the night we met | minishaw

chapter 13: hotel ruby

harry woke up feeling colder than usual, the cold morning air was nipping away at his skin as he forgot to shut the window last night.

that and the fact he woke up alone, there was an empty space where simon should be sleeping, usually he'd be the last one awake and always moaning at harry for waking him up too early. harry just kinda assumed he was making breakfast and drifted off back to sleep, knowing he'd be woken up soon by simon anyway.

but two hours later he woke back up alone again, he found it odd that simon hadn't woken him up yet. harry wondered what he could be cooking that was taking that long but now that he thought about it, he couldn't even smell anything.

curious and confused harry rolled out of bed and headed to the kitchen to find nobody was there. there was no food on the counter and it was pretty much deserted. he walked to the bathroom to wipe the sleep from his eyes and hoped to bump into simon there but again, nothing. at this point he just thought that simon had gone out for a bit, probably shopping or even for a morning walk.

this theory was quickly dismissed as he walked into the living room and found simon's phone and wallet on the coffee table, placed perfectly next to each other. harry looked in his wallet and found he had taken all his money out and his credit card too. he planned on searching his phone to find any clue as to where he was but a notification on the home screen told him all he needed to know.

HSBC: Your card made a transaction at Hotel Ruby at 3:34am, please let us know if this was you.

harry stared at the screen in confusion, what the fuck was simon doing at a hotel at 3am? then he recognised the name, it was the fancy hotel simon dragged him to last year after winter wonderland, he had forgotten about it until now, he only remembered the roof of the hotel and how cool it was up there, is that where simon went?

that's when the anxiety hit.

harry sprinted to his room and threw on the first pair of joggers he could find and simon's favourite hoodie, the smell of simon managed to calm him down slightly as he ran down the hall to the lift and frantically pressed at the buttons.

harry stared into the lift mirror and took deep breaths, his hands were shaking like crazy but he needed to remember to breathe. a sudden voice popped up in his head, a familiar voice that always used to calm him down during bad panic attacks or whenever he was feeling down.

"breathe harry, just breathe" simon's voice whispered, and for a brief second harry felt comforted, until the lift reached the bottom floor and he remembered where he was.

from what he remembers, the hotel was only about 5 blocks away, it would take at least half an hour to get a taxi at a time like this so running would be his best option. so he set off, going as fast as he could through the pouring rain, pushing past the crowds of people, some of them shouting stuff at him, calling him a lunatic, if only they knew what he was running to.

as he neared the hotel, harry felt weaker than ever, he didn't know what he was expecting to find and he was absolutely terrified. he didn't stop running though, he kept going, even when his legs felt like jelly and were about to give in, he couldn't give up now.

but when harry turned the final corner he stopped dead in his tracks.

hotel ruby was exactly like he remembered, only this time there was a crowd of shaken up looking people, police tape and an ambulance. the second he spotted the ambulance he started moving again, shoving anything and anyone out his way, he needed to know what was happening.

surely it wasn't his simon, his simon was probably in one of the rooms looking down and laughing, his simon wasn't hurt, he couldn't be.

but when he had finally reached the front of  the crowd he was met with a sight that would stay in his mind forever.

behind the police tape was a stretcher with a body on it, most of it was covered by a white sheet but harry could see a hand sticking out that had a ring on.

simon's ring.