Smells Like Winter

13: Logan's Cottage

"No, absolutely not." Carter's voice was cool as cut glass.

After the insufferable, raw anguish Sia had put her through, Maddy and the other four had gathered in the car again to discuss the odds of them visiting Logan's cottage in Lancashire.

"Why not?" pleaded Sia. "We can't just wander around with no money or food."

"She's right, man," interfered Logan. "I have money there, cash. And I went there a week ago on my own without telling my parents, so all the cupboards and the fridge are full. We'll have food and clean clothes, and we can sleep on a proper bed. Plus you've all been there before."

"You think your parents haven't already told the police about your cottage?" snapped Carter, losing his patience. "If we go to Lancashire, it will be as good as walking straight into a mousetrap."

"Look, I don't think they have thought about it. We haven't been to our family cabin in Lancashire in years. Ever since my father passed it to me my parents haven't stepped foot there. I bet they don't even remember it exists. Besides, do you really think the police or FROST would travel two hundred miles because of five teenagers? I say we go. It's mine, I'm the only one who goes there for years now."

"Yeah, I bet you never go alone," grumbled Sia underneath her breath, her voice so low that Maddy wondered whether she was the only one who heard her.

"Yeah, I think we should go, too. I could use a shower." Mia flipped her glossy ponytail.

"No. It's too risky. We might get caught." Carter shook his head categorically.

Maddy was silent beside him in the front passenger's seat, listening to the conversation without talking or picking sides. Listening to them arguing over whether they would get caught or not felt so... surreal, like having one of those nightmares that get you paralysed, unable to move a single muscle, unable to run or scream.

She felt the need to pinch her skin, hoping to wake up and forget all about that terrible nightmare in seconds. She squeezed her arm between her long fingers, releasing a heavy breath. Nothing happened. Because that was not a nightmare. It was real.

The realization shook her like a wave crashing on solid rocks by the shore - a wave? A whole god damn tsunami. Just a few hours ago, she was in class, attending a fatally boring lesson and casually chit chatting with Clarke. And now... now she was running from the police and some creepy association called FROST, and she could get arrested any second, get locked inside some daunting cell behind steel bars and have a green liquid that could even kill her injected into her organism with a stingy syringe.

Her whole life had turned upside down in the blink of an eye. She was supposed to be studying for school now, keep on getting excellent grades and eating vanilla ice cream, go to university and live up the college life, go to parties and have fun while being the antisocial introvert she always used to be. She wasn't supposed to be running from the cops and FROST.

Was that her life now? A life of constantly darting cautious glances over her shoulder and startling even at the sound of her own footsteps?

Her sulky thoughts seemed to consume her, and they were too terrible to contemplate anyway, so she just pushed them away, shaking her head right and left.

"We won't get caught. Come on, Carter. We need money and supplies, and you know it." Sia looked desperate.

Carter didn't back up, not a single step; it was seen in his dark eyes.

"Let's vote," suggested Logan. "I say we go."

"Me too," agreed Sia with no second thoughts.

"Me too," repeated Mia.