few rooms of the house to keep warm.

"It makes sense; if we move our things into the study we can sleep in there until it starts to warm up. I can put the fire on and we'll have the en-suite bathroom. What do you think?"

So not only would I be stuck in a house with my ex-boyfriend, but he wanted us to stay in the same room for as much time as possible.

"I think you're right."

And he was right, the warmth of the room from where I later sat on my makeshift bed by the fire made my eyelids heavy and my breathing deep. If I lay on my back closed my eyes, I could imagine I was on a tropical island, sleeping on a golden sandy beach with the sun beating down on my body.

A shadow fell over me and I opened my eyes to see Logan standing over me, his eyes twinkling as he smiled. "Only you would smile in your sleep," he said.

I grinned and told him what I had been dreaming about.

"Get some rest." I watched as he switched the overhead lights off, leaving the room lit only by the fire. The flickering of the light on the walls soothed me into sleep and eventually I drifted into a world of dreams.

When my eyes next opened it was not to see the morning sun streaming through the windows but complete and absolute darkness. The fire was still burning so I couldn't have fallen asleep long ago, but what had woken me? I lay utterly still for a long moment until I heard it.

 "Logan. Logan, wake up." I leant over him and as his eyes came open I covered his mouth with the palm of my hand to prevent him from speaking. Too late I realised his eyes were not his own, they looked right through me. He was trapped in a nightmare and in his eyes I was the villain.  

"Logan, it's me. It's Cassie. Wake up." Before I had time to react his hand flew up and my head rocked backwards. It took my mind a minute to process the fact that Logan had hit me in the face. The ringing in my ears deafened me and my streaming eyes blurred my vision. When it cleared I saw Logan sat back on his heels, staring at his hand as if he had grown another finger.

"Logan, are you awake?" I whispered.

He answered my question with one of his own, "Are you hurt?"

"No. Logan, are you okay? I didn't know you had nightmares - ."

"You shouldn't have woken me like that, I didn't realise it was you."

"I heard something."

"What?" He shook his head, confused. "What did you hear?"

"Listen..." We were both silent for long moments, there was no sound but that of our own controlled breathing. Just when I was starting to believe I had imagined it, I heard it again. The not quite there sound of a shoe scraping against the floor. Someone was in the house.

By the look of anger in Logan's eyes I knew he had heard it too. I could understand Logan's anger, it was late and he should be sleeping deeply in his own house but instead someone had dared to invade and awaken him. In this situation Logan and I differed. He reacted with anger whereas I felt only pure fear. My overthinking, overanalysing brain had already worked out that if the intruder had somehow managed to find a way into Logan's home during a storm like this, they must know him and feel confident enough in themselves that they were not being completely silent. They knew Logan would awaken, that was what they wanted.

I grabbed Logan as he moved to get up, if the intruder wanted Logan to wake up then they had something planned for him after he woke.

"Don't. Please. It's what they want, think about it, Logan. They want you to go up there..."

I watched him consider this before he sat back down. "Well, what shall we do? We can't stay in here forever."

"Maybe we should just stay in here until whoever it is leaves. Who do you think it is?"

"It must be George. Or someone he's sent..." Unexpectedly his hand came up and brushed the bruise that I could feel forming above my cheekbone. "I did hurt you, Cass. I'm so sorry, when I'm caught in a nightmare like that..."

"Logan, its fine. Just an accident. What were you having a nightmare about?" He only shook his head and I left it at that. If he had wanted me to know, he would have told me.

"Well, I think we should get out of here, take your truck and see how far we can get." I was aware that the men that worked for George wouldn't hesitate to kill. Why they were messing with Logan now I didn't know.

Logan shook his head, "No, the truck won't start in temperatures like this. We'll have to walk."

I sent up a silent prayer, thanking God that I had decided to move our clothes into the study the evening before. We dressed quickly; I added layers onto the clothes I had fallen asleep in until I could barely move. As I dressed I tried to be as quick and quiet as possible, which is much more difficult than it sounds.

I tried to delay leaving the room for as long as possible but it was inevitable. We had to try and get out without encountering whoever was upstairs.

I nodded to Logan, letting him know I was ready and he opened the door. I held my breath as it squeaked slightly. When it was open enough for us to fit through Logan turned to me, still silent, and held out his hand. I grasped it without hesitation, if I had had longer I might have stopped to admire how warm and right his hand felt in mine, how they fit together perfectly and how his thumb unconsciously rubbed back and forth across my wrist. But there was no time left.

My heart started racing in fear now, in the study I had felt safe warm but stepping into the hallway, I was unkindly reminded just how cold it really was. As my body temprature dropped the side of my face throbbed and burned where Logan had caught me.

Logan froze in the hallway, listening intently, as if he could hear the intruder through the ceiling. They had stopped making noise some time ago and I was sure they now expected Logan to walk straight upstairs to confront them.

I half expected him to go back on his word and do just that, but this was Logan. He had never broken a promise and he wouldn't start now. He turned and slowly led me towards the front door, we passed he small window in the hallway that was obscured by the thick layer of frost that had grown over it. Logan reached with his free hand for the handle of the door and pulled on it. It wasn't easy but Logan yanked hard enough that it did eventually open.

We were greeted by a bright, white light. It took my eyes a second to adjust and see that outside every surface was covered in thick snow which was still fall to the ground hard.  Logan didn't hesitate, pulling me outside and around to the back of the house. We were heading to the forest at the back of the property, Logan knew his was around but in weather like this it was different. There were no recognisable landmarks. Everywhere looked the same.

We stayed close to the house, not wanting to be seen through the upstairs windows. When Logan stopped walking it was to whisper, "Ready?"

I nodded and with our hands clasped together, we ran for the forest.