One Night With Zayn & Nine Months With His Baby

Chapter Thirty Three: Is It Dead?

~One month later~

   I woke to the sound of Nathan's mumbling again. He didn't ever cry, but he would make some strange sounds, and those were fairly loud. At first I thought to ignore them, but then I thought against it as I sat up.
   Zayn woke as well just as I was about to get out of bed. He grabbed my hand and gently tugged on it. He didn't want me to get up.
   I leaned back down so that I could look him in the eyes. "Nathan's awake again."
   "I'll get him," he said groggily. He was more asleep than he wanted to let on. But he got up anyway and walked over to our son's crib.
   As he brought Nathan over, I sat back down on the bed and crossed my legs under me. Knowing my son as little as I did, he was probably hungry. Again. He was just like his father where food was concerned. Enough was never enough.
   I felt the bed dip down as Zayn sat. "His diaper's fine. I think he's hungry."
Of course Nathan's hungry.
   I reached my arms out for him and Zayn handed him over. He was fussing so much that it was a little hard to hold him. "Shhh, it's okay," I said to him.
   Soon enough I was breastfeeding him and he was falling back asleep. He was like his father in that, too. Sleep came easy. That was a blessing.
   I had Zayn take him back to his crib while I fixed my bra and my shirt carefully. It hurt most of the time when I had to breastfeed. Usually we'd alternate so that I didn't have to do it all the time. But the formula was in the kitchen and Nathan wouldn't have waited so long before completely losing it.
   "Are you okay?" Zayn asked. He asked that a lot since he found out about my high blood pressure.
   "Yeah. I'm fine."
   "Does it hurt?"
   I nodded a little. "Yeah, but it's okay. I think it's supposed to hurt."
   Zayn had me lay down and then did the same so that we were facing each other.
Once we had, we both jumped up as we heard a loud thump just outside the door. We looked at each other questioningly.
"What was that?" I asked stupidly. Zayn couldn't have known any more than I could have.
He shook his head slowly as he sat up. "Stay here. If you hear anything, take Nathan and lock yourself in the bathroom, okay?"
I nodded as I watched him make it through the room swiftly. He opened the door as quietly as he possibly could and shut it behind him.
   My heart raced in my chest as I made my way to my son's crib. I didn't know what was going on, but I was afraid.
   I little less than a year ago, if I'd heard a sound like that in my apartment, I'd have only feared for my life. But now I feared for the life of my baby, my friends, and my fiancée. My life hardly mattered to me. That was the part that scared me the most.
   I picked up my son and held him close to my chest, quiet to see if I could hear anything threatening.
   I looked down on Nathan and couldn't help but smile. In any normal moment where I was holding my son I would have smiled. It didn't matter what the circumstance was, he was beautiful.
I heard the door creak open and somebody move into the room. It was Liam. By the way that he wasn't trying to be too quiet, I could tell that there was no immediate danger. I could breathe again.
"What happened? Where's Zayn?" I asked him, immediately feeling guilty that I didn't ask for any of the other boys.
"He's fine. He's with the rest of the guys outside."
   "What's outside?"
   Liam hesitated for a few seconds, which gave me the impression that there was in fact something wrong. I didn't think twice before storming out of the bedroom with Nathan in my arms.
   Liam followed closely behind. "Riley, you can't go out there. Everything's fine," he told me, his hand landing on my shoulder and stopping me in my tracks.
   I shook him off. "I need to see Zayn."
   "I'll bring him to you, Riley," he said.
   I shook my head. I didn't know what it was they wanted to hide from me, but they wouldn't be able to hide it for much longer. The door was wide open and I walked out, only to find myself screaming at the sight before me.
   Harry quickly took Nathan from me and my hands reflexively went up to muffle my own scream.
   Zayn quickly came to stand before me and took my face in his hands. "Hey, it's okay."
   I craned my neck to see around him, tears brimming my eyes. "Is it dead?"
   I then realized how stupid my question had been. Of course it was dead. The poor creature didn't even look like a dog anymore. It hardly looked like an animal.
   "Yeah, baby. He's dead," he told me, his voice low and sad.
   I let the tears fall freely from my eyes as I sunk to my knees. I could see him between Zayn's legs, stabbed to the point that it was no longer recognizable.
   Blood seeped closer and closer to Zayn's feet. He dropped into a squat before me. "Let's go inside."
   I could hardly manage to speak to say, "We have to bury him."
   "We will bury him tonight," Niall assured me.
   I looked up to see his face, to make sure that he was being honest with me and not just telling me what I wanted to hear.
   I wanted to bury the dog myself. For some reason it felt as though I owed him that much. But I could hardly look at him without feeling nauseous or without crying.
   Louis took the same position as Zayn next to me, his hand resting on top of mine on my knee. "You should go inside, Riley."
   I nodded slowly and Zayn stood up. He reached his hands for mine and I took them. I saw the dog one last time before he pulled me to my feet.
   I wept the rest of the night.