Purloiners

°Nine

A gust of wind blew through the branches of the pine tree Zayn was sitting under, tossing his hair across his face and obscuring his eyes. However, he did not move to stroke his hair away from his face but continued staring blankly ahead. His expression was grave, preoccupied, and deep in thought.

He has been sitting in this ring of emptiness for about a few minutes, his mind going into spasms and racing with the worst terrible scenarios of what might be happening to MJ. He has never been moved to violence in his life and yet, he is seriously contemplating homicide which is out of his character. He exhales heavily through his nose, in an attempt to control his frustration and all of the what-ifs, then hears the sound of footsteps padding towards him and he knew who it was without looking behind him.

"You okay?" Mary asked concernedly as she halts beside him.

Zayn ignored her, hoping she will take the hint and leave him alone to his thoughts.

Mary sighed and sat next to him, cross-legged.

"Look, we can't save the kid with you moping around and Louis blaming himself for what happened. We need to come up with a plan, and we barely have three hours to do that before we meet up with Horan" She said, hoping her words would sink in, so Zayn would realize he has less time to get his shit together.

Zayn reminds silent, weighing what Mary said, and racks his hands through his hair. He glances at Mary, giving her a curt nod without saying anything.

"Good, we are waiting" She gave him a small smile and stood up, going back into the house. Zayn sighed loudly and glance at the sky before standing up and following her into the house.

He opened the door to the living room as Mary, Louis and Ezra averted their gaze to him. He approached them, his mind fluttering on what to say, and glances at Louis. He saw the remorse on his face, and as much as he was angry with him and felt like punching his face. He knew it wasn't his fault. They've been aware for months that they were being followed and they had been careful but ever since MJ came into their lives, they forget he might also be in danger because of them.

They got careless, and now MJ is paying the price.

He cleared his throat and laid out the plan. "We'll go without the usual. We all know what Horan wants and we will give him what he wants"

Everyone waited for him to continue but after waiting for a minute it looked like that's all Zayn had to say.

"Wait, that's it?" Disbelief grew on Ezra's face.

Zayn sighed and turned his gaze solely on him. "If you have a better idea without endangering the life of the baby then I'm all ears," He said.

"I mean, no plan B? No, how to escape if shit hits the fan? We can't just go out there without a plan B, what if he kills us?" Ezra babbled, his eyes reflecting the disapproval in his tone.

"I've told you, he won't kill us. He needs us and besides this isn't about us, this is about MJ. I put him in this mess and......

"No" Louis eventually spoke, interpreting Zayn with a sorrowful look. "It's my fault, it's me...

Mary groaned deeply in a dramatic manner, having enough of the pitiful sight she was enduring from Zayn and Louis. "There's no you," She said briskly, pointing her finger at Louis. "Nor you" She averted her finger at Zayn.

"There's US!"

"It's our mess. We're a team, we stick together, we die together and we will do anything, and everything to protect the kid and bring him back safely. It's our fault he's being used as leverage. So I say we all stop blaming ourselves and get our shit together. The last thing we need is to show any weakness in front of Horan"