Chapter 32
I pull up to the warehouse. In my headlights I see a familiar figure. I smile to myself and take the keys out of the car. I don't bother getting my bag, but I do grab the wooden toy and get out of the car. I run towards him and wrap my arms around him. He wraps his arms around my waist. Just like my dream when I ran too him after Niall told me to get out of the house, I felt safe in Harry's arms. I don't even care that it's a thunderstorm and my hair and clothes are getting wet.
"I've missed you so much," Harry says pulling away from the hug, "I'll get your bag, and you need to go sleep."
"Thank you," I say to him and hand him the car keys. I remember I still don't know the code to the warehouse but when I look it's already cracked open. I walk into my home. The smell that I’ve missed so much came to my senses and it felt good. I smile to myself, making my way to my room. It feels weird to be back but at the same time it feels good.
There was a slight knock on my door before it opened. "Here's your bag." Harry says to me.
"Thank you I say taking it and setting it on the bed. I started taking the things I had out of it. I could see Harry was in the room from the reflection from the window that looked like it was replaced since I was gone.
"Do you want any help?'' He asks.
I was about to answer but as I looked in the window there was a figure that appeared for a second then disappeared. It startled me.
"Harry, something’s out there." I say, I could hear fear in my voice.
"I saw it too." He says walking to the window, "Go get the boys and tell them to get the guns. We need to go outside and look around."
I leave the room and walk down the long narrow hallway. My room was farther than the rest of the rooms. As I'm walking the lights shut off.
"Cat?" I hear Harry call.
The only light that was showing was the lightning that came every five seconds from the window at the very end of the hallway. A bright light flashes and I see the same figure walk past the window. "Harry!" I call, with my heart beat quickening. The door only a few feet in front of me opens and a body frame like Niall comes out.
"Cat, what's going on?" He asks. I would run to him and hug him but I was as scared as ever right now.
"Someone’s outside. We need to get the others." I tell him. I hear footsteps start to walk towards me, I feel my heart skip a beat at the possibility of it being whoever is out there but I calm a little when I realize its Harry. Niall heads down the hall to go get the rest of the boys and Annabelle.
"What happened?" He asks me.
"The figure, I just saw it walk past that window." I say.
"He's found us." I hear harry mutter under his breath, "Cat, when Niall comes back with the others, you and Annabelle need to go down in the basement, grab a flashlight and a gun. Lock yourself and Annabelle down there. Under any circumstances don't you unlock that door and come out. I expect Annabelle to do the same. When the coast is clear we will knock three times, with a pause and then four times. Understand?"
"No what happens if something happens to you and the boys?" I ask.
"We don't know who it is out there. It could just be some homeless person wanting to get shelter from the rain."
"But what if it's Alex? And if it is Alex we don't know how many of his people are out there."
"Cat, I'm not going to repeat myself. Just do as I told you too." Harry says in a stern tone.
Annabelle and the boys come out of the rooms and Harry tells them what’s happening. He also tells Annabelle what she's doing and after much protesting she dragged me down into the basement with two guns and a flashlight. She also takes a hammer which I didn't know what for but I found out when I heard a bang and some type of metal falling to the floor. She had taken only the knob of the lock off, now it was only a knob and can only be locked from the inside instead of both sides.
"Annabelle who do you think is out there?" I ask.
"The hell I would know, it's been quite here for months until you showed up." She said which I'm taken back.
"Whoever is out there is not my fault." I say.
"Whoever is up there just shows up as soon as you arrive? Go ahead and tell yourself that none of this is your fault."
"If you’re implying that I brought someone over here to kill us all. You’re wrong. I would never do that to you guys."
"I didn't say that, I'm implying; did you even bother to see if you were being followed?"
"Sorry I was too busy thinking about my family back at the house which is probably down to the ground now."
A gunshot going off made our arguing stop. We both looked at each other with the same look on out face; fear. And after the shot there was a scream. It took me only a second to realize who it was from; Niall. It didn't take Annabelle long to recognize who the scream came from either. She ran straight towards the door. I followed after her not knowing whether or not to stop her. But it's Nail we are talking about. If something happened to him none of this would be the same.
I’ve never seen Annabelle run so fast ever in my entire life knowing her. I never realized how much Annabelle cared about Niall until now.
When Annabelle reached the door and opened it she screeched as loud as she could, "Niall!" When I reached outside only a few seconds after her, Niall was on the floor clutching his stomach. None of the other boys were around which meant that they spread out.
"Niall, what happened?" Annabelle asks taking her jacket off and wrapping it around his waist.
"Alex, he's here. With lots of men." He says with pain in his voice.
"Where are they then? His men?" I ask.
"There was only one here, I didn't see him. He came out of nowhere. He shot me aiming for the heart but he missed. I shot him before he can get away but I too missed. He was shot in the leg and ran off. There's no one else here that I know of right now."
"And the boys?" Annabelle asks sitting him up carefully.
"They're somewhere around here. I don't know. We split up. I'm guarding the front." He said. It hurts me because of how much pain there was in his voice.
"No not any more you're not. Cat will take you inside and help you, I'll stay out here." Annabelle says.
"Annabelle no, I can’t put you in danger. I promised your mother."
"Nothing will happen to me. Just please go inside so Cat can take care of you."
"Yeah come on Niall, You can't fight, you're injured." I say.
Annabelle helps him up with his arm over her shoulder and hands him off to me. I slowly take him inside so his not in too much pain. Where we are inside, Annabelle shuts the door and I take Niall over to the couch and lay him down.
"You may be losing a lot of blood right now Niall but whatever you do I need you to keep your eyes open and stay with me okay?"
"How was your stay in New Orleans?" He asks. I go to the kitchen and get the first aid kit.
"Well there were some bad moments and some good. I got to know my father more and realize Caleb is a good man after all but he just has some issues with letting go. The bad part is my step dad, mom, and brother are dead because I killed Jake. The house is probably burned to the ground now and I have no idea if they made it out or not. I was kidnapped. But knowing who my real dad is made it all worth it." I say taking out the tweezers we had in the box. I sit on the floor next to Niall’s wound. I help him take off his shirt so I can have a better picture of the wound.
"Alright, I need to take the bullet out since it didn't go straight through you, the bullets still in there. It's going to hurt a lot. I know it's going to be hard, but try and keep as quite as possible. We don't want to draw people towards the front." I explain and Niall nods. "Here, hold my hand. Grip it as much as you want if that means you won't scream as much." and he does what I suggested.
Caleb had taught me how to pull a bullet out with one hand when he was training me. I never thought it would come in handy until now. You need you use your eyes and hands precisely or you can easily hurt the person you are trying to get the bullet out of. I first locate the bullet which is only inches from his ribs. If it was in his ribs there would be a problem. The bullet wasn’t deep in which was good for me. I take a deep breath and stick the tweezers in his wound. Niall’s grip on my hand tightens. I feel the tweezers tap the bullet.
"Alright on the count of three I'm going to pull it out okay?" I say. Niall nods and his grip on my hand tighten even more than I thought it could.
"One," I say.
"Two." On two I pull it out. Niall screams but then stops himself as if my voice came into his head reminding him that his scream can draw attention to inside.
I put some rubbing alcohol on the wound to clean any bacteria. The wound isn't big enough that I need to sue it so I patch it up with a cloth.
"There, just don't move very much and it will heal quickly." I smile and he nods.
It was silent for a while until there was the thing I wished I didn't want to hear again. A shot and then a scream; from Annabelle.
"No!" Niall and I scream at the exact same time.
"Cat, please help me out there. I need to see her. If she’s hurt I'll never forgive myself."
I nod and help him up from the couch. He grabs the gun to protect the both of us and we head towards the door. I hear Niall slightly trying to hide his grunts of pains as we make the way to the door. I open it and all of the other boys are gathered around Annabelle who is on the floor. She holds an arrow that’s in her stomach and it bleeds. I look at Annabelle’s face and she looks like she's struggling for a breath. It brought tears to my eyes. The weight on my shoulders disappeared when Niall dropped to the floor crawling beside her, even through the pain I know he’s feeling, he still grabbed Annabelle and put her in his arms.
"Annabelle," Niall says, his voice sounds like he's in pain; in more way than one.
"Alex, is he dead? Did I kill him?" She says with breaths in between each word.
I look past the group and there’s a lifeless body on the ground. The same body form I have come to fear. It was Alex.
Niall who was also looking in my direction nodded, "Yes he's dead. You killed him." I see Niall try to force a smile but it failed when he saw the blood coming from her stomach.
"What can I do to make the pain go away?" Niall asks.
Annabelle half smiles, "You don't need to do anything, it doesn't hurt."
"No, let Cat help you, she helped me." He says looking up at me.
But I looked down at the ground knowing I couldn't save her like I did with Niall. She's already lost to much blood. Knowing I couldn't save her, I felt a bang in my heart. Like someone had just stabbed it a million times. The pain was horrible.
"She can't, I've already lost too much blood." Annabelle says, she tries to add a little laugh at the end but it hurt her too much.
"No, Annabelle you can't die."
"Niall, it’s okay. It's okay. It's okay," She whispers. It was getting harder for her to talk meaning her breathing was failing on her. "It's okay, It's perfect; I'm in the arms of my best friend, surrounding be are my brothers and the older sister I've always wanted but never got. It's perfect. I'm surrounded by the only people I have ever truly loved. The people I will always love; Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Cat Miller. I love you guys."
"No please don't." Niall says and cries, "Annabelle don't please!"
"You have to tell my Dad! You have to tell my dad!" She says, "You have to tell-" Her breathing starts to quicken. She's trying to fight her last breath. And finally her last breath comes, making me too fall to the ground repeating "No, No, No." I feel someone wrap their arms around me, and I recognize Harry's scent. I cry into his chest as I watch Niall cry looking down at Annabelle. I watch as he pulls himself together to kiss the top of her head and quietly say "I love you."
"Niall I don't mean to interrupt anything but what did she mean by you have to tell her dad?" Louis asks, "I thought she never knew her father?"
"She did. He cared more about her than her mother did. She just said he was a no-show and a horrible father for Kylie's sake. Annabelle didn’t think they needed their parents to survive so she made lies about both of them."
"What does she want you to tell him?" Zayn asks.
"That she's sorry and she loves him." Niall replies.
"Come on Cat let's go inside, it's cold and you're only in a tank top. You're going to get sick." Harry makes up some excuse. He only wanted me to get inside, so I could get away from this scene of sadness in front of me. Another person I love is dead.
But I don't move. I feel too weak to move. I feel numb inside like I'm no one. Like I'm just particles passing through by the wind; like I'm nothing. When Harry see's that I'm not moving he doesn't insist I get up, instead he picks me up bridal style and carries me inside. When he turns his back away from Niall holding Annabelle, reality hits me like a bitch.
She's dead. She's really dead. I'm not going to hear anymore of her bitchy attitude, my sister I never had is not going to be here when I wake up tomorrow. Another piece of me is gone. When I come to realize that the pain hits me like a bus and it's hard to breathe as I cry again. All I can do while I'm in Harry's arms and he takes me away from the scene is think about memories of Annabelle. When I first saw her I thought her two best friends and her sister died. And I felt so bad for her. Then I think about when I first found out that she set me up. I was pissed at her. And her nagging and attitude didn't make me feel any better with her at the moment. When her sister died I saw how vulnerable she was and how she was just a girl who got into this mess trying to help out her best friend. I remember when she finally told me that she thought of me like a sister. It was one of the best and worst days of my life. I remember my last conversation with her. I was the one being the bitch to her instead of her being the bitch to me -but in a good way of course-, I should've looked to see if I was being followed. If I had looked and saw that I was I could've taken care of it right then and there. Annabelle wouldn't be dead. This is my fault.
"She's dead because of me" I say quietly trying to stop my crying.
"She's not dead because of you, not at all. She’s dead because of Alex."
"Alex wouldn't have even been here if I had just used my stupid mind to see if anyone was following."
"Cat stop beating down yourself. You had so much going on in your mind. You didn't know if Caleb, Rebekah, Kol and Elijah made it out of the house, you were trying to stay awake and follow the rules of the road."
"Did they make it out okay?" I ask hearing the mentions of their names.
"Yes, I was supposed to tell you but then Alex came."
When Harry mentions Alex's name I remember he's gone. He's dead. Annabelle killed him. She killed him for us. "Harry he's dead we don't have anyone wanting us dead."
Harry smiles, “we’re free."
no this is not the end of the book. but I just wanted to say sorry for killing Annabelle and yes her death was based off of Allison’s death from teen wolf. I was planning on killing off Annabelle from the beginning it honestly hurts to kill her off because I've become so attached to her.
tori