Through the dark // h.s.

Chapter 19

Stephany's P.O.V.

''Hi, I'm Stephany.'' I tell the little girl who stands in front of me. Eric just left the house and now I am babysitting his daughter. Wow.

''Nora.'' she says a little bit shy. At first I thought his daughter would be 5 years old or something, but she isn't. I think she's 12. We are both sitting on the seat in silence. I am not really that good with kids so I have no idea what to say.

''Why are you here?'' Nora asks me. Ugh. I was hoping she wasn't going to ask that. Do I have to tell the truth? That her dad kidnapped me? Does she know that her dad does things like this?.. I don't know.

''Uhm.. Your dad said to me that I have to stay here for a while.'' I tell her and she looks confusing.

''So, he kidnapped you?'' She asks and she still doesn't look at me, she looks at the window with her hand on the windowsill.

''Nah, it's not rea-'' I say but I get interrupted.

''You don't have to lie Stephany. I know he kidnapped you. Can you please tell me why? Does he got a good reason? Please tell me he has a good reason because ugh..'' Nora says and I get pity with her. She probably is ashamed that her father does things like this. I tell Nora the whole story why I got here and she finally turns her head around. The first thing I notice are her beautiful big hazel eyes. She also got beautiful long brown hair. There are so many questions going on in my head. Does she have a mom, and where is she?...

''Do you have school tomorrow?'' I ask her. I don't even know which day it is today because of everything what is going on right now, so I hope it isn't Friday because I would sound really dumb.

''It's complicated,'' Nora starts, ''I don't really go to school anymore. Because of the fact that my dad was in prison, I can't be with him anymore, but I also can't with my mom. We are kind of being illegally at the moment, but I like it.'' She says with a smile. What a special kid it is.

We talked for such a long time, but she mostly talked. Her life is so interesting, she has been through a lot and I noticed that she is such a strong girl.

''Fuck, it's almost 11 p.m. I had to bring you to bed at 10 p.m. come, get up I am bringing you to your bed.'' I tell Nora and she suddenly starts laughing and I can't help it and laugh along with her.

''Did my dad seriously tell you that? Sorry but..'' Nora says and laughs again. The bond between her and her dad is amazing, it reminds me of the bond of me and my dad.

Harry's P.O.V.

''Welcome back Harry.'' The guard tells me and I give him a pissed look. I hate to be here again, really logical, right? The guard leads me to the lunch room and it looks exactly the same as 1 year ago.

"Styles, you can get food over there." The guard says and he points at the food-corner. I nod and he finally leaves me alone.

I walk over to the food corner and I take out my plate. The canteen-lady puts some 'food' on it and it looks disgusting. I was hoping they would change the food here, but no. They didn't. They don't think about the so called criminals. They only care about money.

I walk over to a table and I put my plate with my food on it. I just hope Stephany is okay, does Eric treat her right? I trust Eric but.. I don't even know him that long. I want to be with her so bad. She is the only thing I can think ahout, I will do everything for her to make her happy again, to make her believe me. I hope the plan me and Eric made will work. To make Stephany trust me again. To let her talk to her mom and say that I am all innocent.

"Styles, your first activity will be in 5 minutes, let me take you to the activity-room." The guard says and I nod. I ate my food for half, because I know that this is probably the only food you will get here. I stand up and walk behind the guard, it surprises me that he didn't hand-cuffed my hands.

"What are we going to do for activity? Cleaning, like the last time?" I ask the guard while I roll my eyes.

"No Styles, you are going to paint." The guard tells me and a surprised look comes up on my face. Painting? At least they made better activities. Painting was something I always did when I was younger, when I had problems, I painted them. I got told a lot I was good at painting, but I never did something with it.

I walk into the activity room along with some other prisoners. We all got our paint-cloth and the guard starts talking.

"Welcome everyone. Today is the day that you can be creative. Show your paint-skills! The theme is: 'love'. Good luck!" The guard enthusiastic says.

I look around and I see a lot of prisoners laughing. "Love!" They scream and laugh hardly. "Love is fake! It doesn't exist!" Another one screams. "I don't even know anymore what love is!" Another one. I sigh, this activity last 2 hours, how am I going to survive with those weirdo's?

I grab a brush and I decide to get the color red.  I write 'LOVE' on top of my paint-cloth and there is only one thing I can think about; and that's Stephany. I have pictured her in my mind as on the day I took her to my favorite place: to the mountains and the sea back in Los Angeles.

I start to paint the grass which we were sitting on. After painting that, I paint the sunset and the sand. And at last but not least, I paint my one and only love. I try to paint her as good as I can. Her long blonde hair, and her perfect cute body.  I make her smile in the painting, that's a thing I love to see. Stephany smiling.

I look at the painting I just made and I am honestly kind of proud of it. The 2 hours are over and I finished my painting just on time. I hope I can take the paint-cloth with me so I can give it to her once I will see her again, if that will ever happen though.

''That's so beautiful.'' I hear a voice speak. I turn  around me and I see a woman of around 50 years old behind me. Ellen. The one and only Ellen.

''Thanks ma'am.'' I tell her, not daring to look her in the eyes.

''Harry. We need to talk tomorrow, at five. Your guard knows about it.'' Ellen says. What does she want from me? Is she going to tell me that I can't be with her daughter again? 

''Okay, but why?'' I ask her as polite as possible.

''Don't be so curious please. You will know tomorrow. See you, Harry.'' She says, and with that she walks out of the activity room. She didn't sound happy at all,  so I am afraid that she doesn't has good news to tell me.

''Styles, let me take you back to your cell please.'' The guard say to me and I nod. I ask him if I can take my painting with me and he nods. I pick up my painting and I feel so happy right now, at least I've got a little bit of beautiful decoration in my cell right now.

''Styles, why did Ellen talk to you?" The guard asks me.

''I don't know honestly, she wants to talk to me tomorrow. I don't know if that's positive or not.'' I tell him and he nods.

''I guess you have to expect the worst.'' The guard tells me, and with that he leaves me at my cell. ''The worst.'' What would be the worst what can happen to me right now? I mean, I am already in prison. I just hope I don't have to stay here for another 10 years or something close to that. I just hope she would tell me that I can get out of here really soon. I miss Stephany so much, I never missed someone like this before. Even though I only didn't see her for something around 5 days, it still hurts to not see someone you love so much for days. I am not even able to call or write her, nothing. I am only able to paint her, what she maybe is never going to see. I am only able to imagine about laying next to her in the soft grass, and watching the sunset with her. I go sit on my 'bed' which is more like some stones and a blanket and my thoughts wander away while I look at the painting which I hung up next to my bed.