Louis POV
"What's happening?" I asked sharply. I was already running down the hallway and towards the exit. I could hear Lux's heavy breathing on the line and the panic in her voice was evident. Even without an explanation, I knew I'd need to get to them.
"We saw someone. I'm not exactly sure who but Harry's freaked out and I think it might be—"
"Tell him they're back!" Harry's voice snapped audible over Lux's. He never spoke to her that harshly. Even when they fought he maintained a level of composure better than that of what he offered others. His tone was high and ragged and twice as panicked as hers.
"Who's back?" I asked confused. I was approaching my car and I started fumbling in my pocket for the keys. "Where are you?"
"Harry who did you see?" Lux pressed again. "Was it the people that put the hole in the wall?"
I dropped my keys as she said those words. They clattered into the wet gravel lot noisily. "Excuse me?"
"He's nodding, Louis." She said it in a calm voice but I could hear the tense edge. She knew exactly who he was describing although she'd not been present for the event.
"Where are you?" I asked scrambling to pick the keys back up. I basically flew into the drivers seat. They couldn't be back? The police said we didn't have to worry about them.
I heard her ask Harry but she seemed to be having a hard time getting words out of him. I could hear her telling him to breath. I wondered what was going through his head. The knowledge that these people were out there made my blood run cold. I wanted to stop and panic but at least in my case, I had been mostly physically unharmed. I'd definitely been roughed up but Harry had been pistol whipped and then temporarily removed from life on earth. His trauma was deep. I needed to get to him. I needed to find out the truth and then get to the police! I needed to make sure everyone was safe!
"Lux," I pressed after settling into the drivers seat. "Where are you guys?"
"He says it's the alley behind Eleanors apartment," Lux said sheepishly.
If I wasn't so panicked I would have scowled. Instead I whipped out of the parking spot and peeled out of Melvins lot. They were only a few minutes away, but I still dreaded driving down those familiar streets. I didn't even know if Eleanor still lived there but it wasn't like it mattered. How did they even end up there?
I discarded my phone on speaker in the passenger seat and while I drove, I could hear Lux and Harry conversing. Lux was trying to speak in a soothing voice and Harry was mumbling back something inaudible. I caught the word "die" twice.
"Lux, are you guys safe?" I inquired trying to keep the wavering out of my voice.
"I think so," she said. I couldn't tell if she even believed that. Outside, rain drops started pattering on my windshield. I turned onto a busier road and then to the last side street and pulled over at the mouth of the familiar alley. I did my best to avoid looking at the big brick building. I heard Lux's voice before I saw the two of them but once my eyes adjusted to the darkness I realized Harry was on the ground with his head down and his knees to his chest. His shoulders were trembling. Lux crouched over him in the darkness holding one of his hands and speaking quicker than she normally reserved for him. "Louis here. Listen Harry, we're going to go home okay? We're going to be okay."
He whipped his head up and planted his panicked eyes on me. His face was pale and his eyes burned red. "Louis they're back and they saw me. They fucking saw me!" His voice sounded raw and terrified and unlike anything I'd ever heard from him before. I believed him wholeheartedly. I had wanted to believe that maybe he'd imagined them but looking at his face, I could see the ghosts haunting behind his eyes. He'd seen them, and it had terrified him. Harry was experiencing the same fear he'd had that night all over again.
I felt my heart go similarly cold, but I wasn't having the intense full body reaction Harry was having. My thoughts were swimming with all of the horrible possibilities, and I knew we needed to act. I decided to let my drive for action fuel me and I leaned down next to Lux in front of him.
"If you saw them out here then we need to go," I said seriously trying to omit all of the fear from my voice. I looked at Lux. "What did he see?"
"2 people in the park," Lux started.
"It was them!" Harry snapped sounding frustrated. "Louis I-"
"I believe you!" I cut him off. "Harry I believe you."
His face softened a little. I realized he was breathing very heavily. He looked faint and his clothes were wet. I was starting worry that the cold was going to harm him. We wasn't exactly the picture of health. I motioned for Lux to help me and together we each grabbed one of his shoulders hoisting him to his feet. "We ran a lot," Lux offered in explanation for his condition. It was more than that though. Harry was traumatized.
He allowed us to get him into the car all the while trying to choke out details of what he'd seen. They'd been in the park, as Lux had said. He'd seen the people walk by, he'd noticed what looked like a drug deal and then he'd seen their face. They'd seen him and they'd run. Lux told me he just took off. He apparently gave very little explanation. Harry reiterated that they'd seen him 3 more times.
Once in the warm car, his shock seemed to begin wearing off. His sentences felt more complete. Lux was leaning into the front seat with a hand on his arm trying to fill in the blanks and also keep him focused on the fact that we were totally safe in that very moment. We would be okay. I was clinging onto her words just as much as he was. I chose to ignore the underlying affections attached to her gesture.
We pulled into the police station much faster than the law would have allowed me to drive. I paused, pushing away the impending danger we faced to look at Harry. He smelled like liquor. "Before we talk to the police, I need to know you're not drunk," I said carefully.
Harry looked like he wanted to be offended. The words had actually sobered him a bit from the nervous mess he'd been portraying. "I'm fine. I haven't done anything," he said sounding defeated.
I didn't push to argue with him. We had too much going on for us to be lying to each other. The three of us climbed out of the car and made our way up to the dark doors at the station. Unfortunately, the cop at the front was one I recognized as Officer Watson. He was notorious in our household for really wanting to arrest Harry. We had to ignore that tension for the time being. When we got to the desk we all three started talking at once in a mush of words. He seemed to be barely following and kept turning on Harry to question him.
"Louis did he drink too much in public again? Is that what this is about?" He mused as we finished trying to tell what was going on.
"That's not what this is!!" Harry yelled frustrated. "Do I need to piss in a cup and blow in a tube to be taken seriously? Because I will!"
The officer ignored him turning back on me. I finally recognized he wasn't going to listen to anything Harry said and relaunched into the story myself, motioning for Harry to step aside.
The two men that had attacked us were back in the city. The people that had beat me up and shot a hole in our wall and hurt Harry and killed a woman as soon as they left our house. They knew where we lived. They knew that Harry knew they were now back in the city. We were in danger. We needed help. Another cop approached as we told our story. I knew he knew us too, but remembered him a bit more fondly.
As if me and Harry shared a brain, we had the thought at the same time. I had just finished my account when I watched his entire body stiffen. His eyes got impossibly wider and he whipped his head to make eye contact with me. He seemed like he wanted to say something but the words got lost in his brain. Then he clenched his fists so hard it must have been painful and said in a ghostly hollow voice, "Naomis home alone right now and they know where we live."
Naomis POV
I felt immensely guilty about faking sick to avoid going to Louis party. Of course I had actually woken up quite ill but it had tapered off throughout the day. I would have been fine to attend, except none of my dresses fit right anymore and I was tired and pregnant and stressed about how many people were going to be there. I felt gross admitting it but I didn't want to go out with him publicly. I didn't want people to know my name yet. I wanted longer with my anonymity. It was selfish.
Louis deserved someone who wanted to go and celebrate with him. He deserved someone who wanted to go cheer him on while he tried this new exciting thing. He deserved better.
I had thought about texting him multiple times throughout the night but I felt too guilty. Why should I push him to update me on how things were going if I couldn't be bothered to even accompany him? Instead I flitted around the flat trying to make myself useful. There wasn't much to clean. Harry was kind of a neat freak although he wouldn't admit it and he did the dishes religiously after cooking. Lux was a domestic so all the laundry was always done. Instead, all I could really do is sit on the couch and wait patiently for Louis to return so I could apologize.
I sat there quite peacefully reading through Harry's sobriety book that Lux had left discarded on the end table. I wasn't super interested but everyone else in the house had read it at that point so I figured I'd try. Then I heard the loud thump on the door.
At first I thought I'd imagined it. Then I heard it again a bit louder. I got up and walked over to it silently. At first, I considered opening it to see who was there, but then I froze. Louis and Harry had made it clear after the incident that nobody would come by unannounced. Harry had actually told me that at this point he wasn't willing to answer the door for anyone. Instead, while standing in front of the door, I slipped the chain lock into place with the slightest click and stepped back. The others could use the elevator when they got home anyways.
Whoever was outside must have heard the click because they froze and went quiet. I listened intently and heard voices conversing in a quick whisper. I couldn't quite make them out through the doors muffle but they felt familiar.
Then the slamming resumed twice as loud. "I know you're in there!" One of the voices yelled. I recognized it for sure. It was right in the corner of my brain. Like a lightbulb flipping on, I realized I was listening to the voice of the gun man. The one that had shot a hole in our wall. My heart nearly stopped.
I stepped back quickly and fumbled in the couch looking for my phone. I thought it had been there with me, but in my panicked state, it was nowhere to be found.
"Harry, it was great seeing you earlier. We had hoped you'd stick around to chat!" Another voice boomed. I recognized that one too as the gun mans partner. Had he seen Harry today? What had I missed? Was everyone okay?
I flipped the cushions off the couch and watched as my phone clattered to the ground with a loud smash. The screen shattered and as I scrambled to pick it up, I realized that it was broken beyond use. I was on my own.
"I can hear you," the gun man taunted. "It would be easier to get this over with. Be smart."
I swallowed hard. "I've called the police!" I yelled in what I hoped was a convincing tone.
"Ooh it's the lady friend," the other man laughed. "I wonder if she's alone?"
I cringed and backed to the opposite side of the couch, so that there was some barrier between me and that door which was beginning to shake pretty violently with every bang. My hands were shaking. A crack was forming near the handle of door.
Then the elevator dinged and Louis was shoving his way through the double doors before they ever had a chance to open all the way. People stood behind him but my panicked brain barely registered them.
The door was slammed again and I heard a loud crack as it's handle gave way. The chain stopped it again only slightly as the door opened several inches. I made eye contact with the crazed eyes of the man who'd held the gun to Louis and Harry's head.
Louis grabbed me and very gently tackled me to the ground, pushing my back against the sofa. There we sat on the floor out of sight of the assailants. Louis settled next in front of me with nervous eyes and grabbed me by the shoulders as if taking in every inch of my being. He looked panicked and relieved at the same time. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He asked me very sternly.
Behind the couch there was yelling and I finally registered that the men Louis had arrived with were the police. I heard several louder slams and pounding feet running out of the flat.
I nodded breathlessly. "I'm okay."
He cracked a sideways smile. "Next time, you'll have to just come with us."