I drop on the floor next to him, everything around me slowly vanishing as my entire life revolves around, just like always. My lips are apart, my tongue is tied and there's no air inside of me whatsoever. There are no tears to be formed, I'm simply in a state of shock, and I don't know what to do and how to react.
I see the blood gushing out of his side, and I place my hand over it, trying to stop it but with no success.
"Tallulah, we need to take him to the hospital!" It's then that I hear Niall shouting at me, trying to gain my attention.
Shaking my head, I press my hands harder on his injury and whisper, "Zayn."
"Tallulah, let's move," Niall repeats, trying to lift Louis off of the floor. "C'mon, Tallulah."
"Bring Zayn!" I shout, finally snapping out of my shocked state. "I can't lose him!"
"Zayn is too busy in the village, Tallulah," He says loudly, though I can detect a hint of sorrow and sorry in his tune. "There are too many injured people in the village, he can't leave them."
My hands start to shake as my eyes become blurry. "And Louis can't leave me."
"He won't leave you," I hear Missy's voice from behind me, and it somehow comforts me, though I don't know why. "We just need to get him to the hospital, now."
I nod as Niall says, "Ed's coming."
Looking over at Louis, I notice his face paling and I press my forehead against his as one tear rolls down my face. "You stay alive, okay? You're my world, and I can't live without you. I won't, baby. I'm so sorry for everything."
I feel Missy's hand on my shoulder and I hold onto it tightly as Ed says, "Let's go."
In less than a minute, we're in front of the hospital, and once the nurse sees us, she rushes inside and gets a bed, along with other nurses and doctors. I hear Missy telling Niall and Ed that she's going to stay with me, but I don't hear the rest, because I rush behind the people taking Louis inside.
Suddenly, I'm pushed back when they enter a room and a nurse in a baby blue uniform says, "I'm sorry, Miss, you can't go inside."
"Please," I beg her with teary eyes. "He's my boyfriend."
"I'm sorry, I can't let you—" She starts to repeat though Missy interrupts.
"It's okay, I have got her." She nods to the nurse and the nurse nods and leaves.
"I need to go inside and be with him." I tell her, my voice cracking at the end.
"No, you need to be strong for him," She corrects me firmly. "You can't just sit here and wait for him to be okay while you cry your eyes out."
Sniffing, I wipe away my tears as she continues and says, "You get your shit together and go find Conall, he's still out there, and nobody can find him."
"How can I find him then?" I ask, feeling my heart racing.
"You won't, but he will," She tells me, looking me straight in the eyes. "And this time, make sure he's not breathing and his heart is not beating."
"Okay, just—" I start but she interrupts me.
"He won't remember," She sighs sadly, and my face falls more. "Now, go."
Swallowing harshly, I nod before I sprint off, running as fast as I can, and not stopping. I have to find Conall, or let him find me. He needs to die, because if he does, then all of this mess will end, and I will be the one who kills him. I must be.
The cold air of the end of November is as cold as my soul and heart, cold, hard and unforgiving. In ten minutes, I reach Louis' parlour, and as I continue running down the street and towards the edge of the street, I notice someone's body, causing me to stop abruptly and slip from the snow and onto the ground. The man is standing next to Alfredo with so much power, even though I can't even tell who is it. It's not Conall, though, Conall's body is wider, and this man is a bit taller.
He is watching me, I can feel his eyes on me, and I keep my gaze on him, trying to figure out who he is. As I start to get up, the man slowly turns around and walks into the forest, disappearing. I wet my lips and swallow, encouraging myself to continue my way.
I keep my eyes and ears alerted to any weird movements around me as I follow that man into the forest. Once I reach the forest, I take out my gun and load it, preparing myself for any attack. As I begin walking inside the forest, I hear faint whispers coming from afar, making me hold my gun tighter in my hand.
"Tallulah." I hear a singing voice from beside me, though I don't turn to it, I keep walking.
"Tallulah." The voice sings again, this time, from the other side.
The darkness of the forest frightens me, but I swallow that fear and continue. I have walked many times in the dark, I will be fine. I hear a faint whizzing sound from around, making me breathe deeply.
"Tallulah!" The shout that erupts through the silent and dark forest makes my heart drop to my feet. The shout echoes through the forest before it slowly disappears. I continue walking again, taking cautious and slow steps every time. Suddenly, I feel a quick sprint of air passes from behind me, making me stand still.
Clenching my jaw, I decide to look behind me, but there is nothing, the darkness settles everywhere. With a deep breath, I look forward again, and I almost lose my sanity when I see nothing but a pair of shining, literally shining, green eyes. Immediately, I take a few steps back quickly, taken aback by this.
In a second, those eyes disappear before I feel the presence of someone beside me. My breath hitches in my throat and I slowly lower my gun.
"The beautiful Tallulah." I hear the same voice again as I feel a hand on my hair.
Another hand grips my waist and I'm pulled back against a firm and strong body. My hands start to shake, but I keep myself together and say, "Get off of me."
As I move to get away from him, he holds me tightly and says, "Not so soon, Tallulah."
Suddenly, my gun is taken away from me, and the part we are in in the forest lightens up, revealing the endless trees, with three men standing under one particularly, one that has my mother and brother tied to it.
"No!" I shout, struggling to run towards them, though the man tightens his grip around me. I keep moving in his grip, feeling my heart beating loudly to save them and get them out of here.
"You can't, angel," The man chuckles. "There are Silver Stones around them."
Silver Stones can make the most powerful, powerless and useless. It can kill and be destructive, and it is banned.
"You think you're Miss Perfect?" The man hisses in my ears as I watch in pain my brother and mother both crying. "You think you can save the world from the bad ones? You think you can be the hero in this story? You're nothing but a filthy-blooded, Tal."
I let out a gasp as soon as I hear the nickname. There's only one person in our village who calls me Tal, and that's Wren's father, Ragnar. The fear vanishes and instead, anger rises. Anger for how manipulative this man is, how deceitful and ungrateful he is.
"Ragnar." I hiss angrily as I try to sneakily take out my knife from my belt.
"Bravo." He laughs humourlessly.
Once I take the knife out, I hold it tightly and point it to Ragnar. "I can't save the world, and I don't want to be a hero, but I will fight for what's right, even if it meant killing."
With that, I push the knife into his flesh, making him groan out in pain and let go of me. Immediately, I take the gun from the ground and shoot the man who is running towards me. As the other two men begin to shoot, I hide behind a tree and breath in and out heavily.
I move my head to peak a look, but the man sees me and shoots, making me quickly sheild myself. I make sure that my gun is loaded again, before I get out of my place, but before I can shoot them, I hear gunshots before the two men fall to the ground dead.
"Are you okay?" I turn to see Peter coming towards me with a gun in his hand.
I sigh in relief. "How did you know I'm here?"
"Liam." He answers shortly and nods forward, where Liam is heading towards my mother and Cronan.
"No," I shout. "Liam, wait!"
Thankfully, he stops and looks at me in questioning. I run towards him and say, "There are Silver Stones."
"What?"
"Tallulah!" I turn my head towards Niall, Zayn and Wren.
"Niall, get my mother and Cronan out of here." I tell him and he nods, bending down next to the stones.
"Are you okay?" Wren asks and I swallow harshly.
My heart beats loudly as I say, "Your father attacked me, he did this to mom and Cronan."
She takes a step back in surprise. "What are you saying?"
"We saw him with Conall a while ago, me and Zayn." I tell her with sadness, watching as she turns to look at Zayn.
"It's true." He says lowly.
She lets out an empty laugh. "Of course not, that's not true."
"Esme was saying the truth, he did hurt her, and he hurt me," I swallow. "I'm sorry."
"Where is he?" She asks, and as I turn to point at him, I don't find him.
"He was... He was right here." I almost whisper, watching as Wren starts running looking for him. "Wren, wait!"
But she doesn't stop, making me sigh in disappointment. Where the hell did he go? He must have ran away. There's no other explanation.
"Tallulah!" I hear Cronan saying as he runs to me. Immediately, I drop to my knees and engulf him in a big hug.
"Oh, baby," I hug him tighter. "Don't cry, you're alright. You're fine."
"I'm so scared." He cries lowly, burying his face in the crook of my neck.
I rub his back up and down. "I know, me too. Everything will be fine, don't worry."
"The Royals are down." Niall informs me as mother stands beside him.
"What about Aengus?" Mother asks.
"He didn't fight, with or against us. He refused to." Zayn relaxes her, and we sigh in relief.
Zayn looks at Niall, before Niall says, "Our chieftain is down, too."
"What?"
"One of the opponents killed him."
As my mother starts to cry silently, Peter goes to hug her and I ask, "Does Esme know?"
"Not yet," Niall shakes his head sadly. "But Siggy is losing her mind over him."
"Go to her and help her." I urge them.
"What will you do?" Zayn asks.
"I have to find Conall. We have to end this mess before the morning." I say.
"I'm staying with you," Niall speaks. "You can't fight him alone."
"I will be fine." I insist.
"No, you won't," Zayn shakes his head. "Let him stay with you, you'll need each other, and I'll go help Siggy."
Sighing, I nod and say, "Be careful."
Zayn shoots me a wink before leaving. I turn to Liam and call for him. "Louis is in the hospital, Conall shot him. I need you to stay with him, and tell me when he is awake and keep me updated."
"Is he okay?" He panicks.
"I don't know yet," I say with a broken heart. "Please, don't leave his side, and tell me how he's doing, and I'll come when I finish."
"Good luck." He says quietly before dashing off.
"Tallulah." I hear my mother's broken voice. Immediately, I go and hug her, making her cry harder.
"We're all okay, mom. Don't worry."
"I'm going to take them to my house, I think it's much safer." Peter suggests and I nod.
I smile. "Thank you."
He hugs me and presses a kiss on my forehead before saying, "You come back to us, alright?"
"I will, don't worry." I assure him.
"Be careful, you two," Mother says as she hugs me. "I'm so proud of your courage, dear, but please, be safe."
"I've got Niall with me, don't worry." She smiles sadly, kisses my forehead before they leave with Peter.
Niall breathes heavily as soon as they're gone, looks down at me with one of his grins and says, "So, Lothbrok, where's our next victim?"
I laugh lightly. "Stop laughing. There is so much pressure and weight on my chest, and I don't know how I'm laughing."
"Well, we're allowed to lighten things up, even in the toughest and most painful moments." He smiles softly.
"Do you think we can do it?" I ask hopefully.
"Of course, we are brave."
"I'm scared." I admit.
"Me, too." He shrugs and we both laugh.
(Hiiiii, wanted to lighten this chapter a bit. How are you? and how did you find this chapter? Our next surprise is coming soon, I hope you're all excited! Don't forget to vote and comment xox)