Haunted in the Night

Chapter Ten- Part Two

“I’ve called my cop friend Sam, his already on his way, I seriously suggest that you just leave now, you don’t want to cause anymore problems” Claire tried to talk some sense to him but it only just caused the opposite effect.
“You called the cops on me? You little bitch, open this door now!” he shouted as he hit the door with his fist and Claire jumped scared.
“Sam please just leave me alone” she sobbed, tears of fear entering her eyes as she quickly rushed to the fireplace and grabbed the poker, just in case he managed to get inside.
“Shit” she suddenly heard him mumble, then running footsteps as she heard a car pull up outside and a door slam shut.
“Claire?” Bob shouted out and she sighed relieved as she rushed to the door, threw it open and saw Bob looking around as he made his way over to her.
“What happened?” he asked worried, seeing that she had the fireplace poker tightly gripped in her hands and saw her looking around fearfully, no sight of Sam anywhere.
“I’ll tell you inside” she said wanting to get back inside the safety of the cabin.
“I met this guy one day at the bookstore, I was reaching for a book for my course that was on the top shelf, I couldn’t reach it, suddenly someone else grabbed it for me and handed it to me, it was Sam, we talked a little about how we were both studying at the university, me criminal profiling and him business owning, he ended up asking me out on a date, I went on two with him but I saw that he was nothing but rude and possessive, arrogantly charming and also deceitful and cunning, so I told him I wasn’t interested, that was the last I saw of him, that was three weeks ago and then suddenly tonight he shows up here, demanding that I’m his girlfriend” Claire explained to Bob over a cup of hot chocolate with mini marshmallows that he had made her.
“Is there any chance he could have been the one who left the rose petals here?” Bob asked having the same thought she had.
“Yes, he did, I already asked him, that was when I told him to leave me alone or I would have him charged for stalking, breaking and entering and harassment, he got furious, I quickly came inside, locked the door and called you, he was banging on the door trying to scare me into letting him in, thankfully you got here before he did” she whimpered out, remembering how scared and helpless she had felt, and it wasn’t even the kidnapper that had been hunting the town.
“You did the right thing calling me straight away, where was Chad?” Bob asked curiously and Claire instantly looked down at the cup sadly as she wrapped her hands around it more, trying to get a tighter grip, this did not pass Bob’s attention.
“Claire did something bad happen with Chad?” he asked her softly, not wanting to push her too hard, she was still shivering slightly from the adrenaline.
“We had a great time, he brought me home and we were.... we were about to kiss but Sam suddenly called out my name, said he’d been looking for me all over, he went to put his arm around my shoulders but I pulled away, then I asked what he was doing here, that was when he called me his girlfriend, Chad thought I was playing him, he left really upset and I couldn’t stop him” she said sadly, stuttering at some parts, an odd tear falling from her eyes.
“I see” Bob said as Claire sniffled before pulling a tissue from the box in the middle of the table and blew her nose softly then stood up, put it in the bin and washed her hands while she also washed out her now empty cup.
“I’ll call him, I’ll explain the situation to him, he’ll listen to me more than he will to you at the moment but I’ll clear things up” Bob promised her and she attempted to smile at him softly, she didn’t even know if Chad would believe it even if it was coming from Bob.
“What will we do about Sam? What if he doesn’t go back to Adelaide?” she asked fearfully and Bob put his big warm hand on her small cold shoulder.
“I won’t let you be alone, if he doesn’t leave I’ll charge him” he promised her and she nodded trying to believe it with all her heart but deep in her gut she had this terrible feeling, this awful dread that he would still be coming back for her, he is too possessive to let her go.
She was setting up a fire while Bob was in the bedroom on the phone to Chad, she could hear him trying to explain what had happened, at first it sounded like he wasn’t having much luck but before she knew it he came out and smiled at her.
“He wants to see you tomorrow if that’s alright?” he asked her and she nodded as she sat down on the couch and pulled the blanket around her shoulders, it would take awhile before the fire would warm the place up.
“I guess that’s okay” she replied, she wasn’t sure how she would take seeing him again, if he would believe her or not but she knew she still had to try.
“I told him all that you told me, but he still just wants to hear it from you” he reassured her as he sat down at the table.
“I’m cooking some soup if you would like some” she said as she pointed to the pot over the fire and he smiled and nodded, cheering up at the thought of food.
“That would be great” he replied and she stirred it again a little more, it would still be a little while before it would be cooked.
“So seeming as you sleep on the couch I guess I have to take the bed” he said suddenly and she looked at him confused.
“I’m not going to leave you alone with a kidnapper and a stalker on the loose” he stated matter of factly and she smiled at him understanding now what he was meaning.  
“Did you find any more clues today about the case?” she asked curiously.
“No, mainly I was helping the rangers set up for the hunt tonight” he replied and she sighed sadly.
“Well it couldn’t have been Sam outside my cabin the other night, the footprints were a woman’s and handmade shoes so there is still the question to those” she stated as she leaned forward, her elbows on her legs.
“You’re right on that one, but we should hear back from the lab in a few days about those samples from the book page” he told her and she nodded, hoping it wouldn’t be too many days.
“Do you think anybody is going to get hurt out on this hunt tonight?” she asked him worriedly as she nervously bit her lip at the dreadful thought.
“Honestly it’s a big possibility, like I have said earlier, they may be hunting it but I can guarantee that it’ll also be hunting them” he replied bitterly as he pulled out a wooden cigar box from his backpack and she looked at him shocked.
“I thought you were all about health” she said confused.
“I am, this had been your fathers” he told her and she gasped, not expecting that and she looked down at the small wooden box he held firmly in his hands, it had a gold seel on the top of it, it was a Japanese symbol, or at least that is what it looked like to Claire but she didn’t know what it stood for.
“My father smoked cigars?” she asked, she had never known that about him.
“We both did, at the time, when you and your mother were in bed we would go to your fathers study, and we’d sit and smoke one each, he had these specially made, he gave one to me and kept this one himself, the symbol here is Japanese for Brotherhood” he told her as he pointed to the gold seel she had been looking at.
“You were like a brother to him” she said happily, feeling like a part of her family was still with her here, through him.
“He gave me this on the day that they got the letter from the kidnapper, he gave it to me just in case, he wanted me to hold on to it, until the day that their kidnapping is solved” he told her cryptically.
“And then what? What happens to it the day you solve their kidnapping?” she asked curiously.
“He wanted me to give it to you” he told her, looking up from the box and locking eye contact with her.
She didn’t know what to say to that, it was such a heavy thing to be told so she quickly busied herself by getting two bowls and pouring the nice hot cooked soup into them, handing him one and sitting back down with hers.
They ate in a comfortable silence, watching the flames from the fire flicker, by the time they finished eating Claire washed the dishes while he helped dry them and put them away, he insisted that he helped after she had told him that he didn’t need to.
By the time they were finished it was ten at night so he headed off to the bedroom to sleep, after he had checked and double checked all the windows and doors were locked.
“Good night Claire, shout out if you need me” he told her as he headed towards the bedroom.
“Night Bob” she replied as she laid down on the couch under the blanket, watching as the fire was nearly dead, the hot coals from the wood breaking and dropping into ash.
Slowly Claire’s eyelids drooped, she was exhausted and in desperate need of sleep, then suddenly just as her eyes closed they flew back open again, there was rustling outside the cabin, it sounded like someone had brushed past a bush.
Quickly she sat up and looked to the front door, trying to keep quiet to listen.
Snap, a twig snapped under weight and she scrambled to her feet, grabbing the fire poker again and watched the front door intently.
A shadow suddenly appear at the window and Claire let out a scream, the shadow quickly disappearing and Bob came rushing out to see what was going on.
“There was someone outside, at the window” she said quickly pointing to the window frantically.
He wasted no time at grabbing his gun from the table and rushed outside looking around, but only moments later he came back in.
“No sign of anyone there now” he told her and she quickly rushed over to the door, shut it and locked it back up, taking deep breaths, trying to calm her heart rate.
“Why does this keep happening to me?” she cried.
“What shape did the shadow look like? Could it have been a woman or a man?” he asked her as he led her to the couch, taking the fire poker from her and putting it back in its place then sat down next to her as he wrapped her in the blanket.
“I’m... not... sure” she stuttered, fidgeting with the corners of the blanket.
“Relax, try to calm down and remember” he told her as he put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her and she closed her eyes and took in deep slow breaths.
She could see it again, in her mind and she gasped fearfully.
“It’s alright, just relax, their gone now, their not really there, it’s just a memory, tell me do they have long hair? Can you see it through the white curtain?” he asked her and she tried her best to see the image as clearly as she could for a memory, she hadn’t really paid much attention when it had been there in person.
“No, no long hair” she answered him, keeping her breath even.
“Okay what about the shoulders? Could you see them?” he asked her.
“Yes” she replied focusing on the spots he was telling her.
“Are they small like a woman’s? Or broad like a man?” he asked her, gently rubbing her shoulder to help keep her calm knowing his still there.
“Broad” she told him more calmly now.
“So it looks like a male figure?” he asked her and she opened her eyes and nodded.
“Sam, his not going to stop” she declared.