The silence he left was eery. And feeling first behind me, I leant back against the gurney and tried to slow my heart as I waited for him to come back. The darkness in my vision wouldn't shift. The odd glimpse of colour flashed in and out every now and again, maybe even more frequently, but not enough for it to seem helpful or help me tell how much time had passed since Nick left.

As it was strange because it felt like I should have been doing something. I should have been running around trying to find a way to help us both get out of here but for the first time I was completely reliant upon someone else.

Dark shapes started to cut into my vision, just enough to roughly see where the light was streaming in through the windows and I'd only just turned to them when the room was filled with the sound of glass shattering. I tried to step back but I slipped and hit the ground. My vision cut back to black.

I didn't try to get up, instead just lifted my arms because I could feel some sort of liquid underneath me, soaking into my jeans.

A deafening crash filled the room; the windows were smashing in and I could hear a sound like the beating of a birds wing only it was coming from multiple different places at the windows. There must have been more than one. I could hear them crowing and gnashing but I couldn't tell how close they were.

I jumped again as something touched me and at first I thought it was one of them– one of the creatures– and I almost tried to pull away before I felt myself being lifted up and propped back on my feet before a hand took mine and started dragging me away.

'Hey,' Nick said, 'its okay, I got you.'

He let go for a second, a set of doors shut slammed behind me then grabbed my hand again, pulled me somewhere else.

'What is it?' I asked, trying to catch my breath, 'what's on me?'

'It looks like blood,' he returned.

'It's... it's the blood,' I said, 'they can smell it.' I could feel it on my skin, beneath my clothes. It was slimy. I took a deep breath. 'How much?'

'Yeah, well... a lot,' he replied. 'Give me your jumper.'

Without knowing whether or not he was reaching out for me, I took an instinctual step back. 'Don't touch me. You can't– if you get it on you...'

'I don't care,' he said.

'I do.'

A moment later– without any warning because I couldn't see him coming– I felt him step right into me, arms wrapping around me, squeezing so tightly I couldn't pull away.

'No!'

He pulled back. 'Whoops.'

I sighed. 'I really wish you hadn't done that.'

His hand rested on my cheek and I felt his breath fan over my lips. 'Too late now.'

'Nick-'

'Give me your jumper.'

His hands went to the zipper of my hoodie and he pulled it down. I'd only done maybe two buttons up on Stephen shirt and as the hoodie came down my arms I felt the shirt pull across my chest and figured my bra was probably out again. At least this time there was no one here to see it except Nick.

This was familiar.

His fingers slipped the buttons from the holes, opening my shirt to bare me to him. He leant in, placing a lingering kiss on my sternum before his mouth travelled out across my chest to flesh of my boob spilling out of my bra. His hand ran up my stomach, sealing over the cup and squeezing gently. I fisted a hand in his hair and moaned.

The hoodie hit the floor. I tried to catch my breath.

'You're making this into a bit of a habit,' I said.

'What, getting you out your clothes or getting us attacked?'

'Both.'

I felt his hands at the waistband of my trousers. It was weird. It was a familiar sensation in a situation that felt utterly incongruous.

'Jeans, jeans,' he said quickly.

He popped the buttons in the fly. The jeans were tight around my ass– he struggled to get them down to my thighs. The look on his face made me laugh, bringing his attention up to me and he was still just as unamused. I lifted my hips more to try and help him, hooking my own thumbs into the waistband and pushing to get them pass my bum then he pulled them off. His hand trailed up my thigh as he crawled back over me and kissed me. I kicked off my trainers– knowing they'd just get in the way– and Nick shifted, moving behind me and holding me around the waist so that I could kick my jeans down. He helped to push the denim down my legs.

'I don't know how old you are,' he said.

I cocked an eyebrow. 'What?'

'It's not important, I just thought since we were clearing the air. And I know roughly... I think. Do you want to tell me?'

'I'm four and a half years younger than Connor,' I said.

I heard him exhale a chuckle. 'And how old is Connor?'

'Four and a half years older than me.'

He laughed again.

There was a noise above us and I turned my head up like sheer desperation would bring my sight back to me. It was still completely black. 'What is it? What's up there?'

'Um... that's- that's a skylight.'

The glass cracked. I heard the sound of it shattering and suddenly Nick had a hold of me again and was dragging me backwards and out the room.

Another door slammed close.

'Anna... Anna...' His hands came up to cup my cheeks, 'are you okay?'

I nodded. 'Yeah.'

'How much can you see?'

'Nothing. I can't see you, I can't... nothing.'

'Okay,' he then sighed, 'there has to be a phone around here someone. Look, I think there's one is the ambulance.'

'And you're going to go and get it?'

'Yeah,' he replied. 'You're gonna be safe here.'

I just shook my head. 'But what about you?'

'Yeah...' There was a silence that felt expansive, where I could hear him trying to catch his breath. 'I think I can make it.'

'Ah, god,' I said beneath my breath, 'I need you to know something. It's never gonna be the right time if I don't say it now.'

'Anna...'

'I love you too, you know,' I said. 'I love you.'

And his lips pressed to mine, hands sliding down from my cheeks to hold the back of my neck and shoulders to hold me against him before he pulled away. His chest pressed against mine, blue eyes so wide and pupils dilated they almost conformed to his irises as he pulled back and hovered over me for a moment, just staring down at my face. His gaze flitted to my lips. He leant in, pressed a soft, gentle kiss to them.

'I'll be back in a minute.'

With his departure I was swallowed into silence as the sound of the creatures vanished. But my heart didn't steady. If anything the pounding got worse because I knew what it meant: they weren't following me anymore.

It felt like forever.

And still with nothing to see and no sorts of indications of how long it had been I could feel the flare of panic rising up inside me. I felt my way through the room, stumbling into the back of what I thought to be a sofa and round to where my feet knocked into a hearth. A fireplace.

It was then that I heard the sound of rustling. A burrowing sort of scratching above me and I lifted my head, for some reason, working out they were coming down the chimney.

I heard the moment they broke through and I expected almost instantly to feel them surrounding me, tearing into my flesh with their teeth and ripping the skin off my bones but it was still quiet. There was a chirping, the beating of wings but it was only one of them.

Even that would be enough for me. I could hear it circling, cheeping like it was calling back and communicating with the others. And moments later I heard them all in the chimney again.

A crack of light flooded into my vision just as the flock burst out of the fireplace and I stepped back, quite intending on flattening myself against the wall so that they could only eat one side of me at once when I crashed into something and my breath escaped my lungs in a gasp.

Someone I immediately corrected, as two arms circled me and I felt something being pushed into my blind and fumbling hands, but my vision was almost entirely dark again, and I couldn't distinguish it or the person behind me, until they spoke.

'Hey there, Princess.'

'Helen?'

'Nice pyjamas,' she said.

'What the hell are you doing here?'

I could feel and hear her chuckling as she pulled me backward– disorientated and vulnerable– but I didn't fight her off. I never got a proper response.

She threw me backwards and I stumbled, catching myself as I collided with the glass of a window in what I could just about make out to be a corridor. No sooner had I seen it the light started to fade as my vision blacked out again, and I groaned. 'God damn it!'

A door slammed shut behind me before Helen's hand came down with a slap into my own and she was suddenly dragging me off down the hallway. 'Can you see anything at all?'

Absolutely nothing. I didn't want to admit that to her. I gripped whatever she had given me tighter in my hand. 'No.'

She laughed again. 'Well, you aren't going to be using that 5 iron then,' she said, 'thought you might want something to defend yourself. I know you'd rather I leave you on your own.'

'After last time?' I returned, 'I don't really know what to think.'

Another door slammed behind us. She continued to pull me across another room. I could feel the floor beneath my socks, and it was cold, lined with tiles like the ones downstairs in the house on the hill. A kitchen.

'You're going to have to trust me, Princess. Either that or a radical makeover from our friends back there.'

'Who said I didn't trust you,' I replied.

'I wouldn't blame you; I kidnapped you then drugged you.'

'Yeah, well I fucked your husband,' I said. 'Ex-husband,' I corrected. 'Does that mean we're even.'

'I think we should clean the slate,' she said. 'You see this door?'

'No.'

'Go and stand by it. When I say so, go out and close it behind you.'

'What are you going to be doing?'

'Cooking!'

She finally let go of my hand and I took a few tentative steps forwards, feeling for a wall and a door within it. Finding that, I reached down, fumbling for a doorhandle. And when my shaking hand clasped around it I exhaled a shaky sigh of relief. 'Okay,' I mumbled to myself, 'okay.' Then, clearing my throat, I turned my head back over my shoulder. 'I don't really think this is a clean slate.'

I could hear them, the creatures, chittering down the corridor outside the kitchen and forced myself to stay calm because it was all too easy to jump to horrible conclusions. Helen just brought you here to trap you. She's gonna let them in and watch as they tear you apart. No. If she was going to let you die, she wouldn't have bothered bringing you to the kitchens.

'You ready, Princess?'

'Helen...' I started in response. But I couldn't continue. There wasn't any point. I heard the kitchen door open and the creature flew in, screeching and crowing and clattering into pots and pans in the room and the noise was so deafening it was debilitating.

'Now!'

I snatched the door open and ran through before twisting to pull it shut behind me. I heard the slam. Then, cautiously, quickly, I ran down the corridor, colliding with walls and windows before I reached something at the other end.

I felt for a handle. Found one. I threw the door open and ran out.

The ground beneath me was damp, moisture seeped up into my socks as my eyes adjusted to let in a narrow channel of light, just enough to recognise I was now outside again and I could see trees surrounding me and a clear straight path, a few metres or so, back to the back door I must have come out of.

At that moment I heard the sound of the explosion, everything was in slow motion and the heat of the fire followed what felt like long after. My legs crumpled with the fright, my ass hit the dirt as I leant back and caught myself with my hands, staring up wide eyed at the dark and dim shapes of fire blowing out windows and curling up in black smoke to the sky.

'Anna!'

At the sound of my name, my head snapped around, I pushed myself quickly back onto my feet and started clumsily but quickly towards it.

I stumbled out of the woods and managed to see him– a dark grey shape against a light grey background– hands in his hair, chest heaving in panic, as he stared into the wreckage of the hotel annex. I barely even had time to register the fact that he was okay before I was running towards him.

'Nick!' I shouted back to him, to let him know, so he could hear my voice and see that I wasn't still inside.

He reeled around so quickly his face didn't have enough time to change from the wild and hysterical look of terror into relief.

'Nick.' I reached him, he held out his arms to catch me as I barrelled into him.

'Oh god, Anna.' His arms locked around me. And as he exhaled, deeply, in a sigh of relief that burnt across me, he pressed his face further into my neck. 'You scared the life out of me...'

'I...' I had started to speak before I really knew what to say and I had to take a deep breath myself to collect my thoughts before I continued. 'I didn't...'

He pulled back. 'Are you alright?' he studied my face, first, looking into my eyes before he surveyed me for cuts or bruises, then his eyes swept down my body for anything more serious.

I caught his chin with my hand to pull his gaze back up. 'I'm fine,' I said reassuringly. In all honestly I probably wasn't doing brilliantly but at least I could see something now. Even if it was only through a narrow line of vision. 'Helen was there,' I then told him. I swallowed. 'She saved me.'

'Is she still in there?'

I shook my head. 'No. She's gone... like a ghost.'

'No surprises there.'

His gaze dropped to my lips. A moment later he leant in and pressed a kiss against them, the sort of kiss that's meant to be chaste but can also portray a spectrum of emotion through it. Pulling back he leant his forehead against mine.

I could hear footsteps and glanced back towards them just in time to see Ryan and his men running down towards us.

I took a step back and grabbed his hand and held it tight in my own as Ryan came to a stop right beside me.

Nick didn't move. He remained crushed against my side and didn't ever look away from my face. I tried not to show in my own expression that I could tell he was watching me.

Out the corner of my eye I noticed Ryan turn his head towards me. One hand came down on my shoulder. He said nothing but he didn't need to; his silence was enough indication of his relief.

I lifted my free hand and instinctively tugged Stephen's shirt closed over my chest until I couldn't feel the wind against my skin.

Ryan's attention fell to the things on the floor and Nick's feet and Nick finally turned to acknowledge him.

'What?' he quipped, 'yeah, it was me. It was me with a zippo and a bottle of flammable gas.'

I saw Connor first as Nick and I emerged from the bushes and tracked a path towards him and Stephen with the Pteranodon beneath the anomaly.

I was on Nicks back. I supposed I must have been getting heavy; he'd carried me all the way from the hotel, but he hadn't complained one bit. He'd held on to me so tightly I was half sure I'd have bruises on my thighs where his fingertips had dug into my skin. I didn't mind in the slightest. I just looped my arm around his neck and kept myself as close to him as humanly possible.

Connor didn't see us until we were approaching the low-loader. 'Oh my god,' he said as Nick turned to set me down on the edge of the truck, 'why'd you take off your trousers?'

'Long story,' I replied. 'I'll tell you all about it later.'

'You two must be freezing,' Stephen called.

I was. The wind was whipping at my legs. I had huge goosebumps and could barely contain my trembling as Nick stepped away from me and I lost his warmth, but still neither of us could stop smiling.

'Ah, we'll be back home in no time,' Nick responded with a wave of his hand, 'as soon as we've got this little guy home too. We'll be fine.'

'We better be quick,' Connor replied, 'I don't think the anomaly's going to hold much longer.'

'Is he awake?'

'He's coming round,' Stephen explained.

I knelt down on the trailer beside the Pteranodons' head, gently pulling the tarpaulin back to watch as it blinked away the grogginess of the acepromazine maleate from Stephen's tranq gun. Stephen nudged in beside me.

'How's he been doing?' I asked, placing a gently hand on its face.

He had to clear his throat before he could speak. 'Good,' Stephen replied, 'better than you, apparently.'

I turned my head to face him and found he was already staring at me. I waited for him to continue, for a lecture I was sure would follow, for some sort of scathing remark about being stupid. He was unnaturally silent.

'Aren't you going to say something?' I asked in confusion.

'You don't want to hear it. It doesn't mean my feelings on it have changed but... maybe just this once...'

I nodded. 'Already I like you a lot more, Stephen.'

'That's good to know.'

'Hey, sweetheart–' I whipped my head around to look over my shoulder at where Nick was standing, flagpole in hand, ready to step into the platform of the scissor lift. 'You're absolutely confident that this creature doesn't eat mammals, right?'

'Anyone would think you don't trust me.'

'Dung never lies!' Stephen added, straightening beside me, 'anyway, if we're wrong about that, at least you'll have a special place in the history books.'

'I always wanted to be famous!' he called back. He hit the lever with his knee, and the platform slowly started to ascend. 'Let's do it.'

Stephen leant across me and grabbed the top corner of the tarpaulin. Over on the other side of the loader, Connor did the same.

'Ready soldier boy?' Stephen questioned, nodding to Ryan who was still standing guard over the Pteranodon.

'You sure about this?' Ryan asked.

'Yeah,' I said. 'Absolutely.'

Ryan gave a nod. I climbed down off the loader and back up through the wet grass to get out of the way.

'I'm ready,' Nick shouted down to us, 'let it go.'

'Oh my god that's beautiful,' I noted beneath my breath, as the Pteranodon soared over my head back towards the anomaly.

I could hear everyone cheering behind me. Thunderclapper Connor was slamming his hands together in their signature deafening style beside me, I cheered loud enough to drown him out before turned, caught his eye and he pointed at me. My smile widened and I pointed back at him. 'We've got the best jobs in the world,' he said.

'Yeah,' Stephen agreed, 'we do.'

I shifting my attention to Nick who, from atop the lift, beamed back down at all of us just as the anomaly closed behind him.

'Ah, it's just another day at the office,' I said.

'Hey,' Connor noted, looking up to the flagpole as we stood in our strange and somewhat dysfunctional family, 'did you take off your t-shirt too?'