Run Away With Me : A fast-paced psychological thriller by Daniel Hurst (free e novels TXT) 📗

just experienced in my mind wasn’t actually real. I don’t think it’s unusual. We all have nightmares about things we are scared of.

Being ill. Being alone. Being chased.

I’ve had several nightmares in my life that involved me being guilty of a crime and having that creeping sense of dread that life will never be the same again. It’s only when I wake that I remember I’m not actually a criminal and I have nothing to worry about. I’m free to live my life, and thank god for that. Except this time the nightmare hasn’t ended by me waking up.

I’m still right in the middle of it.  

I don’t feel like I’m able to go back to sleep, so I roll over and look towards the window. Daylight is streaming through the curtains, and a quick check on the alarm clock by the bed tells me that it’s 07:12. Normally, I would spend the first few minutes of the day checking my messages and browsing the internet on my phone, but I can’t do either of those things because one, there’s no signal here, and two, Adam says we can’t use our phones anyway in case the police try to track them.

Great.

I’ve got a mobile phone, and it’s completely useless.

I feel a sudden urge to use the toilet so I get out of bed as quietly as I can so as not to disturb Adam then I enter the bathroom and start my day. It’s much colder in here than it was in the bedroom and not for the first time since waking up, I wish I was at home in my own house. At least I would feel a small sense of ease there. But here, and with what Adam and I have hanging over our heads, I feel nothing but stress.

I flush the toilet and leave the bathroom, heading down the stairs and towards the flatscreen TV in the front room. There might be no signal, but at least there’s a television. I plan to check the news for any reports about the hit and run incident and to see just how bad the situation is. Who knows, maybe we’ll be lucky and there are no reports meaning that things might be okay.

Or maybe not and my husband’s face is going to be on every single channel.

But then the screen turns on and I see only static. I press several buttons on the remote to try and get it working, but nothing happens. There must be a fault with the connection somewhere.

I check to make sure all the plugs are in and the digital box is turned on, but other than that, I have no idea what else to do to get it working. I’m not technical. I’ll have to get Adam to have a look at it when he wakes up. Maybe Kat disconnected it after their last visit, although I don’t recall her doing that when we visited here before.

I pour myself a glass of water from the kitchen tap and then sink down onto one of the sofas, turning off the television when the sight of the static starts to infuriate me. It feels weird to be completely cut off from the world without phones or television, and I think about how some people pay good money for this kind of “experience” while I’m getting it for free. Unfortunately, I don’t want it. I’d much rather be able to surf the internet and flick through the TV channels because then I would be able to find out what is going on in the world.

I’d be able to find out if anybody is looking for us.

I check the time on the cooker and see that it is 07:25 and I feel a little annoyed that Adam isn’t awake, as well as surprised that he has been able to sleep at all. I expected that I would struggle to get some rest, but my pregnancy fatigue probably helped take care of that. But I’m amazed that Adam has been able to quieten his mind enough to sleep considering what he experienced last night. I’m glad he is getting some rest because tiredness isn’t going to help any of us over the coming days, but it’s a little weird that he hasn’t been up all night running the incident over in his head. If I’d killed a man, no matter how it had happened, I don’t think I’d ever be able to sleep again.

I decide to go and wake my husband, mainly because I’m bored, stressed and unable to find any answers from the dodgy TV, but also because I want to talk to him and make sure that he is alright. He might have been pretending to be asleep.

Maybe he has actually been up all night worrying.

I walk back into the bedroom again and see my husband where I left him, lying under the duvet with his head on the pillow and his eyes closed. I watch him for a moment until I am certain that he is asleep before gently reaching out for his hand and giving it a slight squeeze.

Adam wakes up peacefully, not at all like how I came back into consciousness after my nightmare. Then he smiles at me when he sees me standing beside him, and for a second, it’s as if everything is alright in the world. Then he looks around at the room behind me and he remembers where he is and why we are here.

His smile quickly fades.

He’s back to reality.

At least I’m not alone anymore.

11

LAURA

‘I should have packed better,’ Adam says after a quick check inside every food bag we have tells him that there is nothing in the cottage to have for breakfast unless we want pasta or soup, which we don’t.

‘We can always pop to the village,’ I reply as I continue to press the buttons on the remote control. ‘Can you come and look at this first?’

Adam leaves the kitchen and