Half Bad // Harry Styles

Chapter 28

♡ chapter 28 - Harry ♡

            Harry, please wake up."

            The voice sounded distant, somewhat far off but the repeated shaking patterns on my arm continued. Groaning a bit at the pain that struck down my back, I peeled my eyes open to find Rose sitting in front of me, paler than a ghost. The village people were frantically running behind her, trying to keep their distance.

            And then I remembered she had used her powers to get free.

            And to save me.

            It hurt when I sat up, but I managed as Rose helped by grabbing my upper arms. A cool breeze nipped at my bare skin, stinging my back as if I had multiple open wounds. And then I remembered I indeed had open wounds.

            "We need to go," Rose said as she began tugging me with her.

            She sensed I was struggling to move as she draped one of my arms around her shoulders, half running and half stumbling to keep up with my staggering pace. I could still feel blood running down my back, but tried to pay no mind to it as I focused on walking. Rose was right—we needed to go.

            I grunted with each footstep. "Where's Cecilia?"

            "She ran off to get backup, I think. Everyone kind of freaked when they saw lightning bolts shooting off of me," she muttered.

            "Lightning bolts, huh?" I mustered a smirk. "Sounds pretty badass."

            Rose chucked. "I didn't mean to—it just happened. Like all the other times. But I really think we should talk about this when there aren't hundreds of guards chasing us."

            "Good idea."

            Stumbling into the woods, I tightened my grip around Rose's shoulders a bit to keep my balance. Blocking out the pain was almost easy as I focused on the adrenaline running through me. We were escaping, and for that I needed to be prepared.

            But that's when we came upon a guard staring up at a tree.

            A tree with eyes, an awkward nose, and a crooked mouth.

            "Oh hey, Harry! Hey, Rose!" It was Daniel.

            The guard whipped around and, using the little strength I had, I wrapped my free arm around his neck, gripped his chin, and snapped his neck. It was a little difficult one-handed, but I made it work. One guard down... too many to count to go.

            "You two don't look so good," Daniel commented, and it was weird to stare up at bark. "But thanks for getting rid of the whole guard thing. He's been there the past four hours. Come to think of it, I'm getting a bit stiff keeping this position for so long. But, I think I can qualify as a badass now."

            "We don't have time," Rose said. "Guards are closing in on us."

            "Oh right." Daniel morphed back into his own body, wiggling his limbs a bit as if stretching. "Well, let's go."

            And with that, we all took off once more. It was a bit easier to run now, although my back still hurt like hell. I knew I was slowing the two of them down as I had to pause just to step over fallen branches. It was an unbearable pain to try and jump over them and land on my feet. I felt quite pathetic.