The Most Dangerous Game (Harry Styles AU)

72

I glance back at Everly, her eyes wide as they find mine.

"Everly, get..."

My words are cut off as a bright light blinds us from the left, and I barely have time to look past Everly's shoulder and through the window before I see another vehicle rushing towards us.

Seconds feel like minutes as the car slams into us, the impact hitting right behind Everly's seat. Glass shatters and seems to hang in mid-air as I feel my body violently jerked to the side. The car spins in slow motion as Arthur's head is thrown into the steering wheel. The loud whack seemingly echoing through the car. My head smacks against the window next to me and everything goes BLACK.

............

A loud ringing is the first thing I hear.

I grimace, groaning in pain as I try to force my eyes open. Everything is dark and blurry.

Where am I?

I feel heat running down the side of my face, my head pounding intensely. I reach up, wiping my forehead and my hand is wet. And red? Blood. I blink a few times, trying to center myself.

The car. Shit!

"Everly!?" I immediately call out, my voice sounding horse as I sit up in my seat and try to get my eyes to focus.

A wet cough next to me makes my vision shoot to my left, finding Arthur leaned back in his seat, his head resting against the headrest.

He coughs again and a spray of blood shoots out of his mouth, onto the steering wheel and broken windshield.

"Everly!?" I ignore my throbbing head, looking into the backseat.

It's empty. Her door wide open. She's not here.

"Everly?!" I scream, trying to get my door open. It doesn't budge so I throw my body weight against it, forcing it open.

I rush around the car, tripping over a few broken pieces of the car to get to her door. The blood runs down into my eye from the cut in my temple, stinging, but I ignore it.

"Everly!" I yell for her again, searching for her body on the ground around the car.

"They... took her." Arthur spits out, his voice weak and strained.

I rush to his door, practically ripping it off the hinges to get it open.

Blood drips out of the corner of his mouth, his eyes bloodshot. I suck in a sharp breath when I notice his chest. It's covered in blood, the circles littering his shirt becoming larger by the second.

This isn't from the car.

He was shot. Multiple times.

I reach in my pocket for my phone but it's gone.

"Help!" I scream out, seeing not one soul on the street. It's as if the New York has been abandoned entirely.

My hands move to his chest, pressing up against his wounds firmly. I feel completely helpless as the blood continues to seep out around my hands.

I look up into his eyes and see in them what I just realized.

He's not going to make it.

"Shit. Shit!" I curse, looking up and down the empty street again, "Someone HELP!"

"You..." Arthur coughs, spattering blood across the front of my white tee shirt as I lean over him. "...have to save her."

His hand grips my arm forcefully, "My apartment... everything you need. You have to... end this."

I'm at a loss for words as the color continues to drain from his face, his hold on my arm weakening.

"Save her." He chokes out, "She can't die like her mother."

My jaw tightens as I finally find my voice, my breath coming out unevenly. "She won't.... I've got her."

He gasps, trying to take a shuddering breath.

"I've got her Arthur." I repeat with more conviction.

He faintly nods, his eyes drooping closed.

"I've got her." I say quietly one last time before his head falls forward.

His hand drops from my arm and falls onto his lap.

It feels as if hours tick by before I finally remove my hands from his chest. There was no point in trying to stop his blood loss anymore, but I couldn't bring myself to give up on him. I couldn't bring myself to face the fact that he's gone.

Arthur is dead.

And they have Everly.