Deep [Niall Horan]

Chapter Thirty-Five

I lean over to Taylor and wrap my arms around her and she cries into my shoulder.

"Taylor..." I say, "I'll help you leave. I'll-"

"Shhhh...." she whispers and places her index finger over my mouth, "don't say things like that. You'll get into trouble. They're listening..."

"There are cameras everywhere," she continues, "microphones attached to us. Cameras even in the bathroom, there is never any privacy. They have heard everything we've said all day."

Taylor is rolling around the car as if she is intoxicated.

"But there's nothing we can do," Taylor says groggily, "men have all the power."

Suddenly a loud beep and a flashing red light appears in the car and immediately Taylor snaps back into her fake smile and disingenuous eyes.

"Time to go back home!" Taylor yells and quickly turns on the engine and drives us back on the road.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm standing by the door on the inside of the mansion with Taylor by my side. Her arms are dangling lifelessly by her side. She gives me an indifferent look, but I can tell that she is hiding sympathy. She has a large, red mark on the side of her face that she tried to cover with makeup. The mark is in the shape of a hand. It's looks like it's the size of Harry's hand.

Niall and Harry are standing in front of us at the bottom of the massive staircase in the middle of the main floor. Both of them are wearing perfectly tailored tuxedos. Niall's hair is flawlessly quiffed above his head and Harry's hair is long, resting on his shoulders. They are facing towards us, but they both have blank stares on their faces and it seems like neither of them are looking at anything.

As for me, I'm relaxed. There's nothing I can do about this situation, so I accept what is coming to me.

That was a lie. I'm nervous as fuck. Everything is new to me. You know I can't fight the feeling.

Harry turns his body around and slowly begins to walk up the stairs without saying a word. Niall immediately follows behind Harry up the stairs. Taylor pulls on my arm and we also start walking up the stairs.

We follow Niall and Harry, but this time down a different hallway than the one I walked down earlier today. There are even more portraits of Niall and Harry that are displayed on the walls of the hallway. Every door we pass is closed. Everyone is silent, the only difference from earlier today is the lack of clamorous sounds from another room.

We turn down another hallway and pass an open door. I look inside the room and see glass shards covering the floor and the lights are flickering on and off.

Niall, Harry, and Taylor walk past and don't even look into the room as if nothing ever happened in there.

After walking through several hallways and walking up and down several staircases, Niall and Harry finally stop at a door and enter the room and close the door behind them. I look to Taylor who blinks at me then leads me in the other direction.

"Where are we going?" I whisper.

Taylor slightly opens her mouth without looking at me to say something, but no words come out of her mouth.

We enter another room further down the hallway and Taylor has me sit in a chair against the wall.

"You'll do everything I ask you to," Taylor whispers and points at me, "no questions asked, and everything will be okay. You got it?"

I gulp and stare into her dull eyes.

"Yes, uh, I got it," I stammer.

"Let's get started."