Renegade-N.H-

Freedom

"Help," I say holding tightly to his wound, Niall drops slowly to his knees so not to startle me. Even with my head scrambled I can see that he's almost scared of me. I know why but it doesn't matter, we could deal with that later.

He takes over my spot and I begin the run my hand over the thick brush of hair on his head to calm his breathing as Niall tries to slow the bleeding.

"You can't let him die Niall," I whisper and he nods hearing my words loud and clear.

Everything I had done in the past weeks was to keep him safe. To keep him out of this mess and now after all of it he was the one dying in my arms. My heart was on fire as I watched Niall struggle to hold enough pressure but her was doing his best.

I hear the basement door creak as Alex turns the stairs her face going from cautious to devastated in seconds. She drops down beside me and looks from me to Carter in a panic. Tears streaming from her face she places her shaky hand on my own and looks at me for a second.

I think about pulling away from her, but that won't change things and all I wanted to focus on was the pain Carter was enduring. Loran slams into the house next with Liam close in tow, Louis comes in the back door heavily breathing and soaking wet from the rain. I slump to the floor as Niall continues to hold tightly and I let Alex take my place to reassure my dying brother.

Everything seemed to move slowly, dizzy in a grey haze I push back and stand, blood drips from my pale skin to the kitchen floor. I step back and my foot hits the lifeless body of Harry, I had forgotten he was there. I look at him carefully, for a longer time than I realize. But his chest still rises and it means he's alive somewhere in there. Maybe the blood was doing something to him but we couldn't tell.

Deep down, I wished he was dead.

"Are you okay?" Louis asks first, and I can't answer him because I have no idea if I'm alright or not. To be honest I don't think I'll ever be alright again.

I just push past him and walk outside, walk until I reach the edge of the forest and completely collapse. Louis is by my side, I push him away more but he just keeps coming back until I completely lose myself in his arms.

"He'll be okay, you were so fucking brave today Lee, so brave..." he whispers it over and over again but it does little to calm me. He rocks me into him, holding me tightly until he just lets go and looks at me. We're out there for so long that the blood on my skin slowly wears away and there's faint traces of red stains along the flesh. I just hold him tighter than I ever had, changeling all my fears into him.

"What did you do to him Lee?" he asks slowly, cautiously like if he asked it in any other tone I would explode.

"I..." I stop because Niall is standing on the back porch covered in my brothers blood and is staring at me.

god, please let him be okay. I don't say it out loud, because my tongue is tied with strange emotions of grief and anger. If I spoke tears would flood down my face harder than before but he hears me and just nods. My head rises to look at him and I stand from where I am tucked into the warm shell of Lou's body. The grass is wet on my hands and drags some of the blood off as I go, I walk slowly almost, limp into the house.

Carter is propped up on the table, his head resting in Alex's hands and his eyes screwed shut in agony. "He'll be fine, there was only surface damage. He'll need time to heal." Ansel stands over my brother, also covered in plenty of blood.

"We stitched him up good, Ansel has a lighter hand than me," Niall adds "we didn't need a hospital visit right now."

"What do you mean you aren't taking him the hospital?" Alex stutters from the back of the table.