Chapter One: A Lull of Silence
She stood outside of the grand estate patiently with her hands clasped in front of her. It was a gloriously sunny day, and she took this to be a good omen.
"When do you think he'll come?" she asked her maid, Manuela, in Spanish.
"I don't know. Be patient!" she snapped, smoothing out her apron.
She sighed and stared straight ahead, her countenance blank and complacent.
The long street which lead up to her sprawling Georgian house was dotted with a symmetrical mass of cherry blossom trees, whose branches shook daintily with every wayward breeze. She stared down this street, as she had for ten minutes, willing the car to arrive.
At long last, it did. With the faraway purr of an engine, her heart fluttered.
"Thank goodness," she murmured.
The car was black and had tinted windows, just as she had expected it would. It was travelling towards her at a leisurely, sluggish pace. She mentally counted the seconds as it approached. Six, seven, eight...
On the eleventh second, it pulled into the driveway. One the thirteenth, the driver's door opened, and on the fourteenth, the passenger's door opened as well.
Her breath caught in her throat as she caught sight of him. He was beautiful, but she had known this already, from the hours she had painstakingly taken looking him up on the internet (after all, she had to have some idea of what to expect). What the internet had not told her was that he was scores more fantastical in person; even though his eyes were hooded, his mouth was scowling, and his face was dotted in red marks.
"Hello," she greeted him with a small smile, outstretching her hand to him. "I'm Cerise Heath. My father sends his apologies for not being able to greet you, but some business in Asia is keeping him away for a while."
His eyebrows furrowed slightly and the corner of his mouth twitched in amusement, but he took her hand and shook it nonetheless. "Right. I'm Harry,"
She smiled a little wider. "Oh yes, I know. And you are?" she inquired, turning to the bald man in sunglasses who had been driving the vehicle.
"Harry's bodyguard, Lee Thomas. Your father was notified that I would be staying as well."
She sucked in a breath as her tongue poked her cheek a little. "Yes, of course. We do have sufficient security here, though, mind you, so your presence is not entirely necessary, but completely welcomed." She turned slightly to her butler on the left and told him in Spanish to pick up their bags and put it in their separate rooms. He had been briefed earlier on which ones where whose, so he deftly left without so much as a murmur other than, "Si, senora."
She walked at Harry's side with her back upright and her eyes completely focused, and never so much as glanced at him when he wasn't speaking, so as to uphold proper decorum. Though she desperately wanted to observe his every blink, breath and step, she focused completely and wholeheartedly on the task of showing him where everything was.
"So you're all alone here?" he murmured, eyes alight with curiosity.
Cerise gave a small smile. "Certainly not. I have butlers, maids and security. I do go to school, you know, so I'm not a complete hermit."
He gave a small laugh. "That must be nice, to have enough time and space all to yourself."
"It is," she replied sincerely, turning to look at him now. Her blue eyes burned into his with intense concern and kindness. "That's why you needed to come here. I don't doubt that it's wonderful to have so many people adore you, but I know that it's tiring also. This isn't just to keep you safe from--him-- but also to give you some time to rejuvenate and relax." She turned away from him again and opened a door to a large suite, decorated with dark woods and beige drapes. There was a large TV and an Xbox in a large entertainment center, and a door to a sizable bathroom as well.
"This is where you'll be sleeping. I suggested to Father that you might like to have an Xbox to entertain yourself in solitude, and a television as well. If you ever want to come ask me for anything--anything at all--please don't hesitate. I'm at the end of the hall, and, if you can't find me, Manuela would be more than happy to help. We're going to be eating soon in the dining room, so if you feel up for a meal, you can come down; or you can just ask us to bring you something and we will." She smiled and gave a him a curt nod before turning away.
A strong hand grabbed her forearm gently. She whipped round, sapphire eyes wide with concern, and stood speechless in front of him.
His voluptuous lips curved into a cheeky grin and his eyes twinkled with mischief. "You said I could visit you any time if I needed something?"
She nodded, confused.
"What if I just wanted to see you?"
She let out a little laugh. "I heard you were a flirt." She shook her head, smiled at him, and left.
~
Harry lay on the colossal bed, uncovered by the thick duvet. He stared up at the ceiling with troubled, clouded eyes, and allowed himself to finally think about what had happened.
~Flashback~
The ambiance was overwhelmingly positive and heartening at their Dallas concert. The fans couldn't get enough of them, and Harry basked in the attention and waved at them in between what the boys deemed "dancing" and his angelic singing.
He scanned over the audience (as he usually did), and his eye was caught on an odd-looking redheaded man in the very back. He caught a glimpse of the man when the girls swayed to their right, and he was extremely disturbed by his presence.
It wasn't odd for there to be an older man at the concert, since overprotecting fathers liked to tag along sometimes, but he had a very unsettling aura about him that Harry could sense meters away.
He was wearing sunglasses and a navy blue baseball cap over his head, under which stringy bits of red hair dangled. It was boiling hot that day--one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, if Harry recalled correctly--and yet this man wore a trench coat and cowboy boots. He stood stock-still, his gaze unwavering on Harry.
Harry soon forgot about it as his solo came up. They sang their last song together, and before they knew it, the concert was over.
What was in between the end of the concert and the horrible incident that had occurred afterwards was blurry in places and completely absent in others. He remembered the boys messing around afterwards, Zayn almost slipping on a spilled soda and the boys laughing over that, and then when they were about to get on the tour bus.
They waved to the throngs of admiring girls when a shot pierced through the screams. This much he remembered in the chaos that ensued: his bodyguards covering him with their bodies and doing the same for the other boys, and Louis' shocked expression as the bullet tore through his arm. Then the second bullet came; and the bodyguards protected Louis fully this time, but it was at the cost of a life.
The police rushed the boys into their cars and drove them to safety while other police officers tried (unsuccessfully) to catch the culprit.
~
It had been decided afterwards that each of the boys would go to a safe, top-secret location. Simon had individually picked each one in agreement with the Secret Service. Neither of the boys knew where the others were heading, so they were going to be without each other for a while.
Harry didn't know how to feel without them. It was a bit numb at first; absent. He missed them, obviously, but at the same time he was relieved to have some time to think. Maybe now he could sleep for a full night, too, he thought to himself with a smile.
"Sleep," he silently told himself. Without further convincing, he did.
