Recluse

Chapter 13

Niall's POV:

 Soft snores fly past her beautiful pink lips as she slumbers. I gently tuck a loose strand of blonde hair back behind her ear. I smile at the beautiful girl curled up against my chest. Her small arms are gripping tightly around my waist, even as she sleeps. Looking down at her in her most relaxed state, I feel an overwhelming wave of affection for her. 

I press my lips to her ear and whisper, "Madison Kelly, I love you. So much." I know she's asleep and can't comprehend the words at the moment, but I had to say them. I now sort of regret staying hidden away in my cabin all of these years. My reclusive behavior has kept me from meeting this perfect human being for far too long. It scares me how much I care for this girl that could be taken from me at any given moment.

After all, she's living under the same roof as the horrid excuse for a human being that took the life of my previous love.

Jeff. My blood boils and my fists clench at the thought of it. The thing that burned Cynthia alive and made me watch. The thing that just so happens to be the brother of the girl I think I love 10 times more than I ever loved Cynthia. Ironic.

To relax myself from this newfound rage, I look back down at my sleeping girl. I watch her chest slowly rise and fall, and try to match my breathing with hers. Soon, I'm content once again, anger diminished as I advert my focus back to Madi.

That is, until I hear the door slowly creak open.

Instinctively, I roll to the floor and crawl under the bed. I conceal myself just as the small lamp flickers on. I hold my breathe, gripping a wooden board of the bed frame so hard, that my knuckles turn white. Why the fuck is Jeff in Madison's room in the middle of the fucking night?

I can feel my face rushing red in pure anger as that fucker takes slow, cautious steps towards Madi's bed. All I know is that if he lays one fucking finger on her, I'll kill him. 

He stops right beside her bed and to my horror, he begins to bend down, until he's face to face with me, smirking  cockily, "Why hello there, Horan." He whispers arrogantly.

I don't respond, just let out an aggravated huff. How did he even know I was here?

He replies as if he just read my mind, "I saw you climb into her room earlier. Decided to wait until she was sleeping to talk to you. Wanna come downstairs and have a chat?" His voice is laced with sarcastic politness. I would like nothing more than to punch that smirk off of his disgusting face. When I look at him, I see Cynthia, looking to me, screaming for me to help her. I tried so hard to help her, but this faggot was in my way. He was what kept me from my love. And now she's dead. And here he is, doing the exact same thing a second time. Getting between me and my love.

When I don't respond, he chuckles, "Or we can call my parents and I can tell them that you're here. And then they'll call the cops and we can make you-"

"I'll come downstairs." I spit venomously.

He lets out another light laugh, "Alrighty, see you there." He stands up and leaves the room without another word.

I sigh and reluctantly roll out from under the bed. I stand up and press a loving kiss to Madison's cheek, "I'll be back in a bit, love." I whisper even though, once again, I know that she's asleep and can't hear me.

I slowly make my way down the stairs, eyes darting in all directions. I make it down to the dark kitchen. The only light I see is coming from the refridgerator.

Confusion strikes me. There are two steaming cups of tea on the counter, but Jeff is no where to be found.

I call out, "Asshole, where the fuck did you-"

I'm caught off guard by a flying fist that hits me directly in the nose. I hear a sickening crunch and grip my nose as blood begins to fall, staining the clean white tile.

I hear him chuckling darkly, so I connect my venomous glare with his cocky one.

His eyes remind me of a snake's right now. He shakes his head, still laughing, "Even after all this time, you're still not strong enough to fight me off. What if I was to go pour gasoline all over Madison right now? Have you toughened up? Could you save her?" He taunts.

My breathing is ragged with the pure fury coursing through my veins. My vision is turning red and I know that I won't be able to stop myself from killing him once I let myself. I'm gonna try to hold back until it's necessary, "Why would you ever do that to your own sister?" I hiss.

"Eh, she's no one special. We're not that close. I think it's more important for me to make you miserable, ain't it?"

"You sick piece of fucking shit. What did I ever do to you?" 

"Cynthia chose you and I will never forgive you for that!" All traces of sarcasm are drained from his expression. All I see is cold blooded hatred for me.

"If you ever loved her, you wouldn't have killed her like you did! No, you wouldn't have killed her at all!" I yell, ripping my hands through my hair. This dude is a fucking lunatic. How does he blame me?! He killed her! All I did was give her my heart and try to win hers.

"If you were smart, you would've killed me and forced her to love you." I mumble, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, I made that mistake once. Not gonna make it again."

"What, now you're in love with your fucking sister? Did I steal her from you too?" I spit back sarcastically.

He catches me off guard by shoving me up against the wall, lips pulled back into an animalistic snarl, "No, i'm not in love with my fucking sister. I still love Cynthia, and you're the reason I killed her! Because she chose you, I made the mistake of killing her instead of you. Now I won't have my sister falling in love with you! You'll be 6 feet under before I let that happen! I won't let you ruin my life. I won't do it."

"This has to be some sort of joke! I'm the reason you killed her? Fucking please, the reason you killed her was because you're a sick bastard who can't take no for an answer! You never loved her! I loved her and you ended her life when she had so much to live for! And I won't let you hurt me, or Madison! I'll fucking kill you!"

My vision has turned completely red and every ounce of my self control has vanished. All I want to see is the life in his eyes dimmed out.

So I lunge at him, smacking him across the jaw with all of my strength. I kick him in the leg, but he catches my foot and throws me to the ground. He leaps on top of me with a shriek, blood dripping from his mouth. He lays blow after blow upon the side of my head until I begin to feel light headed. My heart pounds in my ears, but anger gives me the energy to keep fighting. I kick him in the balls and he falls off of me, writing in pain on the floor. I kick him in the stomach and he lets out a groan. I kick him again and again. I hear a rib crack at one point. But during one of my kicks, he catches my leg and digs his teeth into my calf with all of his strength.

I fall to the floor, yelling profanities. I punch him in the eye, and then on his cheek, but he doesn't release my leg. He keeps biting down, harder, until I'm shrieking in horrible pain. 

He finally releases my leg, my blood and his dripping down his face. I've made his face into a bloody canvas and I'm guessing he's done the same to mine. I'm positive he's broken my nose.

We stop fighting for several moments, staring eachother down intently while we catch our breathes. in these few moments, I stare at him with hate filled eyes. I let my eyes do all of the talking for me. They show him how hurt I was by what he did to Cynthia. They show him how wrong he is for blaming her death on me. But most of all, they warn him that if he ever touches Madison in the slightest, I'll end his life without blinking.

Jeff lets out a low growl, and says ten words that will end up haunting me for the rest of my life, "I will die before I let you near Madison again."

I don't take his threat seriously until I see him pull out a gleaming, silver kitchen knife from behind his back. 

(DIDN'T I WARN YOU IT WAS GOING TO BE INTENSE

this took me a long time so vote and comment please :) )