𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬

38 | Freshly Spilled, Perfectly Still

Y/N

I can't imagine what evacuating a town feels like in the event of war or an impending natural disaster. You watch movies and documentaries where families are rushing around their houses packing a bag as quickly as they can and having to sacrifice majority of their belongings to only take what fits in their hands.

You see kids crying as they say goodbye to their favourite teddy, couples dashing to save priceless memories and old people struggling to move as fast as an able bodied person half their age could. It's sad, they're packing such a minimal amount of their lives to take with them before their homes are destroyed.

This feels kind of similar to an evacuation, but the opposite. Instead of packing up the house and leaving it behind to be destroyed, we are rushing around to make sure we are the ones who stay alive; hoping to come home safely at the end of the night.

As Tom swears loudly for pressing the security code to his safe incorrectly for the second time, I call out for him to slow down and that I'll go downstairs to start the car. I'll be honest, it was a shock to the senses when Tom told me to get dressed out of my pajamas in the more serious tone of voice I'd ever heard by him.

I practically tore my clothes off of my body before I slipped a pair of gym tights and a jumper on, slipping my sneakers on and somehow lacing them up tightly. They weren't done with a normal bow that's for sure, it was some sort of tightly bound tangle.

I heard Tom on the phone, telling his Mum to stay inside and stick by her security chaperone. It seemed as if Paddy was out with friends, Tom told her that Paddy should go to Harry or Sam's house for protection. He had already called his other brothers.

I tapped the elevator button repetitively as it descended to the underground carpark even though I knew pressing it multiple times had no effect on the speed.

"Is that a fucking assault rifle? This isn't going to be a huge massacre, I expected you to bring a hand gun" I said as Tom threw an open duffle bag into the backseat of the car and slammed the passenger car door closed behind hind

"We don't know what we're walking into Darling," he huffed, running his hand through his hair as I sped up the ramp to ground level, racing through London's narrow backstreets.

"What else did you bring?" I said swerving between lanes, occasionally darting around slower cars by crossing onto the opposite side of the busy road.

"Well I know you like your Glock 17 but I brought you a K22 instead because I fucking hate using Glocks and refuse to own one. But I have two modded AR-15's with multiple magazines for us and I've got a loaded Guardian hidden in the holster around my calf," he said bouncing his leg anxiously.

"You're preparing for something bad aren't you?" I said quietly. Tom nodded.

As we neared Haz and Robyn's house, we saw Harrison pull into his driveway before us, parking momentarily to open the security gates. We saw him get out of the car and manually open the gates with a keypad near the side; which was strange.

As we pulled up behind Haz we saw an obviously deceased Matìz slumped over the control panel inside the security booth. Tom sighed, looking away from the guard he was once such great friends with, now dead.

It was an eerie atmosphere driving slowly up the driveway and pulling up at the front door behind Haz's car. The lights inside were off and the curtains were drawn closed although the lights in the garden around us were dimly lit still.

You see, Tom had gotten a distressing call from Haz about twenty minutes ago saying that he had "fucked up" and was hysterical on the phone. Tom managed to calm him down just enough to get the story out of him:

As Haz left the house as he usually did, he left Robyn at home with Baby Oliver under the protection of their security team and a nanny. The nanny was also highly trained in combat for added protection. It was on Harrison's way home, that he received a text from an unknown number saying 'Let's play a game of Hide and Seek' which he suspected was from Priya.

Haz called Robyn and instructed her to initiate some sort of procedure that would practically lock down the house. Nobody could get in besides us now.

Tom passed me one of the guns, much larger than I was used to handling. We exited the car when Haz did, the three of us silent as we triangulated with loaded weapons. We scanned the property as we neared the front door, letting Haz disable the system for us to get inside the house.

"Robyn! It's me don't worry!" Haz yelled out as he locked the door behind us.

I lowered my gun when Tom did, taking a deep breath to finally be in the same location as Haz and Robyn. I know Robyn isn't particularly well versed in using a gun, but having both Tom and Haz near me right now gave me a sense of relief.

"I told her to not respond in situations like this, she knows that she shouldn't make a sound until she sees me face to face," Haz assured us when he saw my worried face at the fact Robyn hadn't called out in response.

I walked down the hall holding the gun close to my side, my less dominant hand still on the pistol grip lightly, incase I had to swing and aim quickly.

"Careful darling, don't move too fast near windows," Tom called out behind me, smiling at me as I turned around at him to nod.

This wasn't my first rodeo, I knew where to walk, where to run and where to crawl. Windows were the perfect point for a sniper to get you, as we saw demonstrated last time we were here.

"Uh... Haz? Who is this?" I said quietly, backing out of the kitchen when I saw the body on the tiled floor in a pool of blood. It was bright red, recently fresh and possibly still warm.

"It was the nanny..."