The Photographer - h.s

Spiral

Mackenzie

I wheeled my makeup kit behind me with my duffle bad slung over my shoulder, and my purse balancing on the top of the rolling kit behind me. I was on my way to Harry's room, he asked to be last to go, claiming he needed extra time to "do his magic" first... whatever the fuck that means. I stopped at his door and knocked softly three times and waited for a response, but there was only silence. So I knocked a little harder, still no reply. I slowly cracked the foot open and peeked in. I stepped in and saw Harry asleep in the couch, with a throw pillow cradled closely in his arms. I closed the door behind me and quietly brought my things over to the vanity, trying to set up as quietly as I could to give him a little extra time to nap.

I had almost everything laid out when I heard him starting to mumble, I turned around ready to get him in the chair but he was just talking in his sleep. I shrugged it off and turned around to continue, but he kept going, I looked up into the mirror to look at him behind me, as he started furrowing his eyebrows and stirring as his mumbling got a little louder. He was having a nightmare? I walked over and gently grabbed his shoulder and started softly shaking him.

"Hey, Harry.... Harry wake up." I said a little above speaking volume. A few moments passed and he opened his eyes and looked around confused, before stopping when his eyes met mine, a sense of... dread almost, filled his eyes before he quickly looked away and sat up. Grabbing his water bottle off the table beside him and took a quick sip.

"You good?" I asked casually and he sniffled and brushed his nose with his finger and nodded, averting direct eye contact.

"Mmm, yeah. Let's get to it, yeah?" He said and quickly got up and went to take a seat in the make up chair. I nodded and followed him to the vanity, and turned on the lights above us, giving me a better look at Harry, who looked exhausted. He had dark circles around his eyes, and his skin was just a little paler than normal, and a not so subtle 5 o'clock shadow. I started putting some color correcting concealer under his eyes.

"Are you... okay?" I asked softly and I turned around to grab a brush and quickly came back to look at him. He looked at me a moment and pressed his lips together. "Just because I'm her friend, doesn't mean any of this will get back to her. I'm your friend too, Harry. My lips are sealed." I promised him and he let out a sigh and shrugged.

"I'm... I'm just a little tired is all. Just gotta catch up on some sleep." He wasn't lying, but he was holding back the truth behind it.

We continued sitting in silence as I worked on adding a little color back to his complexion, and trying to add some red to his cheeks. He kept his gaze on the mirror and didn't try to make some funny comment about how I was "being too harsh" with my brushes, like he usually does.

"Ya know... I used to have these nightmares too... not that, you're having any... but just in case," I started, trying not to push him to be too vulnerable, "so, in these nightmares I was, uh, sometimes I was being chased. I didn't know where I was, or who it was, all I know is that it was someone or something, trying to get me," he finally looked at me "and so I'd be running, and all of a sudden the ground would end, and I would be left running off the edge, and just.... falling into nothing..."

"And then what?" He asked softly.

"I never found out.... I woke up right before I got to the bottom." I told him and he nodded a little and looked down at his hands. "Are you being chased?" I asked him, he shook his head and took a deep breath.

"Uh...no.... I'm uh.... I'm usually drowning. One minute I'm on solid ground, and the next I'm drowning, or.... or I'm being swallowed by, uh, by the ground, and I'm just.... suffocating." He said quietly and I nodded, as I sprayed his face with a setting spray to keep the make up in place and leaned back on the small counter behind me and waved my hands over his face to air dry it a little.