"If I could then I would,
I'll go wherever you go.
Way up high or down low,
I'll go wherever you go."
***
I open my eyes. I'm still in the bath tub. I don't even know when fell asleep. I move to get up but I completely freeze in my tracks as my breathe hitches in my throat when I see him sitting at the edge of the tub.
Alex...
"Oh, you finally woke up. Wakey wakey! how was your nap?" he asks with a huge grin on his face.
"H-how-What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you, Eliza. How have you been doing lately?" he asks with a knowing tone in his voice.
"No. T-This is so not happening. You aren't real and I'm fully a-aware of it," I say with my voice trembling and I internally curse myself at the sound of my voice.
He starts laughing. What?
"Oh, Eliza. My sweet little Eliza," he tuts as he moves towards me. I try to get away from him as much as I can but it just doesn't seem like enough. I feel trapped in a cage with him.
"Stop calling me that name," I muster up all of the courage I have and say sternly but my voice betrays me as it trembles which makes him smile. The smile which has haunted me for years in my past.
"Hey, it's okay. It's just me. What's wrong?" he says the exact same words which Zayn had said to me when he accidentally startled me today and that scares me further. It feels like he knows that.
But instead of cupping my face like Zayn, he moves forward and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear as my breathe hitches and I turn my face away from him.
"Get away from me! Why don't you just leave me alone!? What do you want from me!?" I yell at him as I try to push him away. I don't even notice the tears falling from my eyes until they reach my cheeks.
"You see, Eliza, It's not me anymore," he strokes my cheek and I flinch. "I don't want anything from you. It's him now. He wants you. And trust me, he gets anything he wants," with that, he smirks.
"W-who?" I stutter.
The next thing which happens feels like the time slows down and all I can hear is my heart beating loudly in my chest.
Alex's dark brown eyes turn into that pretty shade of emerald green which haunts me, his facial structure changes. I watch him morph into Harry. My eyes are wide and I gasp. I stop breathing completely, it feels like all the air has been knocked out of my lungs.
It's Harry now.. How is that even possible?
He tilts his head slightly gives me a lopsided grin.
"No..," is all I can mutter before he moves forward to grab me.
***
I jolt as I open my eyes. I can't breathe.
I gasp for air.
The water is filling up my lungs. I'm under the water and I'm still in the bath tub.
I thrash around to grab onto something. I'm able to grab onto the sides of the tub and pull myself up, out of the water.
As soon as I'm out of the water I gasp for air and cough the water out of my lungs. I don't even know when I start to cry. It takes me around five minutes to finally compose myself and breath normally.
I step out of the tub and wrap a towel around myself and go into the bedroom.I put on some clothes and lay on my bed. I check the time, it's nearly 3 am. Another nightmare. Alex showing up again. But then him morphing into Harry... the image is still in my head and I'm pretty sure it's going to haunt me.
"It was just a nightmare. Nothing was real. It's okay," I mumble to myself as I rub my hands over my face.
-
The next morning at the campus has been totally weird for me; I haven't slept since the nightmare last night. I kept tossing and turning in my sheets. I couldn't get the images out of my head for some reason.
Whenever I fell asleep for a few minutes, it felt like I was in the tub again and I was drowning.
I look like an absolute mess today and have been avoiding social contact at all points. Christina has been giving me weird looks the whole day and I'm pretty sure I'll have to answer to a list of questions. I just know that she has been talking to Niall about me acting weird.
Well what do you expect from a person who just had one of the worst night terrors and then almost drowned? At 3 fucking AM!?
I make my way to the cafe while giving myself a pep talk that its going to be all okay and that I can deal with these two today and their list of questions.
As I enter, I don't see the two, so I decide to sit alone and wait for them.
After a few minutes of sitting alone and staring at the table, I decide that I should text them to ask if they are even going to show up.
As I'm typing the text with my phone in my hands on the lap, I hear a loud bang on the table which startles the hell out of me and I look up to see a pretty mad looking Christina with a tray of food which she just very politely put on the table and a very concerned looking Niall.
She is giving me a look which tells me to start talking.
"What? I have been waiting for you guys for about ten minutes here. Don't look at me like that," I say as I point my finger to her face.
"Oh, so you have been 'waiting' for us to show up when we have been here for like twenty five minutes and looking at you avoiding everyone including us?" she asks and I frown. Wait what?
"Liz, we have been sitting on the table to your right the whole time. Did you not see us or did you just purposely ignoring us?" Niall asks. "I mean, we can leave you alone if you want us to?" he adds.
"N-no. That isn't the case. I just didn't see you guys sitting there," I say and Christina scoffs. "I'm sorry if you guys felt like I was ignoring you."
"So, care to explain where have you been the whole day? mentally I mean," Christina says as she takes a seat and Niall does the same.
I feel like a child in trouble who's parents just found out about the drawings on the walls of the house. And I am mentally preparing myself for a huge lecture.
"Liz.. come on speak up before I have to stop her from strangling you.," Niall says after a minute of silence. "And you know she will."
"Umm... I-I..nothing"
"You what, Elizabeth!?" Christina urges.
Uh-Oh, full name means big trouble.
Why is she even so mad at me..?
"Why are you even so mad at me!?"
"Because I'm fucking concerned about you! Now tell me before I leave," she raises her voice.
"Okay you need to calm the fuck down. She will. You know that," Niall starts talking to her.
Somewhere in between their bickering and Niall telling her back off a bit, "I almost drowned last night.." I blurt out in a small voice, while looking down at my nails.
"Niall I- Wait you what!?" Christina shoots a look towards me.
"Told you she'll say something, it wasn't that hard now was it Chris- Wait did you just say that you nearly drowned!? How-when?" Niall says as he looks towards me.
I kinda saw this reaction coming.
"Nearly 3 am."
"How- I mean where?" Christina asks. She looks confused as well as a little concerned.
"What do you mean how? How do people drown Christina? Maybe like 'bloop bloop bloop'!?" I say in a sarcastic tone and Niall laughs a bit but Chris gives him a look to shut up and he stops.
"I meant-" she tries to say something but I cut her off.
"I went to my house after my shift and decided to take a bath to relax myself. I don't know when I fell asleep. I woke up from a nightmare and I couldn't breath. Turned out I was in the water; I somehow slid into the tub during the nightmare. I thrashed around after coming to my senses. I managed to grab on to the edges of the tub and pull myself out. A small amount of water went into my lungs but I was fine."
"What was the nightmare about?" she asks.
"That's all you fucking heard in the whole thing? You're seriously not expecting me to tell you what it was about, are you?"
"But obviously it was something that scared the hell out of you and is still having after effects on you. So tell me," she urges.
"Hell no."
"Okay, back off you two. The question is, how are you feeling now?" Niall cuts in before Christina has a chance to say anything.
"Yeah I'm fine. Thanks for asking. I'm going to be late for my shift so I'm going to head out," I say and I don't wait for them to say anything, I just take my stuff and leave.
-
April left earlier during the shift today. Which meant that I had to close up. My phone has vibrated several times but I already know it's Christina so I didn't bother to check.
After closing up, I start to make my way back to my house. It feels so lonely, yet it feels good to be alone for some time.
"I don't want anything from you. It's him now. He wants you. And trust me, he gets anything he wants," these words keep making their way inside my head.
I have almost reached my house as my phone begins to ring obnoxiously and I finally decide to answer her call.
"What do you want?" I ask in a harsh tone. I am usually rude when I want to avoid something and to my dismay, she knows that.
"It was about that guy which you used to hallucinate about, wasn't it?" she says as I'm searching for keys in my bag.
"Fuck no! Leave me the fuck alone!" I hang up the phone before she can try to pry further. I look up and see a tall figure standing there against the wall of my house with it's head held down. By looking at the silhouette, I can already tell who it is.
Fuck no.. Leave me the fuck alone. Certainly, these words are not just for Christina.
They are for Harry as well...
-_-_-_-
A.N:
Peekaboo!
All the love,