Part One of the Invasato Finale...
Harry Styles
Play dead. Lay low. Let them lower their guard. Escape.
That's what I did when they caught us in the garden, it's what I knew I had to do when I saw Elaina unconscious.
I acted like I was knocked out. I let them bring me into the basement of the museum, tie me to a chair, all while listening to their conversations—allowing me to find out where they were keeping Elaina.
And then, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, I used every ounce of strength and agility I knew I had to get myself free from the chair.
Now, I'm trying to remain unseen as I get up to the attic, to get Elaina.
I'm weaponless. I came here prepared, but they took everything when they caught us.
I don't really care who I have to get through to save her. All I know is I'll die trying if I have to.
It's getting really late, people have begun to leave but there's still enough of them around for me to blend in.
I know they've probably realized by now that I'm gone, which means my time is even more limited. They're hunting me down with every passing second.
This museum is fucking huge, I haven't seen any of the others since I left to go find Elaina in the garden. I'm just praying everyone's alive.
I shove past people looking at exhibits, keeping my head down and moving fast.
I've been in hundreds of museums, I can navigate around. The trouble comes from the surrounding threats.
I don't know how many people Carter has here. I don't know what the final plan is. I don't know where my friends are.
Things looks really bleak for us, but I'm not giving up even if this ends with me bleeding out on the ground.
I hurry up the staircase to the second level quickly, rushing down the hallways to find the closed off stairwell that will lead me to the attic. Moonlight shines through the windows, sculptures and glass cases on either side of me.
It's emptier up here, with the gala being held downstairs. Pacing down the halls, I feel my stomach turn with unease.
It could be due to the fact that I'm walking head first into a deadly situation...but something tells me that right now in these empty hallways, I'm not alone.
I pause, staying silent, listening.
Footsteps.
They're rushed...quick...and they stop a few short moments after me.
That looming presence washes over me, causing me to slowly glance over my shoulder without fully turning my head.
But before I can see anyone in full view, a hard, cold, deadly object is pressed against the back of my head. I inhale sharply through my nose, staying as still as possible knowing I don't have the upper hand right now.
"Hands up, Styles. You're done." a voice that I can only recognize as Marco taunts behind me, pressing a gun to the back of my skull.
"Feeling good about yourself, Marco?" I question, putting my hands up by my head like he wanted.
"If it were up to me, I'd shoot you dead now." he sneers.
"Ah, but you're nothing but a henchman though, right? You take orders you'll never make."
"Watch your mouth, kid."
I chuckle. "You know, it's funny...we worked in the same organization for years but you still forgot that we were trained by the same person."
I can hear him pause. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean--"
He's distracted by using that tiny brain in that big ass head and thinking too hard, I take that as my cue.
I have to be quick. Too quick for him to pull the trigger. I turn around and grab his wrist, stepping into his arm. He curses and fires the gun, no doubt being heard by the museum attendees.
That gunshot will trigger panic and police. That one gunshot just cut our time in half.
Gaining control over someone who had almost a foot of height on me wasn't easy. I grab his shoulder with my free hand and lift my knee and drive it into his stomach while bending his arm back. He drops the gun, sending it sliding across the floor.
I immediately disengage from Marco and go for the gun. A weapon is my best bet right now.
Realizing what I'm doing, Marco goes after me. "Little shit." he mutters under his breath as he plows into
my back, pushing me down. I grunt as my body hits the floor, the gun just out of my reach as I extend my arm for it.
A battle ensues, with me pulling myself away from him and Marco attempting to grab my limbs to stop me. He has his hand wrapped around my ankle while I kick my legs, flipped over on my back now so I could see him.
With a final hard kick, I get him right in the nose, immediately making him let go and grab his face in pain. I scramble for the gun, on my hands and knees as I finally grab it. As soon as it's in my hand, I turn around on the ground, facing him and pointing the gun straight at him.
I don't know what kind of commotion is happening downstairs, all I know is I have to act fast and save Elaina.
I pull the trigger, shooting him in the chest.
He cries out, stumbling back as his hand immediately goes to his chest. Blood drips down his face from his nose. He falls into the wall behind him, blood spilling into his white shirt.
Breathing heavy, I get up, ready to leave Marco there knowing he won't survive.
I turn to walk away, but then I hear Marco's weakened and pained voice from the ground.
"I knew I was gonna die tonight." he manages to let out a chuckle.
I stop and look over my shoulder.
He sniffs. "We all came here knowing it was a suicide mission...all of us knowing Carter would make be the one to survive it all."
His words make me confused...nervous. I turn around, my brows furrowed as I grip the gun and take a step toward him.
"What are you talking about?" I question.
Marco looks at me, and for the first time since I've known him, I see human emotion in his eyes. A tear rolls down his cheek, yet he looks at me with satisfaction, like he knows something I don't.
His lips shake as he struggles to speak, dying.
"Bombs. There are bombs planted everywhere. He can set them off with a simple click of a button."
My eyes grow wide and my lips part in shock, my blood freezing as he delivers the heart dropping news.
"He designed this night to have no survivors, even his employees." Marco stammers right before he begins to have a coughing fit, blood coming from his mouth as he can't catch his breath.
"S-shoot me, Styles. P-please, it hurts." he struggles, tears rolling from his eyes. He wants me to put him out of his misery.
I should walk away, leave him there to suffer in his last moments.
But something won't let me do that. Something in me, which I have pushed down for years now, can't fathom leaving a human being here to die slowly.
So, I do what I know. I raise the gun and I shoot.
The bullet hole in his head, the blood, the way his head collapsed and his whole body went limp. It's nothing I haven't seen before but I stand and stare at it for a moment.
Running footsteps alarm me as they turn the corner before I can process it. I look up from the dead body, seeing Niall run on to the scene.
I immediately feel a sense of comfort, even in a situation like this.
He looks at Marco, his eyes wide. "I-I heard the gunshots and I followed the noise."
"What's going on down there?" I ask, hearing screams and commotion.
"Carter's men, the guys in the white masks, they've taken over. Most people managed to get out but they've taken the security hostage and locked the doors." he tells me.
I run a stressed hand through my hair, looking down at the ground. I shake my head.
"I haven't found Elaina yet." I mumble in stress.
"Well let's go, I'll help—"
"No," I stop him. "No, I need you to find the others and get them out. Angela especially. He's got bombs everywhere."
His eyes grow with a sense of fear. I know he wants to help me but I need him to think about the rest of the group.
"Call Vince. As soon as you're out. Tell him to send in a helicopter up to the roof."
"But what if you guys don't—"
"Do it, Niall."
He's hesitant to leave, but he knows he has to. He nods, pulling out his gun from his waistband. "I better see you again." he says to me, right before turning and running the way he came.
As soon as he's done, I have to look to the ground to collect myself. I had this weird feeling of emotions rising in my throat, which I knew I had to suppress or else I wouldn't be able to save her.
Toughen up, then go do what you need to.
I leave, running towards the employee stairs which will bring me to the attic. It's a set of narrow stairs that lead up to a horizontal door.
All I can think about as I slam my shoulder and fist and gun repeatedly into that door to break it down is seeing Elaina. I have to prepare my mind to see her hurt.
She'll be alive, only because they want her to watch me suffer. But god knows what state she'll be in.
What if she hasn't even woken up yet? What if she's still unconscious and completely unaware of the danger we're in.
The wooden door gives, slamming open and smashing into the floorboards. I go up the rest of the stairs, being met with a long dark hallway of storage.
At the end of this hallway, a closed door conceals the sinister intentions behind it. I know she's behind it.
I feel my chest get heavy with anxiety as I look ahead.
She needs to make it out of here alive and she doesn't have a lot of time.
I grip the gun, approaching the door. My hand goes to the knob and I take a deep breath in and then opening the door as quickly as I can.
Meeting my biggest fear right in front of me as I grip the gun in my hand, breathing heavy. I feel so many sets of eyes on me but I'm focused on one.
Right across the room, Elaina is tied to a chair, her mouth covered with tape as she sobs into it, seeing me.
My father, unmasked, is holding her by the hair, a knife to her neck.
Her neck. My attention goes to her neck and the painfully familiar piece of jewelry around it—my mother's necklace. The necklace that Carter stole.
The necklace that I stored here for protection.
It's all full circle. It started here. It ends here.
Beside Elaina, in a different chair, sits Isaac who's also tied up. He was the last thing I was expecting to see, but I'm not surprised...Carter will use anything he can as leverage.
And there Carter was, on the other side of Elaina. He looked up and at me and smiled the second I came storming in.
I hold the gun up, frantic over the scene in front of me. I keep looking at Elaina, seeing the pain and horror in her eyes.
"We've been expecting you." Carter smirks.
I look at my father, who is stone faced. The evil that I always knew was in him was fully at the surface. He warned me not to come here but I didn't listen, now he doesn't care what happens to me. If he did, he wouldn't be holding a knife to Elaina's neck to keep me in line.
"You'd be smart to drop the weapon, Harry." Carter speaks again. "I know your old man has been dying to use that knife on her."
I glance at him, gripping the gun harder as I point it at him.
When I don't immediately give in, Carter shrugs with closed lips and looks over to my father.
Then, my father takes the knife and brings it to the front of Elaina's throat, like he's ready to drag it across in a fatal swipe.
Elaina screams into the tape with her eyes pinched shut, I scream too, along with Isaac.
"Stop!" I instantly let go of the gun, hearing it crash to the floor as I raise my hands next to my head. "Okay, okay. I dropped it, see? I dropped it."
Carter looks satisfied, and then looks behind me and nods. Right away I hear the door close and feel my hands being grabbed and pulled behind my back while I'm knocked down to my knees. I can hear Elaina crying.
My hands get taped behind my back, while Carter signals to my father to let up on the knife on Elaina's throat. I don't fight, I have to listen for now.
"Well, what a reunion this is." Carter gloats, coming to stand in the middle of the room. He crouches down to my level, I stare at him with fury. "It's nice to see you again, Harry."
"Let her and Isaac go and you can have me." I state.
"Oh, the negotiations have begun early I see." he laughs.
"She's innocent." I argue.
"Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but innocent or not, she's not going anywhere."
My jaw clenches, my entire soul and body wanting to kill the evil that's in front of me.
I look past Carter, over to my father. I have no words for him, there's nothing to say. The hatred on my face speaks enough volumes.
He knows what he's doing because he wants to do it.
"Let me remind you though, that any innocence she may have had was stripped when you came into her life." Carter continues, then looks at Elaina.
"I knew once you were under this guise that you and him were close, you were exactly the threat I thought you were. You were everything I knew I needed to destroy." he addresses her, making her glare at him through teary eyes.
"She wouldn't have even known about you until you got yourself involved." I retort, wanting him to focus on me and not Elaina.
"Exactly." he nods. "Because our mother and father intended to erase any sign of my existence...tossed me out and locked me up like I was nothing. To them, I was less than bacteria in the ground."
I stay quiet, Carter looks at my father and then back at me.
It's making me furious that my father is standing there silent.
"You know what it's like to be abandoned." he comments, the words only intending to get into my head, not to empathize with my feelings towards my father.
I look ahead at my father briefly. "Except your parents weren't the psychopaths," I look at Carter again. "You were."
"Regardless," he gestures to Elaina. "She is what's left of them. And she has to go, and how perfect is it that you two are here at the same time. Two birds. One stone."
I look at Isaac, seeing him struggle. I know we've had our differences—if you can call it that. He wasn't someone I respected, but he still never did anything that calls for what's going to happen to him simply for being leverage.
I look at Elaina. Silent tears roll down her eyes while she looks back at me, knowing there's nothing we can do. It kills me to see her forced to sit in painful defeat.
I tried so hard to save her from this. Still it wasn't enough.
My eyes fall back on Carter. "You're not gonna get away with this. There are people who will wonder where they are." I say, referring to Elaina and Isaac.
Carter scoffs. "Please, don't you realize how easy you've made this for me?" he says, I tilt my head.
He points to me. "The girlfriend leaves the boyfriend, we can make up something fun, maybe you were abusive. Maybe you were controlling. Anyway, she goes back to her ex fiancé."
I watch him pace as he lays out the story. Elaina and Isaac watch him as well.
"You, the now ex boyfriend with a concerning temper, finds out. You go insane, you can't control it. You act out of passion and rage...you kidnap them. You threaten her...the classic 'if I can't have you, no one can.'...you kill the fiancé," he points to Isaac with his fingers in the form of a gun, pretending to fire a bullet. Then he moves to Elaina, doing the same. "Then you kill her, realizing she doesn't want you." He turns to me. "Then, when it all sinks in, you realize what you've done. You stand over her body and realize that you've ended the one thing you loved. You turn the gun on yourself. A tragic murder-suicide."
Elaina sniffles and hangs her head, eyes shutting. Isaac blinks away tears.
"You're insane." I mutter.
Carter shakes his head and walks toward me, picking up the gun I dropped on the way. "No, Styles. You are. You did this, remember?"
Like a lighting strike, happening so fast, he turns and aims a bullet right into Isaac's skull.
My ears ring as I watch Isaac fall limp in the chair, his life ending so suddenly. My muffled sense of hearing picks up Elaina's screams of terror through the duct tape.
My eyes are wide in shock, my body stuck in time.
I look at Elaina. She's fighting her restraints, looking at Isaac's body and sobbing. She's hysterical.
I know that if we manage to get out of here, she's traumatized for a lifetime.
"You know, Harry, I thought you knew better." Carter goes on like it was nothing—to him, I guess it was. "You lured her into danger and now you're upset that what you knew would happen is happening."
I manage to shift my eyes to him, my lips still parted in shock.
"You only have yourself to blame." he tsks, shaking his head like he's disappointed.
He turns to Elaina and paces toward her, she tries to contain her shaking and watches him with caution, still crying. "Did you know, Elaina...that necklace you're wearing...that's why he's here. That is what he wants, that's the only reason he got close to you."
I shake my head. "N-no. That's not true."
He looks at me. "You would have killed her for that necklace. Months ago, if you saw her sitting here wearing that, you would have shot her dead without thinking twice. It was all a show. How cruel of you."
"Carter, stop this. Please—"
"Isn't that cruel, Elaina?" he ignores me and continues to talk to her. "He wanted you dead. You were simply flesh to him. Meat." he points to me. "You can sit here and feel bad, or you can take your final moments to appreciate that he'll never walk the earth again. He'll never hurt anyone again."
Hearing that from him didn't hurt me, but when I saw Elaina blink from me to look up at him, and nod...I felt my heart drop.
She nods at him, and averts her eyes down to the duct tape on her mouth, signalling for him to take it off.
He looks at me, smirks, and then takes the tape off of her mouth. I can only sit here and watch.
"You're right." she immediately gasps through her cries, being able to speak and breathe through her mouth. "You're right, he's evil."
I feel a stabbing pain in my chest.
Carter turns to me. "You hear that Harry?"
I just look at her, my eyes filled with pain.
"He betrayed me." she speaks, an ache in her voice.
"Elaina—"
"You're right, Elaina, he did." Carter's voice goes eerily soft, like he's brainwashing her into taking his side. "So, I'm sure you can watch in a final moment of satisfaction while I put an end to everything he's done."
He raises the gun to me but Elaina immediately shouts out.
"No!" she cries. "No, let me do it. I-I want to."
I feel everything inside of me collapse. It was a deep sorrow that I have only felt two times before. Losing my mom, and losing her.
But I can't say I don't understand where she's coming from. I ruined her.
I'd kill me too.
Carter looks down at her with furrowed brows. He can claim she's not innocent all he wants but when she finally does this, he's confused.
She looks back at him. "Let me kill him." she mutters, trying to keep her voice steady like her ex fiancé isn't dead in the chair next to her.
His lips slowly turn up as he chuckles to himself. "Turns out we're blood after all, sis." he speaks condescendingly. "But I can't untie you."
"Please." she breathes out in despair. "Every other part of me is gone. I have nothing left. Let me have this one thing and then you can kill me...I'm already dead."
I listen to those words and I know it's my fault. My betrayal made her numb to her own pain.
She can't trust.
She can't love.
She can't live with what's happened.
I destroyed her, and she has every right in the world to kill me for it.
Carter looks at my father, who is standing there numb to the fact that I'm going to die. Carter's thinking, thinking about how it may be satisfactory for him to watch her kill me.
"Alright." he nods, nodding to my father who begins to untie her. She lets out a subtle sigh of relief. He leans down to her. "Don't try anything. I'm doing this for you."
She nods as she stands up, free from her binds. Carter places the gun in her hand and she looks at it for a moment, breathing through her mouth.
I don't know if she actually plans to give in after she kills me. I hope not. I hope she shoots everyone in this room and saves herself, and never looks back.
She deserves a fresh start, I'm just sorry that I couldn't give it to her.
And I'm sorry that I won't be able to see it.
Finally, she looks at me. She hasn't looked at me since she said she wanted to kill me. Not once until now.
I see fresh tears form in her eyes, as she walks up to me and raises the gun to my head.
Her hands are shaking, her finger on the trigger. Her eyes look down on me, watery and agonized as her chin trembles.
I just give her a soft, small smile. I nod against the gun.
"I love you. It's okay." I whisper, like we were the only two people in the world.
Even when my soul becomes bodiless, it's still my soul. And my soul loves her deeply, it never won't love her.
I already forgive her. My last seconds alive will be spent at her mercy and I'm ready.
I'm ready.
I hear a shot ring out, and for the smallest fraction of a second I thought she had killed me, until I realized she had raised the gun and shot the masked man behind me.
Quickly, she turns around and shoots again. At my father.
I watch in shock as she shoots my father in the shoulder, causing him to fall to the ground immediately.
Carter ducks down, shielding his head, but she manages to get his leg.
I breathe erratically, watching it all unfold so fast. Just seconds ago, she was holding that gun against my head and now all three of the men in here were suffering from gunshot wounds.
I stare at the scene in pure disbelief, not fully processing anything until Elaina gets behind me and starts ripping at the duct tape around my wrists.
"Fuck you!" Carter screams from the ground.
"Get up!" Elaina shouts at me, pulling at my free arm.
I come to my senses, standing up and realizing she had just potentially saved the both of us.
I grab her hand, my sense of protection taking over. We run as fast we can down the hall and to the narrow stairs.
God knows what's going on downstairs. We need to get to the west staircase to take us up to the roof.
We're going off of chance here. I don't even know if Niall got everyone out.
Gripping her hand, I take us back through the halls that I ran through to find her.
"Harry, wait!" she freezes to a stop and drops my hand.
"What is it?"
She reaches behind her neck, undoing the necklace so it falls off into her hand. She grabs my hand and holds my palm out, placing the chain in my palm and closing my fingers over it.
"Take it. Just in case."
I look from my palm to her.
"You're making it out of here." I reassure.
She repeats quietly, "Just in case."
The lights in the museum suddenly turn off and go red.
Red strobing lights.
And then, the alarm. The blaring alarm.
What follows, is the horrific sounds of an explosion.
The bombs.
"We need to go." I murmur, shoving the necklace in my pocket and grabbing her hand again.
"They're over here!"
I hear a voice shout from behind us. I look over my shoulder to see maybe four white ski mask wearing men coming right for us.
They start to shoot, grazing the walls around us and the art sculptures. Elaina, holding the gun still, attempts to look behind her and shoot back until a bullet grazes her arm.
She cries out in pain, but her running doesn't falter. She's in survival mode. Bombs continue to go off on the first floor and I can hear them from the garden outside.
The only way out for us is the roof.
I duck us behind a wall, the staircase just up ahead.
Another explosion sets off, right near us. It shakes the floor, causing things to fall over.
I take the gun from her, gesturing to the stairs. "Go all the way up to the roof, Vince sent a helicopter. I'm right behind you."
She looks at the stairs, and then back to me. It was a look of hesitation and yearning.
She doesn't say a word. She knew what she wanted to say, I could tell by her eyes, but there was no time.
So she runs, sprinting to and up the stairs. I turn over the edge of the wall and start aimlessly shooting.
I'm exhausted. I'm weak, but I need her to make it out of here.
Bullets are flying, debris from the continuous explosions is flying everywhere. It's a blood bath.
I shoot one guy down, which causes the others to trip over him and the debris, also blinded by the smoke.
A part of the wall next to me explodes, sending me falling across the marble floor.
The entire building is up in flames. It's going to collapse.
I make a run for it. I have no time to fight.
Sprinting for the stairs, I make it to the heavy steel door that leads to the roof.
Opening it, a gust of smoky air hits me. There's no freshness in the sky.
It's like the world is ending.
I see Elaina standing in the middle, looking out into the sky. Into the nothingness. Her blue dress is swaying in the wind.
She looks over her shoulder at me.
"The helicopter isn't here." she says, her voice cracking.
I walk forward, looking up into the sky to see if I could see something...anything.
But she's right, there's no helicopter.
"No, no, no." I mumble, hurrying up to the ledge. I look over it, seeing the grass on fire and the sidewalk torn up. "No, they were supposed to be here. This was supposed to be our way out."
Niall didn't make it out.
I stare over the ledge, defeat sinking in. I feel Elaina come up behind me and grab my hand.
"What do we do..." she murmurs.
I hear the muffled chaos below, looking back at the door.
They'll be coming through that door soon.
Elaina squeezes my hand, making me look to her instead. I breathe out in despair and shake my head. I didn't have to say anything for her to understand that we're doomed.
She inhales sharply and looks down at her feet, pressing her lips together tightly as if to keep herself from breaking down before she looks up again, looking at the sky.
She's silent, wind blowing through her hair.
"The stars look like that van Gogh painting." she whispers.
I slowly turn to see what she's seeing, having trouble taking my eyes off of her.
I'll never see things the way she does. She has an eye for beauty in everything.
We're about to crumble to the ground and she has found one last thing to beautify.
I feel her turn her head toward me, "Hey," she says softly,
I turn my body to face her.
"You did everything you could." she states, trying her best to to softly smile at me although her eyes are tearing up and her fingers are shaking in mine over the knowledge of what's about to happen.
We're in our final moments. We both know it.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save us." I tell her.
A tear runs down her cheek as her head shakes. "I was saved when you let me know you."
My brows crease with emotion as I nod in return.
She saved me too. A long time ago.
"I love you so much." I bring my hands to her face.
What an honour it is to see the end of my life next to her.
"I love you too." she chokes on a cry, unable to hide her emotion now.
I rub her cheek, and find my lips pulled to hers as it was the last time. She sniffles as we kiss, eyes closed so we're oblivious to the doom surrounding us for just another moment.
When we pull away, we look at each other knowing that we don't have to say much.
I interlock my fingers with hers, as I intend to go with her hand held in mine.
We look out over the ledge. The stars are out. Somewhere behind those stars, in another reality, we're looking at them from the roof of our house. We're safe there.
She breathes in.
"We almost made it."
//
Chapter 77 coming soon.