Undressed Harry Styles Fanfic

Chapter 1: Broken wings

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

"It's another six am as he stumbles in again, and my mother cries "Don't wake the children!" Through the tears I can hear him say, didn't have much luck today but he really knows he just threw it away. He finds the answers at the bottom of a bottle and his life is always fully on the throttle and he's slowly turning out like his father. And he knows that he's no hero."

Like every night before I find myself in the same dark and cold corner of my childhood home, wrapping my arms around my knees as the tears stream down my cheeks. The sound of glass breaking and my parents screaming filling my hearing as I try to calm my hysterical sobbing, feeling entirely alone and caught in a web that I just cannot escape from. Loud footsteps echo through the now extremely silent house. I knew what I was in for now, I knew exactly what was going to happen, I knew the pain that was going to come. My tears started to fall faster as I pictured what he was going to do to me, thinking of the bruises that I was going to have to hide, yet again.

"Stop!" I hear my mom shout, her voice loud yet still frightened

"Put that down, Elaine!" My dad shouts, I furrow my eyebrows, slowly crawling towards the door, curiosity getting the better of me.

"You will not hurt my daughter again!" she shouts, her voice more confident. A loud bang echoes through the house, and then everything falls silent. My limbs locking in place as I stare out into the hallway, blood gushing from my dad's open wound.

I gasp for air as I jolt upright in my bed, tears staining my cheeks as I throw my arms around myself in an attempt to stop the hurt and regulate my harsh and uncontrollable breathing. The light suddenly flickers on but my eyes remain on the cupboard in front of my bed, the heartache burning through my veins.

"Hey?" An arm snakes around my shaking body, a hand rubbing soothing circles on my back.

"Was it another nightmare?" Claire questions, words fail to form in my mouth and I can do nothing but nod as tears still continue to fall down my cheeks. She pulls me closer to her chest, knowing not to push the subject. She knew from the beginning when we moved in together that the night mares weren't something that I felt comfortable talking about. I could never tell anyone what happened that night; I couldn't muster the words that would make it sound like a normal event. "Oh, my mother killed my father and now she's spending the rest of her life behind bars because she wanted to protect me from his brutal beatings." It wasn't an easy topic to just work into a normal conversation. Claire pulls me away from the hug and forces me to look into her eyes. I was never comfortable with anyone seeing me cry, in my eyes that was a sign of weakness and I never wanted to be that weak girl that could never stand up for herself that would just be walked over.

"I'm going to turn the light off and we're going to get some sleep and if those nightmares so much as try to disrupt your sleep then I'll show they a thing or two." She smiles sweetly, gripping the top of my shoulders and I find it difficult not to reciprocate her warm tug-on-your-heartstrings smile. I nod as I lay down in my warm bed. She tugs the covers over my shoulders. My eyes starting to burn as soon as the bright light is switched off, sleep slowly but surely taking over my senses.

***

The cold winter air slightly stings my skin as I pull my pea coat tighter around my body, cursing myself for not layering more clothes under my coat. My grip tightens around the strap of my sling bag. The dark skies slowly laminating the closer I get to the coffee shop that is my fuel stop for mornings I struggle to get up and the dark circles under my eyes become more difficult to hide.

"Ana, wait up!" a voice shouts behind me, a voice I was so desperately trying to avoid, my dear friend Meagan.

"Ana, Jesus, stop speed walking!" she giggles annoyingly as she catches up to my fast pace.