Fists and Knives (A Harry Styles Fanfiction)

Chapter 29

Water.  Water would be added to my list of Strange Things that Have Woken Me Up.  The freezing water splashed down onto me, ripping me out of whatever unconscious funk I was in.   My hands extended all around as I blinked the water from my eyes and tried to get a grip on something that would help me stand up.  I was in a bathtub.

Every part of my body ached, my back and face more than other areas.   My back, probably because I had been laying in a bathtub.  What time was it?  How long had I been in the tub?  Whose tub was I even in?  My face was sore but also stung.  Once I got my feet under me, I reached up and lightly brushed my fingers just below my eye, the skin beneath my eye tingling at my own touch.

“Wouldn’t touch, if I were you.”

I squinted at the door, and despite my vision being blurred, I quickly recognized the large frame of the biggest guard.  He was still wearing his suit pants and shirt with his black tie, but his sleeves were rolled up around his forearms.  He was holding an empty bucket which I was sure contained water just a moment ago.

“How bad does it look?” I asked about my eye, my tired voice cracking.

“Just regain consciousness and that’s the first question you want to ask?” He laughed. 

My foot started to slip on the slick bathtub floor so I stepped out of the tub and sat on the side instead, my body shivering.  The bathroom we were in was dimly lit and had no color or decoration in it at all.  The floor was dirty and the toilet looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a few good months.  I dared not look back into the bathtub where I had been sleeping for fear that I was laying on some kind of mold or stains.

“Where is Harry?” I sounded so small, so powerless, so defeated… I hardly recognized my own voice.

The guard laughed.  “That’s more like it.  I’m not allowed to tell you.”

I sighed with relief. “So he’s alive.”

The guard laughed again.  “That’s not necessarily true.  I could tell you he’s as Disney Land but that doesn’t mean he’s alive.”

Mentally, I scolded myself.  My brain was fuzzy and I was feeling horribly groggy. “What about Louis?”

“I can’t tell you that either.”

“Well what can you tell me?  Maybe where my shoes are?  Or how about your name, for starters?  I feel like you and I have had enough run-ins at this point for you to at least give me that much.”

The guard leaned against the door and cross his arms. “We’ve met before?”

I put my head in my hands and nodded slowly.  “You chased me into that Chinese restaurant with Harry a few weeks ago.”

“Ahh!” The guard exclaimed.  “That was you!  I see.  I’m Doug.”  He extended his hand for me to shake.  I lifted my head and contorted my face,  glaring at him until he retracted his hand and laughed.  We were enemies, not friends.  “Right then, Marcus wants you.”

“For what?”

“I can't tell you.”

I groaned and shook my head. “Can you tell me anything?”

“I can tell you that Marcus wants to see you.” Doug reached for my elbow to pull me along but I yanked it from him.

“I’m drenched,” I stated, peeling my black tee off of my skin and running my hands over the inside of my thigh where I could already feel my jeans beginning to chafe.  That was one of the worst feelings in the world to me.