Written

Chapter 18

I am following Liam through a winding passageway. He walks ahead of me, so fast that I find myself running to keep up. We go through a doorway that opens up into a stone maze, with walls so high that I can't see over them. I catch up to Liam but when I try to speak to him, he brushes me off, ignoring me as if I am not there.

"Liam," I say again, grabbing his arm. I am beginning to panic. Where are we? He just shakes me off and keeps walking. I begin to panic when I lose sight of him.

Suddenly a stone wall rises in front of me. I turn around to move away from it, but I am blocked by another in my path. The walls are slowly closing in and I begin to cry, the breathless kind of crying that comes when there is literally nothing else to do.

A window appears in one of the walls and I see Liam on the other side, watching me. The walls continue to move closer and closer. If I do not move they will crush me. I beg Liam for help, crying out and trying to claw my way out of the box. Just as I am about to be crushed, I see Liam lunge forward, as if to help me.

Before his outstretched hand reaches mine, my eyes fly open and I sit bolt upright in my hotel bed, gasping.

What was that? A glance at the clock tells me that its 4 a.m., and cold sweat covers my body as I lay back down against the pillows, breathing hard. I have never been one for nightmares, but my dreams have always tended to mirror the events occurring in my life.

Clearly Liam's earlier behavior had gotten under my skin more than I had realized. I shake my head, trying to rid myself of the image of his completely impassive face as I struggled.

I roll over and try to get back to sleep, but I only manage to reach that halfway point between sleep and consciousness, which only leads to a state of confusion. I finally give up at six a.m.; the morning car leaves at 7:30 anyway. My bags are already packed and there is nothing for me to do but relax and eat breakfast. I leave my mom and Ryan both messages after dialing their numbers knowing it would be too early for them to pick up. I am exhausted, nightmares will drain a person.

The morning car is actually several cars that line up outside the hotel as tour personnel file into them. I am given some dirty looks and disapproving glances as Paul leads me to the front car. Clearly this is a coveted position, and shy away from their harsh gazes.

"Don't worry about them," Paul says, "You won't have anything to do with them anyway." I join Paul and two other men in the car, and they let me take the entire backseat to myself. It's a three hour drive to Little Rock, and I get little in the way of rest. I have never been able to sleep in moving vehicles.

We pull up outside of another hotel and unload, the same way we did in St. Louis. I can see how this could get old very quickly. Some of the people who took morning cars head straight to the arena, and I take an elevator in the hotel with three other men who do not speak to me.

Again, an entire floor is blocked off for the tour. Max, the security guard is there again. I smile and wave at him. By the time I make it down the hall to my designated room, it is 11:30. Paul had said I didn't need to be at the arena until 2, so I flop down on the bed and set an alarm on my phone. I can get in a solid hour of sleep and still have time to make myself presentable. Just as I am about to drift off, I am interrupted by an obnoxious phone ringing. I sit up and look around.

It's coming from the hotel phone on the nightstand. Do I answer it? I really don't know what to say as I pick up the receiver.

"Um. Hello?"

"Hayley?" It's Harry.

"Yeah, hi," I clear my throat.

"I'm glad you made it. What did you think of the morning car?"