The Soul Catcher (Harry Styles)

16 - Power

"A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside."

- Denis Waitley

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My first instinct was to push Elaine out of the way.

By doing so, I lost my balance and fell, once again, with Elaine down. This time I could soften my fall with my arms, dodging falling on top of her.

"What the hell?" Elaine shouted, flipping around and leaning back on her elbows. She glared up, but her hateful eyes weren't directed at me.

"You have to go," Ada advised and disappeared into thin air.

"Ada?" I called, but got no reply. Standing up, I looked around.

The bullets that had been shot at us were nowhere in sight. Nor where the origin of them. I stared at the wall, looking for the holes, but there was nothing.

"What is happening here?" Elaine hissed quietly.

I held out a hand for her and she gratefully accepted it, slightly stumbling before she caught her balance.

"Are you okay?" I asked concerned. She nodded in reply. "I have no idea. Ada is gone and we still don't know where the twins went."

"Not to forget that weird stuff is happening," Elaine added with a frown. "Did bullets just fly in our direction?"

I grimaced. "Yep. And sorry for tackling you to the ground, old habits are hard to shake."

"Nice to know you care," Elaine grinned, nudging me.

"Alw- Holy cow, is that a Pit Bull?" I asked, my eyes opened wide.

Elaine spun around, her long hair smacking in my face. "Where?"

"Shh," I hushed her. The Pit Bull looked rather scary, fletching his teeth and arching his back. "Don't move."

"Can it hurt us?" Elaine whispered. "Are we imagining things? What's going on?" Her voice quivered and looking over at her, I saw her lower lip trembling in fear.

"Elaine," I whispered equally as quiet, "look at me."

Her soft brown eyes immediately snapped over to lock with mine and I slowly outstretched my hand for her to take. She took my hand and her lips twitched into a small smile as she nodded thankfully.

"Listen," I instructed, "it can't harm us, okay? We're already dead. Let's back out slowly and get into the hallway again. Okay?"

"Okay." Elaine's voice was so quiet, I could barely hear her.

We slowly, barely noticeable, backed off, our feet grazing the carpet. Much to our relief, the dog didn't budge an inch, but its dark eyes were still trained on us.

"I want to get out of here," Elaine whimpered quietly.

I squeezed her hand tightly, giving her as much reassurance as I could with this small gesture.

Just when we reached the door, the dog disappeared. "What the hell?"

"Harry, what's going on?" Elaine's voice still trembled, but I had no idea how to calm her down. How could I take her fear? What was she afraid of? We couldn't die.

"I have no idea," I snapped. Elaine's eyes widened and I mentally cursed myself. "Sorry. I just don't know what's going on."

Elaine nodded, not commenting on my little outburst.

I scanned the lounge once more, but everything was the exact same way as it used to be when we entered the room for the first time. There were no signs that anything had happened.