"Evan," I call over to the tall boy, "I want you to keep an eye on that one."
I am back at the camp site. I tied the Grey Skin to a tree and took all of his weapons. He was heavily armed; knifes in his boots and belt, two axes on his back, over a dozen more of those damn blow darts, and of course the poisen that goes with it.
When Evan has run over to me and the new prisoner, I press one knife into his hand. "Make sure that bastard doesn't move from the spot," I grunt, still feeling furious.
Evan gives me a short nod, clearly happy to take the responsibility seriously.
"I'll go check on Harry," I tell him.
Evan turns around to look at the curly boy once more. "He'll probably be out for like an hour or so," he says to me, "We'll just have to wait."
Before I can respond, I hear the Grey Skin chuckle from behind us.
I turn around to face him with narrowed eyes. "Oh and Evan, don't hesitate to kick him in the balls whenever he opens his mouth," I spit.
Without waisting another second, I run over to where Harry is still lying on the ground, surrounded by the younger boys. Still unconscious. I kneel down next to him and feel my eyebrows furrow again.
"Hazza," I say under my breath, palming his cheek gently, "When will I ever be able to stop worrying about you, huh?"
I carefully push a strand of his hair out of his face and keep on caressing it in affection. That's when I realize how hot he is. His temples have already gathered a layer of sweat.
"Peter," I call in alarm, "Go get some wet towels or something. And you two," I gesture towards the other two younger boys, "help me carry him into a tent, will you?"
We lay him on top of as many pillows and blankets as we can find and cover him with the last remaining one to keep him warm. As soon as we have covered Harry, Peter comes in with a cold and wet towel which I use to lightly pat over Harry's face.
"You'll be fine, Harry," I say with a smile, blocking out the other three boys in the tent, "You'll be up and smiling and annoying me with your unfunny jokes, in no time. Promise." My smile slowly fades. I am mainly saying these things to convince myself. I know Harry can't hear me right now.
I tell the boys to keep an eye on Harry and exchange the towel whenever it becomes too warm, before I leave the tent to rejoin Evan with the prisoner.
"Now, dickhead," I snarl at the grey boy in anger, "How did you find us?"
The boy shrugs with a smile, "I bet you'd like to know that, don't you?"
"I wouldn't be waisting my time with you if I didn't want answers," I roll my eyes, "So just give me straight answers and stop with the ugly grin."
"Don't see the point in giving you anything, moron," he says unimpressed.
I laugh in annoyance. "Maybe you haven't noticed yet, but you're unarmed and tied to a tree," I say and pull my jack knife from my pocket.
"You going to kill me?" the Grey Skin snickers.
I scrunch up my face, pretending to consider it. "Not yet," I shrug, "I still need you to be able to talk to me for a while. But honestly, I don't care if you're bruised and bloody while talking. Not that you aren't already, right," I wink at him, walk to stand next to him, and finally jank the arrow out of his shoulder, at a strange angle because of the tree behind him. The boy screams in pain, more blood seeping out of the teared wound. I come to stand directly in front of him and use the bloody arrow head to pat his cheek, leaving red stains in his face.
"What you did there," I growl at him and point to the tent that Harry is still suffering in, "was the worst thing you could've done for yourself. You've made me angry, mate. Really angry. There is one thing you need to know about me. I'm a forgiving man. But if you hurt him, I'll make sure that the rest of your pathetic life will be miserable."
"Isn't he your fucking prisoner," the Grey Skin laughs, "Why would you even care if he's okay?"
"That's none of your damn business, is it?" I spit.
"Wait," Evan throws in, looking at the other boy, "You know who he is?"
The latter only smirks at him.
"Of course, he knows who Harry is," I frown, and feel like punching something. Maybe I should start with the bastard in front of me. "The Grey Skins were the ones to tell the police about him, remember?"
"And my people will be very pleased to learn that I have found out which gang took him," the boy smiles, but I can see in his face that he is still in a lot of pain.
"You think we're going to let you go?" I laugh in anger, "You think we'll ever let you run to your little friends so you can tell them about him?"
The Grey Skin only glares back at me in realization.
"But it's good to know that you're alone, right now," I continue, "I have enough on my mind at the moment as is. I don't need to be thinking about you lot messing shit up."
"You've really grown to like the cake eater, haven't you?" the grey-haired boy smirks.
I can feel my pulse quicken and start to take deep long breaths to try and keep it down. If he's going to make fun of Harry while he's still in that bad condition, I'm going to make him regret it.
"He's allowed to go on cute little trips with you, no chains, running around freely, he shows you how to bake - isn't that beautiful - you laugh together," he tells me, "It's really quite romantic."
He must've been watching us for a while before he shot Harry, to know so many details.
"You know, but what I don't get is that the rich kid seems to be pretty comfortable with his fate. He's smiling and joking and behaving like he's your equal," the Grey Skin continues.
"He is my equal," I growl.
When the captive laughs at my response, I shut him up by pressing the arrow head into his chest until I can see a bit of blood stain his shirt and he winces in pain. "Be careful with your attitude, shithead, or I'll show Evan here how to turn a Grey Skin into a Red Skin without killing it," I threaten in a low voice.
"Alright, alright," the boy says through his teeth, "but tell me one thing. Why the hell hasn't he run away from you, yet? Did you build him a castle inside of your foxhole and wipe his ass for him everytime he takes a shit, or what?"
I groan loadly and throw away the arrow. "I said," I snarl and jerk my knee up into his guts, "watch your attitude." Then I grab his neck and push his head into the tree. "And how the fuck do you know where we live? What was that about the foxhole?"
The Grey Skin looks bruised and bloody by now and I can see that he is in a lot of serious pain in many parts of his body, but he still manages to throw a half-sided grin at me. The Grey Skins really are so different from the Creepers. If this was a Creeper, he'd be crying and begging for mercy by now. Not this one, though. Grey Skins are determined fighters.
"You know, it suits you Sparrows to live like cavemen," he snorts, "You're just as dense and you obviously need the concealment to hide from gangs like ours, or the police. That's the difference between you and us. Power."
I roll my eyes at him but ignore him. "So you've seen the cave," I conclude, "You've followed us from there. All the way. Since we didn't get a visit by one of your people, yet, I'm assuming you're the only Grey Skin that knows about the cave," I pat his cheek, probably a bit too hard, and turn around to go check on Harry. He must be waking up any minute now, I guess.
"Congratulations," I shout while walking away, "You've just been selected as the permanent resident of our little dog cage at home. Say goodbye to your life."
I enter the tent and when I lay eyes on Harry, my entire demeanor changes instantly.
Harry looks worse than an hour ago. His curls are sticking to his wet forehead, there's a pained crease between his eyebrows. His breathing sounds troubled and way too fast.
The other boys look at me in despair. Peter is still trying to cool Harry's neck and head with towels but it doesn't look like it helps.
"Since when has he been like this?" I ask, my voice full of worry. Without waiting for an answer I hurry over to the unconscious and sit down at his side, taking one of his sweaty but cold hands into mine.
"At least 20 minutes," one of the boys says somberly.
"20 minutes?!" I flip around to him, "Why didn't you call for me?"
The boy looks to the ground in shame.
"We-we thought you were busy," Peter answers in his place.
I groan in irritation but turn back to Harry and keep my mouth shut. I know that whatever I'd tell them right now would only be 10 times harsher because I'm so afraid for the boy beside me.
"What am I gonna do, Harry," I whisper to him in fear, "This isn't normal."
Now that I am so close to him, I can see that his face has tinted green. Tiny moans of pain escape his lips and his head feels even hotter than before.
"This doesn't happen with anesthetics," I say to the others, "He should be looking like he's sound asleep. This isn't a normal reaction."
"Maybe he's allergic," someone suggests but I shake my head.
"No, this doesn't look like an allergic reaction either," I say, lost in my own thoughts, "Maybe something was wrong with the blow dart."
I gently push one of my hands under his head and put my other arm around his shoulder to carefully turn him to the side, so I can have a look at the puncture.
I gasp for breath when I see the back of Harry's neck. The puncture looks dark and has swelled up a lot, but the worst thing is that the entire lump is covered with purple veins leading away from the puncture.
I curse under my breath and stroke his hair further out of the way to take a closer look at it. What the hell happened? I catch myself repeating his name in desperation while continuing to stoke his hair. I have no fucking clue what is going on and I'm starting to freak out here.
I get myself to look into Harry's face and try to wrap my head around everything. This can't be leading to where I think it is. There must be something that I'm missing. I need to fix this. But how?
Suddenly, I hear the voice of the Grey Skin in my head: Let's just see who of us will pay more, in the end.
My breath catches. No! I've already found out that he knows how Harry and I have become close. He knows I care for him. He knows what it would do to me if I'd lose him. He's knew what he was talking about when he said that to me. He's making me pay!
Once more, I caress Harry's face that is still twisted in pain. I don't want to leave him. All I want is stay with him and make sure he won't get worse.
But I have to save him. I have no idea how, but I know that the bastard outside will have an answer.
I get up and storm out of the tent and towards the captive.
"What the fuck kind of poison was in that blow dart?" I shout in fury, before I even arrive at the tree.
The Grey Skin snickers. "Finally figured it out, huh?" he says.
I don't listen to him. "With what shit did you poisen him," I yell. I don't know when I have ever felt this furious in my life. And he is laughing in my face?
"One of my own creations," he winks at me, "it works slow, but it's very effective."
"You fucking shitface!" I yell at him. I feel so helpless, I can't think of anything else to do.
The other boy stays completely calm. "It was perfect for this occation. My people can't use him, the police knows about the abduction because of us. We would immediately be arrested if we used him for our own cause. But poisening him like that would have multiple benefits. He would be in enough agony for you to freak out and start blaming yourself for not being able to help him, eventually he'd die and you would be in pain which," he smiles at me, "is always a nice touch, don't you think. And lastly, you'd lose your hostage and therefore leverage against the Styles family and if they'd catch you, this would be a murder case and not just an abduction."
"That's it!" I yell and close the distance between me an him, punching him in the face. I can hear a crack, that was probably his nose. That's far from enough, though. "I'll fucking kill you, you son of a-"
"Stop it, Louis!" Evan yells and tries to pull me away from the Grey Skin, but I'm far too furious to let him stop me. "Louis! Listen to yourself," he yells, "It's no use!"
I punch him over and over again, finally letting my steam off. All I can feel is the hatred against that guy and my worries about Harry.
When my fists are full of blood and the Grey Skin is close to passing out, I am finally pulled away from him. The other three boys have come out of the tent to help Evan. They're not letting go of me and after a minute of trying to trash myself free, I give up and try to calm down. But it's hard.
"Alright," I finally snarl at our captive, "I'll give you one chance. If you want to live, tell me how I can stop the poison from killing Harry."
When the Grey Skin laughs, it sounds more like a weak rattle. "You can't," he states.
I can feel my heart sink and my pulse quicken. I'm horrified. But my mind still wants to fight. I can't give up.
"You're lying!" I accuse him, "I know you're lying! There has to be something!"
"Face it. There's nothing," the bastard murmurs, being to weak to talk in a normal voice.
"No! No, I won't believe that," I yell with a lump in my throat, "Evan. Bring me the blow dart."
Without a word Evan lets go of me and leaves the rest of us to go looking for the weapon.
"If he dies because of you," I say in a low voice but I know that the bruised guy in front of me can hear me, "this will not end well for you. I will make the rest of your life literal hell. I'll kill every single person that you love and make you watch."
"Louis," Peter says under his breath, "You're not being yourself, right now."
Before I can think about that or at least snap at him, Evan rejoins us with the blow dart.
I really have no idea what to do with it. I take a very close look at it, but I don't even know what to look for. But there has to be something. Anything!
"There's still some poison clinging to the dart," I mumble and look up into the Grey Skin's eyes, "I bet it would have the same effect on you as it has on Harry."
"You can't threaten me, idiot," the other one grunts, "There's not enough poisen left to kill me."
I look at it again and shrug. "I could kill you with anything - a knife, a rope, my hands - but I bet this can give you as much pain as it is giving him," I say and take a step closer towards him, "It'll hurt even more than the pain that you're already in, but you won't die."
When I look into my enemy's eyes again, I know that I am right. But that's what makes things even worse. I know that Harry must be in the worst pain if the Grey Skin doesn't even want to be poisened with the tiny rest.
"Do whatever pleases you," he says to my surprise.
"Oh, I will," I growl at him and step directly in front of him, pressing the dart against his neck, before I raise my voice again, "if you don't fucking tell me how to save Harry!"
The boy only laughs again.
"Now! Tell me, you fucking miserable rat," I yell in his face.
When the twat still doesn't speak, I press the tip into his neck. I immediately see the effects. His breathing becomes heavy and he starts moving as much as he can manage.
But then his eyes meet mine and he stills. "You're such a wimp," he hisses in pain, "He's your fucking hostage, and look at yourself and how you act just because of that rich idiot. But you're out of luck. You will never get the answer out of me. And I will never let you lock me up and hold me hostage. Go watch your little friend die. You have no power over me!"
Then, he moves something from the back of his mouth in between his front teeth and showes it to me with a smile. It looks like a tiny red candy. I frown at him. I have no idea what he's trying to tell me with this. Suddenly, he bites down on it an swallows.
His face scrunches up in pain and a croak esqapes his mouth right before he coughs up blood. Within seconds, his breath sounds like he's drowning. Just a moment later he stops moving altogether and his chin falls to his chest.
He's dead.
So, please tell me if you liked it, guys :)
Oh and I have a question for you, I'm curious: Did you notice anything about Louis in this chapter that was different from the rest of the story (I mean besides that he was freaking furious at the kid)? I mean something that was different (behaviour/thoughts) when it came to Harry.
I just want to know if someone noticed :P
Alright, have a beautiful day/night/morning/afternoon, wherever you awesome people live! ♥