Deranged • Ghost N.H. au

Fourteen

A/n: I know my chapters aren't the longest but I update every few days so I think that makes up for it, right? Enjoy!

I was sitting in the car with Harry, the car was still parked in front of the restaurant because Harry refused to take me home. He wanted to hear what happened with Ethan. So I told him everything that had happened. How Ethan came in to my life a few weeks ago, how he almost made me fall for him, how sweet he was and how it eventually all turned out to be a lie. When I was done, my cheeks were wet from the tears and my hands were sweaty because I was scared of what Harry's reaction would be. 

Harry sat there, not moving as he kept his gaze in front of him. He was gripping the steering wheel tightly as I waited for him to respond to what I had just told him. I still felt incredibly ashamed of myself. I should've known, I had been acting like a stupid love struck teenager around Ethan. After a few minutes, Harry spoke up.

"That son of a bitch. He just isn't able to keep his hands to himself." He told me through gritted teeth. 

"What do you mean?" I asked. Was I not his first victim?

"Back in high school, I had a friend named Jenna, the same thing happened to her. Ethan Richards played the role of a sweet and kind guy and made her fall in love with him. After he was done with her, he dumped her like she was nothing but trash. Almost everyone knew about the scandal, the girl who had sex before marriage. She was mocked and laughed at by everyone in town while Ethan was worshipped. I'll spare you the details but she ended up hanging herself in the woods." He sighed to himself before continuing. "Please stay away from him, stick with me, I won't let him come anywhere near you. I care about you, Riley, I don't want him to hurt you the way he hurt Jenna." He turned to me, a brotherly but sad smile on his face. "Will you please promise me that you'll come to me if he ever bothers you again?"

I swallowed and nodded. "I promise." He reached out and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, engulfing me in a strong but comfortable hug. 

After a few seconds, we both let go of each other and Harry started the car, taking off. After about ten minutes, we reached my house and he stopped the car in the driveway, not making an effort to get up.

"Do you want to come in?" I asked him. He knew Niall, he was his best friend even. But he didn't know that I knew this so I had to be careful. I didn't want Harry to freak out and drive me straight to a mental institution because I was talking about ghosts and ashes around my house. 

He hesitated for a moment before he nodded, looking up at the house like it would swallow him as soon as he would walk through the front door. "Sure." He said as we both got out of the car, slamming the doors shut at the same time. Harry followed me up the porch as I turned the doorknob and opened the door, letting him walk in first. He took a deep breath before walking in, me following close behind after I closed the door. 

He looked around for a while, just taking everything in I guess, before he started talking quietly to himself. "It hasn't changed one bit in all those years." 

"What?" I asked, pretending that I didn't hear what he had said." 

"Oh, nothing. Nice place you have here." He smiled. 

I walked in to the kitchen, thanking him quickly before washing my hands and taking two glasses out of the cabinet. I filled them with lemonade and took them with me before someone suddenly appeared in front of me. 

"Are you crazy?!" Niall hissed, pushing me back in to the kitchen so Harry couldn't hear us. 

"What? Why?" I asked, setting the glasses down on the counter.

"That's Harry Styles! That's my best friend who I haven't seen since I was murdered in this very house, you idiot!" He spoke, anger lacing his tone. But it wasn't just anger, I could sense a bit of fear too. "Don't you want to see him again? talk to him, maybe?" I asked while suddenly taking an interest in my shoes, keeping my gaze away from Niall's intense one.

He sighed before placing his index finger under my chin and lifting it up so he could look me in the eyes. "Riley, I don't want him to see me like this, what if he thinks it's just a sick joke, what if he'll be scared of me? I want him to remember me as my living self, not my dead self."

"I don't fear you." I whispered. 

"You used to, though." 

"Please Niall, I can tell he misses you, and I think you miss him too. Just try it, you'll never know if you don't try it." I sighed, leaning against the counter, making Niall's hand fall from my face. He looked at me for a couple of seconds before we both heard Harry's voice coming from the living room.

"Riley? Everything alright in there?" I could hear footsteps, telling me that he was walking towards the kitchen. Niall looked at me for a moment before disappearing again. Harry walked in to the kitchen, smiling at me. 

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking." I told him before I handed him the glass of lemonade that I made earlier. "Thanks." He flashed a smile as he took the glass from my hand and we walked back in to the living room together, plopping down on the couch. We talked and laughed for a good two hours before Harry got up, saying he had to go home. He gave me a quick hug before walking out the door, looking back at the house a couple of times before he got in his SUV and drove off. I can only imagine how many times he must've been here. Maybe him and Niall already knew each other when they were very young, maybe they had played together under this roof as Niall's mom was cooking dinner for the both of them. Maybe they had grown up together. But that was all ripped away from the both of them when Niall's life was stolen from him. I had made a promise to Niall but mostly to myself that I was going to find the killer, I was going to expose him to the world and I was going to make him pay for what he had done. 

I just didn't know how, yet. 

A/n: Heyheyhey!

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