Ghostly (Narry)

Prologue: Till death do us part

Niall couldn't grasp what happened to him. One minute he was on his way to the kitchen to grab some food that he could eat during the Derby game, and the next minute the door was being busted open. He crouched down behind the counter. His heart was beating faster and faster as the intruder's footsteps entered the flat more. Niall crawled around the corner of the island as the man entered the kitchen.

Niall wished he had his phone, but he had left it on the coffee table in the living room. Even if the poor boy did have his phone, he wouldn't have been able to notify the police without the intruder hearing him.

Niall hoped that Zayn wasn't on his way home from the grocery store. He wouldn't want his friend to be in the same situation that he was in. Niall also prayed that the neighbors heard what was going on and notified the police, but he wasn't so lucky.

Hearing the intruder enter the other room, Niall peeked out from his spot, only to meet the eyes of the man who had broken into his home.

Niall tried to make a run for it before the man could reach the kitchen. He knew that he wasn't going to make it out of here alive, but he desperately tried to escape that apartment.

A single shot rang out and the bullet had found a home in Niall's head. The force spun the boy around and he fell onto his back, dead before he even hit the ground. The intruder rushed out of the apartment, hiding the pistol in its holster under his coat.

***

Zayn had just opened the door to his apartment complex when he was shoved roughly to the side by a burly man who looked extremely worried about something. Instead of saying something to the man about being pushed, he let it go after mumbling a few choice words under his breath. He got a feeling that something was wrong as he took the elevator up to the fourth floor where he lived with his best friend, Niall.

He willed the elevator to go faster and he almost sprinted down the hall when the doors slid apart. When he saw the door of his apartment busted open, Zayn slowed to a stop. He didn't care that someone had broken in and could have taken all of his things, he only cared to see if Niall was okay.

"Ni?" Zayn asked, his voice low as he approached the room.

The sight before his eyes was horrendous. Zayn stood in the doorway with grocery bags still stacked in his arms, staring at his murdered best mate, pale-faced and limp, lying in a pool of his own blood. Niall's once clear blue eyes were now a cloudy gray, glazed over with death, and everything around Zayn seemed a shade darker. Zayn knew that he shouldn't just stand there - for the murderer could still be in the flat - but his feet were bolted to the floor.

Time seemed to move slower as Zayn finally came to life. He dropped the bags of groceries and stumbled over to the still blond. He crouched down and took out his phone, dialing the emergency number with numb fingers. Zayn reached out and placed two fingers against his friend's neck, willing there to be a pulse, but found none. Niall's body was still warm though, giving Zayn enough information to figure out that the murder happened only minutes ago. Zayn didn't care if the murder was still in the apartment, in fact, right now he would love for the robber to come back and blow him to smithereens as he did to his best friend.

After hanging up with the operator who had wanted him to stay on the phone to make sure that he was okay, realization finally caught up to Zayn. Someone had killed his best friend. The person who never upset anyone, who was the nicest guy in the world. The only person that Zayn could really trust with anything, and now he was gone. Niall's glassy eyes stared through him. How could this have happened to someone like Niall? Zayn had only been gone for thirty minutes to grab some groceries from the store!

Zayn backed away from his friend until his back hit the wall, but his eyes never left Niall's face. Zayn felt a slimy liquid on his shaking hands and looked down for only a second. Bile rose in his throat when he realized that it was blood – Niall's blood – coating his hands. The knees of Zayn's pants were also soaked in the red substance.

Zayn scrubbed his hands on his pants trying to rid himself of his friend's blood, but it failed to rub out of the creases of his hands. The brunet's tear glands started to work and heart wrenching sobs escaped Zayn's mouth. His tears didn't stop even when the EMT showed up.

Zayn didn't move until he had to. He watched with tear filled eyes as his best friend was covered in a white sheet. Zayn was then ushered outside by the police. As he was walking down that hall he noticed that most of his neighbors on this floor were looking outside their doors at what had happened. Zayn wanted to scream at them for not trying to help his friend. He curled his fists in his hands and hot tears streamed down his face.

The police were going to take Zayn to the station for questioning and call his parents but the poor boy collapsed on the curb in a fit of sobs. They left the blubbering boy alone while someone called his parents to arrange a ride for him.

Zayn gave his statement the next day when he had run out of tears. He didn't even have to get up from his bed at his parents' house, the police came to him. Zayn was mad that he didn't know who the killer was, but the police said that they would do as much as they could to find out the identity of the man and catch him. It didn't make Zayn feel much better.

Zayn didn't eat for weeks. His parents worried constantly about their son. He never left his bed, only to use the bathroom, and he hadn't showered since the incident. He dropped weight and he constantly had dark circles under his eyes because every time he closed them, his dead best friend was always staring at him with vacant eyes. His parents knew that it was hard for him, and they were trying their best to be there for their son.

He couldn't go back to the apartment. He wasn't allowed back until the police were done gathering evidence from the scene, but even when they were done he still couldn't go. His parents went for Zayn, gathering his things as well as Niall's - he had no use for them now - and offered them to Zayn. He took them, pulling one of Niall's shirts to his face and breathing deeply in the scent of his best friend. It was one of the only times that Zayn could really relax and sleep. Good memories flooded Zayn's head and he managed a few bites of food down.

***

The funeral was the worst part for Zayn. It meant that Niall was really gone. Zayn wore a suit and only spoke to people that he had to, otherwise the boy talked to no one. It was a closed casket and not many people came. Zayn cried with Niall's mother who had also had a hard time coping with her youngest son's death. Zayn made a speech, but broke down in the middle of it. His father finished it for him as Zayn collapsed in front of the hole where his best friend would spend forever. Zayn didn't care that people were watching him; he just wanted his best friend back.

Zayn was the first to go up to the hole where Niall laid in his casket. As he threw the dirt over his friend's casket, he uttered the last words that he would speak in a while, "Bye, Nialler. I love you."