concealed - h.styles // completed

Chapter Fourteen

"Guess there are times when we all need to share a little pain."

- Elton John, Sad Songs (Say So Much)

:~:~:

Alex's POV

I wiped my already dried tears from my cheeks as I peered over to my left. My eyes never left a green glare shining through a tinted window of a black beat up Prius. Immediately, my reaction was to look to the right and pretend nothing happened, even though my heart was beating out of my chest.

"What's wrong, Alex?" Aunt Gretchen asked with concern. She glanced over at me for a quick second then her eyes darted to the left. A gasp left her mouth. Then she muttered, "I should've known that we were being followed."

"What?"

"Nothing, Alex!" she snapped then stepped on the pedal. The car raced forward so fast that I had forgotten to catch my breath, instead I was holding it in.

"What is going on?!" I yelled at her. She was trying to act calm, humming a song I didn't recognize.

"We are being followed," she replied coolly.

"It's just Harry!"

Her eyes averted to mine. "You know who Harry is? If you do, you would not say 'just' Harry! He's dangerous!"

"Then how do you know him?"

"He's friends with my failure of a son," she said in a cold hard voice. "A son that I would be damned to be related to. He reminds me so much of his father... It's disgusting."

"Tell me more about him," I urged. "You obviously need to let it out."

"I don't know... maybe back at my house," Aunt Gretchen answered curtly.

I nodded my head. This was as far as I was pushing it.

After an hour of silence, I fell asleep and drifted off.

~

"Is she unconscious?" a distinct, somewhat familiar voice rang through the dark.

My eyes snapped open. I realized that I was tied to a chair and had a putrid towel stuffed in my mouth that made me gag and feel light headed. I tried to pull away and spit it out, but my mouth was taped, so it couldn't fall out. Tears were building up in my eyes. I wanted to scream and punch whoever kidnapped me. I realized that I've never felt anger or fear like this before.

"Alex is fine," a hoarse voice cracked. "Please don't wake up, Alex. Don't-"

CRACK! The sound of a whip cut the air, and I felt tears rolling down my face, even though I had no idea what was going on or who just got sliced.

"Don't-" CRACK! "Wake-" CRACK! "Up." Thud. A limp bloody body fell to the ground.

My eyes closed tightly when I felt a cold hand wrapped around my neck.

"You're next."

~

"Alex!" a shout pierced my ears. I opened my eyes too quickly and was blinded by sunlight everywhere. "Alex!" I was still in the car... but Aunt Gretchen wasn't there. I unbuckled the seat belt and pushed the car door open.

"Aunt Gretchen?" I whimpered. We were parked in a busy neighborhood, which seemed to be celebrating some kind of holiday.

"Hey!" a middle-age man shouted to me. I spun around.

"W-who are you?" I asked timidly. I was still confused and in shock from the nightmare. Lately, I've been getting a lot. Almost two or three every night.

"Hey, I'm a friend of Gretchen," he said, smiling in a friendly manner. "The name's Paul."

"I don't know who you are," I said firmly. I was gaining my confidence and consciousness back. Paul's smile twitched.

"Come with me, young lady," he said walking to me. "You should respect me."

I shook my head. "One step closer to me and you're dead!" I grabbed my purse and clung to the knife in it.

Paul laughed. "You think I'm going to hurt you?"

"Y-yeah!" I screamed. "Back away. You have too many witnesses." I gestured towards the hundreds of people a block away.

"Nah, they're too busy enjoying the party than to pay any attention to a petty little girl," he said pucking his chapped lips. "You have to come with me."

"No!" I screamed then bolted toward the crowd. At that moment, everything slowed down when one loud bang! and a sharp pain ignited in my left thigh. I felt my head spinning. The world was spinning. My body collided with the ground as I realized what had just happened.

"You shot me," I whimpered. Hot tears flooded and broke out of the high dam I've been building since the announcement of the death of my parents. "You shot me."

"I did, Alex," he snarled. I looked around, which took so much of my energy. No one noticed. He was right. My hand grasped my thigh, which was leaking out blood. Such a horrible day to wear white shorts. "I'm not afraid to do it again."

"Step away from her!" a loud feminine voice screamed from across the street. I peered over without turning my head. Aunt Gretchen.

"Ah, there you are Gretchen!" he bellowed. "Way to save the fucking day, again?"

"Shut up!" she yelled. She ran towards Paul and dodged the bullets flying over her head and around her petite figure like those scenes in action movies. When Aunt Gretchen turned to the left, I saw a dark shadowy figure following her.

Its fist smashed Paul's nose, who groaned in pain from the impact.

"I'll kill you!" Paul snarled as he tried to reload the gun, but the male figure took it away and pointed it at him.

"There's one more bullet," the figure said as my aunt cradled me and called the police. Her voice was quivering as she cried into her cell phone.

I felt like throwing up and screaming and crying, but I laid there lifeless. Everything was fuzzy, and dark spots started appearing.

Then everything turned black.

The last thing I remembered was another loud bang! coming from a gun.

(A/N Hiiiii. I can NOT believe that I am done with chapter fourteen and already have over 530 reads on my book! It's so unreal. Please remember to keep voting and reading. Also, I love Paul and have nothing against him or anyone on the 1D Team! OK, I am going to stop bothering y'all now with this Author's Note. Please VOTE and continue READING! ilysm ♥)

- A n n i e x x

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