Captive Of Lies Book 2(Imprisoned in my Heart trilogy...Larry)

Chapter 5

When Harry unexpectedly in the middle of the night started screaming, their assumption was proved about as wrong as it could be. Thrashing around so violently that he quite literally fell out of bed and landed in a heap on the floor, Harry screeched and lashed out and kicked, flailing violently with the duvet holding his limbs still, and with a yelp Louis awoke, finding himself lying awkwardly on the bed with no duvet and no Harry to keep him warm, twisted into a position that no longer worked when there was no familiar body beside him for him to curl around.

“Harry?”

Harry was still screaming, and with a jolt of shock Louis remembered words that had been spoken by a friend a long time ago: a warning from Liam, that Harry tended to cry out in his sleep when he was scared. Having never had the pleasure of the Stonehaven night-shift, Louis had never experienced that situation before – and he was more than a little frightened by the sight of the usually confident boy curled up in a tight ball on the floor, fists clenched, eyes squeezed tightly shut, yowling like a wounded animal.

Louis dragged his inactive, sleepy body out of bed, wrinkling his nose at the creaking of the mattress, and then instead of slipping to the floor, allowed himself to drop off the bed with a thump on the polished wooden boards. He crawled over to where Harry lay convulsing on the ground, and, disorientated in the darkness, started struggling to free him from the duvet that had him trapped, which was presumably not helping Harry’s unconscious panic. His hands were hurried and clumsy from exhaustion, and he only hindered Harry’s efforts to free himself. As Louis watched helplessly, he stared at the wide shape of Harry’s open mouth and panicked at the horrible sound he was making, wanting to stifle the yells but afraid to suffocate him.

“Harry, please wake up!”

Harry jerked upright and his eyes flew open, his howls cut off. He stared unblinkingly at Louis with his mouth still hanging wide open, crying replaced by deathly silence that was almost more horrible than the screaming. After studying his blank expression, Louis realized that Harry was still asleep – and the sight of him with his eyes open and mouth stretched in a soundless shriek, despite being unconscious, was horrifying. It was like sleepwalking, only ten times creepier.

“I didn’t mean to do it. I never meant to.”

He spoke so clearly, and with such perfect clarity, that Louis almost believed for a moment that he had awoken – but his face was expressionless, his tone dead and words crystal clear. Louis reached out to touch him and shuddered at the unnatural stillness of his stiff body, forced into a sitting position.

“What, love?” Louis asked softly, even though he was pretty sure Harry couldn’t hear him.

“I didn’t mean to!” Harry whined.

“Okay. It’s okay. I know you didn’t.”

“I didn’t!” protested Harry. “It was an accident!”

“I –” Louis suddenly realized that Harry wasn’t talking to him; he was having a whole other conversation that Louis couldn’t hear, a discussion going on inside Harry’s mind. Leaning closer, he rested his hands on Harry’s shoulders. “Come on, Harry. Wake up. It isn’t real, okay? There’s nobody there. Come on, wake up and talk to me.”

“I never meant to hurt anyone!” Harry insisted. “He was just there, and…there was a knife…and I just – I just wanted to scare him, like he scared Michael! I never meant –” he started shivering violently.

Louis felt sick. Harry rarely spoke of The Incident, but Louis knew that it was something which would haunt him for the rest of his life – and Louis didn’t want to think about the finer points of what Harry had done if he could avoid it. If Harry had wanted to discuss it, then he would have listened, but unless he really had to listen, he would rather not know the details.