These High Walls

Chapter 11

I feel my body getting colder and colder even though it doesn't seem possible. I can hear something in the distance but my brain can't process it the way it should be able to.

"Louis? Louis, can you hear me?" I hear the face in front of mine, that I don't recognize, say.

I feel my head nodding slowly.

"Oh god, you are freezing. I will take you back, I promise."

The face disappears and a head of a bear comes in the place. Though I think my brain must have gone crazy. It's not possible that there is a bear here, right? Whatever.

The bear takes me from the ground and starts to run. My hands begin to tingle from the sudden warmth radiating off its belly.

It doesn't run for a long time before it stops. Somewhere on the way I closed my eyes and welcomed the warmth. Though the warmth disappears and I immediately feel cold again when I am put on the ground. I open my eyes just in time to see the bear vanish and a human comes in its place. I notice that it is the same person as the one that found me.

"Louis, we are back at the house. I will put you back in your bed now so that you can warm up", the man whispers, while taking me in his arms.

Soon I am laid in a soft bed. I doze off into a deep sleep the second a fluffy blanket is put over me.

I am awoken by multiple voices arguing.

"No Liam, we can't treat him like a baby, he is an adult. He is even older than us."

"We are responsible for him, no matter how old he is. We have to protect him."

"Yes, that's true, but we can keep an eye on him."

"I think we should let him decide. If we don't give him some space to decide for himself, he is going to try to escape. You can't expect him to be fine with being locked in a house for the rest of his life", a third voice says.

"See, it's two against one."

"No, that's not true, Harry has a say in this too. Harry, what do you think?"

"I think Zayn's right, if he runs away again, we can't protect him. Though I believe we should give him a button that is attached to his body or clothes or something so that he can press it anywhere we go."

"Alright, you guys win, but don't say I didn't warn you."

The conversation ends with laughs and cheers.

Without the arguing to listen to, I notice that my body is still cold. The events from the last night slowly come back and it seems that I get even colder even though the temperature in the room is unchanged.

"Niall?" I whisper in the darkness of the room. It seems like the curtains are closed to keep out the bright light of the afternoon sun.

I hear footsteps quickly approaching and entering the room. Niall goes to stand just by the door. I guess he doesn't want to make me uncomfortable because of what happened yesterday. He asks, in a sweet tone: "What do you need?"

"Warmth", I answer in a small voice.

"I will get you some extra blankets. Do you want some soup or a tea?"

"A tea if that's possible."

"Alright, I will be back in a second with everything."

When he comes back into the room with my tea and some extra blankets I ask carefully: "Can you tell me what you were arguing about just a couple of minutes ago?"