Amour

Jogging carefully down the steps leading into the grand courtyard belonging to Oxford, I find myself struggling to keep my balance in check. My vision has been cloudy the entire day today, making it almost impossible for me to read any notes let alone make them. Miserable doesn't even begin to cover how I've been feeling though, my head feels heavy on my powerless shoulders and my eyelids have shut from exhaustion more than once today. There is a dull ache in my lower back that's been manifesting and spreading all day long.

I hurry - as carefully as possible - over to the navy SUV parked on the border of campus property. I pause in front of the passenger door reaching out to grab it when my vision clouds again and the black handle disappears from my vision. I fumble around on the door finally grasping the handle to open the damn door and get in.

"Hey." Louis greets me before kissing my cheek.

"Hi." I reply nervously.

"Why'd you take so long to open the door?"

I decide not to lie, no point there.

"I couldn't see it."

"What?"

"I had a terrible headache today and its been fogging up everything. So bloody annoying."

"Does it still hurt? Do you want to go to a doctor?"

"No, I'm fine. I just want to go home."

"Okay. Sam, I have something to tell you if you're willing to hear it."

"I'm listening."

"My mom's in town as you know, and she wants to take me somewhere this weekend. Somewhere we used to go when I was a kid which is an extremely long time ago. We leave tomorrow and I won't be able to pick you up from campus in the afternoon."

"Okay."

"That was easy."

"Were you asking for permission?"

"No."

"Then okay."

The rest of the drive home is silent, my head being too much of a bother to let me formulate an appropriate sentence. I just allow the energy between us to become more and more tense until its palpable. I jump out almost too quickly when we get home and I lean against the car to regain my footing.

"Are you sure you're okay, Sam?" Louis is at my side and his eyes are full of concern.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks." I push away from the car but Louis grabs my hand and leads me up the path to the door.

"Have fun tomorrow with your mom. She's really nice." I smile at Louis as I lie through my teeth. I kiss him briskly before hastily opening the door and going inside. I expect him to follow me in but he doesn't, turning around and heading back to the car.

***

"Sam! Wait up." Zack and Ella catch up to me on the walk to my car across the lot the next day.

"How may I help you two?" I ask without halting.

My condition has only worsened in the past 24 hours and I feel as frail and hollow as an elderly woman with a cane.

"We still on for the play?" Zack asks

"Yes."

"That's all. Catch you later."

Well that was officially the shortest conversation without a point I've ever had. I continue towards my car keeping my eyes on the ground. Fishing out the keys from my back pocket I slide the correct key into the driver's side door. A blasting pain comes from my head, making me gasp loudly from the shock. Feeling like I've been hit with a wrecking ball I yank on the door handle but a little too late, my feet give way beneath me and I crumble to the ground slamming into the graveled ground. My body is numb, immobile as my eyes close and I catch a glimpse of people running to my aid.

***

*AGATHA (NANA) POV*

"Are you sure you don't want to eat something? You look awful, Sammy." I speak sweetly to her trying to disguise the threatening shock.

Samantha lay almost motionless in bed if it weren't for the occasional rise and fall of her chest to indicate her intake of breath, you'd think she was in a coma. Ever since she came home last week after I rushed to school when I was told she had collapsed, Sammy has been experiencing extremities in temperature. She's had days where she ate everything in the fridge and days where she refused to touch any food stuff. Her weight has been drastically reduced in just these four days.

"I'm fine." Her voice is a ghost of what it used to be.

"Call me if you need anything, okay?"

I'd like to keep saying that it's just the flu that she had the luck of catching at its worst but we all know that isn't true. On Saturday alone she had tripped on her own feet twice and fell numerous times, accompanied by relentless violent vomiting that brought everything she ate back up. I'd taken her to the doctors but they said simply that there was nothing they could do.

*FLASHBACK*

"How is she, doctor?" I left Jase in the waiting room with his iPad. The doctor had just come out of Sam's room and I rise to greet him.

"Honestly, Mrs. Hunter, I don't know what's wrong with her." He sounds exhausted.

"So she's going to be fine?"

"I can't say that. Her body has been - for want of a better word - degrading. Her muscles have all contracted to its original form making it almost impossible for her to move them. Her tox screen is clean and so is every other test we ran, I don't know what's wrong with her."

"So you can't help her?"

"I'm afraid not."

*FLASHBACK OVER*

She's had good days and bad days ever since. At one point I thought she was recovering until the next day when she had started bleeding and hasn't stopped, the blood flow hasn't weakened even though there's almost nothing left in her. I decide to call someone who I haven't seen in days, as odd as it seems.

***

*LOUIS POV*

"I'm coming." I speak sternly into the phone before hanging up and grabbing my coat from the rack.

"Where are you going, Louis?" Mom calls after me but I ignore her, slamming the door behind me and running to my car.

I realize the trip would be shorter if I ran so I ditch the car and go on foot, the trip is short and I'm in front of Sam's house in five minutes. Not bothering to knock I open the door and walk into the kitchen to see Agatha sitting at the breakfast counter.

"Louis." She stands.

"What's wrong? You said there was an emergency." I speak in a rushed manner.

"It's Sam. I don't know what's wrong with her and I didn't know who to call, the doctors haven't been of any help-"

"Doctors? What's happened?"

My nose picks up Sam's scent but it's much more dry, and sort of contaminated with something. Wait, I recognize that smell. It's blood. Panic builds up and I regret ever leaving her. I shouldn't have left her when she said she had a headache, ignoring my gut is the worst thing I could have ever done.
I take reasonably large strides toward the stairs before leaping up three at a time.

"Louis. I don't think you should go up there just yet." Agatha yells from downstairs but I'm already at Sam's door.

I turn the handle and the door creaks open. Moving slowly as if not to scare her I enter the room. I step inside pushing the door farther open. The overwhelming salty scent of blood has become more prominent, my nostrils flare and my eyes are burning. Squashing all those reactions I scan the room in search of the girl that has earned the right to smack me.
The bed is empty but the sheets are untidily thrown atop with half of it sweeping the floor. The hairs on my neck stand to attention when the sound of soft footsteps reaches my ears. Sam steps out of the bathroom wearing a t shirt and shorts that reveal too much skin.

"Sam." I gasp as I take in her appearance.

She most definitely has slimmed down, when she sees me she wraps her arms around herself in an attempt to conceal herself but it only accentuates her figure. Her t shirt isn't pulled all the way down and little skin is visible, her waist is a husk of what I saw last. Her legs look as if they can barely carry her weight, threatening to fail beneath her at any moment. Her hair has lost its shine, her face is ashen and thin as if she donned a mask. Seeing her like this, broken and ghostly, both angers and depresses me. What have I done?
She ignores me crawling back into bed and burying herself in the duvets. My feet shuffle forward and I sit down on the bed beside her with her back to me.

"Sam?" I whisper brushing the strands of hair away from her face. Big mistake. There is a bruise on her neck the size of a coin.

"Sam, look at me." I try to remain calm so as not to frighten her.

She doesn't move and I become impatient. I curl my fingers around the corner of the duvet, pulling it back gradually to bring the hidden girl more and more into view. Sam is curled up in a ball, hugging her knees to her chest and it looks almost painful.

She doesn't put up a fight and that is the terrifying bit. My eyes spot several more bruises similar to the one on her neck all over her legs and arms. The smell of blood is impossible to ignore but I will bear it. For her. Her chest heaves as she struggles to breathe with her eyes tightly shut. Oh God.

"Sam, please. Who did this?" I plead with her.

My hands reach down and gently disentangles her arms from her legs so that she is lying flat on her side. Carefully encircling her waist - ignoring the prominent feel of her bones on my hands - I pull her onto my lap clutching her to my chest in refusal to let her go.
Her body is almost limb in my arms but I feel her nestle closer to me. Her thin fingers gripping the lapels of my jacket.

"I'm cold." She speaks but it isn't Sam's voice. Rather a badly edited croaking version.

"Oh, baby." I hug her closer without crushing her. I kiss her forehead.

The duvet is still covering her from the waist down so I pull the covers up a little more but not before investigating a little. I innocently tug her shirt up a little with my finger to expose her baby soft skin. With each breath I can see her skin and bones making me upset so I re-cover her.

"I'm bleeding." She nearly sobs and tries to get off me but I tighten my hold.

"I don't care, I'm not letting you go. Never again. How did this happen?"

"I don't know."

"Keep your eyes closed, baby."

I stand and scoop her up in my arms while the duvet still covers her. She inhales sharply and coughs as a result of the quick action.

"Louis. What are you doing?" Agatha's appeared at the door and her eyes are wide with alarm.

"We'll be right back." I tell her before zipping past her down the stairs and onto the street.

The wind whips past us as I race to my destination - Roger's home. Sam moves her hands from my lapels to inside the jacket and struggles to maintain her breathing.
The trip is over quickly and I'm in front of Roger's home now, trudging up the steps to the porch. I push the door open with my side and carry Sam inside.

I don't bother calling him, I know where Roger is. I seek and find the simple white door next to the kitchen and open it. Jogging down the steps I find Roger seated at his computer with that ridiculous white coat on again.

"Roger!" I shout and he jumps up doing a 360, seeing Sam in my arms he is about to protest. "Help me, please."

Notes