The Short Stories of Harry Styles

Neverwood: Part 4

The first thing you noticed upon waking was that this was not a dream.

You could feel the tears springing to your eyes at the realization at the same time that you found the evil faerie laughing malevolently on the far side of the room...if that was what this place was.

As the creature came down from his high your eyes wandered around and found that this was not a room at all...at least not in the usual sense of the word. No, this was the hollowed out insides of a tree...the tree from your dream and that you'd seen him hiding behind earlier.

You took in the space and realized this was just a place, like something that was caught in the inbetween and not somewhere someone might live.

There were giant cobwebs everywhere and only one spot, the spot you were sat in, that looked like it had been cleared out or as if someone only spent enough time in this exact seat for things to grow only around it.

As you turned your head around the room you also saw how rotted the tree was from the inside and it looked far worse than it did on the outside. You wondered why that was...

"Jessie." His voice called from behind you and when you peered over your shoulder your eyes widened.

Where before his body had been covered in a billowing smokey blouse, now had morphed into a low cut vest that sparkled in the dim light. It was fastened together just below his sternum by three shiny black buttons and his broad chest was on full display. Where his pants had been matte black and snugly fitted to his narrow hips before, now were draped with looser fitting pants that cut off at the ankle with that same shimmer as his top. When he moved, there was still that hazy smokiness that left you blinking and feeling like your eyes were deceiving you.

You couldn't help but note that his walk was more than just putting one leg in front of the other. There was a magnetic pull to watching him, the way his hips moved side to side in a tantalizing dance. You decided that he sauntered...that was the only word that seemed to fit it. It was languid and fluid and unintentionally seductive all at the same time and from the pronounced smirk hiked up onto his right cheek, he knew it too.

Your eyes traveled up the length of him and settled onto his hypnotic green eyes that looked at you like you were underneath his thumb, under his control and maybe you were in a sense...but you'd been bullied a long, long time and you weren't going to be his victim too.

Not if you could help it.

"What are you looking at?" You spat at him and this only made that annoying grin pop a dimple.

"I'm looking at a lost little mouse...caught in a trap by a very hungry cat." His sharp teeth gleamed in the dim light and a shiver ran through you despite the defiant scoff that fell from your lips.

"If you're going to kill me then do it already." You gritted out between clenched teeth. Your jaw aching from the action but he was truly looking at you exactly how he described it and you hated it.

"Tsk tsk mousey girl. Is that really any way to speak to the thing that is deciding your fate?" A twinkle in his eye makes you come to standing in front of him and you go to push angrily against his chest where the vest meets his sternum but the minute your hands meet bare skin instead of fabric you're fingers are immediately withdrawing.

You look incredulously at where your hands had just touched and find that what you thought was cloth was nothing more than mist, colored dark black like the shadows that had enveloped and brought you here.

Out of curiosity and curiosity alone, you brought anxious fingertips up to the vest and pressed into the silky cool element. Your fingers pushed through it and the thick haze parted underneath your intrusion to reveal taut abdominals with a giant butterfly drawn into the skin. Realizing your mistake you retracted your fingers as the vest materialized again and you did not miss the goosebumps rising to the surface of his pale skin.