Complicity [h.s]

12

Aven Brooks

"You have a good rest of your night, Harry." I smile through the doorway, leaving him there handcuffed to the headboard.

He shouts something through the tie as I shut the door, silence filling the empty hallway. My lungs hollow themselves the second I'm alone, my hand staying rested on the door handle. The condescending smile on my face fades as emptiness overtakes my mind and chest.

Breathe.

I slowly exhale to myself, zoning out at the detailing on the carpeted hallway floor. My brain feels so full but so deserted at the same time. I know there are thousands of things I should be thinking about but I just can't feel them. It's like I have to scour my head to find what is hiding in the dark. My thoughts are locked away in a room deep within an abandoned mansion, the type that hasn't been occupied in decades. I just can't grasp the bravery to search the subconscious halls of where all my thoughts, lie.

I blink, fetching myself back to reality.

I swallow and start walking down the hallway, my heels thumping on the carpeted floors. I keep a brisk pace while turning the corner to the elevators, arriving at one to give it a click.

It opens almost immediately, letting me step in and press the ground floor. Once the doors shut, my eyes glance at the mirrored walls, a chance to fix my appearance. I quickly readjust my hair and make sure my lipstick is all intact. I run my finger under my eye to gently clean up the mascara smudged at the corners. Once fixed, I stand back in the centre of the room and wait for the doors.

I shut my eyes, just for a second.

Darkness is all I see.

I need to get out of here before they find me again. I got what I came for. I'm good to leave. I just need to explain to Zayn why I've disappeared. That's not going to be easy. I've been gone for at least forty-five minutes.

I just want to go back to the house.

The elevators doors open as does my eyes. With a slight sense of urgency, I pace out of the elevator and back down the hallway. Quickly, I head into the restroom I was captured in before, pushing through the door to see a couple of ladies near the sinks. My ears fills with the quiet music.

The duffle bag I left in the middle of the bathroom floor is gone, which I suspected considering it's been twenty minutes and someone working the event probably got rid of it. Nothing in there was valuable so I don't really care.

But I did leave something else in here I need.

I pace down the aisle of stalls, discreetly leading to the specific one at the end I originally had the duffle bag in. My heels echo through the large room as I turn into the end stall and shut the door behind me.

I reach my hand into the plastic toilet paper dispenser, blindly feeling for the earpiece I had taken out earlier when I suspect Harry would follow me in here. Tucked inside the holder, I feel the small device.

I pull it out and scan the perimeter of it to find a way into its mechanism, the tiny green light showing me it's connected signal. At the same time, I take out a bobby pin hidden in the nape of my neck. I bite one of the tiny rubber tips of the bobby pin off so it's just the sharp piece of metal. From there I jam it into an opening of the earpiece, destroying the mechanism until that green light turns off.

I broke it.

I put the bobby pin back in my hair and stick the earpiece in my ear, securing it like it was never gone to begin with. From there, I open the stall door and walk through the restroom again. I run my hair back as I get to the door, pulling it open and striding out towards the event.