Day 1        Charlotte POV            (December 17th 2013)

I woke up to the steady rise and fall of someone’s chest under my head. I tried to pry my eyes open; but they felt like the lids were filled with lead. Noises in the background started to fade in and out like the static on an old TV set. My arms refused to work. Feeling slowly started to seep into my fingers. I could touch the heat from someone’s soft skin under my palms. Finally, with much effort, I got my nails to lightly brush against him.

I felt someone’s shaking lips against my forehead.

I was lying on someone.

“-almost awake,” I heard Niall’s quiet voice say. I let out a shaking sigh. Thank god he was here.

Here.

Where the hell was “here”?

Every single cell in my body jolted alive. My eyes flew open and I whipped my head back and forth.

“Easy there,” Niall said. He took the sides of my head in both hands. My brain rattled around, aching at my sudden movement. I clutched my forehead and regretted ever having woken up. My heart started to pound through my skull.

I pried my eyes open. Niall’s tired face was in front of mine. I looked down to the cement underneath us. We were lying on the cold hard ground. The ceiling up above was dusty and littered with cobwebs. Wooden beams swung across like broken, unreliable toothpicks. Walls around us were closing in like a big, empty cement box. Liam and the other three were staring at me from a few feet away. Two thick wooden poles jutted from the ground into the sky. Liam had his arms tied behind his back, pressed up against the grain tightly.

“Niall,” I said. My voice cracked and creaked like an old wooden floor.

“Yes, love?”

I gulped, unsure if I wanted to hear the answer. “What happened?”

Niall reached out to brush a lock of hair from my face. “Let’s not worry about that now babe. Wait a few minutes, you’re tired.”

“I’m fine,” I lied. The floor spun underneath me.

Niall smiled at me sadly. His blue eyes were scarily hollow. The color was drained from his usually blushed cheek bones.  “It’s okay. We all felt like that.”

It took me a minute to get my eyes to focus on his face. His pale cheeks were stained. Niall’s jaw was set tight; angry. But his brows drooped tiredly.

Slowly, I leaned down atop him again. Niall used the back of my neck to press my face against his chest where his shirt met his skin. I took a shaking breath and told myself everything was fine.

But what the hell was going on?

No sort of explanation could be pulled from my cobwebbed brain. The only thing I remembered was being in that dark alley…

“Tell me what happened,” I whispered. Niall sighed my name through his lips. I looked up into his eyes, my hands still pressed against the skin under his shirt. “Niall talk to me,” I said. “I’m so confused.” I took a deep breath and honestly added, “And scared.”

Niall quickly averted his eyes from my face. Whatever was going on I knew was very bad.

With a soft voice he told me, “We’ve been taken.”

I said nothing.

“They want money,” I heard Liam say from behind me. “And they’ll do anything to get it.”

I turned to look at him. His hands were bound to the timber beam he was slouched against. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of his scarred cheekbone. Harry sat beside him on top of a torn up quilt with a bruised jaw. Louis was lying on the floor near Zayn. Both of them had drained features.

“Whose ‘they’?” I asked, quoting Liam.

“No fucking clue,” Harry said tiredly.

I took another second to observe our makeshift prison. It was about the size of a grade school classroom. The only light was hanging in the center of the room; barely hitting all four corners of the room. My eyes froze on a wide metal door ahead of me. There was no doorknob on our side.

We had been taken.

I rested my head against Niall again. He placed a hand against my hunched back and made small circles with an open palm.

Niall set his mouth right beside my ear. “I’m sorry,” He whispered. I could hear the held back tears in his voice. My heart was wrenched. I wanted to argue. None of it was his fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. But I was too utterly exhausted and much too confused to even begin to start a conversation. So instead I just clenched my fists against his toned chest. I closed my eyes. I listened to that heart I was so in love with. It pounded through his long sleeved shirt. My fingers stayed warm against him; unlike the air that floated around the room like a giant human refrigerator.

Hot tears pricked at my eyes. I bit down on my lip as hard as I could to force myself to stay strong. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry much longer. I fell back into a deep sleep in a matter of minutes. In my dreams I couldn’t feel the tears roll down my cheeks. I didn’t taste Niall’s lips pressing the salty water in between our mouths as he kissed me goodnight. And I wasn’t scared. Because in my dreams I lost my heartache. In my dreams it was that early summer day a year before again. A door was being swung open. I stood in the hallway with my silly school uniform, my eyes wide. Because for the first time I saw them. I saw One Direction. And my life was suddenly better.