Dire {h.s.}

15

Ava Manakova

I don't think I can ever forget the way this feels. This is a type of pain that will forever be engraved in my head, the type where if I think about it for long, I'll start to feel it.

A scream erupts from my throat as I instantly lose any sort of balance I've attained from running. My body collapses weakly on the side of the Jeep and Harry manages to catch me before I fall to the ground. I whimper, struggling to control my breathing from the shock of what was completely unexpected. Tears instantly spring from my eyes as the pain begins to burn through me like a fire I can't escape. It hurts so bad. I've been hurt in the past, fallen off things, scraped my knee, paper cuts and all. But this, this is every ounce of pain I've ever felt in my life times a thousand.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck-" I hear Harry mutter his breath in a panic. His hands are already working fast to peel his jacket off from himself to use it on me. "Louis, help me!"

Louis comes up next to me and helps Harry lift me inside the Jeep as Liam swipes off the rest of the glass with his black leather jacket. Once they manage to get me inside, they force me to lay down on my back across the row of seats, I cry harder, really feeling the pain start to take over. Harry balls up his jacket and presses it against my wound, making me gasp sharply from it being so unexpected.

My breathing gets heavier as I try to get through it. I can barely focus on what's going around me before I feel the Jeep move underneath me as I hear its engine grumble. I look up to find Harry's face over mine, his eyes searching mine.

"Ava, can you hear me?" he asks, his voice full of panic.

I nod at the slightest, it's too painful to move anything. It hurts to breathe, let alone shake my head. I can't even speak without the pain spilling over like my tears manage to.

His face leaves mine for a moment and I try to see what he's doing. My legs are pushed to the side behind the passenger's seat, his body occupying the smallest of space that there is left over. But his focus is on me, well, more so on my torso.

I gasp at the feeling of his cold hands on my skin. He quickly retrains from me and shoots his eyes to mine. "I need to see how bad it is, okay?"

I've never heard him sound so gentle before.

I nod again as more tears stream down my face. This can't be happening. The feeling of his hands touching my skin sends chills down my spine, why are they so cold?

Gently, he rolls up my top and drills his eyes to a specific spot on the side of my torso, where it hurts the most. My breathing manages to calm down as a type of numbness slowly washes over me, and I'm starting to get tired.

"Is there a lot of blood?" I hear Liam ask from somewhere in the car. I watch as Harry examines the wound frantically, his eyes darting everywhere around the area.

Harry swallows hard, "Yes," he says. "There's a lot."

My eyes grow heavy and everything around me very slowly begins to fade darker and blur, especially Harry's face when he comes into my view again.

"Don't fall asleep!" I hear him warn, and more words follow along but they start to drown out the more blood that I'm losing.

In a sudden touch, I feel his big hand wrap around mine, catching me off guard and making my eyes open slightly. "Squeeze my hand." He says, but I'm too confused to understand why. "Do it!"

And so I do it. My hand squeezes him as tight as to what little amount of strength that I have allows me to. Satisfied, he stares down at me with a look of something I can only identify as trust. "Don't stop squeezing my hand, okay?"