Aftershock [ One Direction]

Chapter 12: "Let's Make This Our Secret Place"

  Song on the side - Rocks and Daggers by Noah and the Whale

Chapter 12

Niall wouldn’t let me leave till he got his breakfast.  As soon as he got his fill we left, I’m not sure where Niall is taking me but as long as we are hanging out I’m okay. 

“Niall, where are we going?”  I asked, walking next to him.

“It’s a surprise.”  He had a big smile on his face.  I started to get a little suspicious.

After about 15 minutes of walking Niall said we here, wherever here is…  We were standing on the outskirts of a vibrant, green forest.  Sort of like my dream...

“What are we doing here Niall?” I asked confused.

He chuckled slightly, then took my hand sending tingles through my body.  He led us on a trail in the forest for a while and then abruptly turned off the trail.  I hope he knows where he’s taking us.

Suddenly, Niall stopped in a flowered clearing in the woods.  He walked to the middle and laid down.  I stood on the edge of the tree line, he noticed that I didn’t follow and waved his hand for me to follow and lay next to him.  I gladly obliged.

“I found this place a couple days after Harry passed.  I had a break down and started running, I didn’t stop for the longest time.  But when I did, I was here…Its peaceful.”  Niall said, looking up with a distant look in his eyes.  I took this moment to take in his features. 

I turned my head and stared at the fragments of light escaping from the branches up above.  With that, something flashed to mind…

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{Flashback}

“Harry!  Where are we going?”  I shouted, laughing while Harry ran, holding my hand.  He was running fast so it was hard to be able to keep up with him, he was basically dragging me through the woods.  Harry turned his head towards me with the biggest, brightest smile on his face, dazzling me to the point where I forget what I was asking.

He kept laughing and eventually he started slowing down and when he stopped, he turned to me, scooping me up and swinging me around.  Once he put me down, he pecked me on the lips. 

“I love you.”  He said staring me deeply in the eyes.

“I love you too.  Now what is this about?”  I asked finally regaining my train of thought.  When Harry had picked me up, he seemed a little upset and it had me worried.

Harry sighed, “I was looking at Twitter and well, I saw some of the things they saw about you, me, us.”  He said pointing his finger between us.  “It was really bothersome and well…I wanted a day off.  A day away from everything, just us too.” 

I cupped his face in both of my hands and kissed him deeply.  When I pulled away, Harry gave me a big cheeky grin… “You’re a goof, you know that right?”  I asked, giggling. 

“So I’ve been told.”  Was his only response.  He grabbed my hand again and we walked a little longer until he saw something in the distance.

“What is that?”  he asked, making our ways towards it.

“It looks like a shed…”  I said, squinting my eyes.

It was a shed.  An old, dilapidated shed covered in vines.  Harry reached for the door knob and turned it gently with his big hands.  It creaked open loudly and we stepped inside.   The shed had a couch, book shelf, many pictures, like it was someone’s secret hide away.  Harry looked at the pictures hanging on the wall and I turned to the book shelf examining the collection.   It was dusty, like no one had been inside of it in years. 

“Looks like no one has been here in years…” Harry said quietly, almost like he was just talking to himself.

“That’s weird, I was thinking the same exact thing.”  He turned to look at me and we shared a quick smile before going back to what we were doing.

Harry’s cell phone rang, he looked at the caller ID, sighed and answered it. 

“Yeah Liam?” There was a short pause.  “Fine we’ll come back…”  Another short silence.  “Okay, bye Liam.”  Harry said, sighing once again.

“Whats up?”  I asked walking over to him, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“We have to go back…Liam says ‘I’m in trouble’” Harry said putting air quotation around what Liam said.  I gave him a small smile.

“Okay, lets go.  Don’t want to make Daddy Direction mad.”  I turned around to leave but Harry grabbed my hand, turning me back around.

“Let’s make this our secret place.  Whenever we want to be alone, and we want no one to find us.  This would be perfect.”  He told me urgently with a big smile on his face.

“Of course, Harry, it’s a perfect secret hiding place. Now come on, lets go.”  He pecked me on the cheek and we left.  Honestly, we never went back to that place, I wish we would have…

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I stood up from my place next to Niall and starting running, running for our secret place.  I could hear Niall shouting my name behind me but I ignored his calls and kept running.  Branches were whipping across my face and I was stumbling from my urgency but I didn’t care, I couldn’t really feel them.

The noise of Niall running behind me, trying to catch up, only made me run faster.  I don’t know how long I was running until I spotted the shed.  Our shed.  As soon as it was in view, I ran even faster then what was physically possible for me.  When I reached the door, I wasn’t gently like Harry was that first time.  I slammed the door open and poof of dust entered the air, making the light from the one window shine through giving everything an unnerving look.  Coughing, I went to the book shelf and starting pulling out each book, searching for the notebook. 

My dream last night, him handing me the notebook in the woods was a way of Harry telling me where it was and all I needed was to be here and look up at the treeline seeing the sun, shine through to understand.  Fantically searching through each shelf, I heard Niall’s heavy footsteps come through the door and his uneven breathing. 

“What the hell was that about Cora?”  He asked sounding angry, but I didn’t divert my attention from my search for a second.

“Cora, your scaring me, please calm down.”  Niall urged me, touching my shoulder gently but I shrugged my shoulder to get him to stop touching me.

I saw a black book on the top shelf.  I reached up but I wasn’t tall enough.  Staring up feeling disappointed, Niall’s arm reached up for the book and got it down, giving it to me.

I turned to him, noticing the hurt in his eyes.  “Niall, I’m sorry for shrugging you off like that, its just…”  I brought my attention back to the notebook.

“I know, I know…The notebook this, the notebook that.”  He said irritated, handing me the book.  The feeling of relief I received from holding this little book, was immense.

“Just remember that it won’t bring him back…”  Niall said, turning around heading out the door.  I followed quickly behind, hugging him.

“Thank you Niall.”  I cupped Niall’s face in between my hands and kissed his lips quickly.  I could tell he was surprised because he froze instantly and when I pulled away his cheeks were bright red.  It brought a smile to my face and I grabbed his hand, walking back to the flat, the book forgotten about only momentarily.