walls up high

The morning was not really a sunshiny affair as Holly would have liked. She woke up to a lot of banging on her door and a noise of chatter outdoors. Wondering what on Earth was going on, she looked around dazed for a moment. 

She was still catching up to all that was happening when a hand grabbed her wrist and that woke her from her state of slumber. 

Blue eyes stared at her and a panicked tone spoke out, "We got to get out of here, princess, now."

And her brain caught up to the events of the previous day, or rather the very same morning and she smiled, "Morning to you too, Henry."

"Damnit, I wished you would've forgotten my name," he replied but then remembering the issue at hand, he told her. "The news has leaking that your alias, Mistress Aliayth Johnson, has gotten off her island and is finally in the real world."

"Oh, fuck, nope, that isn't good," she mumbled and swung herself out of the bed. 

And Henry screamed out aloud. A very girly shriek as he averted his eyes, "Oh my God, you sleep naked?!"

She looked mortified for a moment and her eyes snapped to her body and then she sighed in relief, "I always sleep in my underwear." 

"That's disgusting and I wasn't warned at all for that," Henry mumbled as he turned his back on her and told her. "Please get dressed to go out."

"What?" she chuckled lightly. "Never seen a girl in just her underwear."

"I have under very different circumstances and this is awkward because I've barely even known you for like two whole days," he rambled on, his hands moving around frantically. 

"Okay, okay, jeez, get your point," she replied as she pulled on the same clothes she had been wearing when she had come in the previous night. 

She wasn't one to wear the same clothes but she had an idea to make her story more credible than it was. 

"Turn around buttercup, I'm all dressed up."

"Will you stop with that buttercup thing you keep doing?" he told, his accent very British with every word. 

She walked towards the door, her heels clicking against the floor with each step. Her hand was already on the doorknob of door that led to the hallway outside when Henry rushed to her side and placing his hand over her, prevented her from opening the door. 

A tiny furrow between her eyebrows, her question was clear in her eyes. 

"We can't risk people questioning you and blowing your cover, I've already peeked out and it's a lot of people waiting to get a picture and just- harass you. Paparazzi, you know?" he told her. 

"Alright then, what do you suggest, genius?" she asked him as she let her hand drop from the golden painted knob.

And there was a wicked gleam in his bright cerulean eyes and she knew this would not be something she was really going to enjoy. But then again, she had no idea where she was headed or any idea about any other thing but she was - like always - asked to trust. Besides, there was nothing else she could do other than trust her driver now. 

~*~

"I DO NOT LIKE THIS PLAN VERY MUCH!" 

Holly was screaming as Henry was letting her out of the building at a very terrifyingly slow pace. His very stupid plan involved escaping from the balcony. Albeit it was just on the second floor. 

In his opinion, it was a grand suite and they deserved a grand escape route. 

And Holly could not believe her dumbness when she said yes to the stupidest plan to have ever been made. She regretted her choices when she was hanging in the air, being let to the ground as she sat on a bedsheet all crumpled up to form a seat. 

This was nothing like the scene in her other movie, Joy's Paradise. 

Nothing at all like that. 

"YOU'RE FUCKING INSIDE!" she screamed once more. 

And Henry yelled from the top of his lungs, "Ms Pierce, just hang in there!" 

"I'M DOING VERY WELL, HENRY," she wasn't hesitant to say. "YOUR PLAN OF LETTING ME DOWN SLOWLY LIKE YOU'VE WATCHED IN THE DISNEY MOVIES ISN'T WORKING OUT ALL THST WELL."

"Hey, don't be mad at me, you're the one working with movies," he hollered, slight amusement in his tone. "You should be trying to sell the film industry, don't you think?"

"DON'T ASK ME MY OPINIONS WHEN I'M ON THE VERGE OF DEATH!" panic was in her voice as she looked up at the balcony from which her bedsheet was dangling. 

Henry kept lowering her and she was hanging on to it for dear life. It was already on the first flow and she had been holding on to that for almost over ten minutes by her. Hands sweaty, the bedsheets were starting to get wet and her throat was parched from screaming so loud. 

For a moment, Henry was chuckling to the terrified way she looked because it looked straight out of a movie - her priceless face - and he accidentally let go of that. 

It was all in a quick blur. Him trying to dash out, hands trying to grab the bedsheet, her screaming as she nearly fell off the thing and her screaming at the top of her lungs, "HENRY."

And things felt like slow motion even though it was all so very quick. He remembered another time in the past when someone else had been screaming his name and how he had almost lost her because of something stupid he did.

As soon as his hands grasped that, he heard no sound from her down below and his heartbeat hammered in his head. He was terrified and a part of him hoped that history wasn't repeating itself.  

"HOLLY?" he called out, his upper half thrown out of the balcony because of his leaning out to assess the damage done and if she was even alright but there wasn't a response. 

He looked down and then he saw her. Holding on to the make-shift elevator they had made of just old sheets as she asked, "Am I dead?" 

And then he finally managed to let out that deep breath he had been holding in. The sweat on his brow finally cooled down and he could breathe in peace. It was different this time. She was alright. 

And then, he hollered, "Ms Pierce, you're alright!" 

With that, Holly opened those electrifying blue eyes she had and then told quietly, "Huh, already on the ground."

She stretched her legs and stood on the soft grass covered lawn below and then with shaky knees, stood up and lay a well-manicured hand on her heart. It took her just three seconds before she looked up to the balcony where Henry looked down at her from, "ARE YOU CRAZY?"

And he chuckled but he told her, "Just a moment, I'll be there from some other path; get to the cab!" 

He rushed out from another route, avoiding the people and their questions and crowds all the while thinking that it had been a really narrow escape. 

But among the many things he thought of, one thing was sure. He knew that he had his walls up high for a reason and it was time to bring them higher up, not any lower. For her own safety, it was needed. 

And so, he did just that.