Stockholm Syndrome | Larry Stylinson AU

Chapter 9

"I trusted you! I fucking... Trusted...!" Harry woke up with a jolt as he heard Louis' screaming. "How could you? How on earth could you fucking do something like that?"

The answer was too soft for Harry to hear. He was fully awake now though, listening closely to the conversation going on just outside of his door. "You could've at least left me out of this bullshit. How am I now... Fuck you. Just.. Just fuck you."

Suddenly Harry realised Louis had been talking on the phone and was now coming in. He didn't even have the chance to pretend he was still sleeping and hadn't heard, but when Louis turned on the light he saw that Louis didn't need him to. Louis locked the door behind him and put the key in his pocket, stomping towards Harry.

He wasn't sure what Louis was going to do to him, being as upset as he was, and he had expected a lot, but the last thing he had thought would happen was that Louis fell down on the mattress, crawled into Harry's lap, and cried.

Harry patted Louis' head, feeling a bit awkward. What was going on exactly? After what seemed like an hour to Harry but was probably more like a couple of minutes, Louis sat up and dried his eyes, wiping his nose on his own shirt.

"I was just," Louis started to mumble. "I was just going to sur.. surprise him when I suddenly saw that he... he was with this... this guy," he said through his sobs. "And at fi... first I thought it was ju... just another business partner or whatever but then... then I saw... saw.. them kiss..." Louis' sobbing worsened and he couldn't talk for a few seconds.

"Shhh," Harry said as he rubbed Louis on his back. "Shhhhh. Breathe Louis, breathe. Shhhh." Louis calmed down a bit and continued his story.

"I didn't know the guy, but I did see he had this.. green arm, like, first I thought it was just a sleeve or some weird lightning or whatever but then I saw it was this green tattoo, and I just... I don't know, it was a guy, and they were kissing, and I just felt so betrayed..." Louis curled up as a ball on the dirty mattress and Harry continued to stroke his back.

"How could I ever be so stupid? Like how could I ever be just so..." Louis hiccupped. "How could I not notice this? Apparently it has been going on for quite some time already and I just.."

Harry felt sorry for the boy. Although he had no idea why, Louis did really seemed to care for Curt. It drove him mad to see Louis like this. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve someone like Curt. He should have someone... Someone better. Someone who actually cared about him and about how he felt, someone who actually gave a shit about what Louis' opinion was on things. Not someone like Curt, who merely used Louis as some eye candy or whatever. As something nice to fuck every once in a while. His hand balled up to a fist at that thought as he looked at Louis and Harry felt his heart ache for him. This was wrong, so, so wrong. How could anyone do something like that? How could anyone just... Betray someone's trust like this? He didn't get it.

"Shhhhh," Harry said again as he stroked Louis' back, at loss for something better to say. "Shhhh Louis, it will be okay, you will be okay. He didn't even deserve you in the first place."

"Don't say that!" Louis said and he burst out crying again. "Don't say something like that. Curt was so good for me, always, so good. He saved me Harry, you have no idea what my life was like before I met him. He saved me."

Harry shook his head in disbelief. Yeah, he had an idea how Louis' life had been before. Probably poor, but okay. Probably filled with school stuff, studying, taking care of siblings at home, maybe. At least it had been drugs and violence-free. At least if he hadn't met Curt, he wouldn't be here right now, in the middle of a kidnapping. Maybe neither of them would've been here.