Downfall [Punk Niall Horan]

3

** CANDICE ACCOLA OFF OF THE VAMPIRE DIARIES PLAYS VAL **

Blindly, my feet carried me down the disastrous strip of pavement I used to call a street. Debris littered the road beneath me if you would even call it a road anymore, and I don't know how, but my feet led me through the looming mess. It felt as if my eyebrows had gotten singed off of my forehead along with every other hair on my body. So many lifeless bodies were scattered around me with loved ones crying over them, and I rapidly blinked my eyes to try to wipe the horrible images away. My stomach churned while bile rose in my scratchy throat, and I stumbled over to a rusted trash can just before I could empty that Popsicle I ate earlier. Wiping my mouth with my vision teetering in and out, I looked around again viciously, turning everywhere to look for my lost bestfriend.

But still no Val.

I could only hope she had managed to get away before the explosion went off. After all, I don't remember seeing her by me when the building went up into a huge, disastrous flame. That guy that bumped into me only made me curious as to why he was sprinting away so fast, did he know that this was going to happen? Did he set the bomb off? Thinking about it just gave me chills, thinking about the way he stared lifelessly at me from behind his sunglasses.

Thinking back to that strange man it suddenly dawned on me that Val wasn't there when that happened, either. I was blinded by my momentary anger for the rude, suspicious man and I had lost Valie in the few short moments. What are the chances he ran away right before the explosion, to be unharmed? And that Valie was not there with me for any of it? Did the stranger just distract me so that someone else could swoop in and take Valie? The thought alone made me want to hurl again.

It was all too suspicious for me, which made me wonder even more where she had gone or who had taken her. Multiple questions formed in my head as I fumbled down the street, trying my best to avoid the chaos. When had I lost Val? Where was she when the explosion went off? Did she go into a store?

Did she die?

Another round of bile rose up in my throat at the possibility of my best friend being gone forever just like Harry. No, there was no way that could possibly be true because she wasn't even anywhere close to the explosion. Valie was nowhere around me when it went off, so there was no way she was dead. She couldn't be.

The nagging feeling in my gut didn't seem to fade though, and I didn't think it would anytime soon until I knew Valie was completely safe again. Things were all so confusing and terrifying at the same time, making my limbs shake with fear. Why did they choose to blow up this building that was right beside me and a ton of people, and who would do this? Nothing like this had ever happened before because this was absolutely the safest city in the world. Why do this horrible act now?

The men in the sunglasses swam in my head and my whole being was gravitating towards that conspiracy. But if it had been them, why would one shield me and keep me safe? Attackers, or terrorists, goals are to kill people and destroy things and people's lives, nothing else. Never would they save someone's life when their goal was to take it away from them. That preposterous idea never seemed to fade away, though as I kept walking away from the gruesome sight. Could they have saved me because I was the President's daughter, and they had an even more awful plan to execute on me later?

Police men shouldered pass me, and even though I could hear again, everything seemed drowned out by the loud monstrosity going on in my mind. News reporters flooded into the streets with their cars and cameras, and I found it sickening that this was what they lived for. They lived to capture death, tragedies, and false accusations. People were cruel, there was no denying that. It was a horrible, ugly truth that was straight in front of our own faces.