Run (One Direction) [Watty Awards 2012]

Chapter Twenty-Five

 Callin

“No!” Louis shouts.

He takes one step towards the door, and I grab his arm and pull him back.

And then he's screaming and crying and fighting to get away from me, and I'm holding his arms behind his back and somehow, impossibly, keeping him here with me.

“How could you?” he keeps screaming, over and over again.

And my mind is telling me the same thing, but somehow I manage to ignore it, to forget about blame for now and just keep Louis here, safe, with me.

That was a gunshot.

No question.

And I know better then to assume anything, but I know what it sounds like.

Eventually, the fight leaves Louis.
He sags against me, his tears slowing but not disappearing, no longer screaming.

He just whispers something, over and over.

When I lean forward, I can hear what he's saying.

“I have to save Harry.”

I let go of him, still partially expecting him to run for the door, but he just turns around to look at me.

“You just killed two of my best friends” he says softly.

And then he collapses against my chest, sobbing,

I hold him against me, stroke his hair.

I took a gamble and I bet wrong.

I thought they wouldn't shoot Niall because they wanted Louis. But I should've known better. Because they shot at me, two weeks ago in the house. And they wanted Louis then, too.

So I thought wrong, I guess.

How many mistakes do we have to make?

How many of us have to get hurt?

-

Niall

I shut the door behind me, and take a cursory look around the building. And I can't see more then about twenty metres in front of my face. It's pitch black in here. But I can tell I'm standing in a huge, empty space. Whatever used to be here is gone now. It's just space.

“Louis Tomlinson?” a voice says.

I don't bother saying anything.