✓ dark blue -h.s. au- short story

7 "baby, let it out."

H A R R Y

Everything feels like it's falling apart. Harry feels different somehow, have been laying on one of Liam's spare beds for hours now.

Everything feels like it's falling apart but then Liam walks into the bedroom holding a crumpled figure and it takes him a moment to realize it's Cecily.

His immediate reaction is to the reach for her. When she's close enough, his digits tie around her wrists, hoping not to find a fresh wound. He's thankful when he doesn't, then looks up at Liam.

"What happened to her?"

"I don't- I don't know what happened. She was outside and- and she was passed out. I don't know what happened."

He tears off the covers but Liam signals him to stay where he is, dropping her cold body beside his warm one. She even shivers in her sleep. Or maybe she's shaking. It's hard to tell.

But something catches his eye when she turns. His eyes widen at the sight of bloodied water falling from her left ear. Her eyes are shut but her lips are blue, and when she moves toward him, he feels like wrapping his arms around her to try to warm her.

There's this incessant throbbing in his chest where his heart should be. It feels like his ribs are breaking with the weight of blows caused by the sight of her hurting.

He gets up properly from the bed and moves over to her side, kneeling and pressing a finger to the crimson. "Fucking shit, Cil," he breathes.

She begins to shiver and his hands find a way under her shirt, feeling the sappy, cold skin of her stomach. Harry shakes his head and tries to nudge her wake. All she does is shake, her mouth parting.

He realizes she's choking on water that shouldn't be there. Too much of it is being coughed out of her and he switches on the light, now panicked. His head begins to hurt all over again.

Harry tries to shake the anxiety eating at his chest away, tries to focus on the drowning beauty. He's trying to wake her up now. He lifts her up so she doesn't choke, and pats her back.

Her shirt is lifted and he eyes a new mark on her lower back. There are finger prints on the small of her back. Small, dainty fingerprints lined with an agitated blue. It looks like someone had been trying to grab her, like someone was digging their fingers to try to get her to move.

The prints don't match those of his own fingers. She couldn't have possibly done it to herself. "Cecily, baby. Baby, let it out."

I think I have water in my ears.

Her words shock him. It stings his skin and goes straight to his heart. He pushes his hair back and then winces when his finger presses against something in the back of his head.

I just have a fear of water, I guess.

Why?

I don't know, actually. It just scares me, I'm sorry. You can go in, though.

He pulls away and looks down at his hand, his fingers now coated in a thin sheet of his own blood.

Hey, it's fine. We can uh, we can just sit right here.

His wheezing girlfriend finally stops moving. She falls still against his hand, her whole outfit completely soaked in water. Her skin looks really pale and blue at the same time.

Harry realizes with horror that she's not moving.

"Cecily?"

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