Act Two // Book One

Chapter 21

Samantha was awakened by her ringtone blaring in her ear.  She wasn't even sure when she'd taken it off of silent mode.  It took her a minute to emerge from the haze of the intense dream she was having and tap the answer button.  She didn't even read the screen before she did.

"Hello?"

"Sam,"  The voice was male and Irish and speaking so fast that it took Samantha the entirety of his first paragraph to realize it was Niall. 

She ran her hand over her eyes,

"What?"  She hadn't heard a single word he said past her name.

"Are you at Harry's?"

Samantha's eyes flew open then.  She frantically looked around to find her alarm clock.  Was she late?  When her eyes landed on the clock that read 6:00 am she relaxed, she still had a half an hour before she even had to be up.  She pushed herself up with one hand,

"No.  It's 6 in the morning."

"I know.  I'm headed over there.  Can ya meet me?"

"Niall, what is going on?"

"He texted me last night.  Said I can't."

"I can't?  What's that mean?"

"I don't know."  Niall responded, "I'm headed over there now t'talk t'him.  He's not anwerin' his phone."

The fear that tore through Samantha's body made her heart skip a beat.  She untangled herself from the covers and immediately walked towards her underwear drawer to grab some before she went into the shower,

"Ok, I'll be there in an hour."

She didn't wait to hear his response.  She tossed her phone onto the bed and jogged towards the bathroom.

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Niall was leaning against his car when Samantha walked up to the house.  As he saw her approach he walked towards her, gesturing up to Harry's house.  Samantha could see the house was closed up again like a tomb.  The curtains she'd opened were closed and the house was void of life.

"He's not answerin'.  I can't get in."  Niall informed her.

"What did he do last night?  Did you talk to him?"  She asked as she pulled her keys out.

Niall shook his head,

"No.  What did you guys do yesterday?"

Samantha's heart sank when she remembered the tabloid.  She stopped, turning towards Niall with her head down,

"The tabloid..."

"What tabloid?"  Niall asked.

"A tabloid came out.  They said something about me replacing Gwen."

Niall's eyes widened,

"What?"

"But he seemed fine."  Samantha rushed on, "We had lunch, we took Rufus out.  He was fine when I left last night."

"Well he's not fine now, that's for sure."

Samantha finally got the door open, she burst in stopping when she saw Harry standing in front of her looking just as surprised as she did.  He was holding an empty plate, clearly on his way to the kitchen.  He swallowed whatever final remnant of food was in his mouth,

"Something wrong?"  He asked when he looked between her and Niall.

Samantha was still quiet.  She was so shocked to see him and so relieved he wasn't curled up into a ball that she didn't know what to say.