asset [h.s.]

seventy // dire

dire (adjective): extremely serious or urgent

Harry

Without waiting for Liam's reply, I push past him with Alicia in my arms and begin  making my way down the hallway. As I walk down the stairs, I notice Zayn is stood at the bottom of them and his eyebrows furrow in confusion as soon as he spots me, although he looks more concerned with the fact that Alicia is half-conscious in my arms.

"What's going on?" he asks me curiously as I reach the bottom of the staircase.

"We're taking Alicia to the hospital," I tell him and he looks surprised at my words, glancing down at her. "Go and get the car."

"Don't you think that it would be better to call a doctor over here?" Zayn asks me and I clench my jaw, already feeling myself becoming annoyed with him. "We could just pay him off afterwards so he doesn't say anything about who we are or where we are..."

I shake my head. "No, that'll take too long. Just go and bring the car around, Zayn."

"But I think-"

"I don't fucking care what you think!" I shout at him. "Can you just do as I say for once?"

Zayn stares back at me, then looks at Liam who is now also at the bottom of the stairs, and then looks at Alicia again before nodding. "Ok," he agrees simply and then he's quickly out of the door.

I almost flinch when Liam's hand suddenly lands on my shoulder, a concerned look on his face. "You need to calm down, Harry," he says in a quiet voice. "She's going to be ok."

"You don't know that," I reply quite snappily, although my words make Liam's face fall, because he probably knows that I'm right.

We hear a car horn from outside and we both immediately rush out of the house towards the car. Liam helps me into the backseats where I carefully lay Alicia down on them, placing my hand behind her head as I place her down. I take the opportunity to place the back of my hand against her head, finding that it's just as hot as it was before. As I look at her, I suddenly notice the beginning of what looks like a rash rising on her skin, which only boosts my feelings of worry even more.

As Zayn begins to drive down the roads, I lean forward in my seat, anxiously bobbing my leg up and down as I watch Alicia. The last time I felt this worried and was full of such dread was on the journey back to the house after we saved her from that warehouse. Her body was so cold in my hands that day and I felt like she could freeze me, but as I carried her to the car just then, it felt like she would melt in my arms.

The car journey already seems to have lasted hours, even though in reality we only left about five minutes ago. I listen as Liam gives Zayn directions to the hospital from his phone as none of us know our way around here, although their voices gradually fade out and are replaced by the sound of my own heartbeat as it begins to thump faster and faster.

I can hear my pulse in my ears, thumping through my head and the rest of my body, the sound so loud it's as if it's been plugged into the radio of the car and is booming out of the speakers. I try to distract myself by staring out at the road ahead, but all the lights of the cars seem to blur together and it makes me feel dizzy.

After about 10 more minutes I begin to notice signs to the hospital and I become more agitated. I attempt to wake Alicia up multiple times, both Liam and I calling her name and I try shaking her awake, but nothing seems to be working. When I lean my head down to try and hear her breathing, which was once loud and fast, my heart sinks when I realise now I can barely hear anything.

"Oh my god, Liam, I don't think she's breathing!" I tell him frantically and he immediately spins around in his chair, an alarmed look on his face.