Illusion (Ziall Horlik) AU

Chapter 21

Niall's POV

The next morning when Zayn and I woke up, Zayn seemed extremely out of it. He would stare off into space like he was seeing someone in front of him that no one else was seeing. I was just fixing my hair when he stood up and walked over to a wall and reached his hand out to touch it. His brown eyes looked confused then sad before he snapped himself out of his thoughts and went back to sit on the bed.

I went over to his bottle of pills and got out the ones he needed to take in the morning, then got him a glass of water. When I went over to him, I traced a small triangle on his arm to get this attention as well as to know that this is real life. He smield st me and took his pills from my hand. I made sure he swallowed them so that maybe his strange behavior would fix once those worked.

"I think we're all going to have to eat breakfast out. Louis has no food in this house." I giggled to Zayn. He smield at me and laughed at my words in return. We both made our way to the kitchen where Harry and Louis were sharing cute kisses as Harry sat on the counter and Louis was pressed between his legs. They both stopped then they saw us, but Louis looked at Zayn like he was seeing the strange look in those brown eyes too.

"Did he sleep last night?" Louis whispered to me. I nodded and pulled the blue eyed boy out of the room to talk to me. I needed some comfort right now because I hadn't seen Zayn like this and I was hoping maybe Louis had or he would help me understand how to fix this.

"He's petting the walls." I told him, not being able to come up with the right words to explain this to him. Louis looked like he wanted to laugh at first, then he seemed to have thought over what I said and became an adult.

"We'll keep him here all day instead of going out that way his mind won't have to struggle with the real world and the fake one. Maybe you can talk to him and ask him if he's seeing things. I know he told me he doesn't see things, but he mum told me that as he becomes more dependant on his medication then if he doesn't take them his condition will become worse. Let's just both keep an eye on him and if things get weirder, then I'll call his mum or dad to get some help. Are you okay with that?" Louis asked me once he was done explaining this to me. I nodded and let out a small sigh of relief, but my moment of relaxation was soon taken when I heard Zayn scream from the kitchen then Harry let out a small whimper.

Louis and I ran into the kitchen to find Zayn on the floor in a ball with his hands over his eyes and Harry was sitting on the floor too, but he looked like he had been pushed. Harry crawled over to Zayn and pat his head, then moved back. We watched as Zayn moved his hands to look at the boy, but he had tears rolling down his cheeks. He almost looked scared of Harry.

"Harry, what happened?" Louis asked as he pulled the skinny boy to his feet. He explained to us that Zayn was acting funny and told him not to touch him because he wasn't real. I could see Louis was having a battle within himself that he wanted to get mad at Zayn, but wanted to make sure Zayn was going to be okay. I told Louis to take Harry to get breakfast while I stayed with Zayn. I had his family's numbers on speed dial now, so I was fine with dealing with him. This is what love is. You just accept the person as they are and help them when they need it.

Once Louis and Harry were out of the house, I got Zayn into our guest bedroom. He walked over to the wall he had touched earlier and did the same thing. I sat on the bed and just watched him closely until he came and sat next to me. I didn't touch him so I wouldn't confuse him more, but I did make sure he knew I was still right here with him through this.

"What's over there?" I asked him, pointing at the empty wall that had his attention since he woke up this morning. He looked at me, then reached forward to touch my hair. He seemed to understand that I was confused about what I wasn't seeing.