The Element People

21. "Brothers"

Zayn felt a shot of guilt in his chest as he saw the waterbender falling to his knees.

The boy didn't even react to the people around him. He sat back and cried in his hands.

As it had dawned on everyone, Harry was the first one to get in action. He used his bending to quickly make his way to Niall. Kneeling down in front of the boy, not touching him, but softly speaking to him.

Zayn couldn't hear what he was saying from where he was standing, but he knew it wouldn't be smart to go over at that point. Of course he was right. Louis popped up in front of him. "What the hell was that?" the older boy said. He had lowered his voice, showing the seriousness in this situation.

"S-sorry," The firebender only managed to stammer.

"Sorry?" Louis repeated, as if he hadn't heard it right. "I don't want your apology, I want an explanation!"

"I think we all do," Liam said who went to stand next to him.

"I don't have one..." Zayn said.

"Oh no, I don't think so," Liam responded. "You cannot hide forever, Zayn. We know you're keeping secrets from us. We're not going to let you get away with it now."

.

.

He was the one standing furthest away. It had all happened in a split second. Harry could not believe his eyes. Though when he saw the blond, breaking down, he knew he had to be there for him. Despite all the confusion.

He took a high jump and landed in front Niall. The boy was still hysterically sobbing in his hands. He was roughly shaking. The curly-haired took a deep breath and spoke with a calm voice. "Listen, Niall. I don't what just happened, but I want you to know that I'm here for you. We're all here for you. You are in good hands right now. No one is going to hurt you. You're going to be okay."

It seemed like the boy started to calm down, but when he slowly reached forward, Niall harshly pushed him off and scrambled away.

"Niall, please."

The blond looked up. Eyes wide with fear, but at the same time showing the void in them. He was not there.

.

.

What had he done!?

No, no, NO.

It was all going to happen again.

The memory flooded back in his head. He covered his face as the tears quickly began to fall as a result of it.

"Niall!" he vaguely hears his mom say. "Niall! You need to get up right now!" she exclaims. The panic in her voice wakes him up right away. Only to see the look of fear in her eyes. "Honey, we need to move. We're in danger, there is no time to grab anything. We need to leave!"

He rubs his eyes and kicks the covers off. His dad and brother come out of his brother's room and they hurry to go outside. It's still dark. It's probably in the middle of the night. Still, the street is filled.

It's an absolute chaos. People are trying to rush their way through the crowd, people are screaming for their kids, people are trying to carry as much as they can.

Niall has no time to react to it. His mom is pulling him with her.

"Mom, what's going on? What are we running from?" he screams over the noise.

She doesn't stop running as she responds. "The water."

The water?

Of course. It had been raining a lot the last few days and the waves at the sea had gotten bigger and bigger. RiverSide laid a bit lower than the rest of the country. It was the only village below sea level, but it already existed for a long time and they had sea defences to keep it from flooding.