ASHLEY

I slowly open my eyes and everything flashes right through them. I look around, still laid on the ground. Regardless my feet feeling numb as hell, I manage to get  up. I do not know where I am or how did I get here. The room would be pitch black, if it wasn't for the four spotlights, perpendicularly facing each other. It's a closed room, with a wee bit of ventilation coming from a tiny hole. I feel like I am running out of breath, because of the suffocation. I look for possible loopholes to get my way out of here. But there was none, and I am trapped.

On one side of the wall, I discover an engraved message, with huge fonts I believe. But obviously, I couldn't read it because there weren't any sort of illumination on it. However, one of the spotlights magically turns and lights up that particular wall, leaving me flabbergasted. It's a message, written in French. Being a Canadian, I knew a bit of French, which is why I am able to understand it:

"Vous ne pouvez obtenir que si l'un de votre bien-aimée vient autour..."
"You can only get out if one of your beloved comes around..."

A beloved? Now where am I supposed to get one? There's no way out and there's no window to even scream through it.

At that very moment, something slams the wall roughly, creating a deafening sound. I turn around and an extremely bright light shines on me, making me almost close my eyes. I can feel footsteps coming nearer and nearer, and that bright light disappearing as it does. 
When the rays of bright white light vanishes, the figure of the person comes into view under the spotlight. It was none other but Zayn.
I wasn't expecting him to show up like this. His clothes are ragged, and some parts have dirt on them. It's as if he came back from a sea expedition.

He looks at me dead in the eyes, making me feel horrified. His dark eyes seem puffed and is covered with what it seems to me....tears of pity and regret.

'You should've stayed, Ashley. You shouldn't have went back. Now you have to battle against life and death, all by yourself.' He speaks and a light of anger takes over my emotions. What does he mean by that?

'What? Be more specific, Zayn.' I tell him angrily. I rather order him.

'YOU SHOULD'VE STAYED!! WITH ME!! I GOT DOWN ON MY KNEES, BEGGING YOU TO NOT GO! BUT YOU DIDN'T LISTEN. IT'S YOUR FAULT. IT'S YOUR FUCKING FAULT' he shouts this time, and it's one of the loudest ones. It's like he is singing for a huge stadium with no microphone.

'I can get you out of here, but then it's gotta be you. Only you. Battling against your own enemies.' he continues to speak and I feel stupid at this point. I am not understanding a single word he's saying. How are they correlating? And why am I gonna fight against life and death?
I keep asking him but he doesn't respond. He soon starts to vanish, and so do I. I frantically shake my head in disbelief and keep demanding him to tell me WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON. My body was vanishing and soon, I couldn't feel my body anymore. I feel numb. I feel like my soul was dragged out of my body.
.

I wake up with someone patting my left shoulder. Turns out that someone is also Zayn, which freaks me out a bit. He just appeared in my dream, dragging my soul out of my body, and now he's just patting my shoulder softly. I shake my head and take a few breaths. Zayn is somewhat dressed just like what I pictured in my dream, but it's not ragged or stained. He's probably wearing an expensive clothing brand,covering up 90% of his tattoos, with some classy cologne.  He looks at me in the eye, but this time, I see only the traces of worry.

'Here, have this...' he hands me a glass of water when he sees me breathing heavily. I gulp it down my throat and sigh deeply. He sits right beside me now, patting my back.

'What did you see?' he asks. It's as if he just read my mind and instantly knew what was going on with me. 

'How did you know...' I ask out of curiosity.

'Well, isn't it obvious? Especially when I've been here for like 10 minutes,half of which I just watched you sleep.' he tells me and I give him a partially embarrassed look.

'Don't get me wrong. I was calling out your name to wake you up, but instead you were shaking. I knew something was going on..' he says. At that very moment, I remembered I was in this editing room, waiting for Emily and the rest of the team to come in, to finalize the music video. Tired of waiting, I slowly nodded off on the couch. Ah, that's how I fell asleep in the first place.

'Yeah. I did see something.I was trapped in this dark room, with only four tiny spotlights. There were no exits or whatsoever, but there was this huge writing on the wall.' I tell him what the writing was about, quoting the sentence in french as well.  I narrate the rest of the dream.

'It was extremely confusing.  I had no idea what you- I mean what the person was trying to say...' I decide not to reveal the intricacy of my 'supposed beloved'. Zayn won't really understand. I am not understanding the whole thing myself. 

'I gotta write it down anyway' I say in a low tone and take out my phone.

'For your doctor?' Zayn asks.

'Yes. My next appointment's in 2 weeks.' I tell him and he nods.

'Say, are you gonna come to Harry's birthday party?' I ask him as he got up to leave.

'I wasn't invited in the first place.' He informs me with a smile, which clearly expresses that he didn't care much. I nod as  a response.

'Bye Ash' he says and heads for the door. As soon as he opens it, he comes face to face with Harry.It's as if they opened the door at the same time. They stared each other for a solid 5 seconds with a blank expression, before Zayn walked past him.Harry entered the room,followed by the rest of the 1d guys, some editors and Emily. Harry just walked across the room, without even saying hello or stopping by. He had an angry look all over his face. Strange. I wonder what's going on. 

I put my phone down and go to Niall. He looks somewhat stressed as well. 

'Niall?' I call him out, and he turns towards to me. He puts on, what I would say, an obvious fake smile. 

'Really? Now you're gonna give me a fake smile?' I sigh and he comes back to his normal expression. 

'Why are you so stressed?' I ask him. He looks up and stares at, what I think, Emily. He gives her a death stare, even though she's occupied by the editors. 

'That woman gives me too much stress.' he tells me,eyes still placed on her.

'Can you please tell me what happened?' I finally ask, more like order politely. I am just tired of all these indirect responses. 

'She was talking to Harry and.... I believe she was threatening him about something.' he spills and I frown.

'Niall, are you seriously going off about Emily's supposed "bad character"? You know, you should really stop doubting her for no reason.' 

'Ash, I think you're blindfolded by her fake kindness. Honestly, she's not that nice. She's cunning. But anyway, when the truth unfolds, your perception will change.' He looks at another direction. I turn my gaze to Emily and then at Harry. He's looking out of the window, arms crossed, worried and disturbed. I wanna go and comfort him, but something is stopping me from doing so. 

'Ashley! Are you just gonna stand there, or are you gonna actually help me with this editing?' Emily calls me out and I walk towards her. Whilst standing next to her, Niall's words echo in my head. I honestly don't like doubting people. I'll just let time and situations do the magic.