❝ There is a saying in the Neverland that, every time you breathe, a grown-up dies. ❞
~~~
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The sound of the heart rate monitor was deafening in the otherwise quiet room. The visitors had come and gone, the doctors and nurses closed the door behind them, and all that was left was the unconscious boy lying in the hospital bed.
Looking at him, no one could have guessed the hell that Niall’s body went through in the past five days. Or that he was currently alert and very much alive in a secret place between sleep and awake.
The doctors broke down his diagnosis for his worried friends and family: “He’s in a coma, but he’s going to be fine. He doesn’t have any broken bones or brain damage, thankfully. There was some internal bleeding, but we were able to stop it. He was hit very hard in the head, which is why he’s in a coma, so it might take his body some time to recover from the impact. All we can do now is wait for him to wake up.”
And how long would that take?
“We don’t know.”
His mother was constantly bursting into tears. His brother and father were somber and concerned. His fans? Oh, they were inconsolable.
But no one was as devastated as his four best friends.
Not even close.
Liam was the most grief-stricken. He was with Niall on the night of the car crash after all. Every day, he fought with the guilt that plagued him after the accident, thinking it was his fault that Niall was in the hospital. Hard as he tried, he couldn’t erase the image of the demolished taxi from his memory. The broken glass, the inflated airbags, the crushed metal...everything was permanently engraved in his mind.
The worst part of it all, however, was when he realized who was in the taxi.
“OH MY GOD! IS THAT NIALL IN THE TAXI? SOMEONE GET HELP NOW!”
Liam’s voice was unrecognizable; it was so high-pitched and distraught that it actually scared him. Liam tried not to believe his own words, but he knew they were true. After all, Niall had only left the club two minutes earlier and was going to take a taxi home.
Someone yanked the mangled cab door open, and in that one swift movement, Liam’s worst nightmare was confirmed. He saw a tuft of familiar blonde hair, but he turned away before he could clearly see Niall’s limp and bloody body.
Liam’s first instinct was to call for an ambulance, but several people had already done that. So as the screeching sirens of the rushing ambulance got closer and closer to the club, Liam fumbled for his cell phone and speed-dialed the first number that popped into his head, his hands shaking as he pressed the button.
“Louis? Listen to me. Niall was in a car accident outside the club. The ambulance just got here, and now they’re getting him out of the car. Oh my God, he isn’t moving. Get Harry and Zayn and meet me at the A&E right now. Oh God, please hurry!”
What happened after his frantic phone call was a blur. Liam could only vaguely remember jumping into another taxi and following the wailing ambulance all the way to the nearest hospital. He was barely holding himself together as he rushed through the hallways to find the three people he needed most. But when he saw their shocked and frozen faces, he broke. Collapsing into the three pairs of outstretched arms, Liam sobbed until he couldn’t feel the pain anymore.
“I shouldn’t have let him leave so early. Oh God, why did I let him–”
Zayn shushed the trembling boy and told him not to blame himself. Louis hugged him closer as Harry rubbed his back comfortingly. Tears ran down all four boys’ cheeks as they tried to console each other in the hallway of the hospital, dreading the moment when they would be told that their best friend’s heart stopped beating.
They were never told that news. Niall’s heart continued to beat steadily on.
For him, the worst was over.
For Louis, Zayn, Liam, and Harry, the worst had only begun.
The horrifying night replayed in Liam’s head over and over until he would wake up in the middle of the night, screaming his best friend’s name. He couldn’t sleep. Not when Niall was lying in a hospital room, unmoving and unresponsive.
The other three boys weren’t much better, either. Louis hadn’t smiled or cracked a joke since he heard the news: his lighthearted attitude was clouded and hidden from view. Zayn spent most of his time locked in his bedroom, where the only sounds heard were choked sobs. Harry’s vibrant green eyes were bloodshot and swollen, and his curls were disheveled from the hands that ran through them countless times.
They weren’t the crazy, energetic boys who were known to do stupid things right and left. None of them had the heart to do anything stupid without the carefree, laughing Irish boy. Heck, they didn’t have the heart to do anything at all.
They only needed the missing member of One Direction, and then everything would be okay. They would be okay.
But nothing was okay right now.
Not even close.
~~~
A/N:
Fun fact: this was actually going to be the first half of the next chapter, but I decided to break it up and write this as its own chapter. So yeah. An outside-Neverland POV. Surprise. It's a short filler chapter, but I swear the next one will be longer and more exciting.
I'm taking the SAT this coming Saturday, so I won't be on Wattpad very often this week. Maybe every other day or so, but I probably won't be super active. If you desperately need me, shoot me a PM. I'll still be reading comments and messages even if I don't reply to them. Wish me luck because I've honestly never been more stressed about anything ...even though I've taken it before. :/
[and oh my gosh the Dan and Phil radio show is playing Mumford & Sons right now and I'm literally spazzing out okay anyways]
New chapter after the blasted SAT, mkay? Keep voting, reading, and commenting. And enjoy concert Niall on the side. :)
Catherine
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Somewhere In Between // Niall Horan
Fanfiction[DISCONTINUED] Whitney Davies has been oblivious to the world for three years, but you can't blame her. It isn't her fault she's stuck in Neverland. Not the Neverland you know and love, though. This is a different place, where there aren't any...
