Dark

38 : Blood Again

He got up, rubbing his cheek, and said "Okay...I'm done. That was hard."

"I think this is why you never fought girls." She said. "You should give it one more try...come on."

"No...it's okay. I choose life." He said.

Harry didn't want to fight me anymore. He must have probably lost touch since he took a break from boxing for a while. But by the way he tried to defend a few simple moves after I punched him, I must say, he's definitely a pro. Not many people can do those moves.

We all revised again for about an hour or so, after which all of them went back home except for Niall. My mom's colleagues left, but professor Denver left an hour later. He stayed back after everyone went, I don't know why.

"Hey, can I get an extra pillow? I feel kinda lonely to sleep without anything." Niall said, drawing away his blankets.

"Why do you suddenly feel that?" I asked, turning on the lights in the room.

"Well...you're not ready to sleep with me. I feel secure when someone or something is there next to me while I sleep." He said.

"Seriously?" I asked

"Yea, no kidding." He said.

"But, you didn't have this insecurity all these days, did you? Why today...all of a sudden?" I asked.

"Just like that." He said. "Now are you gonna give me another pillow or what?"

"Wait." I said, got up from my couch, and checked for extra pillow in my closet. There were two on a shelf, but I couldn't reach it.

"Wait up shorty...I'm coming." Niall said, running towards me.

"I'm not short, okay?" I said.

"Oh yeah?" He said, bent down to me, well not that much, but to my shoulder level and said "How's the view down there?"

"Shut up." I said, pushing him away from me.

"Seriously though...how tall are you?" He asked.

"Five feet and one inch." I said. He burst out laughing so hard, slapped his knee and sat on the floor, still laughing.

"Goodnight Horan. " I said, and walked briskly back to my couch.

"Okay wait...I'm sorry." He got up and said.

"No you're not sorry. Go sleep." I said. "You have to wake up early tomorrow."

"I'm sorry Miss...James. I'm sorry Miss James." He said.

"Good night Niall." I said, pulling my blankets over me.

                                                                                                        *

The next morning, I woke up to the alarm on his phone, at four. I made coffee for the both of us, and we started revising for our test.

"Hey, for how long were you in the toilet last night?" He asked me, taking a sip off his cup.

"Huh?" I asked.

"I woke up to some cracking sound, or whatever that was, at around one in the morning, and found you were not there on the couch. I saw the toilet lights were on, so I knew you were in there." He said, placed his coffee in front of him and continued "And then, I went to sleep after that, and woke up again at two, and found the lights were still on, and you still missing from your couch."

"I just went to the toilet twice." I said, finishing my coffee. "What would I do in there for more than an hour?"

"Oh...silly me." He said, and continued with his coffee.

We studied up to seven in the morning. Both of us were confident for our chemistry and physics tests today. He had breakfast at half past seven, and left for his house.

Mom dropped me off as usual, but a little early today.

"Take care honey." She said, lowering the car window. "Please, stay out of HER way."

"I will." I said. "No need to remind me of that."

"Okay then, bye." She said, and drove off.

"Audrey !" Louis came running towards me, along with the others. "Something happened...I don't know when, but we all saw it this morning."

"What? What happened?" I asked.

"Blood stains Audrey. All over my front door." Louis said. "And this happened not only at my house, but at everyone else's too."

"Yeah, and it's not any ordinary stain. It's like as if someone dipped their palm in blood, and left its impression there." Harry said.

"We tried cleaning it off, but it just doesn't go." Lisa said.

"I spent all morning with my mom trying to get it off my front door. It was disgusting." Elsa said.

"And it didn't have any sort of smell. You know, blood stains leave some sort of smell, know what I'm saying? There was nothing at all." Liam said.

"Yea, absolutely nothing." Niall said. "Did it happen at your place too? No, I don't remember seeing anything like that at your place."

"No...nothing happened at my place. And, how are you all so sure it's blood of you couldn't smell anything?" I asked.

"We've seen quite a lot of bloody stains in the recent past, haven't we?" Louis said. "This is blood for sure, no doubt."

"But, how did it get there? Who did it? And, why wasn't it there at Audrey's place?" Elsa asked. Zayn came running towards us from a distance.

"What's he up to now?" Elsa asked.

"By the looks on his face, he's got some bad news." Liam said.

"Audrey...blood...all over my front door." He said, panting hard.

"Zayn, how are you now? Do you feel better?" Louis asked immediately.

"Not you too." Lisa said.

"Yea I'm fine. Better." He said. "What, it happened at your places too?"

"Yea. But except for Audrey. Nothing happened at her place." She said.

"How's that possible?" He asked fervently. "And also, I saw that cat and dog fighting outside my house. This time, I saw the cat from an even better angle. It looked disgusting. It was kinda huge too."

"Huge?" Liam asked.

"Huge for the size of a regular cat." He said.

"And the dog?" Lisa asked.

"Just like the one I saw that day...huge, and had a lot of hair near its neck. I didn't sleep last night." He said, looking terrified.

"Is it HER who's doing all this?" Lisa asked.

"Whoever it is, I'm terrified of my backyard now." He said.

"Hey...it's, alright." Louis said. "We're all in this together."

"Louis? Um...we need to talk...after today's test. Meet me outside the library." He said, and was about to walk away. "No, stay with us." Lisa said, pulling him back.

"Bye guys. All the best for today's test. Louis, don't forget." He said, and walked away.

"Strange...I never expected him to ever talk to me." Louis said. "I hope we'll get back together again."

"You will." I said. "There's no doubt in that."