One Deception

Chapter Eighteen

Written by Kay (TheCrazySide)

Chapter Eighteen
Zayn

In the very moment that I saw what Harry did to Miranda, something in me just… snapped. Sure, I was already losing it from the betrayal, degradation, and everything in between, but this… I guess it just added enough weight to the pile to finally make me break. 

Standing stock still for a moment, all I managed was to whisper a faint, “You didn’t,” as I locked my gaze on the girl I’d come to know in front of me, staring out with nothing but dead, unseeing eyes. And sure, she was supposed to be nothing but another victim to me, but something in me couldn’t cope with the idea. Something in me was only able to register her as something resembling a friend and now she was dead.

I could remember the way she looked at me, the way she made me want to be something else, the shape of her brow, the dirty taste of her lips… I remembered it all, and now knowing that it never would or could be the same again… I was just done.

For a moment, I could’ve sworn I’d even seen Harry falter. Stepping out of his tough-guy facade for just a flicker of a second, I saw him look almost shocked in himself, like he didn’t expect to lose control like that. I’d gotten him to break and now that he’d so kindly returned it, it was really only a matter of who would attack first… and we all knew it. 

“Y- you have nothing left to fight for,” Harry laughed, but none of us missed the light stutter or the quiver of uncertainty in his voice. “Dead. She’s dead, finally.” He stumbled completely around to display the blood on his trousers, looking more like a drunken man than one that had just killed an innocent girl and enjoyed it. 

“Lads,” Niall’s voice came, quiet and uncertain from over by the wall with Louis and Liam. “W-we should just go now. Forget the rest, just clean up and run. It- it’s our best option at this point.” 

None of the rest of us spoke. Harry and I had locked eyes and were staring each other down, while Louis and Liam seemed almost too stunned to actually comment. All I knew was that it wasn’t going to end in the ideal way whatsoever, and deep down, Niall knew it too. He was really just attempting to delay it.

“Afraid that wasn’t the plan,” Harry only said, that arrogant smile that made my stomach churn flickering back again. “Ni, you know we have no other choice. One Direction will never be the same, not after today.” 

I knew Harry was crazy. I knew I was crazy. I knew all of us were psychopaths or sociopaths or whatever doctors and shrinks would have prefered to label us as. Regardless, we were psychotic and I suppose that the worst part was that I didn’t mind anymore. I was numb.

I also had pieced together that as long as Harry was alive, no one would ever be safe, man or woman. It was only a matter of time before he stopped being picky, stopped murdering just girls and adding guys to the mix, young, old, rich, poor, it wouldn’t matter. He wouldn’t stop until someone stopped him, and I knew it would have to be me.

I had to kill Harry Styles.

“I’m going to kill you now, Zayn,” Harry said like he was speaking to a child, taking a step forward with the bloody knife still in his hand. “Take my time, let you suffer. Maybe then you’ll remember where you belong.” 

“And where is that, Haz?” I asked, taking a certain sort of pleasure from seeing a muscle in his jaw jump at the nickname again. “Where do you think I belong?” 

I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to overpower Harry with pure strength, even if I managed to get the knife from him. He was stronger than me, bigger, and all I was doing now was stalling for precious time while my brain conjured up another route out.