Steady drum of the rain was lulling her to sleep, too. She was just about to enter to the dreamland, when sudden noise shook her awake. It was something from between a growl and a whimper. Part defiant, part pleading.
Logan was in deep sleep, twitching and whispering, thin sheen of sweat covering his skin.
“No…”
“Logan?” She called his name, crawling closer. Man was an asshole, but if he was dreaming about his past… Nobody deserved to go through that hell again.
“No… Don’t touch…” He was moaning out loud, fending off the terrors he was seeing with flailing hands.
“Logan!” She shouted, hoping to jolt him awake. It worked, but not as she would have hoped for. Instead of simply waking up Logan came out of his dream with a mighty roar, one hand grasping her throat and pinning her against the passenger’s door, claws extending from the other hand and hovering over her face.
His lips twisted to a disgusted grimace, eyes narrowed and he pushed away from her, opening the driver’s door and practically falling out from the truck. Marie scooted over the seat and closed the door before the whole cab got flooded. Logan was sitting in the puddle of mud, legs stretched in front of him, leaning to his hands, head bent backwards. It had been just a few seconds, and he was already soaked through, wet clothes hanging on him like a second skin. His chest was heaving and when his head lolled forward before falling back again she could see the look of utter agony on his face. What ever the dream had been about, it had been horrific.
“Logan! Come back inside!” She shouted over the rumbling of the rain. Water was cascading in from the narrow gap between the window and doorframe, but she couldn’t just leave him out there.
“Logan! You fucking dissolve or something! Come inside!” He shook his head, keeping his eyes closed.
“Don’t make me come and get you!” Marie shouted. Logan flopped on his back to the muddy surface.
“Fine. Needed a shower anyway…” Marie muttered, braced herself and pushed the door open, hopping down to the sinking sand.
Water wasn’t cold, but the sheer amount it in the air made her cough and sputter. It was hard to see, and she nearly stumbled over Logan’s long legs.
“Go away!” She heard him shout.
“Come inside! You can drown yourself to the well once we get back to the cabin! Easier that way!” She responded, kneeling next to him and fumbling blindly until she found his arm.
“Come on!” She tried to drag him up, but Logan squirmed loose from her hold and crawled further from the truck.
“Stop!” If he crawled any further, he would really drown. He was at the edge of the rock formation. She run after him and grabbed his ankles, starting to pull him backwards, towards the solid ground and the truck.
“Let the fuck go of me!” Logan screamed and something sticky and hard hit her to the side of her head. It took her a while to realize what had happened.
“You didn’t just threw me with a mud-ball!” She was shocked enough of his behavior that she let go of his ankles. Logan repaid his new freedom with another ball of brown and sticky dirt.
“Stop that! I’m only trying to help!”
“I don’t fucking need your help!” Logan hissed sitting up and swiping wet hair back from his forehead. His fingers left muddy imprints on his skin, but they washed away almost immediately. When she tried to approach him, he scooped up a generous pile of the mud and threw it at her, hitting her torso. She screamed and bolted on top of him, forcing him down and covering his face with a liberal amount of brown, gooey substance.
“There! And here’s some more!” She snarled almost hysterically, stuffing mud inside of his shirt. Logan let out a low growl and twirled them over, so that he ended on top, and straddled her waist. One hand restrained her arms above her head; other scooped mud and was closing in to her face slowly.
“You wouldn’t dare…”
“Watch me.” She barely had the time to close her mouth and eyes before sticky pile of mud landed on her face. Logan’s weight left her body.
“Stay down. Rain will wash it off,” she heard him grunt and decided to obey.
She scraped the last remnants of the gritty mud from her eyelids and sat up. Logan was standing next to her, eyes fixed to the sky above.
“It’s slowing down.” He was right. She could actually see the truck through the rain, not just hazy outlines of it. She stood up and tried to shake off the sand and mud that had stuck to her clothes. Logan shrugged away his shirt and let the last droplets of the water to wash away the mud she had gotten on him. Sun was already peeking through the clouds.
“What happened?” She asked. They were sitting on the hood of the truck, soaking up the sun and waiting for the ground to dry up.
“Nightmare.”
“You have them often?” She asked.
“This was the first one in years. I’m sorry… I’m sorry if I scared you,” Logan said, letting his gaze settle over the horizon, clearly not comfortable with the topic.
“I had those too. Several years after…”
“Yeah. Life’s a bitch,” Logan muttered, combing his fingers through the tangled mess of his hair, letting loose a small cloud of sand and dust. He leaned backwards, propping himself to a half-sitting position with his elbows. She couldn’t help admiring the view of his naked torso, all that muscle bulging and rippling under the tanned skin. She wondered if he would still feel the same. Warm and solid. How he would react if she let her palm wander over the expanse of his chest. She shook her head and hid her burning cheeks behind a tangled veil of her hair, starting to comb it with her fingers to get out now dried up mud cakes from it. She didn’t have the luxury to let her mind wander down that path. She could already feel her body starting to react to the man lying next to her.
Logan shifted and slid down from the hood, testing the ground carefully.
“I think… Yeah. We can continue…” He shouted from the edge of the rocks, stomping the sand with his foot. Marie cleared her throat.
“Good. It’s about time.” Sun was already setting. And in the night, after dark, bandits would start prowling around, looking for stranded travelers.
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