Haunted

Five Stages

"Harry! Oh my God!" Liam cried, jumping up from the couch and running over to the youngest boy. Liam gently ran his fingers over the wound, making Harry hiss in pain.

"Stop! It stings!"

"Sorry, sorry.." Liam gushed. "Come on, we need to clean this before it gets infected."

Liam pulled Harry through the kitchen and into the main hall to the bathroom, where he dabbed peroxide onto the cuts.

Zayn and Niall stayed in the living room, giving each other scared looks.

"What do you think did that?" Zayn asked.

"I think it was.. Louis.." Niall hesitated before answering.

Zayn nodded shyly, biting down hard on his lower lip. The two fell silent, and the house was quiet, despite Harry's hisses of pain from the bathroom.

"I need tea," Zayn announced, standing up. "You want a cup, Ni?"

Niall nodded his head quickly,"Please and thank you."

Zayn gave him a smile as he walked out of the living room and into the kitchen. He filled up the kettle with water and set it to a boil; he started to get two cups out of the cupboard, when..

"BOO!" someone jabbed Zayn in the sides, causing him to yelp and drop one of the cups. It landed on the counter, and fortunately it didn't shatter.

"That wasn't fun--" Zayn started to say, but his voice died out when he turned around, and saw Louis standing there with a big smile on his face.

"I scared you Zayn, admit it!" Louis giggled, acting like anything that he did this morning never happened.

Zayn dropped the second cup from his hand, it fell to the floor and this time, it did shatter. Louis jumped away from the broken glass, and looked at Zayn like he had three heads.

"Uh, you okay mate?"

Zayn didn't reply. He couldn't; he was too scared.

"Zayn?" Louis waved his hand in front of his face, making Zayn flinch. "Why won't you talk to me?" 

Louis' face suddenly went from confusion to sadness.  He didn't understand what was going on, and why Zayn wouldn't talk to him. Had he done something wrong? Did that little jab in the ribs really piss him off?

Zayn seemed almost.. scared of him.

"Look, if it's because of the little joke, I won't do it again.."

"N-No no," Zayn finally spoke, licking his lips and heading over to the kitchen closet to fetch the broom and dust pan. "It's nothing, Lou.." he said quietly, rummaging around the closet before finally finding the correct cleaning products.

"Well it certainly doesn't seem like nothing." 

 As Zayn turned around, Louis was standing right behind him; directly in the doorway of the closet, making him jump about ten feet in the air.

"Jesus, don't do that!"

"I didn't do anything! You're acting more jumpy than a kangaroo!" Louis said a bit louder than he intended to.

The two boys just stared at each other, as if they were looking for answers. Zayn was looking for clues for why Louis was suddenly back to normal. Louis on the other hand, was looking for why Zayn was acting so damn weird.

Then, Louis sneezed, breaking the tense feeling in the air.

"Um, bless you." Zayn said awkwardly.