Stockholm Syndrome

Pipedreams

The rest of the night passed by pleasantly, more so than I had expected, after I'd accepted Ed's invitation to join him at his table. He'd pulled over a chair, ordered some burgers, and we'd chatted nonstop, the only exception being to take a bite of food or to take sip of our drinks. The girls at Ed's table, I learned they were his cousins, were very polite and both had a great sense of humor. Everything was so... easy? It felt like it'd been years ago since I'd attended parties, interviews, and promo events. Our conversation flowed so easily that it was as if I'd never skipped a beat. It felt so good to be around normal people that just wanted to chat, that just wanted to have a good time, and that just said exactly what they meant.  Being with Ed and his group only cemented my goal that I would leave here tonight without Max, because Ed had made a promise, and because Ed had a plan.

His plan wasn't anything fancy that involved disguises or acting skills. It was so simple that it was brilliant.  As soon as the party started to wind down Ed and his group would leave Charlie's and I would leave with them. If Max tried to stop me from leaving with them he'd look like he was crazy. There would be no logical excuse for me not to leave with leave with Ed, so there was no way he could force me to stay with him. He couldn't say I was drunk, because I hadn't had a single drop of alcohol. He couldn't use John to bully me, because John wasn't here. He couldn't do a damn thing to me. I smiled to myself and relaxed slightly. I felt better, but I knew better than to just assume that everything would work out perfectly. You could never assume anything with Max, because you'd always be wrong.

"Niall?" Ed called, pulling me from my thoughts.

"Hmm?" I hummed as I turned to face my friend.

"Max just walked back in, with some busty brunette girl. I just thought you'd want to know, in case he comes over here," he said in a lowered voice as he put an arm around my shoulders protectively.

I nodded as my throat tightening slightly as my heart beat a little quicker. It was fine... everything was going to work out perfectly. Max would be upset, but overall everything would still be fine. He'd yell, swear, and probably make some threats, but he couldn't really do anything. Yet for some reason I couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling I had.

"Don't worry about him, just ignore him completely, and I'll do all the rest okay?"

"Y-yeah, course," I stammered as my gaze followed Max back to table that I'd previously occupied.

Max looked a little confused as when he first reached the table, but almost immediately his eyes narrowed into slits and his lips were pulled into a scowl when he realized that I wasn't there. The girl that he had walked in with looked around nervously, unsure of what to do as Max started to yell. If I was her I'd turn around and leave as quickly as possible. She didn't know how violent Max was when things didn't go his way. I didn't want him to hurt her, but I wasn't about to walk over there... I looked away and silently hoped that she'd be smart enough to leave before things got any more heated. The longer I was missing, the more volatile Max would get.

Ed seemed to sense my apprehension because he gave my arm a comforting squeeze. "Don't worry about Max. I won't let him hurt you."

It was at that exact moment when Max's eyes met mine.

I felt my stomach drop and he stormed over to our table, literally shoving other guests out of his way.

He made his way to our table, and stopped only inches away, directly in front of me. He had a tight smile painted onto his face as he placed a hand on my shoulder. I didn't mean to, but I flinched when he touched me, and this only made his smile grow into a sinister smirk. "So this is where you snuck off to eh?"

I looked away from Max, my eyes desperation filled eyes meeting Ed's narrow ones.

"I saw my fellow Irishman over there all by himself so, of course, I just had to ask him to join me at my table," Ed's voice dripped with happiness as he playfully elbowed me.

I nodded and did my best to give a convincing grin

"Mmm hmm..." Max hummed as his dark eyes bore into mine. He continued to smile as his grip tightened on my arm, painfully, as his fingers dug into me. I bit my lip, but I didn't dare say anything. I couldn't risk divulging that I'd told. I had to act like nothing has happened between Ed and I. "And did you two talk about?"

"Oh you know, the charts, upcoming albums, and you. Good things though, of course."

My body tensed as I glared at Ed. WHAT THE FUCK WAS HE DOING?! The whole idea was to NOT tip off Max that I'd told!

"Did you now?" Max chuckled, his fingers pressing harder into my flesh. I winced as a small hiss of pain escaped my lips and Ed's eyes narrowed in anger. He looked at Max's hand on my arm and smiled tightly.

"Mind keeping your hands to yourself mate?" Ed asked in a cheerful yet threatening tone.

"Why? Does is bother you?" Max sneered as continued to tighten his grip.

I swore this time as I felt a second heartbeat pulse in my arm.

"Yeah it does, and if you don't remove your hand I'll remove it for you," Ed chuckled darkly.

Max grinned as he looked at Ed, then me, and then Ed again. I could tell be the calculating look on his face that he was piecing two and two together.  "Is that a threat?"

"No, it's an invitation for tea," Ed scoffed angrily.

"Ah, good," Max said, in mock cheer, as he pulled me roughly to my feet.

"Max- I'm not going with you," I growled as I tried to pull away from his iron grip. It really fucking hurt, but I wasn't about to just let him drag me back to his mansion.

"Yes, you are. We need to finish our chat from earlier, it really is important," he said coldly.

"I said NO," I nearly shouted as I fought to break free. At this point people from several tables turned their heads to so what all the commotion was about, and almost immediately Max released me. He didn't want a scene. I wasn't expecting my sudden release, and I stumbled into Ed, who caught me, and frowned when he saw the bluish green handprint Max had left.

"You're unbelievable," he hissed at Max as he gently pulled me behind him. "We're leaving Niall."

"If anyone's leaving it'll be you, Ed. Niall knows what happen if he even thinks about leaving with you," Max warned.

I did know, and I knew that he couldn't stop me from leaving. I felt confident that our plan, despite a few bruises, had worked without a flaw. This was the part where we told Max where to shove it and left him standing there looking like an idiot.

"You can't do anything to me Max," I said in a steely voice as my eyes bore into his stubbornly. "You don't want to make a scene in front of people who know you, and John isn't here to be your patsy. You can't stop me from leaving."

"Actually," Max chuckled darkly, "I can."

"No, you can't," I scoffed as I turned to Ed. "Let's go."

Max laughed louder and his eyes gleamed with darkness.

"You can't leave, because if you do, I can promise you that your mate Louis will wish he was dead after I'm done with him."

And that's where our perfect plan fell apart, shattered into millions of tiny shards, completely and utterly ruined.  

The plan had been to leave the party, contact the police, direct them to Max's mansion, and to then rescue Louis.

That plan didn't work when Max had Lou up on the table as a bartering chip.

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Thanks to everyone who reads my chapters! It really means so much to me. I've never been super regular about updating, but I'm going to set a goal for myself. It takes between 2-3hrs to for me to write a chapter. I'll try to update this story every Sunday, and see how this goes.

As always, lots of love to my readers

xoxo

IndieChick95