Collide

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

A hard blow to the face brought Zayn back to consciousness.

"That was for earlier," Blases voice hissed in his ear.

He tiredly lifted his head and, once again, saw the dark purple and green mottled bruise on the side of his face accompanied by a few stitches. He smirked at his handy work.

Another punch, this time in the ribs, forced a grunt of pain out of Zayn's throat.

"You think this is funny?" Blase asked. The fury on his face turned to amusement. Now it was his turn to smirk. "You really don't realize how much shit you're in, do you?"

Zayn just shook his head. Since Blase had come in he'd received one hell of a beating, and it didn't seem like it was going to stop anytime soon. Through the bruises, cuts, and broken bones, the one thing that kept his spirits up was the fury on his former coworker's face when he made a snide comment. Blase did not deal very well with any challenge to authority.

Zayn looked up, wondering what held Blase from delivering more blows, but he only saw his back as exited the small, damp room.

'Thank God,' Zayn thought inwardly.

Though he'd never give anyone the satisfaction of knowing, he was actually quite frightened but also incredibly relieved that he'd be getting a few moments to himself. He was unaware just how short those moments would be until Blase came back in, this time accompanied by a two men carrying a small tank of water.

"By the end of this," Blase said in an icy tone. "You are going to tell me where I can find your friends."

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By the end of the lesson, Niall was not a perfect shot, but he was a hell of a lot better than he was before.

He, Harry, and Liam walked inside the back to see Eleanor and Louis in some sort of row. She was yelling at him, and he looked as if he wanted to grab her and shake her, but Niall knew he would never dare.

"I didn't exactly asked for your permission!" Eleanor yelled

"I thought you left me to get away from all this!"

"I did! But now more than one life is at stake! I became a doctor so I could help people and I'll be damned if I'm going to let personal risk get in the way of that!"

"This is different!" Louis retorted.

"Not even sort of!"

Unsure if he wanted to get in the middle of whatever it was that was going on, Niall approached slowly.

"Woah," he said. "What's going on?"

"She wants to help," Louis said, not taking his eyes of her.

Niall stared at Eleanor. "El, I realize you don't want to sit on the sidelines but this is going to be really dangerous."

Eleanor looked back at Niall. "Niall, don't," she said with less heat. "Just don't. I know you mean well, but it can't take that from you right now, especially because you did the exact same thing."

Niall knew right away that she was right. He couldn't be the one to stop Eleanor from doing anything because he had wanted to help for the same reasons. Except when he demanded to get involved the only lives at stake were strangers. This was Zayn.

Liam stepped forward.

"Look, El, we just want to make sure your safe. If we lost you because of this, how do you think we would feel? How could we move on?"