Stole My Heart -- A Niall Horan Fanfiction

Chapter 7

Song: Kiss Me Slowly - Parachute

***Niall***

It haunted me. Over and over the images came to me, images I knew would never leave me alone from this day forward. It was the man's face, screwed up into a look of disgust as his beady, black eyes stared me down. It was his voice, the way it echoed through the room as he yelled, right before his fist was lashing out, hitting me square in the jaw. It was the fire that had raked through my face, and the way I had to force myself not to let out a scream. The voice grew angrier then, more demanding. But the questions he asked were ones I didn't have the answer to. So more hits came, more pain, until it all blended together into a fuzzy haze of pain and confusion that never seemed to end. I didn't know how long it was until I passed out, only knowing that it hadn't been soon enough.

From the feeling of my body, the aches and pains that continued on throughout the day, they had continued on long after I had passed out. Every part of me ached, and laying on the cement floor didn't help one bit. But as much as I tried, I couldn't force myself to get up. I would barely raise my head off the ground before my head would start to pound, the pain attacking me full force, causing me to lay back down, panting heavily at the effort.

I wished Kylie would help me up, but knew she probably couldn't lift me if she wanted to. I doubted she would. If she was going to, she would have already.

Speaking of, where was she?

I turned my head, trying to scan the room around me without actually getting up, trying to save myself from the pain it would inevitably cause. I found her, walking out of the bathroom, a towel in her hand. "Feeling better?" She called out.

I tried to nod, but it hurt too much. I felt so heavy, like my body had turned into one big dead weight. I managed a small smile to reassure her that it wasn't that bad, even though it was. She ignored my smile, getting to work. She reached over to untie the bandage that covered a huge gash on my forehead. Sometimes, I could feel the blood as it oozed out, and could imagine the shape it would be in. I was glad I couldn't see it. Kylie took off the old towel and let out a small gasp at what she found there.

"That bad?" I croaked, my throat crackling from disuse. She didn't answer me, just rewrapped it with a new towel as quickly as possible and then stared at me for a moment, an unnameable emotion crossing her face.

“You need to get up,” she told me. I was about to protest but she held out her hand, stopping me in my tracks.. “First of all, you’ll choke if you drink laying down like that, and after that long being unconcscious, we have to get some fluid into you. And besides, you can’t lay on the cement forever. That can’t be comfortable. You didn’t hurt your leg or anything, did you?”

I thought about it, but my leg felt fine so I gave her a small shake of the head.

“Okay, how about we get you sitting and then you can have some water.” She walked behind me so she was sitting by my head. I tilted his head back to look at her. “You’ve got to help me out here,” she said, reaching under my shoulders. And then she was lifting me up, and a headache worse than anything I’d ever felt attacked me as I helped her sit myself up straight. The pain I could deal with. It was the blood rushing down from my head, making me dizzy, that was the biggest problem. But I was up too far now to lay back down. I felt Kylie scoot closer and when I finally fell back, I fell against her, my head on her shoulder. And we stayed like that.

“You’re okay,” she whispered in my ear, causing a shiver to go up my spine. Her hand stroked my hair gently. After a couple of minutes the blood settled and my dizziness calmed down, my once pulsing headache now no more than a dull ache, easy to forget. My body was still sore, my limbs protesting as I lay there, but that too was easy to ignore.