Hayley breathed deeply, her eyes switching between all the people in her sight, imprinting their faces into her mind in case this was her last chance. The security guard slowly approached, speaking to him about the police. The pressure was released from Hayley jaw, until she heard a click, and then the pressure returning to her face. Her temple, this time. Her heart sped, practically beating out of her chest. Her entire body was shaking with sobs and a thin layer of sweat covered her skin.
"I love you, you know that right?" He whispered in her ear. She shook her head roughly.
"No," she gasped out. "You wouldn't do this if you loved me," she was barely able to get the words out, but would do anything to get out of this situation. He wanted to laugh at this.
"Don't act like you suddenly give a shit about my feelings. You used me," he adjusted his grip around her waist, wanting her to feel as much pain as possible.
"I did care. Just—just put it down and we can talk things over—" he suddenly let go of her and slammed her against the bar, holding the gun to her chest.
"You think talking will fix things? Nothing will change the fact that you won't be mine. So if I don't get you..." he pressed the gun to her forehead, Hayley closing her eyes. "No one does," he turned to look at the security guard who was just a few feet away, pointing the gun at them, then shooting. The ear splitting noise pulled screams from people around. Hayley found herself with her eyes now open, watching to see if she would be next. He shot at the other security guard approaching, but missed. Blue lights lit up the door, the sirens blaring. Everyone was terrified.
"If you just put it down now, things will be okay," she tried to tell him calmly, but the panic was soaked in her voice. "If you kill me then you're going to prison for murder. For a long time. You have a way out now...just put it down," the anger she once saw in his eyes was focused on her. He was listening to her words. "Look, I'll do it with you," she kept staring at his eyes, putting her hand (which was visibly shaking) gently over his and slowly lowering to the floor. He followed her, wondering if going to prison was really worth it.
She was so close to getting the gun on the floor when the police broke through the door. It wasn't peaceful at all. Hayley's eyes snapped to the door and he paused, realising he was going to prison either way. He lifted the gun back up, giving her one last look before he killed her.
"Hayley get down!" Taylor shouted. She quickly looked around for the reasoning, but a pain shot through the side of her head when Lukas hit her with the gun. It knocked her down to the floor but almost immediately after hitting her, he was being tackled by police. He continued to shoot the gun in her direction though. She stayed totally still, not knowing if she would be shot if she moved. The gun was soon out of bullets and the shooting stopped.
Her vision was blurry, her head spinning from being hit so hard in a sensitive spot. She saw blood on the floor and started to panic that she'd been shot. Her hand went up to her head to feel for blood and it came back soaked with it.
People rushed over as Lukas was being taken out. Hayley felt hands on her, but she was losing her strength and she didn't know why. She could only assume she had been shot, but wouldn't there have been more blood? Her eyes switched from each person in her vision, trying to speak but it came out slurred and muffled.
Her mom panicked as the wound on the side of her head bled. She only panicked more when Hayley slowly fell unconscious.
-
They took Hayley to the hospital when she fell unconscious. Lukas had hit her as hard as he could with the gun, and she had hit her head when she fell. They had to take her in for immediate surgery as the artery underneath her temple had been slightly ruptured, which was very dangerous.
"We shouldn't have called the fucking cops," Zac exclaimed angrily. "If they had just came a minute later, things would've been okay," Taylor was slumped back in one of the waiting room chairs while Cristi was on the edge of her seat. It seemed like years before they were finally called to see her.
"Hayley!" Her mother ran to her but Hayley was very drugged up.
"We had to give her a few things for the pain. Trauma to the temple is very dangerous and painful, even if not hit that hard." The doctor explained. Hayley was incredibly pale, feeling sick.
"How do you feel?" Taylor asked, carefully taking her other hand.
"Alive," she whispered. Taylor nodded, tears in his eyes.
"Yeah, you are," Hayley didn't smile, she didn't say anything either. She was on so much pain medication she felt entirely numbed.
She was discharged a few days later, but directed to strict bed rest. Well, she slept on the sofa still. Her mom begged her to go and stay at her house but she felt like an inconvenience.
People seemed to always be in and out of her house now. Everyone wanted to help after so nearly losing her. She had more flowers than imaginable in the room from people just wanting to make a gesture. Brian had been over often with updates on what was going on with GDY, Taylor and Zac were pretty much living with her, and Mark had been around a few times to see how she was doing too.
"Hayley?" She was staring emptily at the television.
"After a small live music performance last Friday here at The End, an audience member and regular here, was revealed to—" she switched it off and sat in silence, still not having processed it happened. It all felt too surreal to her, as if she was trapped in a nightmare and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't escape.
She hadn't gone onto any social media yet. Zac had kept her updated on what they were saying, shielding her from any hate she was terrified to receive.
So far, they had already put together that it was Paramore's show, and it was Lukas that was arrested, purely from common sense of dates and police statements. There was no confirmation that it happened to Hayley which gave her some form of relief, even though anyone with common sense could realise it was her.
She was also drugged up on many different medications. A high dose of painkillers, the usual anti depressants and antibiotics to stop infection of the healing wound on her head. So everything felt very hazy for her and she struggled to get around the house when Zac or Taylor allowed her to get up. They were more scared she'd fall because of all the drugs and hurt her head even worse.
