Corruption™ (Punk Harry Styles)

Chapter Seventy-three

“Harry, I’m not doing the secrets again. It’s a yes or no question,” she pressed on as I led her down the hall to my hotel room.

“I honestly don’t know for sure. It’s just a hunch that I have. You can use the bathroom in here and then go home when you’re done.”

“What about Melissa?”

“I guess you’re about to meet her…if she’s awake…”

“What if she doesn’t want me in there? Like, what if she’s not ready for more people yet?”

“I don’t know…we’ll find out.”

I placed my hand on the door handle after inserting the key card and pushed the door open, holding it that way as I allowed Gabby to go in first before closing it behind me.

My eyes scanned the room for any sign of Melissa’s presence in the room and found none.

“She must be sleeping or something,” I mumbled to Gabby whilst leading her into my bedroom where the bathroom was located.

I turned around after closing the door behind me and took a few slow, cautious steps toward Gabby. Her back was facing me and she was just standing still.

Just as I went to put my hands on her hips, she turned around so that she was looking at me. A small, playful smile formed on her lips as her eyes met mine.

She gently placed her hand on my cheek before proceeding to get on her tiptoes and softly placing her lips on mine. Slowly, she pulled away and gave me a shy smile just before turning away and walking toward the bathroom door.

I bit down on my bottom lip as I forced myself not to follow her by sitting down on the edge of the bed. The things I would do to that girl if Melissa weren’t there…

I can’t help feeling bad for what I’m doing. The lads all think that I’m never coming back; they think I’m dead…Gabby thought I was dead.

This whole situation is so fucked up, but they still can’t know where I am or that I’m alive. It’s more believable if they really think that than if I had told them and they just had to act like I was gone.

Even thought it’s all very twisted, I know that I need to do this. Right now I need to protect my sister and try to get her to talk about what happened to her in that house; all those years I thought she was dead.

Seeing her living and breathing should be enough closure, but it’s not. I need to know what happened to her whilst I wasn’t even thinking of it being possible that she was still alive.

It makes me angry with myself to know that she’s been suffering all this time whilst I messed around with different girls and never had any thoughts about her.

I laid back on the bed with my hands under my head and closed my eyes. The sound of the bathroom door opening came to my ears.

The weight on the bed shifted slightly as Gabby climbed up next to me. Her lips pressed against my cheek and I smiled. When I looked over at her, she looked down.

I brought my index finger under her chin and tilted it up so she would look at me. Slowly, I progressed towards her lips, meeting hers with mine.

Once I pulled back, her hand went up to my jaw and brought my lips back to hers. A slight smile took over my face in satisfaction.

A scream cut through the room, causing me to jerk my head to the side. Gabby got to her feet and made her way to the door.

I watched as she hesitated to open the door. Finally, her hand grasped the doorknob and turned it, swiftly opening the doorway.

For whatever reason, my body seemed to be frozen; I just couldn’t move and I didn’t know why.

I was sure that the scream was Melissa, but I was too afraid to know or see why she’d released such a bloodcurdling scream.

Gabby glanced back at me once before slinking out of the room.

Gabby’s POV

The scream definitely caught me off guard, but I had to know why there was a scream in the first place. Harry didn’t seem like he wanted to move from his position on the bed, so I just went by myself.

I know it’s not a good idea to go into Melissa’s room since she doesn’t know me and she isn’t even all that comfortable with Harry yet, but I have to at least see that she’s okay.

What I’m hoping is that she was just having a bad dream. If someone had somehow gotten into her room, I knew that would just make her problems with communication and trust worse.

If that ended up being the case, she would want to be isolated, but she wouldn’t feel safe still, so there would have to be someone around that she somewhat trusted in order for her to feel some sort of security within her environment.

My fingers slowly wrapped around the doorknob and twisted it. Carefully, I pushed it open enough to see inside the room and heard sobbing.

Messy, dark brown hair was visible at the foot of the bed where I inferred that she must have been sitting. Her body shook slightly every few seconds as I crept as slowly and quietly as I could over to her.

Cautiously, I got down on my knees next to her. My eyes noticed a spot of red on the carpet next to her leg and searched around the vicinity of the blotch on the floor.

Closer to her leg was a knife, the blade painted in blood. When I looked up, her eyes were wide as they met mine. I just need to stay calm and keep her calm, and then everything should be fine.

“Melissa, I’m Gabby. I was just making sure you were okay,” I said softly, hoping not to scare her off.

She shook her head and looked down at her lap. My eyes looked over her legs to her other arm. I was more alarmed as I saw the large gash in the skin across her right wrist.

“Did you hurt yourself just now? Is that why you screamed?” I continued to keep my voice calm.

“Stop. Go. Leave. I don’t want you here,” she responded in a voice barely audible.

“I want to help you, Melissa. Harry’s worried about you…”

“He never should have come for me.”

“He was trying to help you.”

“Well it didn’t help!”

I jumped slightly at her unexpected outburst, but took a deep breath and recomposed myself.

“What’s going on – Melissa? What the hell did you do?” Harry’s voice interrupted.

Instantly, Melissa became frozen. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of her hand reaching for the knife.

I placed my hand over hers softly and gently removed the hazardous object from her grasp whilst she stared at me.

“Harry, don’t-” I tried to calm him despite the scene before him.

“No. I’m not letting her do this. We’re going to the hospital…now,” he snapped.

I nodded and sighed silently as I got to my feet. “I’m going to go get a towel or something to add compression to her wrist.”

Harry nodded and moved aside so I could get out. This should be an interesting trip to the hospital. He seems angry, but I know he’s just frightened. After all, his sister is trying to kill herself…

I've been REALLY busy with school. I'm SOOOO sorry for the lack of updates. xx