Assassin's Asylum ✔

18

Malik stopped the car, turned it off and looked at Harry. "This is it."

Harry eyed the house beside them. There were lights on and Harry nodded, "Okay, let's go."

They stepped out of the car. Harry flexed his arms and legs. After sitting hours in Malik's small car it felt really good to move and for a moment Harry wanted to just walk away. Of course he didn't— he couldn't. The family inside there might be in great danger and Harry wasn't one to ignore things like that.

"What do you think waits us in there?" Malik asked quietly, walking around the car to stand next to Harry.

"I don't know", Harry said, shrugging. "I'm hoping for the best but expecting the worst."

Malik didn't answer that. They stood in front of the house in silence. Harry could feel that Malik was nervous by the way he was constantly shifting a little bit and wiggling his fingers.

"Should we go in then?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Let's do this."

They walked to the door and Harry quickly knocked before he could hesitate. They heard footsteps and then the door was opened by a brown-haired woman. She looked exactly like Louis Tomlinson and Harry knew this was the right place. "Can I help you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Umm, yes, hi, we, umm...", Harry looked at Malik for help. They had no idea what to say. Nothing at all. Malik was no help since he just stared back at Harry with widened eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked, subtly closing the door a little bit so that it wasn't so wide open anymore.

"Ah, I'm Zayn Malik and this is Harry Styles", Malik introduced and the woman narrowed her eyes.

"I know those names. You're journalists", she said and before Harry could answer, she continued, "If you're here to question us about Louis then you can go where I told everyone else before you to go; hell."

She attempted to close the door but Harry quickly recovered from his shock and moved his shoe between, earning one very angry expression from the woman. 

"Wait, I'm sorry", Harry said. "We're not here to talk about your son."

She frowned. "Then why are you here?"

"To help you", Harry said, holding the eye contact. "We know more than anybody else and right now, you need our help."

"What do you mean?" the woman asked, opening the door a little bit more, and Harry pulled his leg back. "What's going on?"

Malik glanced around and leaned closer. "Could we come in?"

The woman hesitated. "My family's having supper, I—"

"Please", Harry said, trying to put all the emotion in the word, trying to make the woman realise it was a real deal.

She sighed. "Fine." She stepped aside, pulling the door wide open. "Come in. I'm alone with my children so I have to put them on beds before we can talk."

"Your husband is not home?" Harry asked, stepping inside Malik following right behind.

She shook her head. "Working."

"Who was on the door?" A girl's voice yelled from somewhere and right after the owner of the voice walked towards them and stopped. "Mum, who are they?"

"They're here to talk", she answered to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Lottie, dear, could you and Fizzy go put your younger siblings to bed?"

"Are they here because of Louis?" the girl, Lottie, asked, eyeing Harry and Malik skeptically.

"Honey, please. Go."

Harry and Malik stood in place, and finally the girl sighed and left. They heard her talking to her siblings and soon there was lots of noises and footsteps as all the children in the house started moving to upstairs. When it was finally silent again, the woman motioned Harry and Malik to follow her in the living room.

She asked them to sat down and said, "Before you start speaking, I want to make perfectly clear that I have no desire to talk about Louis' actions. He disappeared years ago. We thought he was dead. And when his name appeared in the news, announcing that he was the Red Machete, tons of reporters have been knocking my door. I don't want to talk about it. None of it. Have I made myself clear?"

Harry and Malik nodded.

"Crystal", Harry said, even though he felt a strong urge to ask more details about Tomlinson's disappearing. Faking your own death wasn't something you stumbled upon everyday.

"Good", she said and sat down. "So, talk."

"As you wished, I'll leave details about your son out of this, but mainly the point for us being here is that you're in danger", Harry said, not bothering to even try to figure out more gently way to break the news to her.

She raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"It's rather difficult to explain without including details about your son", said Malik, "but trust us on this, we have a good reason to believe that these people are coming to hurt you and your family."

She looked confused, a little bit scared. Pale. 

"You mean", she said, staring at Malik and Harry, "they are after me because of Louis?"

Harry looked down and cleared his throat. 

"No", he said quietly. "Actually I think it's my fault." Of course Harry thought it was his fault. Grimshaw and Plague would have left Red Machete's family alone if Harry would've just let the assassin kill him. So technically it was his fault that she and her children were in danger.

"Your fault?" she questioned.

"No, it's not his fault", Malik said quickly.

"It is", Harry insisted. "This is happening because I'm still alive."

It was clear that she had no idea what was going on, she didn't understand any of it but before any of them could say anything, a tiny, teary voice came from the living room's entrance.

"Mum?"They all turned around and saw one man holding Lottie, pressing a gun against her head. Jackson walked into the living room, smiling smugly. 

"Evening." 

Lottie sobbed and her mother gasped in horror. "Lottie!"

Jackson raised his gun and aimed it at her. "Shut up." He turned his eyes on Harry and Malik, looking at them up and down. "Well, I was expecting our little assassin but this is even better."

The guy holding Lottie smirked. "He will be pleased to see you here, Styles."

Harry narrowed his eyes, eyeing Jackson while saying, "Who? Grimshaw?" From the corner of his eye he could see the confused look that came on Red Machete's mother's face but he ignored it. He didn't have time to explain what was going on.

"The one and only", said a voice and then Nick Grimshaw stepped next to Jackson. "I don't normally take any parts on Jackson's actions but this time I wanted to come myself, just to make sure no one fucks up things this time." Grimshaw tilted his head and let his eyes travel around the room until they settled on Harry. "You, Mr. Styles, have been quite the pain in the ass. I mean, you escaped from my assassin. Repeatedly."

Anger floated through Harry. He should have listened to Red Machete when he had said that Harry was walking straight into a trap. Now he was face to face with the man he hated with everything he had. 

"Good", Harry said, "that means I have done something right."

"You want those to be your last words?"