The Side You Don't Hear (1D)

Chapter 18

Harry's POV

                Of course I knew that voice; it had only been drilled into my head for the past few years.  It brought back so many memories, most of which were wonderful, but also the image of his crying face from my 'funeral'.  I wanted nothing more than to stop running, turn around, and hug the life out of him.  He needed reassurance, and we both needed our best friend back, but I couldn't bring myself to stop because of the helpless little boy I had to protect.

                Speaking of Tony, that is exactly where I'm running to.  I need to ditch Louis and whoever is running with him, get back to Tony, and get the hell out of town.  I knew it would only be a matter of time before someone found us; we shouldn't have stayed here this long anyways.  About half way to the apartment complex, I noticed that one of the pairs of footsteps has started lagging, leaving only one left on my tail.  I made a few extra turns to try to confuse him, probably Lou, but it didn't work.  I gave up, and just sprinted my absolute fastest the rest of the way and up the stairs.  It had been no more than fifteen minutes since I left, so I know that Ms. Lane won't be expecting me back so soon.

                I finally made it to her room, knocking on it furiously.  I could hear the footsteps nearing the top of the stairs when she finally opened the door, revealing her winkled face painted with confusion.  I pushed past her and closed the door behind me, making sure to bolt it.

                "What's going on, Steve?" she asked worriedly.  I turned around and looked for Tony, who was playing with his teddy bear on the floor.  I walked over to him and lifted him up, hugging him as close to my chest as possible.

                "Some crazy man has been chasing me across town-" I lie, being cut off by a banging on the door.

                "HARRY!! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!!  PLEASE LET ME IN!  I JUST WANT TO TALK TO YOU!"  Louis yelled while knocking furiously.  Ms. Lane looked at me with even more confusion.

                "Who's Harry?" she asked.  I knew she would.

                "I have no idea, but he just keeps calling me that!  I think he believes I'm someone else."  I continued to lie.  That seems like all I've done to this poor lady, but she always seems to believe me. Suddenly, she starts moving.

                "Take Tony and hide under the bed in my room."  she orders, pushing us in the right direction.  I'm confused as to what she has up her sleeve, but she insists, so I obey.  I enter her room and she follows me in.  As I start getting under the bed, I see her dig through her closet and pull out a baseball bat.  Why on god's green earth does she have that and what exactly does she plan on doing?  She leaves the room quickly, closing the door behind her.  I listen carefully to try to keep track of what is going on.  Tony is wiggling slightly on my chest, but he isn't crying, so I can still hear Louis banging on the door and yelling things.

                To my surprise, I hear the door open.  Is she just letting him in?  Why would she let someone who she believes is crazy just walk into her house?  That's when I hear the crack of the bat hitting something, followed by a loud thump.

Liam's POV

                Louis and Harry were running way too fast for me to keep up, and I'm a pretty good runner.  I didn't think either of them had that kind of speed, but I suppose they both had something to run for.  I kept a fairly fast pace, reaching the apartment I saw Louis run into only a minute after the two of them.  While I was still climbing the stairs, I could hear Lou yelling loudly, probably meaning he got locked out of wherever Harry was.  As I finally reached the top of the stairs, I turn the corner and see Lou, who had stopped shouting, looking very confused into an open door.  Before I could take a step, a baseball bat swung out of the door frame, hitting my friend straight in the temple, throwing his body lifelessly onto the floor.

                "LOUIS!" I yelled, running straight towards him, not caring about who was wielding the bat on the other side of the now closed door.  "Louis, Louis!"  I kept saying, until I reached his body and knelt down next to him.  I lifted him into my arms and shook him a bit, with no response.

                "Louis, please open your eyes," I said a little too loudly for our close proximity, but it didn't matter.  He wasn't moving, but I could feel a pulse on his wrist, meaning he was alive.  His head was already swollen, and that kind of blow probably caused some sort of brain injury.  This was much more important than talking Harry into coming home.

                I lifted Louis into my arms bridal style and made my way to the elevator, only setting him down to pull out my phone and call an ambulance.  We waited there for a few minutes before my friend was swept from my arms and strapped into the car.  They allowed me to ride with him in the back, but I did my best to stay calm and out of the way of the paramedics.  By the amount of urgency in their actions, I could tell that something was very wrong, but I had no idea what.

                "Do you know what happened?" one of the paramedics asked me.  I was still in shock, but tried my best to shake it off to answer him.

                "He was hit in the head with a bat," I said, not knowing anything more than that.  I couldn't even assume that Harry had done it, because I don't believe he's capable of hurting his best friend like that.  But who else could it have been?

                "Is that all you know?  Is there anything else you can tell us?" the same paramedic asked.

                "No, I'm sorry." I answered, hanging my head.  The man went back to his work, opening Louis' eyelids and waving a light in front of them, looking for a response, but seeming unhappy with the results.  The driver announced that our ETA was about a minute, causing the two men to finish up whatever they were doing.

                The second the ambulance had stopped, the doors bust open, revealing a doctor and quite a few nurses all prepared to handle the situation.  I followed them out of the back and through the doors at their rushed pace.  The oxygen mask hadn't been removed from Louis' thin face, which, paired with the bandage wrapped around his forehead, made it hard to see anything but his eyes.  Suddenly, the paramedic started filling the doctor in as we sped through the hallway.

                "Traumatic head injury on the left temple, all vitals low, breathing quick and shallow, very little response to any stimuli..." I didn't really understand much of this; these things weren't exactly an everyday topic of discussion for me.  All I knew was that it sounded more serious than I thought.  His words made the doctor rush down the hall faster, yelling at people to stay out of their way. 

                Once inside a room, Louis was immediately hooked up to tons of machines that had no meaning to me.  The only one that made sense and gave me a reason to worry was the heart monitor, which, from my experience with movies, was beeping a bit too slowly.  I tuned out the yelling and nonsense that surrounded me as I stood in the corner and watched the line on the screen, willing it to beat once more, thanking God when it did, and then willing it to beat once again.  It seemed to be working, which gave me hope, until the beep I expected didn't come.  Neither did the jump of the line on the screen.  His heart stopped, and so did mine.

                The loud noise alerting the doctor of Louis' heart filled the room, causing a panic.  He started yelling for a crash cart, which was brought to his side almost immediately.  Louis' t-shirt was ripped open and the doctor reached for the paddles.  I didn't realize until then, but I was crying hysterically, forcing a few nurses to start pushing me out of the room.  I fought back, not wanting to leave my friend.

                "LOUIS!" I yelled as they pulled me through the door.

                "Clear!" I heard the doctor yell just before he placed the paddles on Louis' chest, causing his entire body to lift off the bed.

Oh snap, cliffhanger:) I'm super appreciative of all those readers out there.  It puts a huge smile on my face to log on and see new reads <3 xx