"Come on, Hope! You got this!" Athena yells cheering me on from the sidelines.
Why did I do this again?
Liam stands in front of me with his fists held high punching me every chance he gets. I run around Liam trying to distract him but he responds by tripping me and I fall flat on the ground. He sits on my back pulling my arm back pinning me down.
"Okay! You win! Stop!" I scream at him feeling the pain shooting through my arm. He lets go of me and gets up walking away and I lay on the ground trying to recuperate.
"You did good, Hope." Harry kneels next to me, flipping me over so I'm on my back. I lift my hands and place them over my face.
"I'm going to kill myself I swear to god." I mumble and I feel a smack delivered on my shoulder.
"Don't say that." Harry hisses and I roll my eyes in response. I push myself up off the ground heading over to Liam and shaking his hand.
It's October now and it's been dead silent on Gabe's end, at this point we're just waiting for him to make the first move. Athena is back in school part-time, she balances working on logistics and plans on how to win the war all while trying to get A's in her classes.
Pretty much all our days consist of now are eating, sleeping, and training. We don't hang out outside of training and currently, we've been trying to find a place where we can get Caroline, Lily, and Athena for when the war goes down. So far we have two potential spots but only one provides a way out in case of an emergency but it's not the best spot to put them.
"Alright shooting time!" Harry yells out to us and the boys groan while I grin. We head down to the shooting range and grab our preferred weapon of choice. I put my goggles on before putting the earmuffs around my neck, picking up the gun, and feeling the weight of it in my hand.
"Okay, everyone! Goggles on, earmuffs on!" Harry yells and I place the earmuffs on my ears getting into position. Harry counts down from 3 and on one the firing begins. The gun kicks back slightly but not enough to phase me. I unload the magazine before turning on the safety and looking at the damage I did to the paper.
"Damn Hope!" Louis yells patting me on the back as I roll my eyes. I got mostly headshots and then a couple in the heart and I look over to see Harry looking at me with a proud smile.
"Ya know I should be a sniper." I say and everyone chuckles agreeing with me. We do a couple more rounds before we disband for the day and head our separate ways. I skip over to Harry who is putting everything away and I lean against the wall watching him.
"Hey H what are we doing today?" I ask him and he shrugs his shoulders.
"Nothing important." He replies and I nod my head.
"So I was going to go over to Care and Ni's today and hang out with Lily if that's good with you." I tell him and he nods his head in response
"Sounds good." I nod and walk up to him but he ignores me continuing to clean up.
"Kiss?" I mumble and he sighs before leaning over and kissing me.
"Text me when you're on your way back." He mumbles and I nod, dropping my head.
"See you later." I say turning around and heading out not waiting for his response. I run back to the apartment, taking a shower and changing before going down the hall and knocking on the door. Caroline opens the door motioning for me to come in.
"Hey! Come in! Sorry I can't keep my eyes off of her for too long because she's in that phase where she's opening and touching everything she sees." Caroline explains before heading over to Lily who is waddling around looking for things to destroy.
"It's fine. Just wanted to see y'all today." I tell her and she nods while sitting down on the couch.
"Let's catch up!" Caroline exclaims and I chuckle, shaking my head. This is going to be a long night.
*****************************
Harry's POV
I watch Hope walk out with her head hung low and I curse at myself for making her upset. I finish putting everything away before heading to the meeting room where everyone else should be.
I walk in and see everyone crowded around Zayn who's typing fast with his eyebrows scrunched together in concentration.
"What's going on?" I ask, making Dean lift his head as he motions for me to come over.
"The Superiors sent us an email so we're having Zayn see if there's any virus and all that junk." Dean explains to me and I nod my head walking over to Athena.
"Hey A." I nod at her and she nods back refocusing her attention on Zayn.
"Okay, there are no viruses or anything that can track our location encrypted. It looks to be a link to a video." Zayn tells us and we all nod our heads in understanding.
"Pull it up on the big screen." Dean tells Zayn, making us all turn around to look at the screen. It glitches for a second and its complete darkness until light floods the room and the screen shows Hope from when they had her. Barely dressed with bruises covering her body.
"Time to wake up, Hope." Gabe says walking into frame and picking up her chin. Even from this distance, you can see the defeat and submission in her eyes. Her eyes flick over to the camera before focusing back on Gabe.
"Where's Andrew?" She asks him, her voice is raspy and broken.
"Don't worry about that Princess, he doesn't need to know what's happening." He responds with a smirk on his face, dropping her chin and she lifts her head back up with fear in her eyes.
"What do you mean?" Worry laces her voice and I want to jump through the tv and hug her and tell her she'll be safe with me. He doesn't respond, he just walks around her inspecting her body before stepping out of frame for a second.
Hope tries to back away but the chains restrain her and she begins to plead with Gabe. He walks back into the frame with a knife in his hand walking over to Hope and tracing her skin with the blade.
"The best thing about you having scars on your stomach is that I can cut them over and over again, and no one will notice because they were there before. No one but you will notice the slight difference." He says bringing the knife down the scar above her belly button and slicing the skin. Hope lets out a scream arching her back in pain shaking her head from side to side.
"I'm sorry, please!" She screams and he pulls back watching the blood drip from her wound. He cuts the other scars on her body, enjoying the way she screams and writhes in pain. He gives her time to get used to the pain in her body before he begins to taunt her by touching the cuts making her experience a whole new type of pain.
Eventually, he begins to hit her whenever a scream made its way out of her throat and the noises coming out of her were small whimpers whenever he touched the sore spots. He leaves one more cut on her before the screen turns black and the video ends.
I feel my stomach turning and everything begins to click into place. I knew she had trauma from being tortured but I never thought that she was tortured outside of the live streams.
"Uh, Dean we got something else." Zayn speaks up, clicking everyone out of the trance we were in.
"What is it?" He asks and Zayn shakes his head.
"It's another email and it says we're closer than you think." He whispers the last part and I look up at Niall.
"Hope's at yours with Lily and Care." I tell him and he nods.
"Niall and Harry, go get your girls, bring them back here we can't risk them being out of our sight now." We nod in response and head out of the room and I begin to call Hope.
"What?" She answers and I begin to spew out words.
"Hope, you need to get Care and Lily ready to leave. They're closer than we think." I warn her and she goes silent.
"Hope?" I ask and I hear her let out a breath.
"Okay." Is all she says before hanging up on me. Niall and I race back to his place and we open the door seeing nothing but hear rummaging upstairs.
We run up and I see Hope in Lily's room packing her bag while Lily sits in the crib with a frown on her face. Hope looks up with a bewildered look on her face and I run over grabbing her in my arms.
"I'm sorry for being a dick earlier." I whisper hugging her closer to my body and she eventually gives in hugging me back.
"It's okay." She mumbles into my chest and I pull back looking into her eyes.
"Okay let's go get our stuff." I tell her, motioning her out of the room.
"Ni when you guys are done come over to ours you know the code." I tell him and he nods in response. We head over to the apartment and begin to pack some of our clothes.
The video keeps replaying in my head and I know it's true but I don't want to believe it. I zip up the suitcase, walking over to Hope before turning her around and lifting her shirt.
"Harry now isn't the time for us to fuck." She groans and I shut her up with my hand over her mouth. I stare at the scar on her belly button noticing the slightly wider line and I sigh out dropping my head down.
"Fuck!" I curse dropping her shirt and smacking the wall.
"H! What's wrong?" Hope says with worry, lacing her voice and I shake my head.
"We got a video of you being tortured today and I didn't want to believe it was true but fuck the proof is standing in front of me." I tell her and I drop my head on the wall feeling exhausted.
"H, it's in the past. I'm fine now." She whispers, placing her hand on my shoulder.
"It's not okay. I wasn't there to protect you and knowing more shit has happened to you and I didn't know makes me feel like the worst boyfriend in the world." I tell her and she's about to say something but is interrupted by the door opening from downstairs.
"Finish packing, we got to go." I tell her and she nods resuming her previous task. When she's done I grab our bags and head downstairs seeing Niall pacing around nervously.
"Here let me take Lily for you." Hope grabs Lily from Caroline's arms who thanks her.
"Okay ready?" I ask everyone and they all nod. We leave our apartment heading to the meeting room. We walk in and everyone is chatting and looking over the final plans. We put our stuff in the corner before heading over to the table when Dean claps his hands.
"Okay, here's the plan. Niall, you will be getting Lily and Caroline out of here first thing tonight and before you begin to fight me on this I know you want to be here but you are a father, and you need to be there for your daughter and future wife I will not under any circumstance let them lose you." He tells Niall who nods in response.
"Liam and Louis you are in charge of protecting the hall as Zayn and Athena will be here surveying the cameras and helping the others. Zayn and Athena as I just said you will be surveying the cameras, making sure that none of us are walking into a trap. Hope and Harry, you will be on the front lines. We have sent out a text telling members that have families to evacuate now while they can but to not make it look like something serious we have men stationed in the garage making sure only 1 car goes out with about 2 families every 20 or so minutes we also have decoys driving those cars back so if they are surveying us it just looks like they've been running errands in town. Anyone else remaining after the evacuation you are in charge of. We will all have in-ears and we will all be able to communicate with each other. Got that everyone?" Dean finishes and we all nod.
"When do we know it's over?" Hope asks and Dean sucks in a breath.
"When Gabe or I am dead." he answers and she nods her head.
"Niall, time to go." Dean says and he nods his head. Hope runs over to Niall hugging him tightly and they exchange a couple of words, both of them crying. Hope goes over to Caroline and I go to Niall who holds his hand out but I ignore it pulling him into a hug.
"Keep them safe for me okay?" I ask him and he nods.
"Always. Now you and Hope better make it out alive. You guys aren't Lily's godparents for nothing." He chuckles and I chuckle back. I let go of him going over to Caroline and Lily giving them hugs and exchanging some words. They leave after saying goodbye and we begin to finalize the plans.
"When it's over are we going to stay here or split up?" I speak up and Dean sighs pointing to Hope.
"Hope, explain please." He says and she gladly stands in front of him.
"So when this is all over when we get out of here, we have multiple private jets ready to go so when it's safe for you to leave, head to the airport. You will be getting on a flight to Hawaii, and we will meet up at the house that Athena and I were in when we left 3 years ago. Niall and the girls will be there by tomorrow. Dad bought the houses next door so everyone has their own place." Hope explains and I'm floored at how they both planned this out.
"I have my own house?" Athena asks only picking up on that sentence and Hope shakes her head.
"No, you will be living with dad." She explains and Athena groans.
"Aww, I thought I was gonna have a mansion to myself at 16." She pouts and we all let out a laugh.
"So is that plan good with everyone?" Dean asks and we all nod.
"The only condition is when you get out just tell us, whether it's through the earpiece or if yours breaks text us and someone with a working one will relay the information. Liam and Louis, you are still in charge of Zayn and Athena so what we ask is when they give you the all-clear, that you leave with them. The last people to leave will be Harry, Dad, and I after we make sure everything is clear." Hope explains and again we all nod.
"I love you guys." She whispers. Louis comes up to Hope wrapping her in a hug.
"I love you too Hope." He whispers and eventually we all whisper our love for each other coming together in one hug.
We may have all come from different paths of life but right now we are the most important people to each other.
We are a family.
Not even death can tear us apart, and that's all we can hope for now. That we all make it out alive, and I believe we will because love triumphs evil.
And because Hope will resurrect us and kill us again if we try to even leave her.