𝘼𝙁𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙒𝙀 𝘾𝙍𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝘿 ↣ 𝙊𝙉𝙀 𝘿𝙄𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

39. YOU AND ME

James died that day. 

A police officer, there to control the crowd at the soccer game, was the first person a soccer player named Danny was able to reach.

I had just smiled when a gun fired.

My fist thought was that I was dead. The sound echoed around in my head and my ears felt like they were going to explode. It wasn't for about ten seconds that I realized I was alive.

It seemed like everything went back into the speed it was meant to be, then. I gasped, face splattered in the blood of my past abuser, and his body thumped to the floor.

My jaw hung slack and my body relaxed down the wall from its position of being choked.

"Mickey, love-!?" I heard Louis yelling down the hallway. "Fucking-" he wrestled past the cop and stepped into the locker room, around the corner to see me.

Me, and the blood splattered around me, and the body at my feet.

"Thank god," Louis whispered, grabbing onto his jersey over his chest.

He thought I was the one that got shot.

"Louis," I croaked.

"Get out of the-" I heard shouting from somewhere past the doorway. I recognized Liam's voice, and then after a moment Niall and Harry's.

I didn't realize Louis hand moved until he grabbed onto me and wrestled me toward the other side of the room. I followed him, stepping blindly, feet fumbling over the locker room floor.

We didn't stop until we crashed into the other wall, as far as Louis could get us from James. He held me, hands shaking in terror on my waist and behind my head.

"I'm so sorry," Louis whispered frantically. "Love, baby, I'm so sorry-"

"Not your fault. Not your fault, it isn't, Lou it's not," I said, repeating it over and over again, on top of him tying to take the blame.

"Mickey, Mickey," he said frantically. His hands balled at my clothes, feeling it. He needed to know I was really there.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," I mumbled into him.

I was pulled out of his grip by someone. I didn't have to be able to see them to know it was Liam. Of course, it was Liam.

"Jesus, peaches, hey, are you alright?" Liam's words blended together, revealing his panic.

"Yeah," I whispered.

"James came here and talked to you?" Harry asked, standing somewhere behind me.

"Yeah," I repeated.

"He's dead," Harry said, voice empty of emotion.

"Yeah."

I stepped back from Liam, searching for a little bit of space. Niall immediately wrapped his arms around me and held me close to him instead. I squeezed my eyes shut and took a few deep breaths.

"I'm sorry he came down here," Niall said, "I should have waited for you-"

"He would've killed you," I argued, cutting Niall off. I felt him go tense. "If he was gonna kill me, Ni, he'd of killed you too."

"He was gonna-?" Harry's voice came out quiet. Almost like I wasn't meant to hear it.

"Where are my kids?" I asked, pushing back from Niall a bit. I looked over my shoulder at Louis, who was also looking around. "James said something about them- oh god-"

The five of us turned to the door. I was the first one out of it, head snapping back and forth.

No, I thought. He couldn't have hurt my kids too.