*NARRATOR'S POV*
Louis had a best friend and great opportunities handed to him when he moved to this town a yearago. Now he's partially lost the first and doesn't think he deserves the last. Does he? Why shouldhe? He let himself be ambushed by the infamous Styles twin brothers. Had he? All he reallydid was get an internship at the Madhouse.Maybe he can rectify all of this with a down to Earth honest conversation with Edward and Harry.They have to understand. Edward at least.The knock on his door, three rapid taps on the hard wood, gives Louis the hope that maybe Niallreturned. He jumps up, unaware of the time that's already so late, to go open it while wiping histear-stained cheeks.
"Niall-" He chops his glee in quarters when he instead sees his mother, rather than his friend.She looks shaken, absolutely distraught with bags under her dull blue eyes. Louis frowns and shiftsaside, sniffing to prevent a sneeze. His mother was holding her purse against her chest like she'safraid imaginary hands will snatch it away from her. Her clothes are disarrayed and torn at theknees, dirty and her lips puffy.
"Mother?" He looks her over head to toe, utterly lost for an appropriate response. "Whathappened?"
"Get inside!" She hissed and pushed her way in, slamming the door shut for him but not beforeLouis heard an elevator arrive on his floor.
"What's happening?!" He repeated when she grabbed his arm, pretending to not want to shove heroff, and dragged him towards the kitchen.His heart is pounding with the unwarranted stimulation, but nowhere near as badly as hers.
"Someone's here for me." She answered his enquiry at last, husky soft and eyes darting to everyharmless object present with them.
"What? Who?" Louis implores, studying the change in her expression from scared to hesitant.
"My old.....boss.""Your bloody pimp!" Louis knows his mother's one and only 'boss' is a ruthless Russianwith no regard for individual self preservation. "You brought him to my apartment-"
Louis leaves her alone in the lightless kitchen to grab his phone and dial the police. This needs to betaken care off quickly and smoothly with the proper authorities because Louis does not imaginehe'll survive more violence in his life.
His mother stops him. "No!"
"Don't touch me." He bites back, furthered to rudeness by the dark cloud of today.
Her hand recoils but she still tries to prevent bringing the police in. "He's dangerous, Lou. Sodangerous. He'll-"
"And yet you still got involved with him." Louis spits with a narrowed glare, letting her know it's allfor her stupid self.Someone knocks on the front door.
It's hardly human strength that the banging ensues with, butrather some great monster was trying to break the structure down.
"We're calling the police." Louis states with finality.
* * * * *
Edward flips over the coffee table with a kick. It completes a half-spin and crashes loudly as theshatterproof glass cracks. The metal framework hardly holds in the shards and along with the piecesfrom a picture frame that he smashed earlier, sprays everywhere.He's not crazy, but spending twenty-six years with the only person he cares for who is in factmentally unstable gave him more than a few insuppressible anger issues.Harry is waiting for the rage storm to pass.
He sits on their lounge single sofa closest to the exit andstares at the fit his brother is having."You know how much this damned town hates us and you took him to the place that evenmore reason to?!" Edward exposed his bruised and cut knuckles.
"He was safe." Harry tells him honestly. "With me, he was safe."
"Bastard, that's not what I'm talking about. You left me at the rink, Harry!"
"It's been five years and I thought you'd be over what happened by now."
"Are you?!"Harry had no answer. He bowed his head and sunk in his cheek. "Sorry, brother."
"Yeah." Edward sighed and dragged his stiff crooked fingers through his damp hair.
"Are you done now?" Harry uncrosses his legs and let's his wrist hang limply on the armrest.
"We'relate to pick up Lou."Edward still looks like a demon from Hell. Hair sprouting from his neat style at uneven angles thenhis teeth bared unknowingly.
"Shut up." Edward snarls, straightening his back and walking over the crunching glass. "Just shutup."
"You're angry?" Harry displays his typical don't-care attitude when Louis isn't around. He'sdeceiving that way.
"I gave up my life for you, you fucking imbecil!" Edward raves, deeming this the correct time to doso after a life wasted. "The least you could do is show appreciation."
Harry got to his feet and stopped walking when he was right in front of Edward. A strip of starchblond hair was hanging over Edward's eye, and Harry reached up to move it. "I never asked you todo that."
* * * * *
"We're calling the police."
Louis states with finality.
"Louis, don't!" She has to make her way past the couch separating them in order to stop him.
His fingers are already sliding across the touch screen keypad to dial Middleston's only policeprecinct, when the unwelcome barbarian outside becomes an intruder. Louis blood runs cold in hisbody when the door swings open and a body of gym quality stomps through.His mother was so desperate to get away from this man but she couldn't lock the bleedin'door.
* * * * *
Liam answers his hotel room door when the concierge calls to alert him of a visitor with blond hairand brown roots. Niall stands on the other side of the door with a crestfallen look about his face,creases on his forehead that made him three years older.
"Hey." Liam greets skeptically, moving aside to let his Duckling in even after he sees the black bag.
"Hi." Niall dumps his bag at the foot of the only bed in here and sits on the mattress.
"What's up?" Liam shuts the door and takes a seat next to him. "I tried cal-"
"I know. Sorry I didn't answer." Niall pulls in a sharp inhale. "I left Lou."
Liam begins to feel extremely awkward. "I didn't know you two were-"
"We're not together, fool. He's my best ever friend and I left him crying on the couch."
"Niall." Liam starts, fitting his arm around Niall's shoulders and pulling him in. "What happened?"
"I had a shift yesterday, right?" Niall doesn't pause for the detective to answer. "I sent him a text buthe didn't answer so I went home to check on him. He was with someone and I accidentally walkedin on them so I just left for work."Liam listens to Niall silently with his support offered in the form of a side hug and a kind, softvoice.
"I come back in the morning after my shift and guess who the Hell I find naked as a newborn in ourkitchen?" Niall's temperature seemed to rise when he shouted that question, his anger resolved onceagain.
"Who?" Liam's been working without breaks on the case Louis offered him, so he really doesn'twant to guess the wrong thing.
"Edward Styles!"Now Niall isn't the only one who's paying utmost attention to his story.
Liam's frown becomes thefocal point of his face as he processes this. He knows Edward, not personally but well enough viahearsay. What was Louis doing with him? The man was a born, bred psychopath."What was he doing-"
"He's the one Louis fucking slept with!" Niall wakes up and starts doing rounds from the window tothe bathroom door and back.
"Fuck. What do you want me to do?"
* * * * *
His mother was so desperate to get away from this man but she couldn't lock the bleedin'door.
"Go, Louis!" She wraps her hand around his arm and pulls hard enough for him to stumble on thecarpet and the stranger at the door to see them.
The mood gets tense with destructive anticipation and the black sunken eyes of the Russian inLouis' doorway seem to be carnivorous. Louis ducks under his mother's arm to keep from trippingthem both and doesn't let go of her when she pushes him away. She's his mother. He can't leave herto face this on her own.
"Johannah!" The curbed accent of a man away from his native tongue lashes out in abarking echo.
Louis gets an eyeful of the man when he steps into the lounge with them. He's wearing a crinklyleather jacket and brown crocodile skin shoes, his shirt is black but doing nothing to slim the bulkystructure of his torso. His muscle was intimidating and in excess, a frightening sight to have in aroom with no illumination.
"Ian, please listen." She tries to reason with him, holding her hand out in front of herself.
"Listen to what?" He bellows, not caring in the slightest for the boy standing behind his target. "Ihave learnt from Joey that you left town. What of that?!"
"I-I just....-" She takes a step back when he surges forward, tripping on the stupid rug. "I neededsome time!"
"You did?" Ian advances on her and Johannah shoves Louis out of the way to be safe from a fatalcollision.
Louis falls with his feet still planted on the ground, his bout of flight stunted by his mother's weightlanding on his legs. He screams with the weight of two bodies on his knees, crushing him withoutthankfully causing severe damage. His head hits the floor with a sickening crack but the universe isspiteful enough to leave him conscious.
The ringing in his ears get so loud that he unintentionally blocks out the horrific sound of a hard fiston under-nourished cheekbones. Louis doesn't even muster enough strength to look back, let alonehelp, with his vision so blurry and thoughts so scrambled. He's breathing heavily, coughinga red substance onto the wooden floor.
Behind him is the worst scene of his existence and he can do nothing about it. He has to get hisphone and dial the police, but the device has slid across the room to the far end. Resisting the needto choke up sobs because of the searing pain of the hurt tissue in his leg, his head having thesensation of a bomb repeatedly going off in his head.
He pulls himself free from the mass of violence and torturous nature of the treatment his mother isgoing through. He's curled up against a nearby pillar, in considerate beats of thick blood racingthrough his veins. There's blood on his legs and the foggy moving image of what's happening to hismother is engrained in his mind.By crawling he gets to his phone in time and dials the 10111 for the police. His hand his shakingand his his voice was close to non-existent. Louis swallowed the impulse to just lay there in apuddle of screeches.
"Pl-Please co-ome t-t-to thirt-thirty-one W-Wo-odh-hurst." He stuttered terribly into the receiver, hishand holding his body up.
That limb began top vibrate but Louis groaned and upheld himself until the will gave way and hefell again. He wished for a deep sleep but none was coming, the pain and nausea raking through himlike the devil's pitchfork.He can hear silence now and blinks close to a dozen times so his vision clears even a little.
TheRussian monster has turned towards him and is lacking any form of injury, so he's at his fullphysical potential when he gets to his feet again. He's muttering something in his home languagewhilst taking the steps forward needed to reach Louis.The boy knows this could mean a death, a horrible death with all the hurt in the world.
With thatmotivation he hauls himself to his feet, relying on just one leg for lumbar support. The adrenaline inhis body has reduced to a dwindling figure of insignificance, but Louis insists on at least gettingbehind a closed door.The door was closed but someone still knocked on it, oblivious to the happenings inside Louis'apartment.Louis heard the Russian shouting at him, for him, behind his back but he was already in thedoorway.
If he could get outside he'd lock the apartment whether it was Niall or the police here atthis time. It takes three tries to grab the door handle and when he gets it right, there's a strong hand grippingthe back of his shirt. The mobster with bloodied fists tugs on Louis and the boy's stumblebackwards pulls the door open with the force exerted.It's not Niall or the police.
At the time at Louis sees his demise because of a head-on smack involving his skull and the coldwooden flooring, he feels relief at the hand grabbing his wrist. It has to be Edward because that'swhose chest he gets pressed up against within a breath's timing. Also the hand on his back isforfeited by force.
"Petal." Edward greets gruffly.He cradles the back of Louis' head with his whole hand, fingertips buried in the soft locks. His otherarm comes around Louis' back, holding the boy upright.
"You're safe." Edward pets the curve of Louis' spinal column, reassuring him with his voice filteringalone into his foggy mind.
Louis just understands in his state of fuzzy confusion and spike in energy that he is safe now andcares not for the state of Edward's shirt when he holds on tightly. The man looks over at Harry, whohad gotten the Russian's hand off Louis.
"Can I?" Harry was beaming, dazzling smile of charm and hope once again overcoming hisfeatures.
Edward picked Louis up by the backs of his knees and nodded. "Have fun."
Carrying Louis towards the elevators, Edward hears the apartment door shut and his brother'smaniacal laugh. He rolls his eyes. Yes, the Russian he saw is a giant with bark for muscle but hisbrother is swifter than anything he's known and has always worked things the hard way.
Harry cantake anyone down.Edward notices the police arrive and park haphazardly, the ambulance as well just shortly afterthem. He doesn't stop moving away from the building until he's got Louis in the back seat of theRover. When the first officer opens the complex's door, Edward calls Harry.
"Get out." He says and hangs up.
He notices that Louis has passed out laid out on the seat, one arm over his front and his turned to theside. Edward wishes to tallest order of Divine Providence to give him an answer as to whyhe feels this way. Like his body is slowly removing a layer of skin one at a time and letting him feelthe pain of a futile healing on top of the anticipation of a fresh ripping.An EMT comes to take Louis away to the ambulance station on a gurney, conducting anexamination.
"Does he need to go to the hospital?" Edward asks the jittery paramedic.
A young female who isprobably well aware of who is next to her."N-" She thinks it over by glancing at her partner."No."
Her partner chooses to speak next, definitely much older with a tan line on his finger but no ring."He doesn't have a concussion and we'll set his ankle now with a simple brace."
Edward nods and let's them carry on, taking three strides away from them, glancing back ever sooften out of a strange nag to ensure the estranged professionals aren't taking his petal away.Harry comes jogging down the front steps after a group of officers hurry inside, smiling innocentlyat them as he passes by. His hands are stuffed into his pockets unsurprisingly as he spots Edwardand makes his way over.
"How's Lou?" He stops to pull in a breath through his nose and not remove his hands.
The wind seems to have picked up in the past twenty minutes and Edward felt the chill set in deepinto his scalp from the breeze wading through the individual strands of hair. Harry's mane wasblowing in the wind, only slightly lifting off his shoulders before being caught by his hand.
"Not okay." Edward said coldly, turning back towards the mobile ER station set up. He's sick to hisdeepest bowel in the twisted chords of his soul worrying about Louis. "Who the fuck was that?"
The thin, grim line of Harry's lips turned into a signature smirk as they stood side-by-side watchinga flurry of people work their magic to contain the gruesome drama. A crowd was forming andyellow police tape was put up to enclose the busy region.People saw the Styles and immediately jumped to conclusions.
They're at it again. They werejust released, weren't they? Where's that boy they're always behind? Why isn't he- oh he is.
"Later, brother." Harry looked at the two new gurneys being carried out of the building, both withwhite sheets over them.
The first one was neat and immediately slid into the coroner's vehicle, while the second had bloodstains worsening at the front where the face should be. The red got deeper and wet the white clothover a greater surface area. Harry found it glorious and Edward knew why.
"Your handiwork?" He asked, their fight from earlier in the day already forgotten.Harry held the door open for Edward to carry and position Louis in the back seat of the RangeRover. The light was dimmed.
"You know it."A minute shy of Edward stopping his laughter to get in the driver's seat, a new car pulled up andnone other than Louis' loud best friend hopped out.
"Oh shit." Niall muttered to himself, not waiting for Liam to get off and pull out his badge."Let me through! I live here!"
Liam catches him around his waist and timidly leads him around the side, Edward and Harrywatching everything play out like Gods over a chessboard. Harry closed the back-seat door so Louiscould not be seen by anyone. Niall would have caught a police officer by the ear and demanded afull explanation if Liam hadn't done it first
."Home invasion, Sir." The young officer answers them, more Liam than Niall. "Two dead and oneinjured."
The blond knew Louis was the injured one because if it wasn't then he was going to bring his bestfriend back with whatever voodoo necessary to yell at him for being involved in this. Louis wasresilient as fuck, in Niall's unbiased opinion.
There's no way his friend didn't make it. Niall chewed his thumb and swore himself, internally beathis better judgment because it resulted in Louis facing this alone. Who were the two that died?Who killed them?Niall's gasp gets Liam to pay attention, when the only true conclusion falls onto him.
The formerscans the crowd and every busy body moving around this aftermath control team until it lands onthe most attractive vehicle he's ever seen in this tiny town. There isn't even a Range Roverheadquarters here.
"Liam." The man seems to have lost interest and Niall smacks his arm thrice. "Liam."
They both turn their attention to where Niall is all but pointing a giant laser. Edward and Harrydeem it the ideal time to get going before contact is made. Harry makes his way around the side tothe passenger's side and Edward returns to the driver's, shooting a wink Niall's way before finallygetting in.
* * * * *
The first thing Louis noticed when his consciousness became active was that he hadn't woken up inhis own bed. A damn bursts and every memory from the time he spilt ice cream on a fellow studenton campus to the most recent event of watching his mother die in his peripheral comesrushing in.He panics at the thought of the Russian man grabbing his shirt and yanking him back. Had hetaken him? Where is he?
"Petal."Louis' never been - and hopefully never will be - so relieved to hear that pet name he didn't consentto.
He sits up and winces at once was a dull throbbing, now having escalated to a more trashyblistering pain in his skull. It makes him whimper and cover his face to control the dizziness takingover him.
The bed dips and Louis tries moving away from the additional person, still experiencing unclearvision and not trusting himself. His plagued with the images of what happened. He saw it happen,he watched her skull cave in at the hand of a underground ring leader. Her blood was on his skinHe throws off the covers to check his legs, where the crimson splatters were.
"Petal." Edward was seated on the edge of the bed and the covers didn't budge, he didn't move tomake it easier either.
Edward had sat here, in this room with a dusty ceiling, for four consecutive hours with a bottle ofwhiskey and six glass tumblers. He'd broken them all when this feeling got so sensitive, soraw and so real that he couldn't take it. When Gerard tried entering the room with food he threw aglass at him, then three more at his brother.
He didn't bother to apologise or let himself regret any of what he did, because this fuckingfeeling was driving him right to the brink of self control. Harry could be very selfish andEdward wanted to have this time with his hurt petal. He deserved that, he decided.
Louis was disorientated. Edward held his wrists and leaned in so close that his lips brushed over thebaby hairs of Louis' skin. The boy recognised his voice even if he didn't trust appearance, couldn'tsee past the disturbing video playing over and over and over in his mind.
"You're alright, my petal." Edward releases a corner of the insulated sheets and brings Louis ontohis lap. "Safe and still beautiful."
Louis broke down in Edward's lap. It was too much for him to keep seeing what he saw long after itwas over. He fisted Edward's unbuttoned and easily creased shirt with small hands, crying withoutrestraint into the man's neck. His ankle was numb from painkillers and sat uselessly on the mattress.
"You are astonishing, petal." Edward held him back. After these past four hours this is the mostsecure he's ever felt. "You cry so softly when you have the right to scream."L
ouis can only fold one leg on Edward's lap, the other sprawled out in front of him. He hiccups andcloses his eyes, the whimpers getting worse because of the pain shooting down his spine. Edwardkisses his forehead and let's him lose as much as he can in this time.The boy sees it again and again. His eyes close and it's on the back of his eyelids. He opens themand no matter where he looks, he's still locked in his apartment with a bull of a man.
"You can go back to sleep." Edward knows he has to keep his voice low for the sake of Louis'headache. "Just take the tablets you have to first, Lou."
Louis nods but his efforts are already planted in something else. He presses his nose and mouth tothe inviting expanse of Edward's neck, getting the bitter scent of alcohol but not minding it. Edwardrubs his back a few more times and lays Louis down on the pillows.
"Open." Edward asks him, tracing a cuboidal pill over Louis' lip. The boy parts his lips and let's itget set on his tongue, then some water for him to swallow. "Go to sleep, petal. I'm not leaving youalone."
Louis was hesitant and he seemed to stare at the pillow his head would use for two whole minutesbefore relaxing. His heart felt like it had become a virus and spread to every part of his body,sending it all into overdrive.
He closed his eyes and didn't let go of Edward's shirt at the tail.Edward was crazy and temperamental but he's Edward and Louis thinks trust is a commonground here.Edward polishes off his whiskey bottle and lays down on the bed behind Louis.
"I'm never leavingyou alone."What's different is that this time Louis hears him.
* * * * *
The doorbell downstairs rings on the galvanised pine wood door. Nobody in the house of theownership's bloodline - or their guest - will ever get up to answer it so Gerard does whathe's paid for.
"Good afternoon, Madam." He greets the humble, familiar face he's met with.
Gemma Styles.
Edward and Harry's younger sister with a hearty smile and regular eyes stood there with herwoollen hat and gloves. She's the most dangerous member of the Styles family, in dear old Gerard'sopinion and experience.
Gemma is the apple to Harry and Edward's eyes and they listened toeverything she said without investigating. If she didn't like you, they took care of that. Yet sheappeared to be such a harmless young lady with good morals, what lay underneath was connivingand manipulative.
"Hey, Jerry." She grinned toothily, removing her gloves and wiping her feet on the 'Welcome' carpetoutside.
"Miss Styles." He took her coat and satchel from her, stepping aside to hang them up.
"How have you been, Jerry?" She blows warm air into the oyster-shaped pocket she created withboth her hands.
"Same as always, Miss Gemma. How was Oxford?"
"Monotonous and dreary, but I've gotten the weekend off which I count as a plus."
"I do as well." He nodded and motioned for her to follow him. "A snack?"
"No thank you." She waves away the offer politely. "I'm here for my brothers. Where are they?"Gerard paused, stumbling over a reason.She noticed. "Jerry?"
"Edward is upstairs, Harry is in the study."
* * * * *
Harry was angry and scared and confused, but most of all he was alone.Edward won't let him go see Louis when he really, so urgently wanted to because Louis had thepower to make him happier. Louis had more control over him than Edward and it's been hardly overa week of knowing one another.
He's also angry and lost in despair because Louis, who he held in the mightiest regard, was hoggingall his brother's attention. That was not on. Harry used to have Edward to go to when he felt asunstable and insecure as he did now, which he didn't mind sharing with Louis at times but now hewas left to his own despicable devices.
Louis and he were having so much fun earlier today so how did that happen to them? He even savedLouis!He didn't know who to be angry with most. Edward wasn't at fault, simply because Harry knows hisbrother all too well. Louis was in a fragile state so maybe he just wasn't thinking clearly. Thedemons in Harry's head refused to let him believe that.How could their petal do this to him? It wasn't fair.
If Louis wanted comfort, Harry can offer himsolace as well. But no, those two are upstairs forgetting all about him.
Louis couldn't have Edwardall to himself, that's not how things work.