Bullet From A Gun

13: If You Go, I Go

13: If You Go, I Go

Zayn rolls over and groans, rubbing his tired eyes with the back of his hand. He yawns and slowly opens his eyes to the morning sun streaming through his window. He pushes his messy hair out of his face. He is in dire need of a hair cut. Maybe today he'll go get one today and bring AJ with–

Zayn sits up quickly when he realizes that she is missing from their bed. “Shit,” he mutters, untangling his body from the covers and hopping out of bed. He pulls on a pair of sweatpants, hopping around the room to get his legs into them. As he does so, he notices her clothes are gone and he curses to himself. She's gone.

Zayn starts to make his way towards the door when he hears a loud bang. He stops, listening for any other sounds. When he hears nothing, he goes over to the closet and pushes a dresser to the side to get to a small safe that is bolted to the floor. He quickly puts in the passcode and takes out a hand gun. He closes the safe quickly and proceeds out of the bedroom.

He walks down the hall slowly, staying as quiet as possible, holding the gun up as he enters the main area of the house. As he enters the living room he sees a mid aged women on her knees, sweeping something. 

He watches her for a few moments before she turns to see him. She jumps and screams, throwing her hands up in the air. 

“Don't shoot! Don't shoot!” She shouts at Zayn. “I'm the cleaning lady! Louis sends me here once a month! Don't shoot!” She begs, trying to explain herself.

Zayn stares at her intensely. “Name?”

“Maria,” she answers quickly.

He waves the gun, signaling for her to put her hands down. Louis mentioned a Maria before. “Alright, alright. Put your hands down, I'm not going to shoot you.”

She puts her hands down slowly. “You must be Zayn. Louis told me about you. You're the criminal, right? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to barge in, but it's my job. I'll just come back another day. I'm sorry, sir. I'll be leaving-” she says quickly, backing up towards the entrance, grabbing her belonging as she does. 

“No, wait!” Zayn calls after her. She may know something about AJ's sudden disappearance. 

The women stops dead in her tracks, clutching her purse close to her chest. “Y-yes, sir?” She asks. 

“Did you see a girl leave here?” He asks her.

 She shakes her head. “No, sir, I'm sorry.”

 “You didn’t see any cars leaving? Or a girl walking?” he asks.

 “The only thing I saw was a car on the highway on my way here. It was about half past four,” she tells him. 

 He looks at her curiously and then looks at the time on a near by clock. 5:30 AM. “What are you doing here so early?” he asks.

 “I like to finish early so I can have the rest of the day to myself,” she answers quickly.

 “What did the car look like?” he asks her. “And in which direction was it going?”

 “It was going back towards town. I didn’t get a good look at the car.”

 Zayn finally puts his gun down and Maria takes a deep breath. He chuckles at her reaction. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m really not in the mood to go back to jail by violating my parole, lady,” he tells her. 

 She forces a smile. “Thank you,” she says gratefully. 

 Zayn nods. “So, um, I’m going to get out of your way and you can finish whatever you were doing. I’m going to shower and then I’m going to leaving,” he tells her.