You are Home // H.S

21. Always

Elle: I'm in the bathroom. I think he's gone.

I leave my phone in the car and only take my keys with me. Looking around me, I notice the empty spot where Ben's Mercedes used to park, confirming that he is more than likely gone.

I hurry to the front door of the apartment building, and lucky for me, the door was left unlocked. I rush up the stairs taking two sets at once, my heart seemingly falling out of my chest, the closer I get to her.

The second I get to the floor that Elle lives on, I notice the apartment door, which is left wide open. I take a few deep breaths before I step inside the apartment, trying to prepare myself for the worst. But what I find as soon as I step in, leaves me in a chokehold. My hands shoot up to my mouth as I gasp in pure terror, my eyes widening immediately.

Nothing could've prepared me for what I saw right in front of me.

My heart sinks into my stomach as I walk through the hallway and enter the living room. It looks as though a tornado blew through here. I have already noticed the blood covering the floor, all the way from the door to here, but I didn't even want to think about, whose blood it was, desperately clinging onto hope that Elle is just fine.

Glass shards are spread across the floor, seeming to be the remains of a beer bottle. The blood is not only covering the floor but the walls as well. My view glides over to, what used to be Elle's guitar, but has seemingly been broken into many pieces. The curtains are ripped down and laying on the ground and not a single piece of furniture was left standing where it used to be. Clothes are spread across the floor, stemming from an open suitcase, with only a few things left inside.

"Oh god." The words leave my mouth before I could even stop myself.

When she called me, I knew it was bad. I just didn't think it would be this bad.

My hand shoots up to my mouth, covering up the sobs that leave my body. My breathing gets faster the more it dawns on me, what must have happened here. But I can't waste any more time. Finding Elle and making sure she was alright and safe was the highest priority now.

By the looks of his missing car, Ben must have left a while ago, leaving her behind, all by herself. It was probably a good thing that he isn't here. If he was I couldn't promise that he would be left unharmed.

I turn around on my heels, leaving the mess of a living room behind me. My feet move across the floorboards as quickly as they could, the shards cracking under the pressure of my shoes.

Once I enter the bedroom, the air get's sucked right out of my lungs, a desperate yelp escaping my lips. I try to hold in the tears, seeing the blood not only covering the floor but the bedsheets as well. In seconds I make it to the door leading to the bathroom, gently opening it up to avoid hitting Elle in the process.

My heart seems to stop, once her delicate body appears in the frame, her back resting on a small cabinet. The floor was covered by a pool of blood, that seems to continue to spread. She's startled by the noise, but as soon as she lifts her face and our eyes meet, she breathes out relieved.

"H-harry," she sobs out my name, tears instantly spilling out of her eyes as she starts crying.

I let out a breath I'd been holding in for a while when I realise that she was alright. Or at least as alright as she could be.

"I'm here now, I got you, Elle," I kneel beside her, my hands coming to a rest on her face, gently streaking up and down her cheek.

Her eye and her entire cheek are bruised and swollen, the anger flaring up in my stomach as I realise that he punched her in the face.