Deep Dive (L.s AU)✔

Chapter 28 Its Dragging me Under

Zayn's Pov

The darkness was deceivingly peaceful. I was aware but gone. My ears seemed filled with water because any sounds I heard were muffled. I couldn't open my eyes, they were too heavy but I felt warmth circling my cold body, hands, I think, shaking me. A voice calling out, I think, to me.

I knew something was wrong. I wish I could remember.

"Zayn! Zayn!" A woman's voice finally pierced into my ears and my eyes fluttered open as the world finally became alive again around me.

A groaned fell from my lips to answer the woman who was blurry in my eyes. The light was too bright, not helping my pounding head. Blinking a couple times, I pressed my palms to my eyes as the woman, Martha I could recognized now, backed away slightly.

She was on the phone, the poor old woman's face pale and flushed with tears. "Jay, h-he just woke up, now...are you alright, my boy?"

It took a second to process the question she directed at me. Sluggishly, I could only nod.

"Do you remember what happened? How's your head?" Martha looked very concerned. As she asked those questions, I blinked maybe once, twice, before everything cane down on me like a storm.

I snapped straight up. "What the fuck-where's Niall? Shit! What-did they take him?!"

Martha out her hand on my shoulder to calm me down but anger was stirring itself in a boil inside of me. "Hey, its gonna be alright. Jay and the others are coming over here just as we speak."

She held out her phone and pressed a button. All of the sudden then, Jay's voice, along with the lads, came through the speaker.

"Zayn, Martha, you there?" Jay spoke, causing an uproar of other voices to speak over her. I could Liam's, Lottie's and a few others but Jay shushed them all loudly.

"Yes, we're still here," Martha answered calmly, her lips twitching a bit. I could admit, it did calm me down a bit to know they were all coming.

"Well, can you tell me what happened?" Jay asked the question I bet was on everyone's mind. Martha looked at me as a sign for me to explain.

"Well, me and Niall we just stopped by the bakery to tell Martha that Harry wouldn't be coming in to work for a couple of days and I was going to grab a few baked goods for us before me and Niall headed for the store then back home but then a group of men came in and attacked us. They knocked me out but they took Niall," I explained, looking to Martha who nodded through a few stray tears.

"Yes and the group...Desmond was apart of them, Jay. He acted like he led them. And they did indeed take the boy," Martha said softly, edging on fear. "But I'm afraid, you have to act fast to find him..."

"Why? What do you mean?" Jay asked, sinking dread into my gut. But my fears were confirmed when I looked around at the disarray of the bakery where a few chairs and table were strew about. There was a pool of blood not even a couple of feet from me.

I felt my own face grow pale, free from the blood that stained the floor with each passing second that we don't find Niall. My mermaid, my soulmate...

"They shot him," Martha's voice trembled. "They shot him but not dead...no. Just to the point where the bullet knocked him cold. I saw the wound for a split second...in his collarbone. He should be fine if they take him to water...I believe that's where they were heading."

There was silence over the phone.

"We'll be right there," Jay's voice trembled but stayed cold. She hung up with a click.

Martha touched my shoulder gently. "Lets get you up. You have a little gash, not to bad, but its needs to be cleaned and patched up."

I didn't even notice but as she said my injury, it felt like my head exploded. Wincing, I held my head in my hands, but she held out one of her hands to help me up. I stood slowly and Martha guided me to the back. I had to close my eyes from the pain, feeling the gash she was talking about.

It was warm and wet from blood and I was too distracted to notice, too focused on Niall...

"He will be ok, Zayn. He will be ok, we'll get him home," Martha, the sweet old woman tried to reassure me but I couldn't keep the image of the pool of blood just few away from me that kept my blood cold.

*

Harry's Pov

My heart didn't stop one beat when we made it to the bakery. I was the first one out the car, Louis right behind me because he was in the passenger's side of the car.

It seemed like a flurry all in my head. One moment, Jay was just answering a phone call. The next she was yelling at all of us to get in her car. Based on the tone in her voice and the expression she held, we didn't ask questions. We didn't need to when she put the phone on speaker.

My heart dropped. My best friend, close to brother, was shot and taken. Taken by the very men who were after me as well. I was scared. Louis knew I was scared and even though he was sitting in the front passenger's side, he reached back and held my hand to give me comfort.

Now, I was jumping out of the car to only open the bakery doors to a mess. A few chairs and tables were knocked down and in the corner there was a pool of blood. I felt cold fear.

A hand gripped my shoulder. I didn't jump, I didn't feel anything, except the little bit of warmth the hand gave me. I knew it was Louis. He snapped me out of my daze. I shook my head and headed for the back of the bakery around the cashier counter. Immediately, I see Martha tending to Zayn who was sitting up on one of the cooking counters we have set up for making cookies or any other type of pastry.

Martha was gently rubbing her hand against his forehead that was now covered in a bandage.

"Zayn, are you alright?" Louis was quick to say something while I could only stand there, watching, knowing this was my fault. Numbly, I followed Louis in, taking his arm as he got closer to Zayn.

Zayn jumped slightly in his spot, Martha backing away just as we all arrived with the others behind us, curious as well if Zayn was alright.

He touched his bandaged, right before his midnight hair. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just escaped with a cut but, I'm not so sure about Niall...I'm so worried, I just-"

"We'll find him, We'll get him back," Louis was the one who was trying to reassure him. I had to hold myself in place to keep myself from shaking my head. I had to be the one to reassure him. This was my fault. Niall was gone now because of me, because of me and Niall were. I couldn't stand it.

"Desmond did this," Martha muttered quietly, catching the attention of Jay. "Him and his buddies. They have the poor boy. Dragged him out cold."

"We have to go to the water," I blurted. "We've got to save him and stop them-"

Louis gripped my shoulder. "Breathe, Hazza , we'll save him, but we don't know how dangerous these are. They attacked Zayn and took Niall! We have no sort of plan going into this."

I bit my tongue. He was right; we didn't have a plan. But standing here, doing next to nothing, wasn't a plan either. I chose to be quiet then, as Lottie and Liam came in, swarming Zayn with a bunch of questions for him, like if he was alright or what did the guys look like.

This made Martha and Jay jump in too, saying a few names that didn't stick to me because as I noticed everyone turning their focus away from me, I slowly backed away from the forming group. Even Louis became curious and his attention left me.

Slowly, I kept backing away until I reached the counter near the cash register. At this point, they couldn't see me anymore when I pressed my back against the marbled counter filled with plates, sweets and even money.

I could hear them talking but I made a run for the door because when I open it, the bell will ring, giving off my plan. I threw the door open with closed eyes to hear the bell's little dinging, before opening them and throwing myself into Jay's car. I felt bad for taking it but they were sitting around doing nothing and I have to do something.

As I started the car, I could feel my panicked tears filling up my eyes. But I just couldn't stand still. Not while my bestfriend, no, brother, was out there in the hands of those grubby people doing who knows what.

And I couldn't help but think, as I drove away, to the beach, to the water where I know I could fund them, that this was all my fault.