WARNING: this chapter contains some content that some might find upsetting. it's nothing too triggering, but it can be a little sensitive.
love you.
Lydia White
November 30th
It's crazy.
It's crazy how things can just...shift.
And in such a small matter of time.
I was happy. I was having a good day. I was at work, I was smiling, conversing, laughing.
I was okay.
I took a cab home, excited to see Harry...excited to eat dinner, watch a movie and fall asleep with him, because that's what we did on Friday nights.
But, the moment I walked through the front door—the unlocked front door—that's when it happened.
The shift.
I should've known something was wrong the minute I called Harry to ask him to pick me up and he didn't answer. I should've known but I didn't...because things had been going so well.
I walked through the door to be met with a shockwave of fear hitting me like a wall, causing me to drop everything out of my hands and have them clash to the floor in what felt like slow motion.
In front of me was the person I loved most in the world—tied up and on his knees.
His hands were behind his back. His face was bloody and beaten. There was blood in his curls and dripping down to his forehead. The whole apartment was dark, except for a dimly lit lamp in the living room behind Harry, illuminating the area just enough so I could see him.
The moment his green eyes met mine, they widened in terror.
"Go." he whispered.
I couldn't move.
"Lydia." he said with urgency, yet trying to keep his voice quiet. "Go. Please go." he looks to the side quickly as if someone was lurking there.
"Harry." I whisper through a shaky voice. I didn't know what else to say. I had lost all sense of focus.
"I don't want him to find you, Lydia. Please-"
His quiet voice gets cut off by footsteps emerging from the shadows of the hallway.
"Shut the door." the voice demands.
I reach my trembling hands to the door, shutting it but not taking my eyes of Harry. His head was snapped in the direction that the voice came, his chest rising up and down rapidly.
"Styles, you didn't tell me she'd be showing up here, too." the voice taunts Harry, stepping into the illumination to reveal his mask covered face and black attire...including a black leather jacket. It didn't take long for me to recognize he was a Phantom.
"Don't do this. She's innocent." Harry pleads.
"She isn't and you know that. She's killed two of us already." the masked man says, with his head turned towards me.
"She did it to protect herself." he defends.
I bite down on the inside of my cheek in distress as the man walks up to me, looking me dead in the face.
"Was it worth the protection, Lydia?" he questions dauntingly as I try to suppress my trembling fear.
"Leave her alone!" Harry barks, struggling against his tied wrists. "You have me, just let her go!"
The man turns around, storming up to Harry and shoving a bunched up cloth in his mouth from his pocket. Harry struggles and groans in anger as the man grabs me and throws me on my knees next to Harry.
"You're right, Styles. I do have you..." he crouched down to Harry's eye level. Harry just glares. "...and you're gonna make me a lot of cash." he states, before snapping his head in my direction. "But her..." he brings his face right up to mine, snapping his hand around my jaw. "...well she's more of a vendetta."
I whimper at his rough touch and then he lets go. I turn my head to look at Harry who was watching me with terrified eyes and shouting unintelligible protests at the man.
"Your brother was my best friend, Lydia." the man says, making me switch my focus back to him. "His death was never avenged."
I try to steady my breathing, but it wasn't working. I was in a full state of panic.
"I've been watching you for a while now. Both of you." he says to Harry and I. The mans uncovered eyes flick to mine, burning the raw insanity behind them. "I know you've seen me, Lydia. I know you've heard the tapping at your window."
My whole body tenses and my breath continues to leave my body but fails to enter back in.
The pure feeling of panic was taking over my body.
The man pulls a switchblade out of his pocket. The light from the lamp bounced off the shiny blade.
I began to move but the man quickly pointed the knife at Harry. "One wrong move and I stab him." he threatens.
I stay still. On my knees. Hands in my lap. Obedient, but terrified.
Harry, however, kept a brave face. He stared up at the man, teeth biting down hard on the cloth and jaw clenched. He was angry.
"You know," the man paces, twirling the blade around with his gloved fingertips. "when I heard about the reward for capturing 'Harry Styles, Leader of the Kings'...I obviously had to jump at the opportunity." he laughs. "Lydia being here was like the cherry on top. I've been dreaming of this moment."
He was going to kill me.
And he was going to make Harry watch it happen.
I don't want to die.
Harry and I have so much to look forward to.
I've barely gotten to live.
"P-please let us go." I beg.
"You're smarter than that, sweetheart." he scoffs at my pleading.
"Well just let him go then." I gesture over to Harry. "He hasn't touched your gang in forever."
Harry shakes his head at my words, unable to audibly object.
"It doesn't matter. He won't be my business once I hand him over." the man explains.
"You don't have to do this." I shake my head, trying to stay as calm as possible although my entire body was trembling and my eyes were beginning to tear up.
He bends down to my level again, right in front of me...staring me in the eyes. "I want to do this." He smirks and slowly brings the knife to right under my chin. I pinch my eyes shut and prepare myself for the blade to drive into my flesh. I couldn't fight back. If I fought back then he'd hurt Harry.
I could hear Harry shouting and feel him struggling next to me.
In one quick motion, the man takes the knife away from my face and swipes it across Harry's chest, cutting his shirt open and causing him to shout a muffled curse in pain.
"Don't!" I shout, instinctively bringing my hands up to try and grab at the man but he backhands me across the face, making me see stars.
Harry winces in pain next to me, but keeps glancing over at me to make sure I was okay.
The thing I've learned about the Phantoms, is that they love to prolong these things...as if they get joy out of torturing people.
My face burned and my chest was aching from the fear.
With Harry trying to suppress his pain, the man moved on from him to me once again, coming behind me and bringing his mouth right to my ear and holding my wrists taut behind my back. He holds the blade dripping with Harry's blood right in front of my face.
"So," he starts. "how should we do this?"
He brings the blade to my neck. "Here?" he hums.
I cant breathe.
He moves the knife to my chest, tracing it down to my stomach in a straight line.
Harry screams again, jolting around like an animal.
"Say your goodbyes, Lydia." he says in a bone chilling voice.
This is it.
"H-Harry." I say, keeping my head forward and refusing to look at him. "I love y-you."
I could barely speak. My heart rate kept picking up at a dangerous pace.
Harry blinks rapidly and pulls at his wrists desperately, letting out muffled cries.
I felt the blade press into my lower stomach a little harder, about to break through the skin.
But then, the front door swings open.
Liam and Eliza stand in the doorway, Elijah on Eliza's hip. In a split second, Liam draws his gun as soon as he sees what's going on.
A shot rang out, and the man let go of me, hitting the floor. Dead.
At the same time, a sudden sharp cramping pain fires in my lower stomach and in my back. It makes me gasp and lurch forward in pain.
I lean forward on all fours, barely able to breathe or even speak because this foreign pain was so intense.
Liam and Eliza rush to our rescue.
Everything became blurred. Time was moving in slow motion. Seconds felt like minutes as I was aching in pain.
All I heard was jumbled voices as I stared at the floor.
"What's wrong with her!" I hear Eliza's voice.
"I-" I try to speak but the pain was stopping me.
I couldn't even get a word out.
"Lyds?" I hear Harry's voice among the other muffled ones. I feel his now free hands grab onto me.
I lift my head up to try and look at him.
"Baby?" Harry says with urgency, looking at me with deep concern.
"I-it h-hurts." I manage to say.
Harry looks down and his eyes widen in horror.
"She's bleeding!" he shouts to Liam and Eliza.
He picks me up so that I was now sitting in his lap bridal style. I weakly lift my head to look down at my body.
There was a small amount of blood between my legs.
I felt like someone was stabbing me repeatedly in the stomach.
I didn't know what was going on. All I could hear were noises.
But in one final moment of clarity, I heard Eliza's panicked, yet saddened voice speak...
..."I think she's having a miscarriage."
//
okay dont hate me, i have everything planned out and i promise this is just one little part of the big picture. be patient.
i love youuuu :(