After The End: Book 1

13. Rescue

Naomis POV

I made brief eye contact with the curly headed boy through the crack in the door. The scene before me was hard to comprehend. Harry had a pained yet dreamlike expression on his his face as the dark haired girl pulled what looked to be a large needle from his arm. Tears streaked his cheeks. There was a man holding a gun to his head. It was so close, it practically got lost in his unruly curls. Another man stood to the side surveying Louis. He was on the bed behind Harry shaking uncontrollably. His eyes were squeezed tight and he was muttering under his breath, words I couldn't hear.

Harry looked unsteady on his feet and looked around as if unclear of his surroundings before locking his eyes on me. His expression changed in a panicked recognition only slightly before he blinked hard. I jumped out of the doorway and hid up against the wall in time to hear a thud.

I had never seen a gun before. I had never seen drugs or crime or anything even remotely similar to what I had just witnessed. My feet felt glued to the floor in the hallways as I listened to the garbled voices inside.

"Yeah, he's down for he count," one of the men said. I dared a glance again to see that Harry had fallen to his knees looking dazed and completely unaware.

Louis had opened his eyes and was looking at Harry's form with complete horror. He said his name once cautiously and then again, louder and more hysterical.

The sight of Louis panic spurred me to move my feet and I went pounding down the hall, my phone already out. Within seconds I burst into the kitchen surrounded by 3 men I vaguely noticed only from pictures. The sight of them caught me off guard at first. They all looked up from their conversations with a look of confusion, and then pleasant surprise.

"You must be Naomi!" A blond man wrapped me in his beefy arms in the tightest hug of my life. His Irish accent was friendly and inviting. I almost took comfort in his embrace but the image of what was happening down the hall was stirring strong and demanding attention.

I pulled away. "There's a man with a gun in Harry's room!"

The other two men laughed, as if convinced what I was saying was so preposterous that it couldn't be true. The blond man, whose name I was pretty sure was Niall, didn't laugh. He looked into my face as if trying to see the image I still held in my brain reflected in my eyes.

He waved his arm back to silence them. "What do you mean?" He questioned me in what felt to be an uncharacteristic serious tone for him.

"I don't know!" I admitted. My hands fumbled on my phone as I tried to remember how to dial 999. What had I been witnessing. What had Harry injected? Was he using again? Who were those people with the gun? Why did they have a gun? Why was it pointed at Harry? I thrust the phone at Niall. "Call the police!"

Niall apparently decided that something in my face was completely honest. Maybe he picked up on the terror and hysterical shrill tone I was speaking in. Perhaps it was because he could feel me shaking in the embrace he'd offered. He took my phone and dialed the number easily.

"Where's Louis?" The darker haired man behind him said suspiciously. His brown eyes stared at me as if unsure if I was trustworthy. I raised a shaky hand and pointed down the hall.

"There's 3 of them," I said shakily. Was I crying? Was I in shock. Every word I said felt fake. "They have Louis too."

It seemed to dawn on the two of them that I wasn't lying because they shared a look and the two of them shoved past Niall to head in the direction of Harry's room down the hall.

Behind me, Niall was trying to get my attention as he spoke to the operator asking me for details on what I'd seen.

Louis POV