Resist Everything Except Temptation

Chapter 8

Harry left him behind.

Every previous assumption of comprehending what heartache was had been diminished by the roaring pain that harpooned itself into Louis' chest. His fingernails dug into the windowsill as his knees gave out from under him, the wall cradling his descent while he sunk against it. A ricocheting thunder of grief seeped through his bloodstream, consuming every one of his senses until he couldn't properly breathe.

He left.

Louis indolently shook his head from side to side, his heels of his palms digging into his eyelids as tears began to sting his eyes. His back arched over while he cocooned himself with his raised knees. A pair of delicate hands were roaming over his back and Louis was vaguely aware that a voice was attempting to soothe him. It was impossible to hear, the sound muffled as if he was submerged in the ocean and someone was shouting at him from the surface.

A horrific sob ripped his throat raw when his mother pulled him against her chest. Her fingers carded through his hair and Louis hated the part of him that immediately rejected the touch, wishing the fingers were longer and firmer. His breathing was erratic, every inhale sounding as if he finally rose from the depths the personal ocean of green that drowned him.

"It's alright, Darling," His mother cooed, steadily rocking him as if he was a newborn.

Louis vehemently shook his head, not bothering to voice that he was the farthest from alright.

"You're safe now," Johanna murmured, her fingers delicately brushing his hair off his forehead.

Safe.

Louis blanched at the word, rearing back from his mother's touch as if she was a hot iron. If there was anything Louis could understand in that moment, it was that he never felt more vulnerable in his entire life. There wasn't a molecule in his body that felt remotely safe with Harry already charting across the Caribbean and away from him.

A sickening tick in his mind told him that Harry had used him for the letters, that his initial inclination was correct and he was just a mere pawn in a chess game of revenge. He clenched his eyes shut, his nostrils flaring as he stomped the idea out. Harry left because of what had happened with his own history, the fact that he had lost his mother without a choice. He believed that he was doing the right thing, Louis saw it written all over his expression as he climbed out the window. It wasn't personal.

How could it not be?

Louis dry-heaved, his back obscenely bowing as he coughed out wracked breaths. His knees were flush to the ground as his fingers scrambled to grab purchase against the polished wood. Tears were freely cascading down his sickly pale skin, each drop splattering against the flooring. The metallic taste of blood tinged his spit as his teeth clenched around his tongue.

"Louis..." Charlotte weakly tried, shuffling over the floor to sit in front of him. She cradled Louis' jaw in her hands and tiled his head back, blue piercing blue as they locked eyes. "He can't hurt you anymore, we promise."

He shook his head, "You – You don't understand."

Johanna crowded behind him, her hands sure as she gripped his biceps, "Whatever happened, whatever that monster did...It's over. We're going to look after you."

"Harry," Louis weakly corrected. He hiccupped and scrubbed the back of his hand over his face, "His name is Harry and he didn't do anything."

Charlotte glanced over Louis' shoulder, her eyebrows pulled together as she stared at Johanna with confusion drenching her countenance.

"Lou," Charlotte tried again, her thumb lightly rubbing his damp cheek, "He did...He took you from us."

"No," Louis' voice cracked as his stomach began to turn on itself. His nailbeds had flushed ivory as they dug into the floorboards beneath him, "He didn't."