Special Delivery (part 2)

... part 1

Maddie woke up while it was still dark. It was winter so the sun would rise late. She tried to curl up in bed, without opening her eyes, but she soon realized she had slept in the couch, wearing the coat that had come from the box and a small blanket. She wanted to go back to sleep, so she took off the coat quickly walked to her room upstairs and crawled under her heavy down comforter. She tried to sleep, but sleep would not come. She felt a chill running down her back. Maddie stepped off her bed and grabbed an old cardigan she had hanging in a chair by her bed. Slipping on her sweater, she went back to bed, hoping to get some more sleep. But sleep did not come. She stood up and checked the thermostat, and it read 70 degrees.

"Am I getting sick?" she thought. She went back to bed, trying to warm up until the sun rose. She got out of bed, put on her robe, and walked to the bathroom. She was still shivering. Maddie scrambled the medicine cabinet looking for a thermometer, sure that that was the problem. But a few moments later, her temperature came back as normal, she was not sick. So what was happening to her?

She went into her wardrobe and shifted through her clothing trying to find something warm. She grabbed a thin turtleneck, a thicker cardigan, and some sweatpants. Thus dressed, she walked downstairs to make some hot coffee.

Maddie was feeling groggy, she did not sleep well. She sipped her coffee, hoping that it would warm her up, and make her feel a little bit better. She walked to the window by her living room. It was a gloomy winter day. She took another sip of hot coffee, but she was still shivering. She looked over the couch and saw the coat that had arrived last night. She gingerly slipped her arms into the sleeves of the coat and suddenly felt the shivering go away. Maddie slipped her coffee and felt better. She was wearing a turtleneck, a thick cardigan, sweatpants and the bulky black down coat that had mysteriously appeared in her doorstep last night. But it wasn't until she put on the coat that she felt better, despite the thermostat being set at 70 degrees. What was happening to her?

The lack of sleep had Maddie with a horrible headache, but she was finally warming up now that she was bundled in the long black coat. She soon drifted off to sleep...

... Maddie was startled awake by the doorbell. She looked around, she was in the couch again. She remembered getting some coffee, putting on the mysterious coat, and laying in the couch. But not the music. Why was the music playing around? What was happening?

Maddie quietly walked towards the door and looked through the peephole. There was nobody there. She opened the door and gasped. There was another cardboard box. Maddie shut the door and double locked it in a rush. After running to the stereo to turn off the music from the CD, she stripped off the coat safe was wearing and dumped it into the first cardboard box she had received. She hurried upstairs in a fit off panic.

"Who can I call? The police will think I'm crazy just because I got a couple of misaddressed packages," Maddie thought. "I don't want to call my family out of state, they'll just think I'm crazy. And which of my friends would be in town over the holiday break...?"

By now Maddie was shivering. She was still wearing her thick cardigan, and was trying to get warm under the cover of her bed, but she felt the shiver creeping up her back. Was it because she felt stalked by a stranger? Or was she genuinely cold? She couldn't take it anymore, so she went downstairs to get one of her own coats, taking care not to even look at that mysterious coat stuffed in the cardboard box. Maddie opened up her coat closet. She didn't own any coat nearly as long or think as the one that came in the package, but from the back of the closet, Maddie pulled her warmest coat. It was the only down coat she owned and the one she wore when her more fashionable wool coats wouldn't cut it. It was a fairly regular down coat that reached to her upper thigh. She slipped her arms into the sleeves, zipped it up all the way, and put up the fur trimmed hood, hoping that it would be warm enough.

"Warm enough? I'm indoor. What crazy things am I thinking?"