baby [h.s.]

twenty five

He looked shocked, then angry.

"Tilly, I told you to go."

I scoffed. "You can't tell me what I can and can't do, Styles. And where's my thank you for saving your ass?"

"I could've fucking handled it." He turned back to the scene ahead. We were shielded at the sidelines by fallen tables. No one else had approached us. "I need to get something."

The guy I was holding began to move, so I kicked his side. He grunted.

"What the hell is so important that you needed to come back into this absolute mess?" I said.

"I'll explain later, just knock that guy out and cover me."

I lifted the guy's head and hit him just so he passed out. Dropping his arms, I got off of him. Ahead of Harry and I, there were still hundreds of people. I saw some bodies, but it looked like the majority of the people left were from our company. The gang of people that had come in all wore bandanas. There weren't many of them left, and they all seemed to be occupied.

I leaned down just beside Harry. He pointed his hand towards the bar.

"See the papers?" he said. "Those fell out of my pocket. I'm going to run and grab them, then you have my back."

I sighed, nodding my head. "Let's go."

He darted forward first, and I followed as quickly as I could in my heels. No one noticed us until we had reached the bar. He dove behind, grabbing the papers and shoving them into his coat pocket. A man with a bandana covering his face stood at the other end of the bar. He held a gun out and shot at Harry.

We both ducked, and the bullet missed. The man prepared to take another shot, but I, without thinking about what I was about to do, aimed and shot the man in the arm. He cried out and fell to the ground.

Blood seeped from his arm, and I gasped. My legs locked up. Harry was prepared to run back, but I couldn't move.

"Tilly," he said. "Come on, we need to go."

My fingers gripped tightly around the gun. He placed his hands on my cheeks. We should've been paying attention to what was happening around us, but we weren't.

"Come on, baby, don't think about it right now." he said. I blinked, looking at him. My eyes were wide. My heart pounded. He gripped my trembling hand in his. "I know you can do this, love. Do this for me."

Squeezing my eyes shut, I let out a shaky breath.

"Go," I whispered. At my word, Harry shot forward, tugging me behind him. We ran, and bullets buzzed around us. People shouted; sharp noises pierced my ears. We didn't stop until we hit the door.

As soon as the door closed behind us, I let out a loud breath and squatted to the floor. Harry took the gun from my grasp and set it on the floor beside us. He leaned down to my level.

"You had to do it, Tilly." he said. "You know you did. He wasn't innocent, you defended yourself, and me."

"I shot someone." I said. I repeated it. I repeated it again. Harry wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into him.

"Come on, Till, we need to get out of here. You'll be okay. We'll be okay."

I felt numb. I allowed him to lead me through the exit to outside. Cars littered the grass field, presumably from guests that fled. Harry walked towards the closest one and, by a lucky shot, it was unlocked. I hobbled to the passenger side and slipped in while he messed with wires beneath the steering wheel. When it started up, he hit the pedal.