Niall’s P.O.V.

Where was she?

She had snuck out, a week ago, when I was asleep. Damn it. I never should’ve gone to sleep. I should’ve went down to check on her. I should’ve noticed her leaving. I should’ve noticed her taking her suitcase out of my room.

But she wasn’t the only one gone.

Harry and been trying to contact Amber just as much as I had been trying to reach Aria. Aria’s suspicion of Amber being behind the messages flew threw my head, and I hated myself for not believing her.

The way the call went straight to the message tone when I called her proved either her phone had been off for seven days, or something was terribly wrong.

I was going for the second choice.

Currently, I sat helplessly in my room, trying to call Aria for the one-hundredth and thirty first time today. I knew she wouldn’t answer.

I threw my phone down onto the bed, shouting. How could I let her slip out of my hands like that? Right under my nose?

Harry came into my room.

“Any luck?” he asked, sitting down at the edge of the bed.

I shook my head, declaring my failure. Harry bit his lip and sighed.

“Amber isn’t answering her phone either.”

I took a deep breath and looked at Harry. “Aria was getting some threatening messages.”

Harry looked back at me with wide eyes. “She never told me.”

“Yeah well, she thought they were from her father, who hates her and beat her and raped her before she was with us. But then, she began to tell me about how Amber was so interested in her relationship with her father. She said that she had a feeling Amber was behind the messages.”

Harry frowned, looking mad. “Are you seriously accusing my girlfriend right now?”

I glared back at him. “Yes. I am. And it makes sense. Neither of them are answering their phone. They both disappeared the same night.”

“So?” Harry snorted. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Harry, you’ve got to believe me. Aria was so serious. She wouldn’t joke about something so dangerous. The messages weren’t just threatening her. They threatened me, too. That’s why she left. She thought that staying with me was only putting me in danger.”

“That’s bullshit.” Harry growled, pushing himself off the bed. “Aria’s got a load of bullshit stuck in her head. Amber had nothing to do with this and your girlfriend is just messed up.”

Harry stormed out of the room.

On normally conditions, I would’ve beaten the shit out of him for saying those things about Aria. It was obvious that Amber had gotten Harry absorbed in her looks and acting.

I wondered what Amber was really like. Suddenly, I remembered how Harry had said Amber had been in London a little bit before Amber and he came to London together.

She had been in London around the same time Aria and I had seen that person dressed in all black slip that note into the windshield wipers of my car.

I remembered the persons brown hair, and the slim, tall figure. If I took away the black glasses, Amber’s face fit the picture perfectly.

Oh my god.

How could I have been so stupid? I fell for Amber’s act too. She was always so sweet and quiet around me, and never did anything that would make me think she was helping the one person Aria hated, to hurt her.

To kill her.

Aria had been right all along. I felt terrible, because I didn’t believe her. I called her crazy, and told her that she couldn’t just accuse people and “sweet” as Amber. But clearly, Amber had another side to her that I hadn’t seen.

---

The next day, I snuck into Harry’s room early in the morning and got Amber’s number from his phone. I went up to my room and began to call her multiple times, praying she would answer. I needed to get my princess back.

I tried calling her four hours, switching every other hour to try and call Aria. It was around noon when I made a call to Amber.

And she picked up.

But not in the way I expected. I could hear distinct talking in the background. It was definitely her voice, but also a deeper, manlier voice. It must’ve been Aria’s father. And then I realized, that Amber hadn’t meant to pick up my call. She must have been sitting on her phone and “butt answered” it. I snickered quietly at the thought. I held the phone to my ear and listened.

“Yeah.” Amber giggled. “It wasn’t so hard. She was leaving the building and I just snuck up and punched the shit out of her.”

“I trained you well.” Aria’s father laughed. “I bet Scarlett would be proud.”

Wasn’t Scarlett Aria’s dead sister? I quickly got some sense into me and pressed the button to start recording the phone call.

“I miss her.” Amber sighed. “I feel good to be doing this. I mean, look at her, she’s nearly dead.”

Aria? Nearly dead? I felt like screaming, but contained myself.

“I have a gun.” Aria’s father laughed. “And soon, I’ll use it on the both of them.”

Aria? And who? Me?

“But, I don’t understand why you have to kill her mom. I mean, what did she do?” Amber asked.
“She left.” He answered simply.

He’s going to kill Aria’s mother because she divorced him? Because she was smart?

I needed to show this to Harry. I needed to prove him wrong. Getting of the bed and walking down the stairs as quietly as possible, I entered the guest room.

I walked up to Harry who glared at me, and slapped a hand over his mouth. I pressed a finger to my lip and gestured to my phone. He narrowed his eyes at me but kept silent when I took my hand away from his mouth. I pressed the speakerphone button on the phone.

“What are you going to do to her next?” Amber’s voice rang through the guest room.

“Just beat her up some more.” Aria’s father answered. “Maybe rape her.”

Amber laughed. “Won’t she enjoy that.”

Harry’s eyes widened. I covered his mouth as he gasped.

“Hey, I think she’s waking up.” Amber whispered.

And then I heard Aria speak.

“Don’t touch me.” She cried. “Please don’t.”

Her father laughed. The laugh was followed by the sound of a hand connecting with flesh, Aria groaning, and then, Aria screaming.

I ended the call.

“Believe me now?” I whimpered, on the verge of bursting into tears.

Harry just stared at the ground, completely shocked.




Aria’s P.O.V.

I was currently strapped against the chair beside my mother, my head spinning and my body aching. I wondered if Niall knew what was happening to me.

I wondered if he would be my knight in shining armor.

My father walked in just then, twirling a gun in his hand. I gulped.

“Hello.” He smiled, rubbing my cheek softly. And then he slapped it, of course.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I asked, keeping my voice down. “What have I done to you?”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Well, you’re alive, for one.” He began. His words struck me in the chest painfully. “You really think I wanted you? You were a mistake. At least we planned Scarlett.” He paused. “She was so much better than you, you know. Always listened to what I said. She wasn’t stubborn, or foolish, or ugly. Scarlett was beautiful, actually. She had so much more potential than you ever will.”

“Well, I’m sorry.” I whispered, gulping down tears.

“You should be,” he chuckled deeply, staring at me with those dark, dark eyes. “When I kill you, the whole world will be smiling. No one will miss you.”

“That’s not true.” I shuddered. “There are people who love me.”

“Like that pop star of yours?” My father snorted. “As if. It’s clear that he just can’t find someone beautiful and famous, so he settled with you instead.”

I kept telling myself that none of this was true. But the weaker my body got, the more my strength weakened, physically and mentally. Soon, his words were seeping through my mind, getting sucked in as if my brain were a sponge. I felt helpless, and cold, and hurt.

When my father forced me to stand up, pushing me into a bedroom, I knew what was about to happen. It would be just like what took place four months ago, just before Liam found me. He was going to rape me.

He pushed me to the bed, and ripped my clothes of, and I was exposed to him. I couldn’t speak, or move, because I was so terrified. The rest was all big blur of screaming, suddenly urge to escape, and then, darkness.

---

When I woke up, I was strapped back to the chair. The stupid, hard as a brick chair. My mother was still passed out beside me, and felt like doing so myself. My hands shook, and I realized that the room was freezing. What made it worse was that I seemed to be only in my underwear. I wanted to scream, but surely he would come running in and knock me out.

My whole body was in pain, especially the lower section of my body. And then in the corner, on a small stool, I spotted my phone. It was my only hope. I counted to five, making sure no one would walk in, and began to struggle in the chair, managing to shuffle it across the room. I was almost there, just a yard away, when I fell. The chair fell with me, meaning it’s weight was on top of me. But I had reached my phone.

Ignoring the sharp pain in my back, I grabbed it, quickly unlocking it. Deciding quickly that calling would be too loud and risky, I sent both Niall and Harry a quick text.

Me: Please help. I’m at my mother’s house and my father’s trying to kill me. I don’t know where her house is , but please check records. Please. I love you both very much. Don’t text back.

I locked my phone and set it down exactly as I found it before struggling to get myself back up. Then, I realized a quicker way to get back to my original spot beside my mother. With the chair strapped on top of me, I got on my hands and knees and crawled back over, then took a few seconds to get in a sitting position on the chair.

Just as Amber walked in.

Right on time.

She smirked at me, probably at the fact that I had only my underwear on, before slipping her phone out. It looked like she was texting someone, but I couldn’t really tell. She looked back up and saw me staring at her, before putting her phone back in her pocket.

“Are you enjoying your stay at Hotel de Muerte?”

Spanish class during sophomore year of high school told me she just said “hotel of death.”

“I’m doing wonderful.” I giggled, flashing her my fakest smile possible. That wasn’t the best thing to say.

“I guess we’ll have to make it a bit worse then.” Amber laughed. “After all, you’re not living life well if you’re too happy.”

She yelled for my dad, and soon he walked in. His scent filled the room with a nasty cigarette smoke smell, a dirty smile plastered on his face.

“Let’s get started, shall we?”