Disclaimer: This was written over 10 years ago, and the author no longer agrees with many of the concepts found in this story. Some of the content will be cringey and/or problematic. Please remember this is entirely fictional and does not represent the author's beliefs.
Twitter: dazzleizzy
Copyright © 2012-2023
Zayn's POV
"All of you. Sit. Carl, get the fucking keys and take the cuffs off the girls." I command as we step into the security room. I'm absolutely fuming, and I don't know how I haven't punched someone yet.
They do as I say, and Carl unlocks the handcuff. Perrie's hands go up to her neck, rubbing at the bruises. Her eyes avoid Niall, who was glaring at the floor.
"Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?" I shout. "Niall!"
He sighs. "Harry's GPS signal alarmed us that he was off premises. And then the signal died."
"Did you locate the place where you last had contact with the GPS? Did you fucking send someone out after him?"
They're all going to get punished for this, with Harry's being the worst punishment, and Niall being next for not telling me right away and trying to force the information out using violence.
The look on his face confirms my suspicions. "You didn't fucking send out someone after him? What the fuck where you thinking!?" I let out an enraged breath. They've got to be fucking kidding me.
"I was trying to make sure it wasn't just a glitch-" Niall tries to defend himself.
I raise my hand to cut him off. "Shut the fuck up. Carl, get someone on Harry's trace immediately. Did every single one of you dipshits decide not to use your brain when this shit fucking happened?! Get someone on his trace immediately!"
"Right-" Carl says lamely, and then picks up the telephone to make a phone call.
I bring up my hand to the bridge of my nose, pinching it and letting out a breath. I needed to get all this shit spotted through with.
"Okay. You three," I point to both women and Niall, "follow me. Carl, once you fucking get someone on Harry's trail, notify me and let me know if anything happens. I don't care how miniscule the detail, I want to be notified of everything. Contact me through my phone. Alright?"
The security officer nods, and continues to make his phone call.
"You three," I turn to them again. "Follow me."
~~
I led them all to one of the small conference rooms, except this one was far from the ballroom, on the complete opposite side of the mansion.
When they all took their seats, I remained standing. I didn't how to start, or what to say.
"Can one of you care to explain what the fuck was going on when I found you all in the dungeons?" There, that's a start.
Perrie glares at Niall before looking up at me from her chair. "He fucking attacked me, thinking that I knew where Harry was. You should ask him what was going through his imbecile mind at that point in time." She snarls.
"They both fucking know," Niall spits back, "she was literally with Harry all week long, and he had to have said something." He reasons.
I turn to Perrie. "Did he say anything to you about this?"
"No," she looks away. "He never said anything to me." There's something new in her tone, something that I can't quite distinguish.
Niall lets out a snort of disbelief. "Yeah, right."
The blonde jumped out of her seat suddenly angered by Niall's sarcastic remark. "Fuck you! You're so fucking dumb, I swear! I was in my fucking room, how would I know anything about him running away?"
I close my eyes in annoyance, and let out another gust of breath before interrupting the two. "Okay, but why the fuck is Jillian in this?"
Perrie turns to Jillian, and shrugs her shoulders. "Ask him."
Niall hesitates. "Jillian had the other implanted tracker, I wanted to make sure that she was here before I can rule her out."
"But you brought her to the dungeons why?"
"I-" he pauses, unsure of how to continue.
"Exactly." Perrie snaps. "You're just fucking crazy."
"Enough!" I yell, shutting the two up. "That's enough fighting! Jill, you can go back to the party. I don't want any mention of this, okay?" I shake my head.
Jill nods silently, and stand up to leave. With one glance back at Perrie, she leaves the room, and chooses the door behind her.
I pinch the bridge of my nose once more, all my muscles tensing up, bottling the anger inside of me. "Okay. Niall - just go. I don't fucking care what you do right now, I'll deal with you later. Just know that what you did is unacceptable, and you're going to get punished for it."
"Sir-" he tries to protest.
"Out." I point to the door. "I said I'll deal with you later."
When he's finally out of the room, I turn to Perrie. She doesn't meet my eyes.
"Are you sure that you don't know anything about Harry leaving or where he's headed?" I ask her, and then frown. "Look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you."
She slowly moves her eyes up to meet mine, and takes a deep breath before answering me.
"I'm sure."
"And you're not lying to me?" I raise an eyebrow, skeptical.
She takes a few seconds before she shakes her head slowly and replies. "No, Sir. I'm not lying to you."
She holds my gaze, unwavering, until I finally nod.
"Okay. Well, go ahead and go on to the party. I don't want you instigating anything with Niall, so keep your distance from him. I'll deal with him tomorrow once the party is over. You're free to go."
Perrie stands up, her hands making their way to get neck again. She wines as she walks towards the door, but I stop her before she leaves completely.
"Perrie, I want you to go to Abby's room, and try to convince her to come out to the ballroom. I know she won't listen to me, but you might be able to convince her." I say, and then add, "Please."
Perrie immediately looks away, and turns toward the door. Her voice is hoarse when she speaks.
"Okay, Sir."
"Thank you." I breathe.
She nods, not turning back to me, and then walks out of the room in a sudden rush.
~~
When I head back to the ballroom, I try to distract myself once again by speaking to guests and constantly going back and forth from the bar for soft drinks. I didn't drink any alcohol - with this many people that I distrusted in my mansion at one time and with all the shit that's happened, getting wasted was not the best solution. I needed to keep my head clear, and so so that's what I did for the rest of the night.
As the hours passed by, and the music continued to play, I gradually grew more and more restless. I didn't know what to do with myself, and I wan't enjoying myself whatsoever, even though it was my birthday party.
In attempt to change my mood, I head for the balcony doors once more. When I step outside, the dark, frigid air engulfs my body, and sends shivers down my spine. I look around, searching, but Caleb is no longer standing where he was just hours ago.
~~
Amber's POV
When I spotted Niall, I did not approach him. I did not want to go talk to him. I did not want to have the talk that we had to have. It was inevitable, but at least I could put it off for now. Instead, I continued a conversation of small talk with Perrie, who had mysteriously disappeared and then showed up again. I hardly kept note of what she was saying - even though she didn't say much - as I kept my eyes trained on Niall.
He stood next to a man who was faintly familiar, but I wasn't sure of who he was. From where I was, all the way on the other side of the enormous ballroom, I could see that the man was shorter than Niall, and that his hair was a shade of chestnut. His eyebrows were bushy and unkept, and he had a mask of total indifference on his face. A look of boredom.
I brought the glass of wine up to my lips, taking a careful sip as I continued to watch Niall speak to the man. Something in Niall's expression told me that something was off, and that Niall wasn't feeling alright.
I had to physically bite my tongue and clench my fists in order to keep myself from walking over to him or calling his name. Something was wrong, but he obviously did not want me to know, for some reason or another. I kept praying that it was for a good reason that he was being distant, but as each day passed, my doubt kept amounting to an even bigger pile.
"Amber?" Perrie's voice snap me out of my thoughts, worry in her eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Just thinking," I brush off her worries.
I'm overcome with an intense....urge to go talk to him. I have to. It's like there was a magnetic pull bringing me towards him, and I could no longer fight it off. It was too much, too overbearing to have him so close, yet so far away. I screwed my eyes shut, and forced myself to turn away from his direction. I let out a labored breath, and then opened my eyes.
Breathe. It's going to be okay. Maybe he just needs some space.
Yeah, I thought to myself. I'll just give him space. Maybe he thinks I'm too clingy, even though I know I'm not. So I'll give him some space. Maybe if he sees that I don't care, it'll trigger something, and he'll realize he's losing our relationship. Maybe he'll realize that he is literally tearing it to shreds and blowing the pieces away instead of mending it by being distant and keeping these things from me.
That's it. Just give him some space. I can distract myself for the time being. Everything will be alright. It always has been between Niall and I.
And so in attempt to start on distracting myself, I turn to Perrie, whose hand was rubbing against her neck. "What were you saying, Perrie?"
"I was saying that I really love that red color on you. It suits you." Her hand comes down from her neck, and she rests it at her side.
And that's when I realized that there were bruises, actual fucking bruises on her neck, red and fresh.
"Perrie, what happened to your..." I begin to ask her, until I feel a gentle tap on my shoulder.
My heart is caught in my throat when I turn around and meet his crystal blue eyes, and he forces a smile onto his face, which comes out almost like a grimace.
"Niall?" I breathe. So much for giving him space.
"Let's dance?" He says, and then pulls my arm, leading me off to the dance floor.
I am lost at his touch, my thoughts incomprehensible, my mouth rendered speechless. I forget everything that I had decided I was going to do - the space I was going to give him, and the marks on Perrie's neck are long forgotten as he places his hands on my waist and presses his body against mine.
~~
Abby's POV
I kick at a fallen tree limb that stood on my way, moving it so that I wouldn't trip over it. My leg muscles felt that weird twitch - the one that you get when you exercise a lot, or run a good amount of time. And we'd been alternating between long runs and even longer walks, and I could literally feel the blood rush down to my lower extremities.
"What time is it?" I speak up, the first words uttered between us in what seemed like forever. It was completely silent around us, everything movement frozen by the cold air. Had we not been running, I would have felt cold. My nose was the only thing that was numb and red from the cold aside from my fingers, which I have shoved into my pockets in attempt to keep them warm.
Harry checked his watch, and then slowed his steps. "It's a bit past one."
I am fully exhausted, tired, and sleepy. We'd been awake from six this morning, and it's not like I actually slept well anyways. Instead of being unconscious, my mind kept replaying the look of pain in Zayn's eyes, and then the sudden distant cool look as he pulled away from me.
Of him asking me if I was going to celebrate his birthday with him.
Of me saying no.
Of his simple nod, and then the defeated walk out of my room.
And I was haunted by the fact that I had gotten what I wanted - what my mind wanted, what my mind believed should have happened.
But inside, I felt absolutely terrible, and I didn't feel like I won anything. Everything was torn, ripped, shredded, and burned. My emotions were just a blurred mess, incoherent and jumbled.
And not only did these thoughts consume me last night, but they were doing the same again as we walked in silence. Harry either must have sensed that I was not myself, and decided to leave me alone, or he had something on his mind that was bothering him as well.
But either way, we were silent until my foot caught a net of intertwined twigs, and I tripped.
I grunt in pain as I push myself up from my fall - my palms took most of the hit as I fell. Normally, it wouldn't have been so bad, but when your fingers are ice cold, just a simple scratch seems to burn a million times greater.
Harry helps me up a bit, but it's not a big deal. "You okay?"
"Yeah," I nod, examining the palms of my hands. "Scathed my hands, though. It's not a big deal."
"Let me see," Harry says, pulling my hands into his. He pulls a small yellow pocket flashlight, and flicks it on. The light is blinding, but he quickly directs the light away from my eyes and to my hands to look at them.
"Do you want me to put rubbing alcohol on the scratches to clean them?" He offers.
I shake my head. "It's not a big deal, Harry. Really."
He sighs, and the light of the flashlight goes off, and he places it back into his pocket.
"How far have we walked?"
"I think almost ten miles."
I groan, realizing that I'd assumed we'd walked at least fifteen, if not more. "Shit. This is a lot more tiresome than I could have ever imagined." My legs ache, and my knees hurt.
Going from almost no running whatsoever on a normal basis, to a whole ten miles in a little over three hours is extremely fatiguing, and the weight of my backpack and gravity pushed me down, my movements becoming more languid.
"Do you want to stop now? For like a few hours, to get some rest? And then we can pick up again. I know we're not 20 miles from the mansion, but it's okay." He offers, and I shake my head.
"No, I don't want to have to slow us down because I'm tired. I can handle it. It's okay."
Harry shakes his head. "It's alright, I want to get some rest too. I didn't sleep at all last night, and my body's worn."
"Neither did I," I say, and the stand next to where Harry has come to a complete stop.
"Alright then. Since it's dark, we can build a small fire without the smoke calling for attention. Let's find any clearance, and then we can rest." Harry says.
I nod, and we walk until we find a small area where there weren't many trees - perfect for a small little campsite. That, and gathering twigs, sticks, and leaves took us about another hour, and by the time Harry had lit the small fire, I had pulled out both my and Harry's sleeping bags.
I tossed him his, and then unrolled mine, laying it flat on the ground where the the dirt was leveled for the most part. Harry did the same, bringing his closer to the fire, and laid it down next to it.
When we were settled, I slip into my sleeping bag, but instead of laying down, I sit near the fire, keeping a safe yard or so between me and it. I hugged my knees to my chest, just staring into the fire, mesmerized my flames.
I could hear Harry's shuffling beside me, but all I could see in the fire was the pain in Zayn's eyes, followed by the cool mask placed over his pain.
And soon, Harry's light snores mixed with the crackling sound of the fire, and I was left alone, uneasy, haunted by my own thoughts, regrets, and memories.
~~