The cold air of the night rushed into the porch and a flurry of snowflakes breached the threshold of the cottage door as Robbie and Laura stared out into the pitch blackness outside the cottage.
Robbie poked his head out into the freezing air and looked left to right.
"Hello?" He said into the darkness "Anyone there?"
There was no answer, just the silence of the mid-winter night.
Robbie felt more than a little unnerved to find the doorway empty. The knocking had been thunderous in its intensity and volume and the only person he expected to see was Dan - although for what reason he struggled to imagine – he and Laura had left their mobile numbers with Dan and his wife when they'd offered them the cottage in the event they had needed to get in touch.
"There's no-one there" he said to Laura turning round from the icy wind that was whistling through the doorway. She stepped cautiously towards Robbie, hugging her arms into her body against the cold, a worried frown on her face.
"There must be, surely? That knocking was deafening" she said. A vision of the woman she'd seen earlier from the bedroom window flashed through her head and she felt a chill that didn't come from the cold night air.
Robbie heard the trace of fear in her voice. He had another look out into the darkness.
"Hello!?" He shouted into the night
The only reply was the whistle of the wind as it raced into the cottage. Snow stung at his face but he looked out again, into the icy black night before he shut the door against the night and the snow flurry, locking it behind him.
"It must have been snow falling off the roof" He smiled at Laura reassuringly. He didn't believe his own explanation for one second but it was the only plausible option he could think of and it seemed to calm Laura. She was shivering a little. He found himself putting his hand on her back, encouraging her to turn back into the warmth of the house.
Laura felt that the chill of the outside night seemed to linger on her and she felt an odd unease. The knocking had startled her and the emptiness of the door on opening it had unnerved her. The warmth and coziness offered from the fire also seemed to have diminished since the door had opened.
"Good night, Robbie" she said, rubbing her arms for warmth and mustering a smile for him and wondering where the warmth of the moment had gone that they had shared before the knocking on the door shattered the peace.
"Night, Laura" Robbie said and watched as she headed upstairs. He too felt a little bereft of something and for an odd moment he felt someone was watching him from the front doorway. He turned around quickly, knowing there couldn't be anyone in front of the closed door but also feeling that there was someone or something perhaps the other side of it.
With a shudder he went back into the front room and to the dying embers of the fire.