The Quarterback (narry)

epilogue // the last entries

The officers looked around at the mess that lay before them, too stunned to say a word. No one could believe what had happened, and that they were seeing it with their own eyes.

Harry Styles, ex quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, lay dead on the floor. A bullet wound to his head, a pool of blood dripping out onto the floor beneath him. Beside him, lay his lover. Niall Horan, nothing more than a simple motel worker and a huge fan of the Packers. Niall held a gun in his left hand.

Between both of them was a journal, open to the last blood spattered page. Niall's handwriting filled it.

Liam and Luke stood outside talking to other officers, giving their statements for what had happened.

The officers pushed back their thoughts and walked around the room, two of them walking to the lifeless bodies that lay on the floor. One knelt down beside Harry, shaking his head. The other knelt beside Niall, looking at the gun in his hand. "Murder - suicide?" He asked, looking at the man who was inspecting Harry.

"Possibly." He answered, sliding gloves onto his hands before reaching out and picking up the small leather journal that lay between the two boys. He began slowly flipping through the pages, stopping on the last one Harry wrote in.

Reading over it, he sighed and shook his head. "Harry killed himself. He wrote it down. 'In football, you have to be in front of the ball before you can be behind it. For me, I was stuck in front of it for months. And today, it finally just hit. I didn't catch it or push it away. I just let it punch me in the face and knock me down. I didn't give a shit. Because of this, I have decided to leave. My body has failed me, and I can no longer do the things that I love. I cannot play football or take a walk with the love of my life. I can't make love to him. What's the point anymore? I'm just a burden to everyone around me. Niall deserves to be happy, and dear god, I love him enough to know he deserves better than me. He deserves all the love and happiness the world can carry. He deserves it all.

"'Niall, if you are reading this, I love you. Please live on. Please find happiness again. My angel, my beautiful angel, I am so sorry. Please forgive me, my love. Live on and be happy. Don't give up the way I did. You are so much stronger than I am or ever was. I love you so much, angel. So god damn much, my beautiful angel. -H'" The officer finished reading Harry's journal entry, everyone in the room having gone silent to listen.

"Jesus." The officer who had been knelt down next to Niall breathed out, rubbing his hand over his mouth. "That's fucking insane."

The other officer flipped the page over, ever so gently, sighing as he saw the drops of blood and dried tears splattered across the messy handwritten filled page. "This one is a different handwriting." He mumbled and glanced over at Niall then looked back down at the journal.

"'Harry, why? Why would you leave me? Why would you leave me alone in this world? There is no point in living in a world where you do not exist. You are everything to me, Harry Styles. So no, I will not live on. I will not live without you. I couldn't possibly live without the one person that ever gave my life meaning.

"'To whoever may be reading this, you're probably thinking 'oh, that's so cliché. They're like Romeo and Juliet.' But that is not true. Harry and I were truly in love. I love Harry so dearly, and if you think I killed him then you are an idiot. I would never, ever harm Harry. He was the love of my life, and my entire world. And when I saw him, I screamed and I cried and I was so hurt. I hated him, but then I realized he was free. And I was happy for him, but I still didn't want to live without him in any way. What I saw was just a body.

"'This was just Harry's body - a shell, if you will. Harry was gone, far away and safe from the pain and suffering the shell was torturing him with. Horrible memory, failed legs, an inability to do what his soul loved - what he loved. Harry is better off this way, as much as I hate to admit it. It sounds awful to say about the person you love more than anything, but Harry wasn't happy here. He kept going as long as he could, probably for my own sake rather than his.

"'When I saw him, he had this expression of sorts that looked almost of a mixture of satisfaction and sadness. I knew the reasons for both, but I don't need to explain it to whoever is reading this. You can probably guess though, maybe.

"'So, I guess this is it. I apologize to my parents, and my friends - the ones that were supportive and always there for me. I apologize to Harry, for not somehow making him happier. Happy enough to not leave me. I wish he would have let me help, talked to me. I will always love you, Harry. And I love you, mom and dad. Luke and Liam, I love you. Even Zayn and Lauren, I love you. Vanessa, I love you. I apologize to all of you.

"'This is it. -Niall'" The officer finished the reading, clearing his throat as he closed the leather journal.

Almost everyone in the room bowed their heads down, a few sniffling or blinking quickly to rid their eyes of the tears that had developed.

"I'll give this to the two boys outside." The officer said and carefully held the book as he walked out of the room and through the hall, time almost seeming to move in slow motion.

A/N

So this is it. Thank you all so much for reading, voting, and commenting. A big thank you to those who have been reading since the very beginning. I've had such a fun time writing this story, and it's so amazing to see how many people actually like it. You guys have been so fantastic.

I thank every single one of you for reading this story, and I will forever appreciate it.

This is not the end of my stories, though. I have begun working on a few different fics, so follow me if you want to know when those get posted. (Or don't that's okay too.)

Anyway, another big thank you to everyone. I love you all so much.

Also, please leave comment(s) about what you thought about the ending and/or the entire fic as a whole. I would really love the feedback.

p.s. I have been nominated into the upcoming bromance awards, which is super exciting and I'm super happy about it. The next awards will be in either November or December, so follow BromanceAwards to know when they post that. And please, please vote for The Quarterback to win during the awards. That would be so, so, so amazing.

Okay, thank you all so much. I love you guys for reading my fic. I honestly can't believe I have over 40k reads. I never thought I would get that many.