Snowed In

Harry stooped in front of Annie as she stared off into space, a frown spreading across his lips. “Are you okay? How’s your face?”

“A little sore,” she answered simply. She didn’t take her eyes off the wall of snow behind the window. There was only a small amount of wall between the huge expanse of freezing snow and the inside.

“What’s wrong?” Harry asked quietly, sitting beside her on the couch in the presidential suit. He sighed and leaned back, resting his hands on the thighs of his jeans. She heard him sigh quietly as he continued to relax. “I can’t wait until we get out of here. I just want to go home and sleep without wondering if the roof will cave in our not. A hot shower and some hot food would be great too.”

Annie nodded in agreement, but continued to say nothing. She wasn’t in the mood to talk about what had happened.

She was an awkward sort. Sure, she was very outgoing and she was very exuberant, but she hated to socialize with people. She disliked going out and meeting new people or making new friends. Annie had hoped at the beginning of this trial that she might have been able to establish some friendships and bonds with the people she was with. But when she found herself getting close to Niall, he had turned out like all the other guys in the house. He was a player and he had hurt her without knowing it. Or maybe he had known he was going to hurt her which made him just a disgusting pig.

Niall wasn’t worth her time. She should have known about that. She should have known that he’d hurt her like everyone else had.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Harry asked quietly again. “If you don’t want to, I totally understand why but I’m just trying to be nice to you.”

Annie felt a frown fall across her face in response. “I don’t really want to talk about it. There’s nothing to talk about anyway.”

“You don’t want to talk about what happened between Niall and Sam and me?”

“What’s there to talk about? Sam likes Niall, Niall likes Sam. We were all just mistaken, that’s all.” Annie stood up and Harry did as well, pulling her into a quick hug. “What are you doing?”

There was a short breath of silence before Harry sighed. “Hugging you. Isn’t that what people do when someone else is upset?”

“I guess,” Annie said without feeling. She hugged him back nervously before she pulled away and cleared her throat. “I’m going to go out and look for some fresh towels. I’ll be back later.”

“Shouldn’t you take someone with you?” he asked cautiously.

She shrugged. “I don’t really care at this point. But you’re more than welcome to come if you’d like to keep me company. It’s really no trouble.”

“Well, in a ski lodge that’s snowed in from all sides, I’d say it’s best to stick in groups.” Harry followed her through the presidential suit, grabbing both his and Annie’s jumpers. He took two torches, one for each of them, as the ventured down the stairs to the basement level.

As they approached the entrance into the basement level, the lodge darkened as the lights flickered. Had Annie known this was reality, she would have feared that the lodge was haunted by vengeful spirits. She stuck close to Harry, her hands trailing by her sides as she shook from the cold. Harry couldn’t help but smile when he reached back and took hold of her hands, intertwining their fingers together.

They walked quietly until the reached the door. “Do you think it’s unlocked?”

Harry shrugged before he let go of her hand and tried the door. “It isn’t, but I can fix that. Take a step back, love.”

Annie did as she was told and stepped back, pulling her jumper tighter around herself. She watched silently as Harry rolled his shoulders before ramming into the door. It opened easily upon his movement. He rolled his shoulder again and smiled in satisfaction. “There we go. After you, ma’am.”

Annie rolled her eyes as she stepped in to the basement. She tried the light switch to her left, but nothing happened. She rolled her torch light over the room and saw the cool metal tables lining the walls, stacks of rolls of towels piled on top, resting against the wall. “Well, there are plenty of towels here for us.”

Harry nodded and stepped ahead of her. “Is that a window? In the basement?”

Annie nodded. “It’s an egress. They have them all over. It’s like a little underground balcony type thing.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Harry said with a sigh as he pulled a bunch of towels into his arms, holding them tightly against his chest. He turned quickly and faced her, a faint and playful smile on his face. “I guess we should probably get going back to the group. We didn’t tell anyone where we went. They’ll either worry about us or they’ll think we went off to do something disrespectful to each others’ bodies. If you know what I mean.”

Annie felt a flash of blush dance across her cheekbones as she turned with her arms filled with towels. Just as the reached the door and Harry tried to open it, a resounding crash forced them to jump backwards, a huge wall of snow falling in front of the door leading out of the basement. Her stomach seized and her heart rose in her throat.

The room instantly darkened as the emergency lighting from the basement corridors were cut off by the barrier of snow. The ceiling caved in too, coating the snow with both wood panels and sheetrock. Annie’s hands reached for her face, covering her mouth as tears flowed from her eyes, accompanied by gasps and shaky breaths.

Almost immediately, Harry dropped his towels and began to tear at the snow barrier. It was no use. The snow and the wood only filled his hands with splinters and covered him in frigid water. There was no use. He needed a shovel or something to dig the ice away.

Harry looked up through the gaping hole in the ceiling and frowned. “There’s no way out. We’re trapped.”

Annie shook her head. “There’s no way out?”

He turned in circles several times, his hands burying themselves in his hair. Frustration welled in the air and Annie could do nothing. They were trapped in the basement with no heat, no food, no water, and limited light. Her breath grew ragged as she stepped back in fear, gasping in anxiety, until the back of her legs pressed against the towel tables. Harry turned abruptly and approached her, resting his warm hands on her shoulders. “Listen to me, Annie. They’ll wonder where we went off to and they’ll come looking for us. They’ll split into groups and they’ll search the entire lodge. Everything will be fine, I promise. We’ll be safe.”

“We have no food, no water, barely any light, and no way to stay warm. We’re more likely to die of hypothermia than of hunger or thirst, Harry.” Annie stared into his eyes, illuminated by the torch that had fallen by the wayside when the ceiling had caved in.

Harry sighed. “You’re right. But we have towels to lay on the ground and we have each other. We won’t die of hypothermia if we hold each other.”

Annie frowned. “You want to cuddle?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is strictly for survival purposes,” Harry said with a smile. “I’d rather be stuck here with you than anyone else, truth be told. I feel like you’re the only genuine girl here. I’m sorry about hitting you. I feel really badly about it.”

Annie shrugged as she began to help unroll towels onto the floor, crossing them over each other until they had a mat an inch or two thick made wholly of towels. They both sat down beside each other, savoring the heat they both gave off. Annie scooted closer to Harry, ducking under his arm and wrapping her arms around his chest. “It’s alright. I just didn’t want there to be a major fight between you and Niall. I didn’t want to get everyone else involved.”

“That’s very peaceful of you,” Harry murmured as he rested his chin on the top of Annie’s head. “I don’t even know what came over me.”

“You were angry because Sam likes Niall,” Annie whispered.

“You sound upset about that,” Harry said observantly.

Annie didn’t reply.

“You’re not happy, are you?” he asked slowly. He held her tightly as he rolled his shoulders and relaxed slightly. “You like Niall, don’t you?”

Another reply-less silence.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry.” Harry let out all of his breath at once.

“I thought he was the only person here who wouldn’t be like all the other guys in the world. He seemed so sweet and normal. But it seems like he was just leading me on or trying to make Sam jealous,” Annie murmured. “I don’t know why I’m so upset about it. It’s not like we were dating or about to date. I don’t think he even likes me that way.”

“I’ll tell you what,” Harry started. “When we get out of here, the basement, I’ll have a chat with Niall and see what’s going on in that head of his. Maybe we can get this sorted and you’ll be with Niall.”

“And you’ll be with Sam,” Annie said boldly.

A smile spread across Harry’s face. “Maybe.”

“Maybe.”