stockholm syndrome | styles

chapter four

The whip stung my back as it made contact with the flesh for the thousandth time. I knew my back was a bloody mess, but that was the least of my concerns. "Okay, Styles." The man, Aidan, said. He grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me towards him, so I was inches away from his face. "I hope this teaches you not to act stupid. You know what we're talking about. Make this easy for yourself and just tell us."

"Tell you what?" I said, panting for air, sweat running down my forehead. He gave me a long glare before pushing me back and going to stand behind me. I was startled when the door opened suddenly.

"Dad, stop." I heard Missie say. "You've been at it for an hour."

"Go back upstairs, Missie." Her father hushed her, sighing.

"The whole neighborhood will be able to hear this. Leave it."

"I said go upstairs." He talked sternly to her.

"No. You'll kill him and he won't be of any use to you if he's dead." She said and stepped towards us.

Aidan groaned, shooting her, and then me, a glare before walking towards her, "Alright." He hung the whip on a hook near the door and exited the room without saying anything else.

"Are you okay?" Missie asked me.

"Yeah, definitely. I haven't been whipped a couple times." I sarcastically replied.

"You're really sarcastic, you know that?" She said. She walked behind me to examine the damage done to my back. "Shit."

"Is it bad?" I asked. No reply. All of a sudden I felt cold water slide my back. I gasped in surprise, "What are you doing?"

"Cleaning your cuts?" Missie said like it was obvious.

"Aren't you supposed to put some kind of medical shit instead of cold water?"

"I guess." She replied.

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"Mhm."

"I'm really not fond of these one word answers." I said. She poured more water onto my back. I hissed once it made contact with my back, the pain coming back. I was out of breath and decided not to speak until the pain subsided.

"This is going to hurt a lot, so brace yourself." Missie said, calmly. I wrapped the chains around my wrists and held them in my hands to act as my very own stress ball.

The process was painful, but my back was bandaged. I was taking shaky breathes for a while, my back stinging. Missie began to walk towards the exit of the room before I stopped her, "Missie."

She turned around and looked towards me, confused. "What is this?" I asked.

She furrowed her eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

"Why am I here?" I replied immediately and loudly. I was becoming frustrated. All these questions, all this torture and I didn't even know why.

"I..." She looked to the side, "I don't know."

"You're lying."

"I really don't. I just work for my parents. No one tells me anything. The whole team knows, just not me."

"Team?" I gaped, "There are more people?"

"I shouldn't have said that." She mumbled to herself.

"No, who else works with you guys?"

She sighed before looking up at me. "Just one more person. He's the boss." She paused, "He's the one you should be worried about."

I opened my mouth to ask something else, but she quickly left without saying anything. Multiple locks clicked, leaving me in the cold room, anxious and scared.

NATALIE

"We found blood at the crime scene." Agent Khan told us.

"Is it Harry's?" Gemma asked the agent.

"It's possible. We're running it through the system." After saying that she gave us a sympathetic smile and walked off to finish her other duties.

I rubbed my temples with my index and middle fingers. All the stress gave me frequent headaches. "That's all they've come up with in the last few days?" I mumbled loudly to myself.

Niall had heard me and turn towards me. "They'll find him, don't worry." He rubbed my back, smiling.

"How are you guys so calm?" I dropped my arms to my sides, "He's our family and everyone but Anne and Gemma seem so calm."

"We have faith, Natalie." He replied.

"Oh, yeah. I remember faith made everything better." I sarcastically replied, rolling my eyes.

He frowned. He knew what I was referring to. He lowered his voice, "Natalie, you were a child. And this is different. He's alive."

"How do we know that?" I say as tears begin to fill my eyes, "She was alive until he decided to end it. Right in front of me."

"You're alive. That took some kind of faith."

"Faith gets your hopes up. It doesn't prepare you. God forbid something happened. You guys are going to be heartbroken." I ran a hand through my brown hair, taking a deep breath. "Fuck, sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault."

"I just want to go home."

"Scar's about to go home." Niall said and looked around to find her. He pointed to her once he found her. "Go with her."

I nodded and smiled, "Thanks." I made my way over to Scarlette. Once she spotted me she smiled widely at me before it fading and was replaced by a concerned look.

"You okay?" She frowned.

I nodded, "This is a lot of shit to handle. Can you drop me off?"

"Yeah, sure. I was just about to leave." She turned around and led us to outside and to her car. I wiped away a few escaped tears as we walked.

Faith. What bullshit. Me and faith never really worked out. And we never will.