ESCAPE

Chapter 14

HARRY

My heart thundered against my chest as I carried Valentina into the hospital. I had no idea what had happened, I mean one minute I was talking to her and before I knew it she was screaming and crying as if she was possessed or something.

I had never witnessed a panic attack in my entire life and so I had no clue what had triggered it or why these attacks occurred to people. I just hoped that I wasn’t the reason for her to end up like this.

‘What happened?’, asked a nurse as I came running into the OP with Niall yelling at the top of his lungs asking for help. ‘P-Panic At-ttack’, I I stammered as some nurses took her out my hands and lay her down on a stretcher. ‘Elevated heart rate!’, yelled a nurse and they started yell some other medical terms which I couldn’t grasp.

‘Is she going to be fine?’, asked Niall but before anyone could answer, Valentina started to cry out again. The way she cried was like she was begging somebody to stop torturing her. ‘How long has it been since this started?’, asked  Doctor who appeared on the scene.

‘Its been almost 10 minutes’, replied Liam.

I couldn’t say a single word except stand dumbstruck at the frenzy before me. It was all too unreal.

‘Who is her safe person?’, asked a nurse to me.

‘Excuse me?’, I asked.

‘A person who she’s comfortable with’, she explained patiently.

‘We’ve only met her-‘, started Niall but I cut him off yelling, ‘ZAYN! GET ZAYN!’ and he quickly punched something into his phone.

Zayn was the only person who Valentina trusted the most among us but I had no idea how this was going to turn out. Zayn could not stand hospitals ever since Nova was admitted. How on earth was he going to deal with this now?

‘Are ya sure?’, asked Niall with a tensed expression and I put an arm on his shoulder saying, ‘I don’t know’ and then walked away pulling at my hair. It was then that I realised that she was being pulled away into a room.

‘WAIT! Where are you taking her?!’, I asked frantically but I was stopped by a nurse who told me to calm down and that they were going to try and calm her down. ‘Just get us her safe person’, she instructed and I nodded.

I was then given a form by a staff and all I knew was her name among all the numerous questions it asked from me. ‘Haz, we might have a problem here’, said Liam as he observed the form in my hands.

‘What?’, I asked.

‘That form could get us into trouble. We don’t know any of these details’, he said pointing to a column that asked of her address and then another one that read ‘Relationship with patient’ Liam was right. This form could screw up every chance of ever getting her home safely.

The doors opened and Louis came running in with a paranoid looking Zayn.

‘Zayn! She needs you’, said Niall as he ran up to him.

Zayn was silent and he looked pale. I went up to him and he gave me an unsure expression. ‘You’re her safe person mate’, I said. ‘You have to be there’, I said hoping that he could digest my words properly and not get scared.

‘Is the person here?’, asked the nurse and we all looked at him.

‘Follow me’, she said and lead him towards the room but before he entered he turned on his heels and ran up to me saying in my ear, ‘She’s been abused’, and then looked at me as if there was something more.

He gave me one last pleading look before he diapered in to the room while I on the other hand was shocked.

Valentina was a victim of physical abuse.

My hands shook and I could feel my face getting wet so I quickly wiped it dry before anyone could see me. I sat down in a nearby chair and pulled at my hair trying to calm myself down.

‘Hazza?’, asked Liam as he sat beside me.

‘Zayn was right’, was all I said.

‘About what?’, he asked.

‘About this whole thing being difficult dammit!’, I cried and buried my face into my hands.

‘We can solve this; all we have to do is come up with some smart answers for that form. Louis is already coming u with some good Italian names and Niall’s practising an accent to be her cousin or something-‘

‘She’s been abused’, I cut in and he stopped short with wide eyes.

‘Shit’, he cursed and I sighed as I pulled my long hair back into a bun and secured it tight with an elastic so it wouldn’t fall into my eyes.

‘They’ll find out when they check her’, he said and in realization and I nodded wearily.

‘What do we do?’, he asked and I shook my head.

‘I don’t know Liam. I thought I could do this! I could I make things right and prove to Zayn that we could be okay! I wanted to let him know some things are not so bad in this contract and that Management could be dealt with!’, I cried and the tears came down again.

‘Why would you try to prove that?’, he asked confused.

‘He’s like a brother to me and it hurts to see him look lifeless. He blames everything on Management and sometimes he blames himself for getting into all of this. I’m scared that he’ll just leave one day’, I said and wiped away my tears.

Liam put an arm around me and sighed.

‘Zayn has gone through a traumatizing experience Harry. I don’t think what you’re doing can stop him from doing whatever he’s doing. He lost a part of himself that night Nova was attacked. It would be a miracle if he didn’t blame Management over it and not be pissed at his decisions’, he said and I nodded.

‘Zayn won’t just leave like that, at least not without a proper explanation’, he said.

‘I just can’t imagine how it would be without one of us’, I said and looked up trying not to imagine what that would even feel like.

‘Mate, what happened to your arms?’, he asked and that was when I realised that my arms sported long claw like scratches which were now red and some had even caused my skin to tear.

‘She must have tried to defend herself back there’, I said and pulled down my sleeves.

‘You should get that treated’, he said.

‘Just a couple of scratches Liam’, I said and he shook his head.

‘Lads!’, called a voice and we turned to find Paul running up to us.

‘How is she?, he asked.

‘We don’t know, they took her along with Zayn into a room’, I answered.

‘Zayn?’, he asked stunned.

‘Apparently he’s her safe person’, said Liam and he nodded.

‘We have a problem’, I said and he looked up at me.

‘Yeah?’

‘We need to fill up her forms –‘ but I was cut off by Niall and Louis who both had very smug expressions.

‘That has been solved!’, he exclaimed and handed us the form which we inspected.

The both of them had managed to get some realistic Italian names and even an address that sounded real.

‘Good work boys’, said Paul.

‘Thank good ol' Google’, beamed Louis and we couldn’t help but laugh.

‘Although Valentina Alejandro had a good ring to it’, pouted Niall.

‘That’s Spanish you dumb leprechaun!’, exclaimed Louis and he made a face at him.

‘So her name is Valentina Ignacio?’, I asked and they nodded.

‘Nice’, I said and they beamed at us.
‘Paul, there’s something else’, I said and he looked at me.

‘Before Zayn entered the room, he told me that she had been abused before. She could have marks on her body’,  I said and he clasped his mouth in shock.

‘That’s not good’, he said and I nodded.

‘Boys I’m sorry but Management will have to deal with this’, he said.

‘No please, we could make something up! They’re just going to complicate this’, I said and he thought about it for a while.

‘We could have Karen check her for abuse wounds’, I said.

Karen was our medical doctor on the road and she was a kind hearted lady.

‘What about the hospital?’, he asked.
‘I’m pretty sure that Zayn has a plan, we just have to go with it’, I said and everyone nodded.

‘Mission One Direction is in order’, said Louis with a cheeky expression.

‘No’, we all said in unison and split up leaving him with a very disappointed look.