Author's Notes: Thank you to all who reviewed, I know I missed replying to a few of you, and I'm sorry. I appreciate all feedback! Glad to see someone was still reading after such a long break between chapters. There's only a few more left after this chapter, and don't worry, I didn't leave you with a cliffie like last time.

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think!

Jenny

Chapter Four:

Tuesday

With a slight moan, Sara put her arm over her face, trying in vain to ignore the sound of dripping water. She whimpered softly, wanting nothing more than to return to the black abyss of sleep, and used her other arm to reach over towards Greg. Instead of flesh, however, she was met with air. As she struggled to wake up, she knew that this couldn't be right, Greg always slept on her left side.

Sara slowly blinked her eyes open, her chest aching painfully as she struggled to take in a deep breath. Rubbing her eyes, she slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, thoroughly confused despite her gradual transition into the conscious world. The last thing she remembered was being in the living room, the lights going out, hands from behind her…but she wasn't in the living room now, so it was entirely possible it was another hallucination like the one from the lake.

She tiredly reached towards her neck, surprised to find it tender and swollen. Maybe she hadn't imagined it after all. But if she had been attacked, where was she? As her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, she realized she was staring at the back of the front seat of Greg's car. Why was she in the car? How did she get her? What was going on?

"Greg?" She called out hoarsely, pushing open the car door, "Greg?"

She tried to clear her throat, hoping in vain she'd be able to get her voice louder than a whisper. Even in the silent forest, a whisper wouldn't carry too far, much less during a rainstorm. "Greg?"

Her only response was the wind rustling through the trees and the ever-irritating sound of water droplets hitting the car's roof. It was only once she realized she was alone that she began to panic. Rising shakily to her feet, she began to scramble back towards the cabin, worried over Greg's safety. Whatever had attacked her could have gotten Greg as well, and although she wasn't quite sure what she was facing, she knew it was vitally important to not only save Greg, but for the two of them to stick together in order to make it out unharmed.

She let out a loud string of expletives as she slipped in the slick mud, coming down hard on her ankle. Angry not only over being wet, but now muddy, Sara growled and tried to return to a standing position, only to fall once more as searing pain shot through her ankle and up her leg. She loudly screamed Greg's name once more, only to be rewarded with an increase in rainfall as thunder boomed overhead. Great, now she was stuck here, prey to whatever it was that was tormenting them. As her tired brain tried to formulate a plan for escape, she made a mental note never to go on vacation again. As stressful as her job was, it was a walk in the park compared to this.

--

Greg knew had hadn't been imagining the events of the previous night. When he combined that with the bizarre events presently going on, he could only feel that it was just a matter of time before the attacks went from scary to lethal.

While he had only felt hands grasping him the night before, he could actually see the shadows of something strangling Sara before his very eyes. Still, he had been unable to move, to react, until the shadow had disappeared and Sara had fallen to the floor. If something else, worse, happened to her, he'd never be able to forgive himself. If he hadn't been so stubborn and angry earlier…if he had only been able to react faster…if he had insisted they leave after the first bizarre experience, things would have been alright. He took a deep breath, clenching his fists as he tried to remain calm. Wondering what could have been done wouldn't fix anything; he just had to get them out of this mess while he still could.

As thunder boomed outside of the dark cabin, he knew he had to act fast. The path to the cabin had been made of dirt, and the longer it rained, the more likely it was that they'd get stuck in the mud and be forced to spend another night in the dreaded cabin. He finally found his keys and cell phone, and as he decided nothing else was worth saving, he sprinted back towards the door, hoping it wouldn't be too wet to escape.

He didn't realize anything was wrong until he reached the front door. It was only once the door wouldn't budge that he felt the tell-tale coldness in the air, seeing little ice crystals form as he panted, his breath coming more and more rapid as he began to panic. He could feel something closing in on him, breathing on his neck as he struggled to maneuver the wooden door. He felt icy fingers brush against his arms, and he bit back a terrified scream.

Instead, he forcefully pulled away, using all of he strength he had left to ram into the window, relieved to feel the warm, wet air against his face as he landed on the wooden porch, ignoring the sting of glass digging into his face and arms. He could deal with the cuts later; right now he just had to get as far away from this place as possible.

He had made it halfway to the car when he tripped over something in the muddy darkness, sending him face down in the mud.

"What the hell?" Greg shouted, wiping his face as best as he could, spitting to get the nasty taste from his mouth, "Who's there?"

"It's me." Sara's voice trembled, "Greg?"

"Yeah," Greg replied, "What are you doing on the ground? We need to get out of here, something's in there, it's after us."

"I know…I came to look for you….I hurt myself." Sara replied, her voice laced with pain as she shuddered, "I think my ankle's broken."

Reaching out to her, his easily found her injured ankle, wincing as he could feel the separation of her bones, "That's quite likely." He replied, standing and reaching out to her in the darkness, "Take my hand, and don't put any weight on it, I'll get us back to the car."

He pulled her to her feet, wrapping an arm securely around her shivering body, "You should have stayed in the car, love."

"Well, I know that now, but then I had no way of knowing how I got there or if you were even going to come back for me." Sara spat bitterly, "Don't tell me what I should and shouldn't do anyway; you're neither my father nor my boss."

Greg rolled his eyes, carefully balancing Sara before opening the car door, "Get in"

Before she could respond, he helped her sit and shut the door, moving around to the other side of the car. Sara had to be the most stubborn person in the world. He knew it wasn't unlike her to lash out while she was in pain, but at the moment he really wasn't in the mood for her sarcasm. They had more important things to do than to argue about his tone or word choice, in case she had forgotten, something had tried several times to kill them in the last two days.

Sliding into the driver's seat, he said a quick prayer that they wouldn't be bogged down in mud. The rain was now pounding harder than he had ever witnessed before in his lifetime, which did not bode well for the two of them.

As he cranked the engine, however, he realized that mud would be the least of their problems.

"Um, it's dead." Greg stammered, feeling lightheaded as the implications of his words sunk into his brain. The car wouldn't start, they weren't going anywhere. They'd either have to wait it out until the rain stopped and take a look under the hood, or they'd have to walk. While he was leaning more towards walking rather than waiting, he knew Sara wouldn't be up for it on her broken ankle, and with the rain and mud, it would be nearly impossible to commandeer the whole thing on his own.

Sara shot Greg a nasty look, knowing she was taking her own pain and frustration out on Greg, who didn't deserve it, but found it impossible to stop herself, "Oh, gee, I didn't realize that when it didn't start. Thanks for your useful knowledge, as usual."

"Look," Greg snapped, "I know you're not in the best of moods, neither am I, but fighting really won't help things, will it?"

Sara crossed her arms, leaning against the seat with a scowl on her face, refusing to meet his eyes or acknowledge his statement. With a sigh, Greg tried to crank the car again. At least with the silent treatment, he wouldn't have to listen to her complaints. He tried several more times to get the engine started, growing irritated when he made no progress. The car had been in perfect working condition before their trip to the cabin, he had never had any trouble with his car, why would it start acting up now?

Glancing nervously towards the cabin, he shook his head slightly. It had to be whatever was trying to scare them out of the cabin, out of the woods. But why would it tamper with the one thing that could get them away? Unless, of course, its goal was to kill them…if that was the case, it probably wouldn't matter what they tried to do, they'd never make it out in one piece.

Glancing towards his silent girlfriend, he started to rethink his opinion on the silent treatment. Alone in the woods, and now without Sara's company, he felt more alone than he had ever felt in his entire life.

"So do we take our chances out here, or do we go back in there?" Greg asked his companion quietly, motioning towards the cabin, "Because I think that either way, we're probably screwed."

Sara shrugged, hugging her arms tightly around her aching body, "I'm not in a real big hurry to go back into that cabin, nothing good ever comes of it."

"Agreed."

"We should walk." Sara suggested after a moment of silence, "With my foot, we won't be able to move fast, but at least we'll be getting somewhere. I mean, even if we wait for daylight and the rain to stop, we can't fix the car without any tools, can we?"

Greg shrugged, "If we can even figure out what's wrong with it…"

"So we walk?"

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Greg asked, trying to make out her face in the black darkness, but failing. "I don't want you to push yourself too hard and make your injuries worse."

With a heavy sigh, Sara shrugged, "I have some bandages in the trunk, and we can wrap it and hope we find some help before too much time passes. We really don't have any other choices right now."

"You're right." Greg muttered, reaching for the door handle, "I'll go get the bandages, you sit tight until I get back."

Greg turned, pulling on the handle and pushing on the door, only to find it wouldn't budge. Checking to make sure it was unlocked, he tried again, this time putting his shoulder into the movement. Still, the door remained securely shut. Closing his eyes tightly, he took a deep calming breath before turning to Sara, asking in what he hoped wasn't a panicked tone, "Can you open your door?"

Dread filled Sara as she reached for the door handle, knowing what the answer would be before she even tried. After several failed attempts, she muttered softly, "No."

"Great, we're stuck. Again."

TBC