Dove
I open my eyes to find out that I fell asleep on Styles, and sit up instantly, not wanting him to notice that I'm basically lying on him. He doesn't move even though I must've moved him roughly while getting up.
I look down at him, I've never seen his sleep. In a way, I like it. He looks way calmer than usual, his face is relaxed, differently from when he's awake, when he seems to be constantly on edge for some unknown reason. And the most important thing, he's silent. Looking at him without him saying bullshit all the time makes me see how attractive he truly is, and his beauty strikes me every time as the first. It's almost upsetting, my mind can't process how someone can be so stunning and so profoundly annoying at the same time.
I nervously bite my lower lip before leaning down to cover him with the blanket better, since the air seems even colder than when we fell asleep. I wonder what time it is, if the sun has already come out or if it's still night. The day should've come around by now, though.
I sit down next to Styles, that is still asleep, wondering what to do next. I know for sure that we're in the wrong entrance right now, because I entered the first I saw and, if I remember correctly, the right one was at the end of the road, not the start. The best thing to do would be to get out of the tunnels and enter the right one, but the idea of having to go out again scares me, given what happened yesterday night. If we can even remember the path to the entrance, since that we walked around while we were arguing.
I'm so screwed. If I can't manage to keep Styles safe, Mr Styles will never let my parents go. I shiver at the simple thought of what he could do to them. I need to find the right road, in some kind of way. Too many things depend on it.
I glance at Styles, his eyes are still closed. I instinctively reach out to brush a curl of dark hair away from his forehead, but I stop before even touching him. His looks may be absolutely dashing, but he is a prick, and I don't like him. Besides, what if he woke up? Nobody would want to hear what he'd say about my action. Subconsciously I find myself looking at him again. His rosy lips are slightly parted, and the faint warmth of his breath hits my hand, on the floor next to his head, in rhythmic blows.
"Wake up, Styles" I say out loud, despising having to wake him up.
He murmurs something, but doesn't budge. Of course.
"I suggest you wake up before I rethink the importance of our water and pour it on you" I say snappily, this time effectively getting a response.
"Why do you always have to be such a bitch?" He mumbles rolling to his back before sitting up, brushing his hair away from his green eyes, looking at me tiredly, a little smile on his lips at seeing the level of annoyance I'm at.
Fuck you, Styles.
I look down to my backpack, that is between my legs, to escape his gaze. I open it and start rummaging inside, not really doing anything, just to give the impression I am. "We need to get out of here. I suggest you wake up because if someone tries to shoot you and you're too sleepy to even notice I will not save your sorry ass."
"I never asked you to" he hisses standing up and stumbling slightly, "Do you even know how to get out of here, or are you being a bitch to cover up the fact that you don't even know where to go?"
I glare at him. "I hate you, Styles. I'll never hate anyone more than I hate you."
"Don't worry, the feeling is mutual" he says glaring back.
"Let's just go now, I'm pretty sure it's day and I don't want to waste my time." I surpass him, walking in what I hope is the right direction.
"Alright" he replies, "Just don't forget to turn left at the first turn!" He adds snappily.
I flip him off without turning around, the faint sound of his steps behind me.
After close to no more disturbances, and way more minutes that I'd like to admit, we finally reach the entrance of the tunnel and glance out, wondering if it's safe to go out.
"How close is the other entrance?" He whispers to me, just in case there's someone outside that can hear us.
"Just at the end of the street" I reply equally as silently, looking outside to check for the revelatory signs that we are not alone.
"How close is that?"
I turn to glance at him, and the look he gives me shows me that he understood the answer even before I opened my mouth. "I have no idea" I admit with a sigh, and he gives me a small nod.
"That's a bit dangerous, but not impossible" he replies, "We just need to keep a low profile."
"What about the Moons?" I ask him, not wanting to admit that I'm slightly scared of going outside without knowing who was there, the both of us only armed with a single gun.
"The Moons aren't out during the day, there's a reason why they're called like that. They're only around during the night. Before you ask, no, I don't know why. But whatever the reason is, it's allowed them to keep their mysteries, since nobody knows anything about them" he replies, and I frown.
"I thought you had talked to them? You said so."
"I did, but do you really think they give up on their mysteriousness with allies?" He asks sliding closer to me to have a better look outside. "No, they don't" he ends, answering his same question.
"And Payne? They talked about him last night."
"That concerns me a little, honestly. If they sided with Payne, it means that we have more than half of the town against us."
"Fuck, we're screwed" I complain, and he puts a hand in my forearm to shut me up.
"Maybe not. Considering that there doesn't seem to be anyone outside, if we manage to get into the right entrance without being killed, and somehow find the right direction when we're inside, we might have a pretty good chance at surviving."
"Wow Styles, you really should be a motivational speaker" I reply sarcastically, and he glares me.
"At least I'm not here whining that we're gonna die, differently from you."
I decide to ignore his words and look outside again. "What makes you so sure we're alone?"
"This doesn't reflect Payne's modus operandi. He attacks, doesn't hide and wait for his prey to come out of the hole."
"I hope you're right, Styles. Let's go."
We slowly get out of the tunnel, looking around the street carefully.
"Which direction?" Styles whispers, and I take a look around.
Even though Max's body is nowhere to be seen now, I recognise the street on the first turn at our right and the buildings on each side of it.
"Left, let's be fast, I don't trust this place" I say, referring to the eerie silence surrounding us, despite it being day. My uncle was right when he explained the various parts of the city to me, the Moon territory works in the opposite way of a normal city. That's why the Moons are that mysterious, they are around when nobody else is.
We walk in that direction, and after a few seconds I realise that the road is longer than we expected it to be, and that there's no hiding place between us and the second entrance. The way Styles stops suddenly tells me he noticed the same thing.
"Should we risk running?" I whisper to him, and he shakes his head.
"It would be too loud. Let's walk fast."
"Got it" I say, and we make our way down the street fast.
All of sudden a gunshot is heard.
"For fuck's sake Styles, so much for Payne not waiting out their prey!" I hiss at him kneeling down instantly as he does the same.
He looks at the spot the bullet hit on the wall right above his head. There's a hole, the bullet went right through the wall.
"Please tell me the wall was thin" I murmur discomforted.
"There's good news and bad news" he replies glancing around to see if he can spot the place it came from. "The good news is that it's not Payne." He pulls out his gun and takes the safety off. "The bad news is that the Moons are out during the day, and very much after us."
"The fuck, why are they so dedicated in trying to kill you? Did you pull down their leader's hood or something?" I hiss at him.
"Really clever Dove, sarcasm right as we're about to get murdered, bet you'd make your mom so proud" he replies kneeling right behind me. "Alright so, I count to three and we run, fast, without stopping. Am I clear?"
I murmur a "yeah" under my breath, starting to feel like something's wrong. Wronger than gunshots being fired at us. "Hang on Styles" I ask him all of sudden, "if they want you dead this bad, why aren't they shooting?"
"Fuck" he whispers, "Run now!"
I stand up and sprint towards the end of the street, my hand reaching behind me to wrap around Styles's wrist to make sure he's following. All of sudden another gunshot is heard, and I turn in the direction I heard it come from out of instinct, and Styles does the same.
There's a single hooded figure standing in the middle of the street, the long black cloak seeming almost out of place in the light of the day. Even though Styles has his gun pointed at them, they don't seem to be bothered by it at all, and they take a few steps forward to shorten the distance between us, the gun down, hidden between the folds of the cloak.
"Not one step closer!" Styles says loud enough for them to hear, and they stop.
The darkness under the hood stares at us for a few seconds, the sun right behind them, and then two hands come out of the dark fabric, pulling down the hood. Two deep, greyish ocean blue eyes stare right back at us. The man they belong to doesn't seem that much older than Styles, a dark stubble on his chin.
"And who do you happen to be, exactly?" Styles says roughly, strong of his power over the situation.
"Put your gun down and we'll talk" the man replies, and I recognise the voice from the night before.
Styles raises an eyebrow at the request. "How about I don't?"
"Do it" I tell him, "If he wanted to kill us, he would've already done it."
"The girl is wise, Harry. Do as she says" the man says, and Styles points the gun at the ground.
"What do you want?" He asks him, and the man smirks.
"I suppose you know Wintermore is on the verge of an inter-district war, don't you?" He asks, and I frown, while Styles nods. "You don't?" The man asks me. "Well, why did you think the Moons and Payne want him dead?" He points at Styles. "They want to force Mr Styles to come out of his hole, and what better way to do it than killing his beloved only son?"
"What's your goal?" I ask him, taking a step back.
"It's simple. We want to... depose... Mr Styles. Of course he'd never agree to, so we want to do it in a more permanent way, you could say" he replies, coming closer to us. "Now, what I suppose you don't know, is that while we - the Moons - and Payne are together, there are still some divisions."
"What do you mean?" Styles asks, confusedly.
"Not everyone thinks that murdering you is the best way" he says, "In fact, other people and I think it won't work at all. It hasn't worked the first time, why would it now?"
Styles's eyes widen. "The... first time?"
"So sorry about your sister, Harry" the man replies, and Styles points his gun at his head again.
"You bastard! She was only 17!" he hisses at him, and I realise they're talking about an event that took place years ago.
"Your... sister?" I ask him, but he ignores me. He doesn't even look at me, his beyond angry gaze freezing the man in front of him in his place.
"The news didn't even get out in the centre, am I right? The Moons killed Mr Styles's daughter eight years ago in hope of starting a revolution, too bad it didn't work out" he tells me. "I'd rethink your decision of shooting me if I were you. I'm not against you" he adds looking at Styles. "Now, what I know is that killing you not only is useless, but will also bring Mr Styles to hide even better. Unfortunately I'm one of the few thinking like that." He turns around as he hears something. "It's easy, Harry" he says fast, "There are a few people besides your father who want you to live. Go out of the city, and never come back. Go away forever. Destruction is about to fall over this town, and I don't like to see young people getting murdered if I can avoid it." He throws something at us, and I catch it. It's a small bag, with what seems like coins inside. "They're made of gold, they're more than enough to start over. I won't tell you how I got them, just know that my leader won't be pleased at all. Now go, Payne is coming." He pulls his hood over his head again and disappears in one of the side streets.
After a few seconds in which we stand in the middle of the road completely dumbfounded, we turn around and run as fast as we can. We reach the second entrance of the tunnel and we slide in, hiding into the darkness.
The sound of steps stops outside.
"There's nobody here" a voice says.
"I thought the gunshots were coming from here" another adds.
"Well they clearly weren't" the first voice snappily replies, "Now let's go. Payne won't be pleased."