Special [Zianourry]

Chapter 2

A/N: I'm so tired right now... I had a migraine last night, yay, and I've still got a bit of a headache...
Green = Harry
Blue = Niall
Orange = Liam
Red = Zayn
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Niall arrived the next day after dinner. "Louis!" He grinned, hugging me and immediately grasping my arm. We stood for some minutes.
"It's not healing." Frowning, I gently unwrapped the bandages, making Niall wince as he saw the extent of damage. Carefully, he took my arm again, and we watched as the blackness faded around the edges, but didn't heal much more. "I mean, it's more shallow, but..."
"Maybe it's just going to take a while." Niall hummed, sliding his hand down to my own, lacing his fingers through mine. "You good?"
"Fine." I grinned back, until Karen came into the room.
"We should probably strap that back up." She led me to the kitchen, disinfecting everything in sight quickly, wrapping clean bandages around the wound again. Finally, we were let go, and choose to go find Liam in his room.
"Hey, Niall." Liam jumped up, quickly kissing and briefly hugging him. "Louis, your arm...?"
"It's not fully healed." Niall glanced away as I said this, and I immediately slipped forwards, pulling him into a hug. "It's not your fault, more mine."
"That," Niall gestured to my arm. "Is not your fault.
"Wait, what about your archery?" Liam asked, and I froze up, dread creeping over me.
"I'll... I'll have to tell Finn I'm quitting if it's not better." I swallowed, trying to still appear upbeat.
"He'll understand." Niall said quietly, as both of them looked at me sympathetically.
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One week later
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"Li, I promise it's going to be five seconds, in, grab my stuff and leave again. I'll be fine." I tried to persuade him as both him and Niall were hesitant about letting me go home to get my things. School started the next day, and I was planning to sleep in the tree, after moving what little I needed from the house to the woods.
"Call me. Okay?" Liam bargained.
"I promise." Giving him a kiss, I then kissed Niall, and got in the car, waving to them as Karen drove away. We spent the drive in silence, until she stopped the car by the woods where she had picked me up a week previously. "Thank you... For everything."
"It's okay, sweetie, you're always welcome." She smiled at me before I got out, dragging my suitcase behind me as I went into the woods. Soon after, I was returning to the house.
The street was silent, and eyes were watching me, I knew it, and the drive was empty, and something wasn't right, and the -
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"Louis?"
"Louis, wake up, mate."
"Louis, please."
A female voice, a male voice. My eyes fluttered open, vision blurry. "W-who...?"
"It's Trixie, Lou. And Finn." Arms helped me to sit up. "You were out cold."
"What happened?" Blinking my eyes to wake up, I took in my surroundings.
"I came to return your bow." Finn said, helping me up, holding onto me as pain flared up my leg. "But you were flat out on the pavement, laying in your own blood."
"How long was I out?" I asked, rubbing my head.
"It's now... Seven o'clock, evening. You tell us." Trixie glanced nervously towards the house.
"Two hours."
"You were almost dead." Finn told me quietly. "You weren't breathing."
"Finn saved your life, Louis." Trixie whispered. "CPR."
"T-thank you."
"Come on." Finn guided me with an arm around my waist, taking most of my weight to help me hobble, and I took one last look at the house I had lived in for eighteen years. They'd tried to kill me. "You're not going back, Louis."
"B-but..."
"Too late. My parents are already filling in paperwork." Finn held the door to a car open, helping me inside. "They're adopting you tonight."
"Tonight?"
"Yep." Trixie grinned. "Wait, do you need to call anyone?"
"Liam. I - I promised him..."
"Here." Finn handed me his phone. "You were also robbed. Nothing left on you, but the clothes you're wearing."
"I don't know his number." Frantically, I tried what I thought might be Liam's number, but it was a random woman, who I apologised to before giving Finn his phone back.
"You'll have to speak to him tomorrow." Finn sighed. "You're coming with me tonight."
"Okay." My head and leg was throbbing, so I just let my head droop, and I was fast asleep before I could even think.
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"Louis? You've got to get ready." Someone shook me awake. "Morning."
"F-Finn?" Everything from last night came spinning back. "Oh."
"Come on." Finn grabbed my arm as I almost collapsed onto the floor, when I noticed that my leg was heavily bandaged. "You pretty much broke that. Fracture down the side or something."
"Thanks." I smiled gratefully as he helped me to the bathroom.
"Use the bath." He advised, handing me a pile of clothes and some towels before leaving the room. "And shout if you need anything!"
"Thanks!" Turning on the taps, I waited, thinking.
I'd almost been murdered. If Finn had decided to wait until tomorrow to give me the bow...
I would have been dead.
After bathing and drying myself, I got changed into the jeans and t-shirt Finn had given me, recognising them from the suitcase I'd left in the woods. My arm was still bandaged up, alongside my head and leg. From what I'd picked up, someone had struck my head, almost killing me, and I'd injured my leg as I fell. But, surely, just a fall that small wouldn't fracture my leg?
"Louis? Breakfast, if you want." Finn knocked on the door.
"Coming." I replied, unlocking the door and limping out slowly.
"You might want to get that braced." Finn nodded towards my leg as he ducked under my arm, helping me walk downstairs. His house was large, modern, mostly marble, metal and white, clearly very expensive. And perfectly clean and tidy, not one thing out of place.
"Morning, Louis. I'm Finn's mother." A woman smiled at me as we went into the kitchen. "Oh, dear, I'm sorry to see you so strapped up. Do you want any painkillers?"
"I'm fine, thank you." I smiled back politely.
"He'll have two paracetamol." Finn smirked, giving me a glass of water.
"If you say so." She laughed, opening a cupboard (which was highly organised). "Here, paracetamol." From the looks of things, the medicine was alphabetically ordered.
"Thank you, Mrs. Eerikäinen." Putting the tablets in my mouth, I took a drink of water, scrunching my nose up at the bitter aftertaste.
"Those should work in twenty minutes." Finn grinned, handing me a plate of cooked breakfast, and a knife and fork, sitting down next to me with his own plate. "We've got... Forty minutes until we need to leave." I froze. "Everything's packed for you."
"Thank you." Sighing a breath of relief, I began to eat.
"You're awfully thin, dear." Finn's mom frowned slightly, and I just forced a smile, having been told that by every mother I'd met that summer.
"I think Louis's been told, mom." Finn hid a smirk, taking in my face.
"Oh, but, of course. And, I do apologise. You can call me Fiona if you wish." She beamed at me.
Eventually, I was ready to go, hair combed, teeth brushed, my outfit perfect. "It'll take about an hour to get to the school." Finn led me outside.
"Do you drive there?" I asked curiously.
"Drive? No, it'd take too long." A smile crept onto his face as he helped me outside, walking around to the side of the house. "We fly." In front of us, a helicopter was waiting, black, shiny and sleek. "Come on."
"Bloody hell." I muttered as he lifted me inside, my leg still extremely painful to walk on. "Thanks."
"Careful." Finn showed me how to strap myself in, before we took off, his mother and sister waving goodbye. "My father died when I was young. 1991."
"Same year as my parents." The memories of growing up without a mother flashed through my mind.
"Really?" Intrigued, Finn looked at me. "May I ask how?"
"I-I'm not sure. I just know that there was fire involved, I think." Looking around at the countryside that was flashing by, I allowed myself to wonder who my parents were. "There was never any graves, no name, no nothing."
"That's odd. My father never had a grave, either." Finn snorted out a laugh. "I looked up all the Payne's on the island I possibly could, but the three numbers weren't Liam."
"Thank you, anyway." I grinned at him. We chatted as time flew by, until I recognised the school in the distance.
"I'm sure Yvonne and Tom will get our stuff." Finn unbuckled himself, grabbing onto the strap overhead, leaning out of the helicopter. "I'd estimate five minutes."
"Fair enough." Despite my leg hurting, I undid my harness, looping my uninjured wrist through another strap on the ceiling, using it to hop along so I didn't lean on my leg. The air blew sharply at my face, but I watched as the school grew larger, the helicopter descending towards it.
"Come on." The helicopter landed gently, and Finn leapt out, lifting me out afterwards. Using an arm around my waist, he helped me limp slowly across the floor, some people organising our suitcases.
"Louis?" A voice called, and we both turned, until Liam and Harry appeared next to us.
"Oh my god." Liam whispered, reaching out and touching my face. Finn stepped away from me, but remained nearby.
"I'm just going to say, don't let him go back, under any circumstances." Finn said quietly. "I don't want to scare you, and I'm sorry, but he was dead when Trixie and I found him." They both blanched. "They tried to kill him."
"Just..." Harry suddenly wrapped me in a hug, resting his head on my shoulder. Seconds later, I realised he was crying.
"Ssh, I'm okay, now." Pulling him close to me, I leant my head against his, murmuring comforting things in his ear as he calmed down.
"Thank you." Liam said to Finn as Harry was hugging me. "We owe you."
"It's nothing. I just hope he's okay. Take care of him for me." With a blinding smile, Finn disappeared.
"Come on." Liam bent down, and Harry helped me to jump onto his back. Once I was clinging on, Liam took his two suitcases with one hand, and Harry took both of ours.
"Guys!" We turned around, to see Niall and Zayn pressing through the crowd.
"What happened?" Niall looked at me, frowning.
"They tried to kill him." Liam put me down gently, and Niall hugged me. The bones in my leg realigned, my head's throbbing reducing to nothing. My arm was better, but it still didn't heal fully, as it had almost burned the entire way through.
"Kill him." Zayn said slowly. "Did you find him?"
"No, Finn and I did." Trixie stopped as she was pushing through the crowd. "Hello. If you really want to know, he was passed out in a pool of blood when we arrived, then Finn did CPR and Louis woke up."
"That's just... They left him to die." Liam shook his head.
"Thank you." Harry smiled weakly at Trixie.
"It's Finn you should thank." Trixie giggled, without humour. "I just flipped out, but he saved Louis's life."
"Guess it makes it even, then." I laughed. We all parted ways, going back to our dorms.
"I bloody missed you all, you wankers." Niall threw his suitcases unceremoniously to the ground. Suddenly, Liam picked me up, and we all went to my bedroom, and lay down.
"What do we do now?" I asked.
"Whatever we want until dinner time, when we'll get our new timetables." Zayn told me. "Hopefully, we'll be together in more lessons."
"Unless our individual mutation classes are upped." Harry pointed out. He turned over, burying into my chest, sighing contentedly. We basically talked and cuddled for what felt like forever, until the bell rang.
Dinner was uneventful, with people greeting each other. Everyone I knew seemed determined to comment on my injuries, to the point I just didn't respond, just forced a smile.
"Please collect your timetables!" Someone shouted loudly.
"Alphabetical." Harry nudged me. "You go there, to Miss Aberny. She's giving out the one's with surname T."
"See you back in the dorm." Liam kissed me, disappearing into the crowd. Eventually, I was in front of Miss Aberny.
"Oh, dear, Louis." She tutted, handing me my timetable. "I do hope you get better soon."
"Thanks, Miss." Taking my timetable, I quickly went back up to my room, studying it. "What the hell is that?"
"You got the rare mutations class..." Zayn leaned over my shoulder. "No fair."
"Absolute doss." Harry snorted, coming into the lounge. "Basically, you learn how to control your mutation for about five years, when you take the exam. All you'll need to do is fly for like three seconds, and you've passed the exam."
"Great." I laughed, and we all migrated to Liam's bedroom, cuddling and chatting as darkness fell.
"We should go to sleep." Liam said eventually.
"Can't we stay here?" Harry pouted.
"Go get changed and come back." Liam got up, finding out a onesie as we all scattered. My room was dark, and I shuddered, heart beating frantically as I rummaged through my suitcase, finding a onesie, pulling my shirt and jeans off, getting into it.
Something brushed against my leg.
I screamed.
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All four of them ran into the room as I curled into a ball on the floor, shaking, tears streaming down my face.
I was almost dead.
Dead. Dead. Dead.