Forced Family 3

F O U R T E E N

*If anyone is interested in what I listen to whenever I write, I can start putting it at the top of chapters, for this chapter it was this: https://youtu.be/ppy9aLvDCp4 *

"Di-did you know I had an older brother?"

Annika had been with these men for three months, she'd kept track perfectly on her headboard, and while she still felt on edge, she'd be lying if she didn't admit a sense of familiarity building among the sudden family.

Niall furrows his eyebrows glancing at her from his seat in front of Thomas' highchair; it was lunch time a meal the family had eaten together every day, although usually Annika eats and leaves without uttering a word.

"You mean younger," Niall muses bringing the spoon to Thomas' mouth with a grin, Annika frowns at the words shaking her head. She grabs the sandwich that rested on the plate untouched, "No, his-his name was Dylan,"

"Was?" Niall retorts lowly, he remains with his back turned towards the girl glancing only over his shoulder, their eyes meeting for brief seconds before returning to Thomas that's happily eating his peaches.

"I-I think he died," Annika mutters softly, she feels tears prick her eyes at the confession, she'd never really said it aloud to herself or to others; partly because she knew Thomas wouldn't handle the information well, and no one else would listen to her.

Niall hums softly in reply, "I'm sorry buttercup," Sniffling, Annika nods wiping her cheeks as tears cascaded down them, "M-me too," she whimpers, Niall setting the bowl down on Thomas' tray moving to kneel next to her wrapping his arms around her with kisses to her temple, "I wish we could've saved him too,"

Feeling a sob rise in her throat at the admission, Annika can't help but nod, "Me-me too," if only, if only, Dylan could've seen there was another way out of Nikole's world, maybe he would've stayed.

60 days.

Two months.

When Louis had been told the family was going on a weekend he expected two, three, at most four days.

He didn't know at the time when he was buckled into that car seat he'd be embarking on a 60-day journey that somehow seemed to end today. The punishment was over. The parents had won and Louis was no longer a cause for any concern.

The first of 60 days when he awoke at his old house and saw the two men, they had explained that there was a new boy and they were going to need Louis' help in taking him. Louis feels he should've known it was a trick all along.

Louis was the boy.

He just didn't know they were going to re-kidnap him.

Things were different this time, Louis could tell the men had grown older, and surprisingly less patient than before; scarily less patient.

Louis remembers when Liam wrote his first book, he read it without his older brother's knowledge and sobbed after he finished it. He wanted nothing more than to apologize to his older brother and hug him. He felt terrible he wasn't the older brother Liam needed him to be. When the second book came out, Louis felt even worse. Liam blamed himself, but he didn't hold any back from Louis, and the man wrote as if he knew Louis wouldn't read it.

It hurt him to think his brother thought he'd never get the chance to read it. Louis read it religiously. He had even started writing down his own thoughts, he wrote letters to Liam he knew the man wouldn't read, but it made him feel better about his choice. After all, two years ago Louis felt that this was his choice.

He chose Harry and Zayn.

"Good Morning handsome!" Harry greets entering the nursery that morning, Louis stares up at him with tear-slick eyes waiting expectantly to be carried over to the changing table before he'd be taken to breakfast.

Louis furrows his eyebrows his hands grasping the side of the crib when Harry's eyes pass over him and to the closet, "We're going home sweetheart," Harry informs grabbing a box, "Dada already has the car all packed up, I'm just grabbing a few of your things," Louis watches Harry place his old football jersey, an old photo album, and one pair of Louis' old vans in the box, "This is what we'll leave at the graveyard," Harry mumbles more so to himself.

Tears trickle down Louis' cheeks at the words, he's motionless when he's finally lifted from the crib, and laid on the changing table stripped from his onesie and placed into a fresh nappy with another onesie and pants, "Awfully cold out today, can't have my baby freezing,"

In the two months since her birthday party, Annika always had a video call with her "grandparents" on Wednesday, once or twice there was a mention of Louis but he was always sleeping during the calls.

After her confession at lunch, Annika still fully expected the video call to proceed as normal, these men had a thing for schedules and didn't like to stray from them easily. Having been resting most of the afternoon with her head stuck in a book while laying on the sofa, she lowers it from her gaze when Liam enters the room smiling at her in greeting, "You missed lunch," she calls, Liam nodding as he sits next to her, "I know, I'm sorry bug,"

"It's okay, papa just made sandwiches," Annika muses closing the book, and moving to a sitting position next to the man, "Where were you?" Liam leans back grabbing his cell phone and showing her a picture of Harry and Zayn's house, "I was at Papaw's house getting it ready, they're coming home today with uncle Lou Lou,"

"How is Louis?" Annika asks softly, while Liam refused to speak about him most of the time, at certain vulnerable times he'd mention something sad about him as if he didn't realize he was confessing to a crime.

"Uncle Lou is good, Papaw and Grandpa are very good parents," Liam assures mindlessly, he didn't want to spend much time thinking about the two-month vacation his parent's weekend had turned out to be, he just assumed the two loved the beach so much they extended their stay at the condo.

When the car slowed, Louis glanced out the window peaking over the side of his car seat and seeing the family had pulled into a graveyard, Zayn driving until he slowed at the abandoned headstone where Jay lay, "We're here," Harry unbuckles from the passenger side, "Papa will be quick bubba, then this will all be over," Grabbing the box of things he'd gotten from Louis' closest, he crosses over towards the grave placing the letter next to it under a rock, following Louis' shoes, and a few photos from the album he'd ripped up.

Staring in horror as the man threw the photos in the air like confetti, watching them float down littering the grave, Louis sits with tears dripping onto his shirt completely defeated.

Harry returns to the car once his job was completed, "Now Louis Tomlinson is gone," he announces reaching back patting Louis' thigh, "Louis Malik, however," pinching Louis's nose he winks, "Has just been born,"

>Y A L L

>I have no words. None. I wrote this in forty minutes. Please ignore any errors. Buckle up for this one bestie. All the love, Emma :)

>Challenges ARE returning in the next chapter, I SWEAR!