~So... This is a little bit darker than the previous chapters...~
Louis bit his lip hard as he gathered a few things from his room. He was trying to prolong his time there. He knew it was a horrible thing to hope for but... He hoped Mr. X would come bursting through one of the windows with his stun grenades and magnetic ring traps and capture him. At least he'd be with Eleanor then.
Louis looked over at her side of the bed and quickly looked away. He slammed his stuff on the floor and sat down at the corner of the bed, burying his face in his hands. A small sob escaped his lips and he hated himself for it. “I'm sorry, Eleanor,” He whispered to the empty room. Louis pulled his hands away from his face and examined his arms, his bottom lip trembled and tears blurred his vision. He was looking for something beyond his tattoos and past his skin. He hoped that he could find something that would show him he was still a hero, but he couldn't see anything.
Even his super suit was gone.
Paul had been going to every floor to take them back, telling the boys that they wouldn't be needing them for a while since X was after them. They were going to be confined to the safety of the negative floors until things were sorted out. The suits were going to be framed and placed back on the walls of the training room.
Good. Louis didn't want it any more.
He was no superhero.
He couldn't even save his own girlfriend for shit's sake!! He couldn't stop a few fucking grenades from exploding. He couldn't save a room full of people from a prick in a mask and a hand full of armed men. How the hell did he plan on saving the world?!
Louis groaned and ran his fingers through his hair, pulling at it until it hurt. He was on the verge of having a panic attack when, suddenly, his open laptop on his desk started making a few weird noises. Louis looked up and eyed it suspiciously.
The screen flickered a couple times before going completely black. Louis scrunched his eyebrows together, thinking it was shorting out or something. Then, the word “Loading” appeared in the center of the dark screen and a small bar appeared behind it. Black and blue stripes filtered through the bar, slowly filling it up. Louis stood and carefully approached his computer.
When the bar was done filling, the screen flickered a few more times. Louis leaned in close to get a better look at it and the speakers let out a sharp hissing sound that made him jump back a dozen feet. At the same time it hissed, the screen filled with that grainy, pixilated thing that only appeared when a TV didn't get the right signal.
It remained like that for a second before switching to a video of... A man's chin. And a bit of his neck.
“What the...?” Louis said under his breath as he walked closer. Who ever was in front of the camera was obviously trying to set it up. Or hack the signal into Louis' laptop.
Louis' phone buzzed numerous times in his pocket and he looked at it to see what was going on.
Liam: Anyone else getting that freaky video coming in??
The rest of the texts were basically the same thing from the rest of the boys. Apparently, Louis was not the only one being hacked.
He pulled up a chair and carefully watched the video. The man kept moving around, but Louis was only catching glimpses of his face and neck. He never got a good look above the bottom of the nose, but when the man stretched up on his toes to check the wiring of the camera, Louis saw the very familiar blue of the uniforms the soldiers were wearing earlier.
His fists clenched and his blood boiled when he realized this was a message coming in from Mr. X and his band of thugs.
“Is it ready?” A dull voice asked off to the side of the camera.
“Yes,” The man in front of it responded in the same tone. He stepped away and what was behind him made Louis' heart stop all together.
Eleanor and Perrie sat in metal fold up chairs in the middle of a stone grey room. Their hands were tied behind the backs of the chairs which were angled slightly towards each other as if the girls were having a lovely conversation.
But that was far from the truth. They both had been beaten black and blue. Literally. Eleanor's right eye was swollen half shut and her bottom lip was spit. She had various cuts and bruises all over her face and body; the left sleeve of her dress was torn off completely and she had blood stains spattered all over the gold sequence material.
Perrie didn't look any better. Her cheek right was massively swollen, her lips were also split open, and her nose was still bleeding. She had a gash over her right eye brow and her hair had mostly fallen out of it's pony tail and parts of it were stiff with her own blood.
They both were slumped forward and breathing hard, trying to recover from their very recent beating. Perrie turned her head to spit blood on the floor and she winced at the pain the movement brought while Eleanor cried softly.
Louis' knuckles had turned white as he gripped the edge of the desk. “Eleanor,” He whimpered pathetically at the screen.
“Speak,” The soldiers were right on the edge of the camera, but Louis could just barely see their guns and uniforms. “Read the script!” One of the soldiers ordered, giving Perrie a fairly good hit on the side of her head with the barrel of his gun. The gesture turned Perrie's head to the side so she was facing the camera. Her eyes darkened as she looked just to the side of the camera, presumably where the script was. She squinted, trying to focus through the daze she was in.
“We...” Perrie tried to take a deep breath and it came out shaky. “We are being held hostage by Mr. X.” She read slowly from the script. “The... The only way h- he will let us go is if-f-” Louis' eyes started to burn hot with angry tears as he watched her struggle to read and stumble over the words. “If he is gi...ven- given the pod... Or the boys.” Perrie took a deep breath and let it out sharply. Louis could see her start to cry and she looked down at her lap to try and hide it.
“Go!” The soldier behind Perrie demanded, this time hitting her sharply in the back of the head with the butt of his gun.
Perrie swallowed back her tears and looked back up. “If he does not receive either in the next twenty f-f-four hours-” Perrie swallowed hard and her voice broke in various places during the next part. “He will kill us.”
“No!” Louis nearly shouted.
“Don't do it, Louis!” Eleanor screamed. She had tears streaming down her face, making marks through the blood caked on her skin. “Don't do it! He'll kill us either way! He'll-” Suddenly, a soldiers hand grabbed the back of the brunette’s chair and dragged her out of view of the camera.
“No don't hurt her!” Perrie begged. “Don't-” Perrie was cut off by the sickening sounds of Eleanor screaming while she was beaten once again. Perrie looked away from the sight, squeezing her eyes shut and turning her face.
Louis was completely in tears now. “No! Eleanor!” He cried.
Eleanor was quickly thrown back into her spot next to Perrie. Her head lolled to the side and Louis couldn't tell if she was fainting or had already fainted. He could see new marks on her skin from where she had been hit.
“Do not go against the script!” One of the soldiers barked.
Perrie started to cry and Louis could hear slow foot steps approaching from the side of the camera.
Mr. X appeared in the scene now. He stood right in front of the girls, blocking them from the shot.
“Hello, boys.” He said in a dark tone. From behind the mask, Louis could see his eyes were crinkled in a sadistic smile. “I have sent you this to show you what happens when I don't get what I want. People get hurt. And in the end, I will win. It just would be easier to hand yourselves over. Less blood will be spilled that way. But... If you want me to...” He turned to the side so Eleanor and Perrie were both seen. There was the click of safeties and both girls had the muzzle of a machine gun pointed directly against their heads. “I could kill them now.”
“No,” Louis grunted.
“But I won't do that.” Mr. X assured. “Not yet.” He faced the camera again just after the guns were removed from the girls. “You have twenty four hours, boys, to give me what I ask for. Twenty. Four. Hours. And this decision is up to you. Not Simon. I hope you make the right choice, gentlemen.” The sadistic smile crinkled the man's eyes again. “It may save a few lives.”
The video feed cut out with a sharp hiss and a pixilated mess before Louis' computer went completely black.
Louis took a few minutes to compose himself before he abruptly stood from his chair and rushed over to the elevator. He had to talk to Simon. He knew it wasn't Simon's choice whether Eleanor lived or not, but he had to talk to him! They could try and work something out! He wasn't going to let the girls die.
“Come on, come on, come on!” He hissed at the control panel, repeatedly hitting the “up” button in an attempt to get the lift to move faster.
It finally let out a ding and Liam stood on the other side. He looked confused at first to see Louis standing there. His eyes were red and puffy from crying like Louis'.
“Simon?” Liam asked as Louis stepped in and jabbed at the button for one of the top floors.
“Yes,” Louis said. There was no emotion in his voice.
“Me too. We have to get them back.” Liam said.
Louis didn't say anything as the elevator made it's slow way up. He mentally begged it to go faster, but his prayers weren't answered.
Eventually, the doors opened and there was a tremendous crash that came from Simon's office. Liam and Louis both shared a look before there was another crash and someone screamed “Bring her back!” Just as Simon yelled “Zayn, stop!”
Both boys bolted for Simon's office and threw the door open. It was a mess in there. All the chairs were over turned from Zayn's tantrum and there were quite a lot of things broken on the ground.
Zayn was in the process of throwing something at Simon when Liam instantly rushed behind the boy and trapped him in his arms. He squeezed Zayn tight, making him drop whatever he was trying to throw, and lifted him off of his feet.
Even though everyone knew Liam was stronger than anything, it didn't stop Zayn from trying to escape the massive boy's grasp.
“Zayn, calm down!” Louis ordered, stepping in front of the flailing 21 year old. He held out his hands as if he were trying to tame a rearing horse.
“I can't fucking calm down!” Zayn screamed at the top of his lungs. Louis could see the veins in his neck popping out while he shouted. “You saw what they did to her. You saw what they did to Eleanor, Louis! He's going to kill them if we don't do something.” He looked at Simon who had been backed into the corner of the room. He gave the older man a deadly look. “Don't you understand she's all I have?! She's all I have, damn you! I need her back! Bring her back!”
Zayn had started to exhaust himself. Tears streamed endlessly from his eyes and his attempts at getting away from Liam were slowly becoming half hearted.
“Zayn.” Louis said firmly, but kept his voice comforting and sympathetic at the same time. “I know what he's going to do to them. I really do. But this is not the way to get them back and I can see you're not in the right state of mind to do it right now. I need you to leave the room now. Just go down to the training room and blow off some steam. I promise: Liam and I will talk with Simon and try and work something out. Ok?”
Zayn had stopped struggling all together. He was still tense and he was breathing hard. He glared at Louis but Louis knew his friend wasn't mad at him. He was just mad.
“Go,” Louis ordered.
Liam turned Zayn to face the door and gently set him to the ground. He tensed as soon as he let him go, anticipating another attempt at hurting someone. Instead, Zayn said nothing. He turned and walked out the door without another word.
Everyone let out a collective sigh and Liam turned back to face them.
“Liam! Your arms!” Louis exclaimed. The inside of the huge boy's arms were burnt fairly badly. It wasn't as bad as Niall's had been, but the skin had started to blister.
“Yeah,” Liam sighed, examining the damage. “He can put up a pretty good fight.”
Louis grabbed Liam's arm and immediately started to heal him. He looked at Simon as he started to glow blue. “We need to talk.” Louis said firmly.
Simon grabbed his overturned chair and propped it back up how it should be. He sat in it and steepled his fingers, watching his godson heal his friend. “Yes. We do.”
~Like I said. This one's pretty dark, what with the girlfriends being beaten to a bloody pulp and all. But I'm not trying to scare you away! The next few chapters might be a little bit dark after this, but not as bad as this one. PLEASE tell me what you thought of this one in the comments. And vote if you don't hate me yet for adding this dark side. So... Don't be scared! The fun has only begun.~