Ness' scream rang out through the mountains, the curse words streaming out of her mouth as she used her knife to stab another one of the beasts in the head. They kept coming at her, and she used her legs, elbows, feet, anything to restrain them from biting into her perspiration-soaked skin. As she had flipped over and brought her knife out from under her, it had sliced through her, resulting in a downpour of blood; this only excited the beasts more, their eyes growing more ravenous.
As she killed them, they fell upon her body, and she made sure to avoid the teeth at all costs. When the last one fell over she screamed, "Get these f*cking things off of me!"
She heard heavy breathing above her before Liam and Lilly's faces appeared before her, lifting the dead bodies off of her now-weak figure. Blood drenched her clothes and body, her hair matted into one giant knot on top of her head. When the top half of her body was visible, Liam tugged on her arm, trying to pull her from the pile.
Ness retracted back into herself, screaming in pain as a hand flew to her side to cover her heavily bleeding injury. Lilly shoved a body out of the way before gasping, covering her mouth in horror. "D-did they get you?" Her voice got higher at the end, despair setting in.
"No, no, Lilly. I'm fine. I did it myself," Ness reassured her, wincing when her hand touched a deeper part of the cut.
"Well it sure as hell isn't fine," Lilly sneered, looking away from the wound. She then looked to Liam. "You need to carry her back."
Liam immediately nodded, placing his hands in the appropriate positions before Ness pushed against his chest, shoving him away.
"I can do this. Just help me up." She stretched out her hand, flinching in pain at the movement.
"No. Liam, do it." Lilly wouldn't take no for an answer. She had to get her healed as soon as possible. The wound could get infected and that would lead nowhere pleasant.
Liam listened to Lilly, for once disobeying Ness. He lifted her gingerly off of the ground, making sure to take light steps back to the house as not to hurt her anymore. Ness continued to hold her side, biting her lip until it bled to keep her screams in. She didn't open her eyes as she passed everyone else, not allowing them to see her so vulnerable.
They didn't care; they were worried about her wellbeing, not her tough girl image.
Lilly's grandpa-- the guys found out his name was Bill-- gasped when Liam barged past him carrying a bloodied up Ness who looked close to passing out. She groaned when she was laid onto a couch, any movement whatsoever sending another shock of pain throughout her entire body. Bill didn't hesitate to get out a bottle of alcohol and pour it over the wound, making the tears Ness had tried so hard to keep in pour down her cheeks. Her teeth grit together as the burn of the liquid coursed through her. A damp white cloth was placed on her side and Lilly held it there steadily as Ness again screamed in torment.
Bill ushered the rest of the group into a separate room as Ness tried to catch her breath, their panic-stricken faces looking towards Ness, who had her eyes shut so tight they looked as if her eyes had sunk back some little bit. They saw the tears and knew that it must've been terrible; Ness didn't cry over nothing. The scratches on her face that she had never cleaned were still a bright red, but before she was never bothered by it.
When Bill got around to Liam, he pat him on the shoulder, lending him a chair next to Lilly. He didn't say thank you as his generous self usually did; he sat down and took Ness' hand, not flinching when she gripped it as tight as she could, trying to transfer her pain into someone else, whoever they may have been.
When she opened her eyes a little, she saw that it was Liam and tore her hands away, pulling them to her chest as she started shaking due to the powerful ache in her side. She took deep breaths to relax her body; tensing up would only make matters worse.
Liam reached for her hand again, but she held them above her head, risking the pain that shot through her once her hands were hanging off of the armrest. She winced and brought her hands back down a little as she took a chance and looked down at the injury. The once-white cloth was drenched, and droplets of the dark red liquid were falling to the hardwood floors. Lilly's hands were covered in the foul stuff, but she didn't care; she'd do anything to help her. Ness almost threw up when she saw how much blood there was, her mind going fuzzy for a second. Lilly was turned so that she was sheltering Liam from seeing most of the blood, but Ness didn't want him to see it at all. He was already damaged enough.
"Hey, Bill?" she hoarsely croaked.
"Yeah?" His head popped into her peripheral vision and she asked him to take Liam into another room. "Of course, sweetheart." He laid a hand on Liam's shoulder and tried to pull him up, but Liam stayed put, his eyes bugging out of his head.
"N-no," he stuttered. "I'm s-staying." He had left her on her own before, and then this happened. He wouldn't make the same mistake again.
Bill gave Ness a questioning glance, seeing how unhinged Liam was. When he had been on his own he had snapped again, but seeing Ness so hurt sent him even farther away.
"I'm fine, Liam." Ness' voice was weak; she was going to pass out soon from the loss of blood any second. She didn't want him to see that. So she tried her hardest to keep her eyes open as the wave of maximum fatigue hit her. "Please? I need you to go in there with the rest of the guys, okay?"
His eyes darted around the room quickly as he started shaking his head.
"Hey." She tried to get his attention but his eyes still couldn't settle on anything in the room. "Liam." She tried again. No answer. There was one last thing she could've said, and she was so desperate for him to leave quickly that she said it. "Danielle."
His eyes widened at her name, instantly turning to Ness. She didn't smile when she got his attention; she frowned instead, guilty for using the name.
Before she lost him again, she started talking. "I promise I'll be up and at 'em soon." She did the signal and said, "I haven't broken a promise yet."
He nodded, understanding the truth in her words and let Bill lead him into one of the other words. As soon as she faintly heard the door creak shut, she whispered, "Oh, God." A wall of nausea hit her and just as Lilly got up to get another cloth she felt herself falling into the darkness as the wooden ceiling above her faded out to nothing.
Liam plopped down into a wooden chair next to Niall, who had barely acknowledged Ness' horrifying condition. All he could think about was that if Ness had gotten bit just from a few of the creatures, then how was Anna going to cope at all?
Perrie, on the other side of the room, sobbed into Zayn's shoulder, the vision of Ness' bloodied figure sending her into hysterics. They hadn't been told what had happened, and no one was willing to ask Liam. Therefore, everyone immediately assumed that she had been bitten and that in a few days she would transform into one of the dead-eyed beasts they'd been hiding from. Zayn comforted Perrie as best as he could, all the while despairing over Ness' supposed fate.
Louis sat with Harry on a couch that had been placed near the door. They were both worried about Lilly and her reaction to the incident. They knew that she wouldn't take it well but thought it best to leave the two of them alone for a little.
Eventually Perrie couldn't take it and padded over to Liam, who had his head in his hands, his face emotionless as tears leaked from his eyes. "Hey, buddy," she whispered, crouching down to his level and sitting on her weak knees. Zayn followed behind her, standing back a little as he let the woman handle the sweet talking.
"Do you know what happened to Ness?"
Everyone else in the room tuned in, wanting to hear the crucial information. Niall just turned his head to Liam, unabashedly staring straight at him.
Liam nodded while everyone else waited in anticipation, physically leaning forward now. He took a deep breath before the words tumbled from his mouth. "She'll be okay."
Perrie expelled a sigh and held a hand over heart, leaning away from Liam and more towards Zayn. She was the only one that felt relief. Liam had whispered things like this before about Danielle, trying to make himself believe the words. The guys thought the same thing was happening now.
Liam looked up at his friends, puzzled as to why they looked so worried and sad. "What's wrong?"
"Are you absolutely sure?" Niall asked, not wanting any false hope.
Liam nodded quickly, incredibly confused as to why they didn't believe him. Ness had told him that'd she'd be fine. She had promised.
The guys shared a look of disbelief, so Liam spoke up. "She told me she cut herself while killing the zombies. She'll be fine." He repeated the last sentence in his mind until it turned into a chant that reiterated by itself, becoming a constant whisper in the back of his mind.
Perrie refused to believe anything other than what Liam was saying, but she saw the distrustful glances they shared and closed her eyes so she couldn't see them anymore. She had grown close to Ness. Not physically, of course-- they had barely talked-- but she had harbored a liking for the slightly younger girl. Ness was obviously more mature than Perrie, but Perrie also knew that she had experienced terrible things that would send other people running towards the madhouse. After seeing Ness so vulnerable, looking so much more like her actual age, she felt as if they had connected in some way. She knew how cheesy it was but she could see that Ness needed help that wasn't always there for her to grasp onto.
Niall shook his head. Liam saw it, making him think over what he had said. "That's what Ness told me," he said. That didn't help anyone in the room. Ness was extremely set on protecting Liam. If she had to tell him a lie to preserve Liam's harshly shattered mind, she would without hesitation.
Again, Liam saw the looks, and he started to lose himself, piece by piece. He thought of the blood that had leaked from her side and looked down towards his shirt, where her blood had formed into a blotchy stain on the front of it. The tears that came were unstoppable. His mind thought of how one of the monster's teeth could've sank their teeth into her tan skin, ripping the flesh directly off of her body.
Perrie sat in front of him as he broke the rest of the way, the last shard of sanity that hadn't shattered finally doing so.
His hands flew up to his hair as he pulled wildly at the roots. "No. She can't die. She promised! I have to see if she's okay," he shrieked, bolting to the door to the room in which Ness laid unconscious. He swung the door open to see his friend laying on the couch, Lilly holding a blood soaked towel to her side. Liam shoved Lilly aside in desperation to get to Ness, causing Lilly to hit her head on the corner of a table. She sat up a second later, a hand to her head.
"Lilly!" Harry gasped as he ran to her aid. The gang stood in the doorway and watched in awe as Liam tried desperately to shake Ness awake.
Finally, her eyes fluttered open. Liam sighed in relief, but still remained on edge.
"Please tell me that you weren't bit. Tell them!" he said, pointing to the group. Ness turned her head to look at the people she tried so desperately to protect.
"I'm fine. My knife cut my side when I pulled it out," she said so softly that the group had to lean to hear her. Liam turned to them all.
"See! I told you," he said, his eyes crazed. Everyone nodded and he turned his attention back on the injured girl.
Meanwhile, Harry helped Lilly up and they walked into her grandfather's kitchen. Lilly lowered herself into a chair at the kitchen table across from Bill. Louis followed behind them, not wanting to stick around Liam and the others. Harry and Louis sat down in their own chairs as Bill leaned toward Lilly.
"So. Where's David?" he asked solemnly. Louis' eyes widened. Bill didn't know. Louis and Harry's heads both snapped in Lilly's direction. Lilly's jaw was hanging down and her eyes were watering.
"I- I... Uncle Richie didn't call you?" she asked, her voice cracking. Bill shook his head, expression laced with confusion. Lilly's eyes filled with tears at the memory. She stood up, her chair screeching across the hardwood floor, and fled the room.
"What? What happened?" Bill asked the two boys, still shocked that his granddaughter was so touchy on a subject that he knew so little about.
"Um, I don't think we should be the ones to tell you.." Louis said, respecting Lilly's private life for once.
Harry nodded in agreement. "It's not our story to tell."
Bill's eyes widened, partially understanding what had happened. "He's dead, isn't he?" He slouched back in his chair, his strength deflating.
The boys didn't answer, and that was all he needed.
"How'd he go out?" he asked. "It wasn't by one of those monsters, was it?" His hand tightened against the armrest of the chair he was sitting in.
"Um, no sir," Louis said, remembering his respect to elders, especially to one that had been in the army like him.
"Tell me then," Bill said, his teeth grit together in anger. "I deserve to know."
"I know you do, sir. But Lilly-"
"I don't f*cking care!" he interrupted, leaving Louis with his mouth hanging open as he tried to form the right words.
Seconds before the words left his mouth, Lilly, who was now standing in the doorway, said, "He got shot."
Bill's head snapped towards Lilly, the tears he had in his eyes finally falling when he saw Lilly's slouching figure and her tear-stained cheeks. Lilly turned towards the 2 guys who were staring at her like she'd grown a 2nd head and glared at them until they clumsily pushed themselves out of their seats and ran towards the door, Harry putting his hand on Lilly's shoulder for a moment before making his way back into the room with Ness.
Lilly sat in the chair across from her grandfather, in shreds as she told him the story that plagued her nightmares. Halfway through the story she moved beside of him, letting him hold her like she hadn't let anyone do in years.
Bill rubbed his hands up and down her back as the tears fell from her eyes.
"You are so strong. You've been through so much shit that you don't deserve," Bill whispered to Lilly. Lilly sat up and wiped at her eyes. She still hated crying in front of people, even if they had known her her whole life. Her eyes flicked to the door to find Louis standing there, that dreaded sympathetic look in his eyes. This made Lilly furious. She stood up and stomped towards him.
"I don't need your pity. I can handle myself without everyone feeling sorry for me," she hissed, turning and walking outside. Louis just shook his head and followed her out the front door.
Lilly slumped to the ground, watching the bright orange sunset fade over the horizon. She used to sit here when she was a child and watch the bright colors fade to the dark navy blue of night. She would come every now and then, just to think, or simply to watch the beauty of nature.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Louis asked as he sat down next to her on the bright green grass. She stared at him, still slightly angry at him for pitying her. He sighed.
"Look, Lilly. People are going to feel sorry for you but-"
"But don't you see, Louis? I don't want them to. I hate being felt sorry for! It makes me feel like they think I need special help or caring just because my brother was killed, or that I didn't have parents. That's why I never tell people! I only told you because you caught me in my most vulnerable moment," she said to him. Louis sighed, getting quite angry himself.
"Well, then what?- do you not want me to feel? I could most definitely just act cold towards you and act as if it's not a big deal. I mean, people die every freaking day-- why is your brother's death so significant?" Louis wasn't speaking of what he truly though; he was being sarcastic; but she took it the wrong way.
"My brother was an amazing person. Don't you ever put him down in such a way. I have never ever used the word love to anyone except him, and that's how it'll stay forever. My love and trust is very hard to gain, and while Ness has my trust, I don't love her."
Louis was taken aback by her confession, his anger fading away. "What?"
Lilly, sighing, decided to explain. "I don't love her, I can promise you that. And she doesn't love me. Ness doesn't love anyone at all-- she doesn't know how to. It's like she's simply incapable of feeling anything like that. We care for each other, yes, but love is just out of the question."
"How is that even possible?" he asked, clueless as to how you control your love for someone, let alone never experience it at all.
"Her parents never told her they loved her, and I don't even remember what mine looked like. Without my brother I may have ended up more similar to her, but I did have him." She glared at the boy across from her, remembering his foul words against David. "Ness' parents never got close to her in fear that they would leave her, which they did, and not in a very nice way.."
"I still don't get how she can't love."
"She just doesn't."
Louis scrambled for words as he watched the last lights of day fade away over the tree covered horizon. "But it doesn't make sense. Everyone loves."
"Not if you don't know what love is," was Lilly's answer.
He just nodded, the understanding finally seeping in. Not being exploited to it meant that she didn't know how to deal with the emotion that usually comes along with hurt, and, knowing her, she probably blocked it out; maybe even pushed it away at the slightest flicker of the raw feeling.
"So to get back to the point, only two people have gotten my trust. Ness and my brother. So if I ever hear you speak so lowly of David again, you will never have my compassion, nor have your life saved by Ness or myself," Lilly said, walking back inside her grandfather's home.
Lilly walked past Ness, only giving her a slight smile as she walked to her room for the night. Ness returned the gesture then turned her attention back to Liam.
The boy was insane. He was never going to come back from that. But Ness refused to believe that fact that plagued her mind since the day she met him. She wanted him to be normal again. But she feared he couldn't do so until he had his beloved girlfriend back in his arms.
"Do you still think she is alive?" Liam asked Ness hopefully. Ness was slightly taken aback by this sudden question, but nodded.
"Yes, Liam. I do."
Liam stared at her, waiting for the one gesture that had kept him hanging on to the one sliver of hope he still had. It never came.
"Promise?" he asked her.
Ness's eyes widened. She couldn't promise, for she didn't know if Danielle was truly alive or not. Liam noticed Ness' look of shock and worry, and it sent him into deep hysterics, that sliver of hope escaping from his grasp.
His eyes bugged out his head as he winced and backed away from her as if she had slapped him right across the face. Maybe she had done so, just with reality instead of something as simple as her hand.
"Yo-you lied to me," he stammered, his hands sliding through his hair.
"I'm sorry, Liam," she said, her face breaking with sorrow. She didn't cry, of course, but she was close to doing so.
His breathing was heavy, and he wheezed as images of her distorted face swarmed through his head like a million tiny bees. "I need to find her," he said when his breathing regulated just a bit. "I'm going to find her," he resolved, standing from his seat.
"What?" Ness asked, sitting up when his hand slipped from hers. She groaned loudly and a few heads snapped her way, Perrie telling her to lie back down. Ness shook her head in rejection. "No."
Liam took a few steps back, his eyes showing nothing but hurt that had been caused by Ness. "I thought you were my friend," he whimpered, looking towards the door. "But I'll find her, and then she'll be my friend."
Ness realized what he was about to do, swinging her legs over the couch and preparing herself to run. Harry walked over and tried to push her back down, not noticing Liam inching towards the door. She shoved Harry's hand away, putting her hands up in surrender, but not disconnecting hers and Liam's eyes. She had hurt him by lying; she knew that. But if he ran out there and was lost to one of the things she had fought so hard to save him from, she would never forgive herself. She had lost too many people, and every single time it had been her fault because she hadn't tried hard enough. This time she wouldn't let him slip through her fingers.
"Stop! Liam, please don't. I'll help you find her, but I can't right now." She motioned towards her wound, which had started bleeding heavily again. Upon seeing the blood, she closed her eyes, swaying to the side a little.
"You're lying again," he said, resting his hand on the brass doorknob.
"I'm not," she said, this time using their sign. "I promise."
"No," he said, and was running out the door before Ness could say otherwise.
"Liam!" she shouted, her hand reaching out towards the empty doorway. Not willing to let him leave her so easily, she sprang up from the couch, ignoring the sharp pains in her side. Her hand pressed against the deep cut that hadn't yet been stitched shut.
"Ness!" Harry cried behind her, scolding himself for not holding her down.
The bloody material stuck to her skin, the blood showing anything but mercy. Tripping over another damn rock sticking out of the ground, she fell on her face, her wound filling with dirt and pebbles. She screamed so loudly in pain that a few more zombies stumbled their way towards the gates. She knew they couldn't get past it, but it was Liam she was worried about. When she looked up and through her tears, she found Liam searching in the dark for the lock.
"Stop!" she shouted, screaming in agony a second later. She heard him start to fumble with the lock and hurled herself off of the ground, her adrenaline the only thing helping her. Right before he got the gate unlocked, she jumped on top of him, sending them both to the ground. Again, she screamed, this time rolling off of him while holding her side as the searing pain ripped through her entire body.
Only when Liam saw Ness rolling the on ground and felt the blood leaking through the back of his shirt did he come to his senses. "Oh, my God," he cried, sitting up on his knees in front of Ness. His own tears fell onto her face, blending in with her own. "I'm so sorry."
She tore her eyes open, needing to make sure that he was still there. When he was, she sighed and let herself fall into the blackness that was working so hard to consume her.
XxXxX
Sorry that we were a day late on updating! But here's the chapter!
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~Nezza and Lillay
I've actually made an Instagram account for my (Nezza)Wattpad and maybe if some of you guys make edits or little quote things for WAHOSS then I can post them! Just DM them to the account (nezzamesserxx) and I'll post 'em!