The Grey Room

Memories

    I jolted upward, completely panicked. Liam was sitting across from me studying my expression. He put his hands up in a surrender, as I came to my senses. We were in a different car than before, this one more fancy and professional. It looked more like a compact SUV, it was prettier than the other one. It had darkened windows with privacy measures already in place. The whole radio dial thing had a futuristic vibe to it. All in all it looked really expensive. 

Once I had mostly gathered myself, Liam explained that we were at his home and that now we had to go inside. There was a lot of men lined up to the doors and a couple right outside the door. I doubt anyone could see us from the outside, but I still felt uneasy from the amount of people. 

"I really need you to be calm, and not freak out. Can you do that for me?" Liam insisted. "I'll be right back, sit still and don't look outside." He opened his door and stepped out. He greeted the men outside his door and whispered into one of their ears. He stared back into the window and made an understanding nod to Liam, then walked off towards the entrance of the building. 

   He said I wont be harmed. Nothing is going to happen. It'll be okay.  I stared down into my lap, fumbling with my fingers. My heart was racing and I was severely nauseous. Liam turned to the other guy and then moved to walk around the car to my door. The other man took his spot on the other side of Liam and stood in a protective stance facing the other men. I didn't know what was going on, so I just covered my head with the coat he gave me. A couple seconds later my door opened and the coat was slowly pulled down from my face. 

"Hey, baby, welcome home." Liam leaned in closer to my ear so only I could hear him. "I am going to pick you up now, do not make a scene." We met eyes for a moment, he gestured to my side, so I gave him a small nod of permission. 

   He smiled sweetly and unfastened my seat belt for me. He picked me up bridal style while I covered myself with his large coat. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to look around yet, but I could hear many of the voices welcome Liam. There had to be at least a hundred people, if not two. The amount of voices just added to my nervousness, I nestled my head into Liam's neck for comfort. He adjusted his head slightly, resting it against mine. As we continued on, Liam started humming a small melody, one that only I could hear. I figured he was trying to calm me down a bit while he took me wherever we were going.  

I will not be harmed. Everything will be okay. 

   Liam suddenly stopped humming and I wondered if we were there, in his house. To my dismay, Liam pushed my back higher and adjusted his hold on my legs. Then, to what I surmised, we began climbing up some stairs. Not too many, I figured they led to the porch because, not long after, I heard the two big doors open. Liam thanked whoever opened them and continued walking into the home. 

   He walked another five minutes then began making adjacent twists and turns. Up more stairs, then down? Turning corner after corner, walking few steps in between. I couldn't tell if he was just trying to confuse me or if this was how he actually got to his room or something. I started getting dizzy and after a couple more minutes of the confusing turns, I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on my breathing. Then we suddenly stopped moving; as I tried to sort my thoughts Liam began giving different orders to more people that I guess were standing next to us. I only caught the last exchange of words. 

"Take Sam to the lounge I need to have a word with her. If anyone lays a hand on her in the process, make sure they are red collard and in Sam's corner by midnight tonight." That was the same voice he had spoke to Nick with right before....

"Yes, sir. Right away sir" the other man replied, then there was hurried footsteps off in another direction. 

  We continued down a large hallway and about halfway Liam leaned in and whispered, "You can take that off now."