crumble | h.s

part thirty three

Harry Styles
Fear. It's a strange thing. A strange concept.

It's something that your mind creates. Fear isn't a physical thing that you can see or touch...but it's merely an idea.

When you feel threatened, your mind makes you scared. It's not really something you can control. The reality of your life becomes distorted, you become paranoid...and that's when fear kicks in.

I was never really familiar with fear. I had been in many situations where my life was threatened...but that was the thing, I didn't fear myself getting hurt, or dying even.

But when Lydia had that knife to her neck...when her life could have been taken away at any moment...I was terrified. It was in that moment that I experienced fear for what it really was.

The worst part was that I couldn't have done anything to save her, or stop him. If Louis, Liam and Niall didn't show up when they did, we could both be dead by now.

I promised her that I would keep her safe...that I would protect her and not let anyone touch her. And I let her down.

If something had happened to her at the hands of Alexander, or any Phantom for that matter, I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

It was around 10 in the morning now. No one has slept.

We were all scattered around the living room. Lydia was on the couch next to me and Louis. Niall was on the loveseat while Liam sat on the coffee table.

Lydia was so tired. Her sleep was disturbed when she was ripped out of bed by the Phantoms...she was running on maybe 4 hours of rest. She had dark bags under her eyes that she struggled to keep open. Her chin was resting in the palm of her hand as her elbow rested on the side of the couch.

"You can go up to bed if you want." I say, leaning over to her. She looks over at me and shakes her head. She was probably too scared to go back to sleep anyways.

I didn't look too great myself. There was dried blood caked around my face, bruises under my eyes, and even bigger, darker bruises all over my chest from being kicked.

"This doesn't make any sense." Liam speaks, shaking his head.

"I agree. How the hell did they even find the house? No one but the Kings are supposed to know where it is." Niall says from his seat.

"That's the thing," I start. "Someone must to have leaked our location."

"You mean..." Louis trails.

"I think that there's someone in the Kings working for the other side." I finish his thought. 

As much as I wanted to be wrong, it was the only thing that made sense. If there was a mole in The Kings, they would have codes and access to everything. It would explain how Luke found our house, and how Alexander did. They were probably told how to shut down the house's security system as well, which is how they got in. Also, whoever this person was probably caused the shooting during our house party. Everything was clicking into place.

"Who do you think it is?" Niall asks, folding his hands nervously and leaning forward on his knees.

"I have no idea." I reply. "But I do know that we can't stay here."

They know where to find us now, and we can't risk staying here for much longer.

"What are we gonna do?" Liam asks, looking down at his feet.