Following Anarchy (A One Direction horror fiction)

Following Anarchy - Chapter 3

Setting the mug on the counter, he headed for the door, wondering if anyone else would be around. As much as he hated to admit it, social interaction could be the best thing going for all of them at that point; if they simply stayed hidden away in their respective flats, they would inevitably have to face what had happened, and they would have to do it alone, with no support from any of the others.

Once outside, the chill breeze grabbed at him with its cool tendrils, though the sun that slanted across the balcony was warm and pleasant. Sticking to the sunnier patches, Josh let his feet carry him to the stairs and, after that, the third floor, two floors down from where his own flat was. Niall and Louis both lived on this level, and he figured that seeing either of them would be better than no one, even with Louis being in such an emotional state and Niall being completely hung over from the night before.

He did, in fact, run into someone, but it wasn’t anyone that he was familiar with. It was a girl, and a rather pretty one at that, her facial features refined, with dark auburn hair cropped short around her narrow face. She seemed somewhat petite, but at the same time, she held an air of confidence that struck him as strange from someone so slight of stature. He was usually polite, though, especially to girls. Especially to attractive girls.

“Afternoon,” he said, nodding in her direction. He had never been much good at starting conversations, feeling awkward as he said the single word that seemed to fall flat. But what did he care? He was only trying to make casual conversation, wasn’t he?

She stopped when she heard his voice, looking him up and down as if inspecting him quickly. Her eyes didn’t seem to linger over any particular feature, sweeping over his entirety rather quickly, and he suddenly found himself quite taken aback by her brash nature.

“Well, your hair is certainly more normal than those other two boys had.”

Josh could feel his eyes widen at what he had just heard, wondering if he could have possibly imagined the words that had come from her mouth. But no, he was quite sure that she had, in fact, spoken of the normality of his hair. “Wha- I mean, I don’t-“ he stuttered, unable to make sense of the sudden strangeness of the situation.

Then, she looked a bit annoyed and said, “Oh, come on. Your hair. It’s not a bright red ball of fluff or an overrated black quiff, now is it?” She rolled her eyes before adding, “It’s a decent brunette at least, if not a bit boring. Good for you, though.”

Shaking his head, he tried to make sense of things before asking, “So you’re saying that you saw two guys matching those descriptions?”

“Yeah, they were headed for some flat around here, though I can’t say whose. Anyway, the one with the bloody awful quiff got a call and hurried off somewhere else, leaving carrot-top to fend for himself, as it would seem.”

Josh knew immediately that she meant Ed and Zayn, though whether they were coming to visit Louis or Niall, he wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter, though; he probably needed to simply find Ed and accompany him to whichever flat he was planning to go to. After all, social interaction was all that he was seeking at that point.

As he began to walk away, he heard the girl call to him, “I’m Alice, by the way. And you owe me!”

Zayn hurried down the sidewalk, continuously running his fingers through his hair, his nerves absolutely shot. He felt as if he’d just been here, and, in a way, he had; he had dropped Harry at his apartment on Coronation fewer than 24 hours before, though for some reason, it felt like it had been ages already. In his mind, he kept going over the call he’d received that had prompted him to leave Ed to talk to Louis on his own at Little Cross House. Sophie hadn’t sounded particularly panicked, but she hadn’t sounded great either. Perhaps something had happened with Harry? But why would she have called him for that?