Animal

Chapter 24

Is it too much to ask for something great?

*NARRATOR'S POV*

Day Two.

There was nothing else to call it because in spite of it being just a day ago that they arrived at Briarville, it felt like an eternity of enduring ill-treatment. Time became infinite and hope dwindled when all you saw was cement walls and madmen.
Harry still put on a smile for Louis that morning when they had to leave their room. He had to make Louis feel safe if he couldn't make him happy right now. His princess is the center of his universe.

Everyday, after clean-up for the mess of last night, was breakfast. Louis threw up into their bin the second he woke up, the smell of disinfectant and blood too much for his sensitive stomach to handle. They were mopping the floors outside and Harry noticed that each of the cleaners had gas masks on. He went to Louis' side and held a clean cloth over his nose immediately.

Breakfast was to happen in the common room and Harry watches them hand out pills to every other patient outside the double doors. He walks in with Louis pressed against his chest and takes a moment to notice everyone else already inside.

There's a woman by the window, staring out without blinking and a steady twitch in her finger. She's nearly bald and Harry frowns at the lock of hair peeking out from the corner of her mouth.
The man in the corner of the room, banging his head against the wall and scratching his thigh until it's a bleeding gash. The attendant next to him doesn't seem to care.
Another woman has her tongue stuck out permanently and she's sitting on a bigger woman's lap. Harry doesn't dwell on that for too long when he sees that the bigger female's right hand is down the other's skirt.

After those he's done observing these crazies. There's no will of self-preservation, common sense or knowledge. There's hardly an atom of maturity in this room, from patients and workers alike.

"Zayn." He didn't say it. Louis did and now Louis' dragging him along to a double couch near the far left where a small window was.

Harry opens his mouth to keep Louis back but someone grabs his leg and stops him. With a frustrated noise, Harry tightens his hand on Louis' waist and kicks the obstruction away harshly. Louis is the only one who looks down in shock at the person's cry but says nothing. Harry probably broke something with the satisfying crack he heard first-hand.

Zayn is sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, shaking his leg as if impatient about something. Louis looks at Harry with such a worn out and tired look that the man can't deny him. Harry nods but there's a warning in his eye. It might be the three of them against everything else here but he would happily rip Zayn apart for stepping out of line.

"Zayn?"

Louis touches Zayn's hair and the hostile individual reacts by jerking and looking up. Relief floods his face and he rises fluidly to hug Louis like a starved man.

That's enough, Harry decides.

He pries Zayn's arms off Louis' back and pulls Louis closer to his side. While Louis talks to Zayn, Harry is looking around them and documenting all that he can. More patients were inside now and Harry counts at least thirty of them by the time the doors are closed.

"Are you okay?" Louis asks. Harry knows, from the traces of trepidation, hints of fear and feeling of something else, that Louis has been hiding something from him but it's not a vital information bit, rather just a feeling.

"No." Zayn shakes his head, sits back down and begs them with his eyes to sit too. He can't stand being alone. "They're giving them horse tranquillizers."

"What?" Harry sits first - he can see the disgusting stains and he wants to burn everything - and pulls Louis onto his lap.

"Outside." Zayn sniffs and rubs his eyes. He looks like a broken man already. "Those pills are horse tranquillizers."