Shattered [Niall Horan]

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

// Catherine

I didn’t care about the breathless pants that were escaping me, nor did the burning, toxic ache in my knees hold any significance. My knees were screaming at me to stop, almost begging to be freed, but my brain needed my feet to keep stomping against that cold hard concrete for as long as it wished. The otherwise comforting breeze was now cruelly smashing into my face, prickling at my eyes, so my tear glands could be further activated. All I knew was that I was running. I was running faster than I ever had, but I didn’t know where to.

“Cath, where are you going?!”

It was that one of the many yells that had been coming my way for some time now, that I realised I didn’t have a destination. I didn’t know where I was going to. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have a purpose to look up to, or a life with a meaning behind it.

I had nothing.

A mild smack sounded against the concrete, a new burn adding to my knee, maybe due to the scraping of my skin against the rough exterior, as I found myself sat against the road surface. Some sort of a support, maybe an arm, was placed against the back of my neck, as my head welcomingly wilted backwards into it. The sense of something cradling me from underneath my thighs was faint, as I no longer felt the hard exterior against my bottom, just the lightly flowing wind that had been punching me in the face only minutes ago.

I guessed something was carrying me; maybe it was just the weight of my hollowness lifting me up in the air and setting me afloat, but whatever it was, it was allowing me freedom from the emptiness itself and having me fall into a dreamless and undisturbed slumber, so why should I object of it?

---

An utterly, almost annoyingly soft pillow was rested underneath my head, a silky fabric sliding past my arms as I stirred them, and the next thing I knew – I wasn’t resting my head on my pillow, nor was that glossy bed sheet mine.

Feeling my eyes pop open, my back was immediate to shoot up, briskly placing me into an upright sitting position.

“Hey hey, relax, it’s just me,” The sound of the voice was completely familiar, somewhat soothing, as I rotated a little to face the brown-haired guy walking up to me from across the room. Placing his coffee mug onto bed-stand, he grabbed another identical one, before holding it out to me. A tiny smile was painted across his lips, as I took in the intense aroma of coffee beans emitted off the hot beverage, before finally wrapping my palms around the warm porcelain and allowing myself a taste of it.

“Tastes alright?” He inquired, placing himself a good few inches away from me on the bed.