Run Away With Me : A fast-paced psychological thriller by Daniel Hurst (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

kiss, and I feel her relaxing again as our lips meet. I needed to stop her talking about how she feels cut off in this cottage, and I’ve achieved that, at least for this moment. She will bring it up again soon, I’m sure of it, but for now, things are going as I want them to.

The static on the television behind me is just one example of that.

19

LAURA

I’m back in our house again, but this time it looks completely different. I don’t recognise any of the furniture, and I can’t see any of our possessions. It’s as if somebody else is living here now.

It’s as if Adam and I were never here.

I go up the stairs in search of a familiar room and open the door that leads to Samuel’s bedroom, but I gasp when I see it. The crib has gone, so too have the teddys and the dinosaur wallpaper. Instead, all I see is a single bed, a small desk and plain white paint covering the walls. It looks like a spare bedroom that could double as somebody’s study.

It definitely doesn’t look like my son’s bedroom anymore.

I leave that room and move into the next, and I’m in my bedroom now, the one I share with my husband. Surely nothing has changed in here. Surely everything is as it is supposed to be.

But it’s the same thing again. All new furniture and all laid out in a different way to how I used to have it. The walls are a different colour too, as are the curtains that hang by the window.

What the hell is going on? Who has done this to my house?

I go back downstairs, and I can feel my anxiety levels rising with every step that I take. I feel like a stranger in my own home. I can’t shake the feeling now that I don’t belong here anymore.

Then I hear the sound of the key in the lock. Somebody is at the door.

Somebody is coming inside.

My spirits soar when I imagine that it is Adam returning from work. Maybe he can help me understand what has happened to our house. Maybe he has an explanation for all of this.

But then the door opens, and I freeze because it isn’t Adam coming in. It’s somebody else. It’s a guy of a similar age to my husband, but he looks very different. Different colour hair. Different build. Different clothes. And he’s not alone. There’s a woman behind him. Like the man to Adam, she is the opposite of me. But the biggest difference I notice between the two of us is that she is smiling.

She is happy while I am drowning in a sea of fear and confusion.

Then I notice the baby in the woman’s arms. It’s small. Can’t be more than a couple of days old. I can tell the woman’s level of affection and love for the child by the way she is holding it, but I’m not sure if it is a boy or a girl. It’s just a baby.

A sleeping baby being brought home by two loving parents.

Then they see me. How can they not? I’m standing right in front of the door in the middle of the hallway. It’s my hallway, or at least it used to be. But judging by the looks on the faces of the couple, this is no longer my home.

It’s theirs.

Their first reaction is shock, then I see fear register with the woman and she instinctively turns and shields her baby away from me as if to protect it from the crazy person in their house. I look at the man and notice that he isn’t as afraid of me. Instead, he seems angry.

Angry that I am standing in his home.

I go to speak. I want to tell the woman that this is my house and she is the stranger here, not me. That there has been some kind of a mistake. That she and her family need to leave and that I should be here with my husband and my son. But no words come out. I can’t say anything. It’s as if my body is betraying me now. It might as well do.

Everything else here has.

The man is telling me to go before he calls the police, and even though I’m not sure why, something tells me to believe him, so I comply. I head for the door, pushing past the frightened mother and child and out into the fresh air. But I don’t see my garden, or at least what used to be my garden. Instead, I see the rows of police cars parked out front and the many police officers standing in front of them. They are all looking at me, and they are all telling me to get on the ground.

The man lied to me. He told me that he wasn’t going to call them if I left. But here they are, and now they want to arrest me. But what for? What have I done?

Why is this happening?

Suddenly, I’m face down on the ground, and my arms are being dragged behind my back. I feel the cold, hard handcuffs being wrapped around my wrists, and then I am dragged to my feet and hauled off to the nearest police car. I notice all the neighbours are watching me as I go, but I don’t recognise any of them. It’s as if this whole street is foreign to me now.

But where is Adam in all of this? And where is Samuel? That’s when I realise that I’m not pregnant. My baby bump has gone. But I don’t remember giving birth. What happened to my child? Is he okay?

Am I okay?

The car door slams shut behind me and I am alone on the back seat. The two police officers in the front of the vehicle