FEAR [n.h]

23.

Madison's POV.

As soon as Niall and I walked into the office he closed the door, letting go of my hand as he walked towards the right wall of the room, pushing a table out of the way and hitting the wall in three different places, as I stood there watching him, glued to the floor.

As soon as he hit the wall a third time it made an opening sound, a bit of it sliding to the right revealing a tiny room behind it. Of course, they had a panic room.

"Come on," He said as he walked towards me, holding my hand in a tight grip and walking into the room. "It's going to be okay".

Once we were inside I leaned my back into the wall behind me, watching Niall take out his flashlight, pointing it to the corner next to where the "door" was, and pressing an almost invisible button, making the wall close again, leaving us hidden and in the dark as he turned the flashlight off, tucking it again in his back pocket. Niall leaned into the wall behind him, facing me, our noses almost touching as the room, well, was a hole in the wall so as I said, it was tiny. 

We stood there in silence until we heard a door open with a big thud, followed by shouting and gunshots. I gasped and started hyperventilating, and Niall, who I just realized hadn't let go of my hand, grabbed me into a hug, burying my head into his chest, caressing my head.

"You have to breathe, Mads," he said in a whisper, and I nodded, trying to stop my body from shaking from the anxiety. "The guys are going to be fine, and they are not going to find us, everything is going to be okay, I prom-"

"Don't," I interrupted him, pushing my head up without letting go of his embrace, looking at his eyes again. "Don't- don't promise me anything, please, you don't know for sure how this is going to go, just please, please don't". He sighed, mumbling an "okay" as he took his right hand off my body to place a strand of my hair that was in the middle of my face, putting it behind my ear and resting his hand on my cheek. "Tell me something, anything."

"What do you want to know?" He replied, I could tell that he was looking at my face.

"How-how did you, um, meet the boys?"

"We met the day our boss wanted us to work as a group, he said that all of us were going to work better that way than alone," He whispered. "And here we are." I nodded, trying my best to ignore all the loud noises coming from outside. "Are you scared?" He asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Of course I am," I whispered back, leaning my head into his hand that was still on my cheek as he caressed it with his thumb. "But I guess it could be worse, right?

"And why is that?" He asked.

"Well, um-" Oh please Madison think before you say something you are going to regret later. "At least you are here, with me, it's weird given everything that has happened but um, I feel safe when you are around, most of the time anyw-"

A loud bang that sounded a lot closer made me jump, letting go of Niall's hold and crashing into the wall behind me, my breathing getting fast again. Niall came forward towards me, putting his hand in my mouth and pressing his forehead into mine, both of us quiet as hell.

The shouting seemed to have stopped, but shotguns were still happening, and something new: people were walking into the office, just on the other side of the wall, loud thuds coming from what I guess was them trashing the room, looking for something.

"They can't be gone, we would have seen them!" A man shouted from outside, making me whimper, Niall shushed me and tightened his grip on my hip.

"Well, they aren't! And we have to go before the reinforcements come or we are all dead!" Another voice shouted from outside, the sound of the shotguns decreasing as well.