Trapped in the Basement

22 - Valentine's Day

It was so tiring, constantly traveling back and forth between London and Liverpool. But every day, no matter how much she wanted to lock herself in her room and cry, she reminded herself why she was doing this. She had to survive and pull on an act, for Ellie, for Alex, for everyone who was close to her, and even Hatchi, who was now always in company with Alex. Perrie knew that the twins despised her dog.

Alex was the only one there to help her, and Perrie was still scared that the twins would find out about their shared secret, which was why Alex had to be extremely discreet about anything involving the twins. He understood the situation extremely well and Perrie couldn't have asked for a better man.

The twins were manipulating her and Ellie, and constantly making sure that they were noticeable. Perrie easily noted that they always wanted to follow along with Perrie when she went outside, so that the paparazzi would take pictures of them together. The drugs that the twins had injected her with, during the numerous amounts of times they had forced her to go clubbing, had begun to take their effect on her body. The skin around the right side of her neck had become dry and flaky, and it was paler than the rest of her skin. Perrie had to constantly hide it and started wearing makeup to conceal the change.

Since she was still unable to log into her Instagram account, she continued using the fake fan account to look at what was happening on social media, and her heart ached in happiness from her fans' compassion for Perrie and hatred for the twins, even if they thought it was a joke.

Perrie very well knew that she couldn't step in and say something to her fans about the truth, but she was hoping that it wouldn't be long before she could. Alex reminded her as much as he could that they would pull through it together, and that together they would find a way to stop the twins from causing further damage. She had no idea how they would do it, since their extremely busy schedules had made it impossible for them to have a day alone with each other. But Perrie had hope that once her work became more serious and she would have to stay in London, at the studio for hours at a time, that the twins would slowly back off.

Until then, she would have to deal with them for one more month.

"If you breathe a word about this to Alex, we'll know about it," Lydia hissed and pulled the brush roughly through Perrie's hair. She winced in pain, while Lucy and Lydia only laughed. Now that they couldn't physically hurt her, since fresh bruises and scars would be extremely noticeable and controversial now that Perrie was constantly in the public eye, they had to find new ways to hurt her. Perrie was grateful that the bruises and scars she had from earlier where finally fading away, and that she wouldn't have to conceal her skin.

"Yes, of course," Perrie repeated just like she already had over twenty times.

"Perrie? Are you ready?" a voice called from outside of the door, followed by a knock. A smile beamed on Perrie's face and she immediately forgot about the twins who were in the room with her. She courageously shoved them away while grabbing her handbag, and opened the door.

She hugged Alex and kissed his cheek, careful not to get any lipstick on his face. He hugged her back.

"Good morning," she sang, and ran her hand through his slightly damp hair. "How was your run?"

"It was good," he smiled. "And yes, I did shower."

Perrie laughed, giddy with happiness. Alex held her hand and led the two of them down the corridor to the hotel's main entrance.

"We'll see you later, Lucy and Lydia!" Perrie called, feigning that they still had a friendly relationship with each other. Alex also said some sort of goodbye to the twins, but Alex and Perrie both rolled their eyes in annoyance once they were out of view.

The couple walked towards the large glass doors of the main entrance and were immediately hit with a strong burst of cold winter air when the automatic doors slid open. Alex quickly squeezed Perrie's cold hand before a sleek black car approached them.

"Ooh, what have you arranged for today?" Perrie asked him in curiosity.

"It'll ruin the surprise if I tell you," Alex told her. "But I tried as best as I could when we're away from home."

Alex and the driver began to talk afterwards, and Perrie had no interest in trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. She took up her phone and noticed a new message.

Lydia C: Your fans want a picture of you and Alex today. Send one as soon as you get the chance...

Perrie stared down at the message in disgust. Yes, the twins were using her, and now they depended on her to make sure that it still seemed as if she was still running her own Instagram account.

"Alex," Perrie called out to show him the message. She spun around to look for him, and met with a massive bouquet of red roses.

"Happy Valentines Day," Alex cheered, and nudged the ginormous bouquet closer to Perrie, whose mouth had fallen open in shock.

"Oh my god! Alex, did you really get this for me?!" Perrie squealed and took the heavy bouquet from Alex's hands. The strong scent of the roses hit her, and she smiled in delight while holding them.

"How many roses are there?" she asked, trying to count with her eyes.

"Thirty-six, so that we can remember all of the romantic moments we've had, and will have together," he explained. "Do you like it?"

"Yes! Of course!" Perrie exclaimed, her heart gushing. "You've been so romantic since Christmas, I love it." She lightly kissed his nose.

"It's what you deserve, and more," he smiled. "Don't forget to read the note." Alex pointed to the folded card, which read "Happy Valentines Day, Love you" in handwriting that seemed too good to belong to Alex. But Perrie understood the reason for the simple and bland exterior of the card.

Alex's gift of the roses was so sweet, and Perrie was sure that the note would make her cry again. Her mind drifted to the expensive watch she had gotten him, and the chocolates from Belgium. Somehow she felt like her gift to him was nowhere close to what he was giving her.

"Let's take a picture of me holding this amazing bouquet, I want to post it," Perrie told him, and walked closer to the black gate that closed off the hotel's garden.

Alex used Perrie's phone and took a few pictures. He still didn't know about how the twins restricted her from social media—unless he noticed how many moving-in videos the twins had been posting on her stort—, so Perrie pretended she was going to post the pictures right away.

Perrie: please post the photo im attaching with this caption:
Happy Valentines Day mixers! Me and this babe already started our day off well, would you look at that amazing huge bouquet?! Hope you all are with someone you love today!! P<3

Then she gave the bouquet an entire seat in the car as Alex and her drove out to spend the entire day with each other.

-

-

Take note that this is the first color picture in the book :)

And also, don't worry, this chapter took so long for me to write because there wasn't much action, but action is now coming back next chapter and things will be intense yeet