Devotion [h.s]

263

Before I could even take an exhale, the man grabbed a fist full of my roots and pulled me back up on my knees. I clamped my eyes at his roughness in my hair as he got me back up straight.

"Now open those pretty little eyes before I go into the other room and bring that fucking baby in here." He muttered a threat, making my stomach drop.

I opened my eyes immediately even though I could barely see through all the tears. I could hear Harry still freaking out next to me, jolting in anger at the corner of my eye.

The other man with the ski mask rips off the tape of Harry's mouth, his voice filling the room immediately.

"Don't fucking touch her!" Is the first thing he shouted, his face cut up and red. Harry looked at me with hurt flooding his eyes, knowing he couldn't do anything to my aid after I was hit right in front of him.

"Shh Styles, don't want to wake up that baby in the next room now do you?" The man taunted while putting his finger over his own lips in a twisted gesture of silence.

I was a shaking mess, perspiring in my own sweat because I was living a true nightmare. I hoped I was dreaming, hallucinating, anything. But even my worst nightmares never held this much pain.

"You lay one fucking finger on my daughter and I'll have you gutted before the hours up!" His jaw clenched and the veins on his neck popped as he spit the threat.

"You talk a big game." The stranger in front of me said to Harry, not intimidated at all. "I'd like to see what you'd do if I walked in there right now." He pointed to the door like he was gonna walk through it go grab Briar down the hall.

His words were enough to make me scream into the tape and shake my head obsessively.

"No!" Harry barked, his voice booming through the room out of pure fear of this dangerous man getting to Briar. She was his soft spot, and if anyone threatened to hurt he would do anything to not let that happen.

The disguised man smirked, looking at us both while the other one stood next to him. Besides their hidden faces, they were both in open jean jackets with white shirts and flannels underneath. They seemed tall like Harry, but I was down on my knees.

"Doesn't matter, we'll see how long she holds out until the smoke seeps into her room." He chuckled and that immediately made me even more concerned. What did he mean the smoke?

"What smoke?" Harry asked my muted thoughts with wide eyes.

"Don't you notice a different... smell in here? Or are you too frightened to even realize it?" He asked before looking at me with his dark eyes.

His words subconsciously made me suck in a sharp inhale and almost immediately I smelt gasoline. I wasn't familiar with the smell until now because of the fear canceling out all my senses besides my eyes and ears. I realized the floor around us had clear liquid all over it, it was gas and it was everywhere.

"While you were asleep, we coated your entire house in gasoline. And even lit a fire downstairs so it will only be a matter of time until this place falls apart from the flames that have been going for roughly ten minutes now in your living room." Our captors inform us, one man stepping closer to me and kneeling to my level.

My stomach tensed to the point of nausea and my lungs compressed in aching fear. They lit our living room on fire in a wooden cabin, meaning time was running out before this place crumbled to the ground.

"One drop of a match and this trail of gas lights up in flames all the way to your daughter room," The twisted stranger whispers to me.

"What do you want! Who sent you!" Harry screamed, urgency filling his voice.