Smile For Me || Niall Horan

40: I Don't Give Up

Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must, just never ever no matter what the circumstance ever give up. 

It felt like my heart stopped beating. My entire body trembled, and I swallowed a lump that had formed in my throat. "H-how did you find me?" I stutter out. He throws me to the corner, banging my head against the wall. Pain shot through me, but I pretended not to notice. 

He laughs humorlessly. "It wasn't hard." He had scars all over his face and hands. I wondered if any of them were from Jake beating the shit out of him. It wasn't Derek, thank god. I wouldn't have been able to handle that. I can barely handle things as they are. Heck, I've already lost control. Nothing is going as I planned. 

"Where is my necklace?" I manage to ask with pure detestation in my voice. I hated this man more than anything else in existence. I still couldn't believe after all these years, all those nightmares and sleepless nights caused by him, and here I am face to face with him in the same room. The man that ruined my life. 

"Oh..." He holds something up in front of me, just enough distance away so I couldn't grab it. "You mean this?"

My necklace. In his hands. The hands that held the gun that shot my parents and boyfriend. I glare at him and reach for it in a swift movement. 

"What do you want from me!?" I scream when he yanks it away. 

"Shut up. Be quiet or I'll do exactly what I did to your parents," he threatens. Tears streamed down my face as he kicked me in the face. I held my hand to my chin where the toe of his shoe had just collided. 

"You bastard," I spit out.

"You sentenced me to a life of brutality years ago," he says, getting close to my face. I looked at him with no sympathy whatsoever. I despised this man. I wanted him to burn in hell forever. He sent me a glare as he stared me down. "You deserve to feel the pain that I did. Sitting in jail all those years. I was beaten." His hand smacked across my face and I winced in pain.

Where are the cops when you need them? I'm sure they're on their way. Who knows anymore? Austin said they would be at the apartment waiting, but they're not. God only knows what else he's lied about just to make me feel safer. 

"I was treated like a piece of trash," he says, punching me across my jaw. I held my hand to my face to try and ease the pain. It didn't work. When I pulled my hand back it was covered in blood. He didn't look even close to being finished. I leaned back and shut my eyes. 

I never should have done this...

***Niall’s Point of View***

 

I was still sitting and staring at the phone. I couldn't sleep last night, and the bags were now fully formed under my eyes. I was exhausted, but I felt if I went to sleep she would call. Something would happen, and I would be asleep for it. I hate this. I want to know what's going on. 

Suddenly, an idea popped in my head. An idea I hadn't thought of. She's not alone, right? Her brother and her sister are there too. 

I can't believe I hadn't thought of this earlier. 

***Austin’s Point of View***

 

I opened my eyes and looked around. For a moment I didn't remember where I was and had a sudden urge of panic. Then the events of last night came back to me and I recognized Claire's big blue eyes staring at me.