suddenly | little mix

Chapter 21

PERRIE HAD HER ear up against a wall, while tapping at it. Trying to find a hollow piece of wall was harder than expected and she found that maybe things in real life might be a tiny bit tougher than in her Nancy Drew collection back in South Shields. Perrie stopped tapping and turned to Zayn, who was looking at every crease in the wall, trying to find something that looked remotely different to the rest of the continuous pattern.

"There are no doors and no secret entrances," Perrie said, "I don't think we're ever going to find our way out of here."

"There's got to be something," Zayn murmured in reply, still looking closely at the wall and trying not to get distracted by Perrie's melodic voice.

Perrie sighed and slid down the wall. She was about a centimetre away from reaching the floor, when suddenly she heard a crack. She stopped in her pursuit to the ground, listening intently. The cracks seemed to be coming from behind her. They kept repeating themselves and soon enough Zayn had heard as well.

He turned just in time to see the wall crack and Perrie fall back into a different room. He rushed in the through the broken entrance to see Perrie laying on the floor, her pale limbs in all different directions and a shocked expression painted onto her sharp features and for the first time in at least a couple of days, Zayn genuinely laughed.

He held his sides and let his loud voice crawl into every crevice of the room, so not another sound could be heard, unless it was extremely noisy.

As much as Perrie loved to hear her fiancé laugh, she felt it was not the time and not the place. Especially since her cheeks seemed to be about seven shades pinker than usual. She didn't usually feel embarrassed around Zayn, but Zayn had never really laughed as hard as he had done at that moment beforehand. So, it was a bit of a new experience and Perrie wasn't enjoying it, since it mainly involved her.

When Zayn had decided he had finished laughing, he helped Perrie to her feet, dusting her down and pecking her cheek.

"You're adorable, Pez," he cooed at her, stroking her cheek delicately with his finger.

Perrie had to stop herself from swooning under the loving gesture and reminded herself she was still a tad bit mad at Zayn. After all, he did laugh at her for what felt like an eternity.

She snatched her head away from Zayn and said, "What if I had died? You were just laughing, you couldn't have known!"

Zayn smiled at Perrie, "But you didn't die."

"But, what if I did?"

"But, you didn't."

"Yes, bu-"

"Perrie," Zayn chuckled softly, interrupting her, "I'm sorry, okay? It was just cute."

"Whatever," Perrie huffed.

She looked around at her surroundings. The place was dimly lit, so it took a couple of seconds for her blue eyes to adjust. But, when they did, she couldn't help but gasp at her surroundings.

Paper. All she could see were endless amounts of maps, plans, blueprints and letters. She read through a couple, not entirely understanding what they were about. Some were in different languages to English, others were in code. But, she saw one that caught her eye.

The Sudden Plan.

This one was in full English. For some reason, it intrigued her before she had even read the text. It was drawing her closer. She needed to know what it read and what the text contained. It was a strange feeling, but she couldn't fight it. She couldn't get rid of the feeling that was inching through every cell in her body. It felt smothering.