It took Kyle almost a minute to get his head around what was happening. On the surface of things it seemed that his reaction to his nightmare caused Angie wake violently from her sleep. Tense, she offered to take the dog out for him in order to get some air. As he blinked himself awake in the near darkness Kyle felt a pang of guilt about the whole situation.<br/><br/>“I am so sorry, again, baby – you don’t have to take Alex out – unless, well, you want to?” he asked, thinking out loud. “Are you sure?” With that he gave Angie a chance to back off from her offer. He appreciated her being willing to help, but he didn’t want her to feel the need to take on chores around his dog. At least he didn’t want her to feel obligated to anyway – especially on the first night they were a couple again.<br/><br/>Since it seemed she was sure about getting outside Kyle was happy to let her take Alex with her. “Thank you, I appreciate it,” he said with a yawn. “While you’re down there – please close the glass doors on the fireplace. I left enough wood in there for hours and I’m sure it’s still going. Don’t close the flue; just shut the doors and it’ll be fine until morning.”<br/><br/>Once Angie and Alex were out the door Kyle laid back down with a loud sigh. Rolling on his side he felt himself begin to drift off.<br/><br/>It didn’t seem like much time had passed before Angie was back in bed. She must have returned after he had dozed off. Kyle could make out her form under the sheet, lying on her back absolutely still except for a slight shiver. He squinted in the dim moonlight to try and figure out what was going on. It looked like the sheet was all the way up, over her head. This struck him as very odd.<br/><br/>“Are you cold, baby?” he asked, reaching out to pull back the sheet enough to see her face. That’s when he saw that it wasn’t Angie.<br/><br/>Beneath the sheet was a slightly built, terrified-looking African American girl who couldn’t have been more than twenty years old. The young woman was frozen in place with eyes that stared back at Kyle with the most fear he had ever witnessed. Kyle was so startled that he instantly jumped out of bed and landed on his back on the cold, wooden floor. Staring back at her in disbelief with his mouth hanging open in shock, he scrambled to cover himself with the blanket that had landed beside him.<br/><br/>“Pleases…” the woman began to plead in a broken, creole-like accent. “No hurt meh… pleases…” she whispered in a desperate tone.<br/><br/>“I… I won’t… I won’t hurt you…” Kyle said absent mindedly as his brain attempted to make sense of what was going on but simply could not. Scrambling to his feet, Kyle made his way to the wall and flicked on the room’s light switch. In the sudden bright light of the room’s lamps she was gone – he was in fact alone after all. Kyle stood there blinking for several moments as he tried to come to terms with what had to have been another nightmare.<br/><br/>After moment he dropped the blanket and put on a pair of pajama bottoms before heading downstairs. He needed to see a friendly face in that moment.