trepidation | h.s

part thirty one

Harry Styles

Time is a weird fucking concept.

It's crazy when you think about it—how our lives are controlled by time. How much time we have left, how much time we've spent on this earth. It's an idea that's bigger than all of us. Our days, down to the fractions of a second, are determined by time. Hours. Minutes.

And for me, there never seems to be enough time.

Just hours ago...I was at my aunt's house.

Just hours ago...she was alive.

Now...everything had come crashing down in seconds, and my aunt was now murdered.

After the shock wore off, I made Lydia go upstairs with Teddy and Eliza. I didn't want her to look at this any longer.

"Harry, maybe you should go too—" Louis begins to say but I immediately shake my head.

"No."

Louis frowns as he slowly approaches the body, bringing his ear next to her mouth to see if there might be a chance she's still breathing.

It was an act of desperation rather than an act of sanity. Her throat was cut...she was probably only alive for a minute or two.

Louis looks back to Niall and I with a head shake, signifying that she was really dead.

I couldn't believe it. Even though death is something that surrounds my life, this was unexpected.

She was supposed to live. She didn't do anything wrong.

"Who do you think did this?" Niall speaks. "The Phantoms?"

I shake my head. "No, it had to be my mother and Xavier." I say as I numbly look down at the bloody body.

That's the only thing that made any sense. They probably found out somehow that we were over at her house, and that let them know that we were getting closer in our relationship.

So they killed her.

What scared me now is that they found out where we live.

That's always been the thing that I had over Xavier. He didn't know where Lydia and I lived but now—if this is his doing—he does.

Louis and Niall have the same worried look on their faces. They know this is bad.

"How the hell did they find you..." Louis trails off as he looks from the body to me.

"I have no idea."

"They could still be out there—"

"They aren't. This was a warning. They aren't done playing games yet." I respond.

This is just the beginning. I know it.

"What do we do with her?" Niall changes the subject, crouching down next to the body.

"We need to call the cops, because someone else will do it when she doesn't show up for a number of shifts at the hospital." I say.

I feel like I should be more upset. I'm really hurt, but I can't find it within myself to cry or scream or grieve.

"Cops? But they could catch us—"

"Yeah, that's why we have Matteo...who has connections in the police force all over the world." I say, making them both look at me in thought.

"He promised us help and protection...it's time we use that." I add.

There's a brief pause, and then Louis nods in agreement and stands up.