~Harry~
The walk home from school seemed to drag on and on as Harry ventured down the never ending lonely road to his house. His heart was beating faster than it ever had before as his mind raced laps through his head trying to figure out what to say to his father when he would walk in the door later that night.
His sneakers smacked against the pavement as his backpack slung over his shoulder, weighing him down due to the books he had messily thrown into it. His head was hung low as he rehearsed his explanation as to why he had been sent home early, his house finally coming into view as he prayed his father wouldn't be mad.
His father's car wasn't in the driveway, but something inside of him was telling him that the man was home anyway. His palms began to sweat as he walked up the front steps to his house, feet almost coming to a stand still as his hand reached up to twist open the door knob.
The house was quiet when he entered, nothing was moved from when he and Gemma had left early that morning. He saw his sister's shoes placed messily onto the rug in front of him, remembering that he had gotten a notice in his free period that Gemma had left school early because she was sick. He kicked his shoes off next to hers, running his fingers through his hair with a smile on his face thinking that he had been wrong and his father wasn't home.
He took his jacket off his shoulders and threw it onto the hook next to him, wondering where his sister could be to see if she wanted to watch a movie with him. Usually when Gemma would leave school early it was just a way of ditching, now that their father worked during the day the two would find themselves being 'sick' more often so they could use that time to just breathe for a while. A time for them to not have to worry about anything until their father would come home, one where he could be a normal thirteen year old and annoy the shit out his older sister.
Harry was about to walk over to the couch when he heard the haunting noises coming from the room above him.
He had been here before, this never ending scene already been lived through time and time again.
It's just a dream, it's just a dream.
He repeated those words over and over again as he made his way over to the stairs, trying his hardest to calm himself down as his shaky, sweaty hand was placed on top of the banister.
"Stop, please," he heard his sister beg, "I'm sorry, please stop."
He tried to rush up the stairs to help his sister, only to find his feet not being able to move as his body jerked from how hard he was trying to get to his sister, "Harry!"
Tears rushed to his eyes as he heard his sister cry for him, doing everything in his power for his feet to finally take his body up the stairs. He held onto the banister with both hands, pulling his body up to hopefully break free and save his sister.
"Harry!" she shouted again, sounding farther away than she had before.
The tears now rushed down his face as he screamed for his father to stop, praying to God that his feet would become unstuck because hearing his sister was becoming too much for him. The cries leaving her lips push him over the edge as he uses all his strength to finally bolt up the stairs.
His cries get heavier with each step he took, finding the staircase getting longer with them. No matter how fast he runs up the stairs, they never end. He runs and runs, tears never ending as he breathlessly promises to Gemma that he was coming, that was going to save her.
His eyes snapped shut as he begged himself to wake up, not being able to handle it anymore.
When he opened his eyes again he was standing at the other side of Gemma's door, his hand on the door knob, twisting it open as a sob escaped his lips.
"Harry," she whispered as soon as the door had opened, almost as if she was praying that he had been the one to open it.
He yelled as loud as he could before running towards his father, seeing this scene play out a million different times since that fateful October day all those years ago. His vision blurry from the tears that pooled at the bottom of his eyes, ripping his father away from Gemma as she sobbed.
In the blink of an eye he was standing over his father, taller and bigger than he was moments ago as his fists made contact with his father's face. Gemma's cries echoed through the room as he kicked and punched his father with everything he had in him. He stands up when his father is still on the ground, only a few moans leaving his body from the pain Harry had caused him. His breathing was heavy as he picked his head up, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror in front of him.
His knuckles bloody as he sees his own reflection, one that was himself instead the thirteen year old boy he sees in every nightmare.
"Harry," the small voice behind him whispered.
His head whipped around when he heard it. The voice behind him wasn't the cries and pleads of his sister, her dirty blonde hair and green eyes replaced by a head of brown hair as wide blue eyes locked with his.
"Marley?"
Her face was bruised with her lip split in two and the tears that were streaming down her face made the room start spinning as he rushed over to her. He quickly made his way to the bed before throwing the blanket over her naked body as she cried.
She hugged his waist as she shivered into his arms, whimpering as she begged him to take her home. Confusion ran through his body as he looked down at her, wondering how she had even gotten there before he noticed that his father wasn't lying on the ground anymore.
It happened so fast; one moment she was naked, crying in his arms and the next she was standing in front of his father as he held the knife at her throat, "Can't save them all son."
In an instant his hand swiped across her throat, causing the girl to drop to the floor as Harry screamed out in terror, tears flooding down his face as he watched the light go out of her eyes.
"Marley!" he screamed, his voice breaking from the emotion that engulfed his body as his father threw her to the ground.
Des chuckled dryly as he looked up at Harry, jumping towards him as a sadistic laugh left his lips-
"No!" he shouted as his entire body sprung up from the bed, pants flooding the room as he frantically looked around to calm himself down.
His heart was beating faster as he relived the haunting details of his latest memory. The way the dreams never fail to have him questioning everything as he tries to convince himself that he was okay, that Gemma was okay.
Only now there was a twist.
Since the time he was seven years old, he had only ever had nightmares about events that had happened in his life. Things that he had seen with his own eyes, heard with own ears, or endured in his own lifetime.
But more specifically this nightmare always ended the same way. The way he would eventually get to Gemma would change; whether that be the stairs never ending, the door not opening, or the strength of his small body not being able to get his father off of his sister. But nevertheless, it had always been Gemma that he would eventually 'save'.
Except tonight.
His mind ran circles through his head as he remembered the way Marley had looked at him with such fear. The way her eyes begged for him to help her as his father held her against his chest. The way she clawed at his arm to release the tight hold he had against her as her body squirmed to get away. The way her voice was so small as she whispered to him as she laid naked on the bed.
His stomach turned at just the thought of his father laying a finger on the blue eyed girl, imaginary or not.
His breathing slowly became under control as he grabbed his arm, closed his eyes, and tightened his grip three times slowly until he was able to calm down.
You're okay Harry, Gemma is okay... Marley is okay.
At least that's what he thought.
~
A few days later Harry found himself parked outside of the gym early in the morning. The gum in his mouth moved side to side between his teeth as he whipped the door open and stepped out into the early summer air.
He was wearing a pair of black jeans that were ripped at the knees, deciding that today he wasn't going to be doing the workouts with Marley, only there to help her with her 'training' as Cole called it the other day. It was hotter than it was last time, so he supported just a simple white tee along with black sunglasses and his black boots that he hadn't worn in a while.
He walked into the gym, the bell ringing as he opened the door, looking around to see that even though he was about ten minutes late he had still beaten her there. Which he was surprised to find simply because of the fact she had been there so much earlier than him before.
He was feeling apprehensive about seeing her again. The emotion was still new to him, not being to remember the last time a nightmare had affected him this much, especially considering the girl in question. He was always sure to hold his own, the cold exterior being a defense mechanism to the inner battle that had been going on in his head for the last couple of days.
Ever since the nightmare he can't seem to keep his mind off of Marley for longer than about an hour, continuously going back to the dream. There was something about his subconscious putting Marley in place of his sister that was fucking with him more than he would ever like to admit.
"Hey Styles," Mitch said as he walked out of the locker room.
"Hey," he said as he walked towards the vending machine, placing a quarter into it to grab a water bottle. Adding another one because he remembered how Marley had forgotten hers the other day.
Harry and Mitch's relationship was a complicated one.
Harry was sixteen when he had met the man for the first time. He was a few years older than him and their meeting was accidental, Harry had been running orders to the gym for Dean during their first encounter. Mitch had no idea that a few of his workers were using his gym as a dealing ground, giving Harry shit when he turned up that day with a backpack full of cocaine and wads of cash stuffed into his pockets.
One thing led to another and Harry ended up staying for about three hours that day, wandering around the gym and getting to know Mitch.
Ever since then Harry had used the gym as a form of a safe space. A place where he could go anytime he wanted to blow off steam, seeing Mitch as an older brother type who knew every detail of his life. He was the only person - besides Louis - that knew about the things his father had done to him. Even though he didn't want to in the beginning, he began connecting with Mitch through hours of boxing sparring and bench spotting.
Mitch and Dean had their own history, so as soon as a young kid walked through the doors of his gym doing the dirty for the man he despised, Mitch knew he needed help. He had sort of taken Harry under his wing and now that he was back from Woodgate, Harry knew Mitch was worried about him.
"Surprised you two are still doing this whole thing," Mitch said as he wiped down one of the mats near the vending machine.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked coldly, opening the water he had just bought before taking a sip out of it.
Mitch raised an eyebrow at him as he chuckled humorlessly, "Because she ran out of here crying after you humiliated her and acted like a huge prick."
Harry was shocked by the words that left his mouth as his jaw dropped slightly, not wanting to give Mitch the satisfaction of getting to him, "The fuck are you on about?"
Mitch scoffed as he swung the rag around his shoulder, "Seriously?"
Harry widened his eyes in annoyance as he shook his head at him, rolling his eyes as he waited for the long haired man to continue his accusation.
"I wasn't even paying attention and I could tell that she was obviously trying her hardest. The two of you even started to work well together after a while, hell even her brother had said that he wanted to try too because it looked liked the two of you were having fun," Mitch explained as he looked at Harry accusingly, "The shit you said to her wasn't cool man, she was clearly hurt by what you said and whether you want to admit it or not what went down was fucked up."
"You don't get it Mitch," Harry defended as he took a seat on the bench, "That's just how it is between the two of us. We hate each other and sometimes we say shit we shouldn't, it's not that big of deal everyone just likes to make it one."
"So you're telling me that the two of you just make each other cry for the hell of it?" Mitch said before taking a seat next to him, "Because that isn't what it looked like to me."
"What?" Harry snapped, looking towards the door to see if Marley had gotten there yet so he wouldn't have to continue this conversation.
"From what I saw," Mitch dragged on as he shrugged his shoulder and leaned his body against the wall, "Seeing her cry shocked you just about as much as it had me."
He wasn't wrong, in all the years he had known Marley he had only seen her cry a handful of times and it was never because of something that he had said to her. The last time being her father's funeral that his mother made him and sister go to.
"I couldn't have cared less," he said as he stood up, running his fingers through his hair as he huffed aggressively to the man next to him.
Mitch just laughed as he copied Harry's actions, "Right."
Harry rolled his eyes once more as he looked at the clock on the wall, walking over towards the front door to see if she had been anywhere in sight. He groaned dramatically as he paced back and forth as he said loudly, "Where the fuck is she?"
~
The ride to her house was full of fury as he drove quickly down the road to the other side of town. The radio blasting through the old, shitty speakers of his car as he tried to calm himself down. He had come to the decision that he had been to her house more times in the last two months than he had ever wanted to in his entire life, hating the way the girl had been consuming almost every aspect of his life.
The new found irritation had definitely been the result of his dream, hating the fact that the girl now made her way into his most vulnerable state of mind. How something so personal and so traumatic was now morphed into an outcome where he was in pain over her.
When her house came into sight, he realized that there was no use of trying to calm himself down. He knew that the second she came into view he was just going to get angry anyway, something the girl had always been good at accomplishing.
He made his way up the loose and broken staircase as he knocked on the door, not caring about the time, hoping that he would wake everyone in the house up just to piss them all off. He stood at the doorway for a few moments, repeating the action once more.
The door shot open and as he was about to speak, he realized that there had been no one there. His eyes narrowed in confusion before he heard a small giggle, causing him to look down and see a familiar head of blonde hair staring up at him, "Hi Harry."
"Hi," he answered hesitantly, "Where's your sister."
He didn't say anything as Cole turned around, waving for Harry to follow him into the house with a sigh.
If he was being honest, ever since he had been to Marley's house, he had always been curious about the boy. His wide eyes and innocent aspect of the traumatic world he lived in reminded him a lot of himself when he was that age. He couldn't help but wonder about all the things the boy had endured that he doesn't yet understand, already pitying him for when the moment would come crashing into him just how fucked up everything really was.
Cole led the two into the kitchen, meeting a pair of wide eyes looking at them as she sat at the island across from them. She had a bowl of strawberries in front of her with one in her left hand about to entire her mouth as she stared at the two.
"What?" she snapped as she looked at Harry, placing the strawberry into her mouth with a look of pure annoyance written all over her face.
As if she had something to be annoyed about.
"No," he said as he shook his head. "You don't get to 'what' me. Do you have an idea what fucking time it is?" She slid the bowl to the right as Cole took a seat next to her, grabbing the biggest strawberry from the bowl and eating it, watching the two with his chin resting on his hand.
She simply nodded her head, "I'm not an idiot Harry, I can read a fucking clock you know."
Cole snickered into his mouth as he looked at Harry, the smile dropping instantly from his face when Harry glared at him before turning his attention away from the kid and back to the girl he was seconds away from strangling with his bare hands.
"Then why weren't you at the gym, I waited for almost an hour for you," he said with anger as he walked towards the counter, placing his hands on the edge of it to lean slightly closer to her.
She scoffed dryly as she swung her body around to get off the stool she had been sitting on, standing next to the phone that was hung above her head as she ran her fingers through her hair, a sigh escaping her lips as she looked at Harry, "Thought I made it pretty clear that we were done with all this."
"Storming out of the gym like a brat while flipping me off isn't saying we're done and that you don't need my help Marley," he said as he stared at her intensely, knowing that she hated the fact that she needed his help.
"Fine, how's this?" She said as she took a step towards him, "We're done Harry."
He was about to speak when the phone rang, cutting him off as he opened his lips. She rolled her eyes as she turned her body to the phone, aggressive answering it with a 'hello' as she looked Harry up and down.
"Jay?" She asked, all anger from her voice she had moments ago disappearing and replaced with concern as he heard a muffled voice speak to her through the phone.
Jay was a nurse at the hospital in the middle of town. She usually worked the night shift but once a month she would cover for a girl on her Wednesday shift, today was one of those days.
"Is she okay?"
Harry knew that he should probably leave, there was really nothing more that could be said between the two. But something inside of him was telling him that he need to stay, so he looked over at Cole who had already been looking at him, shrugging his shoulders to tell Harry that he had no clue what was happening.
"Uh yeah," she said as she looked at Cole, "Yeah I'll be there soon."
She hung up the phone quickly, running her fingers through her hair once more as she frantically looked around the house.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked when he heard her breathing quicken, but it went unanswered as she turned her attention to Cole and began to walk over to him.
"Cole," she said, walking over to the small boy, "I need you to hang out with Vicky for a while okay?"
The soft tone in her voice was covering up for the worried look in her eye as Cole turned his head, "Is mummy okay?"
Harry could hear her breath hitch in the back of her throat, it was clear that she had been caught off guard by the statement, shaking her head slightly before asking. "What do you mean buddy?"
"Last time Jay called during the day, it was because mummy was hurt," he said with a sad voice, placing his hands on Marley's face as he looked at her. "I'm a big boy now Marley, I can handle it I promise."
She sighed as she closed her eyes, leaning into the smaller boy's touch as Harry stood back and watched the interaction between the siblings.
"Yeah buddy," she said, obviously trying to fight the tears that were making their way to the surface. "But Jay's gonna take really good care of her, so you don't have to be scared okay. Mummy's gonna be just fine."
He removed his small pudgy hands from her face as he held his head tall, nodding lightly as he hopped down from the chair, "I'm not scared."
She laughed in a bittersweet manner as she ruffled his blonde hair, "I'll be home later and we can watch a movie, how does that sound big guy?"
He nodded in excitement, "Luke, Louis and Phee Phee can come too?"
"Yeah sure they can come too," she said with a small smile as she watched him run towards the front door to quickly through on his shoes.
She looked out the window near the sink to make sure he made it the neighbors house, sighing in relief before turning around and looking back at Harry, "Fuck I forgot you were here."
"Are you okay?" He asked again, not even caring that the two had been arguing not even five minutes ago.
She exhaled deeply through her nose, wiping under her eyes as she shrugged her shoulder, "No," she said before shaking her head and laughing dryly. "My mum's in the hospital, she OD'd a few hours ago."
The words sounded familiar as she spoke them, Harry dealing with the same thing a few years back when his father still lived with him, "Is she okay?"
"I don't know," she said dryly, almost as if she had been tired of it all. "But I need to get to the hospital, Jay said she needed to talk to me about something."
Harry nodded his head as he followed the girl to the front door, neither of them saying anything as she threw on a pair of shoes. She wrote a note on the pad and paper that was on the small table next to the front door, noticing how her hand shook as she wrote each word out.
As they walked out of the house, Harry couldn't help but see that the old car that she had been seen driving from time to time was nowhere in sight, "How are you getting to the hospital?"
"My feet," she said softly, turning her body to walk towards the direction of the hospital. He couldn't stop the words as they left his lips, his mouth moving before his brain could even comprehend what he was saying.
"I'll drive you."
~
Sorry for the super random upload time, but I couldn't sleep and just figured I would publish it after I finished editing the chapter.
Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, this is the beginning of Marley's and Harry's journey and I can't wait for you guys to see the twists and turns the two are about to go on.
Thoughts on the story so far?