RED [h.s]

Chapter 7

Because I have slipped, Niall practically wrapped both his arms around me before the fall. I shut my eyes in fear and my body shook underneath his arms. I inhaled his odd cologne and reopened my eyes.

"Oh my holy shit" I whispered against his chest. "My apologies" he mumbled.

"No i-it's not your fault but can you go first?" I asked, my eyes gazing at the aligned poles that were barely a meter away from each other.

"'Course" he breathed, taking another three deep breaths before jumping into the air and gabbing onto the pole tightly like his life depended on it.

That's because it did, idiot.

Shut your trap, I'm not thinking straight.

Niall reached out for the pole that came after it and waited for me to jump as if it was the easiest task in life. Ya right.

I jumped nevertheless, and this time I surprisingly made it to the pole without creating noise. My heart was beating out of my chest as I glanced at the ground below me. Shit that was a life-death jump that I've just survived.

Niall's long arm extended to the next pole, then the next, one pole after another until he jumped behind the bush under the last pole. Thank goodness the guard wasn't looking or else we would've been screwed.

I gulped and stretched my short arm to grab ahold of the metal, once I did I counted to three and let my other arm go. I quickly tangled my limbs to the metal and squeezed my eyes shut. One after the other, I begun to feel fearless until I've finally reached for what seemed like, the eighth, I looked down at Niall that was crouching and watching out for the guard from the spaces between the leaves.

I wasn't quite ready to let go of the pole, I wasn't a cat with nine lives. Unlike Niall here, he was quick enough to land on his feet without the slightest injury. I started to doubt that he was the Niall I've met a few hours behind.

Fucking hell, just do this Carly.

I'm doing this for the sake of Niall's safety even though he made it clear that he won't be uninjured.

I finally let go, yet hit my knee to a small rock that has its peak protruding out of the rich damp soil. Before I had a chance to yell, Niall shut my mouth with his cold hand and brought me up behind the bush. I muffled a whimper against his palm before he removed it, and curled up against the soil with my lips sealed tightly as I clutched my knee. I knew something like this was to happen.

"Are you ok?" he asked with violet eyes full of concern.

I nodded my head, the pain in my knee kind of fading. "L-let's just sneak out deeper into the forest before Styles gets to us" I said through clenched teeth.
The guard wasn't far from us but we had to make a run for it behind the tall Palm and other trees scattered around the wide area.

"I need ya to get up, can you do that for me?" he questioned while looking directly into my eyes. I nodded and slung my arm over his shoulders and his was around my waist. I tried walking on the injured leg, yet the pain from that little rock sure was not a tiny sting.

"Try running on one leg" he whispered in my ear as we kept our eyes on the guard a few meters away from us for a few seconds.

"Let's do this" I breathily said in a low voice.

Since the ground was clear from any dead leaves and the moonlight was still above us, it was quite simple to make our way onto the other end of the forest.

"H-hold up" I heavily breathed when we reached half way. "Running on one leg isn't easy" I chuckled.

"Get used to this, we still got a chilly river ahead of us" good God...

We proceeded to run until we made it out of the forest, at least. There certainly were not any wild or dangerous animal living in or on the trees so we were safe.

Until Niall's phone buzzed.