Never Let Me Go

BLOOD

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I can see it in Maura and Bobby's eyes, they won't admit it and their voices sound so sincere and hopeful. But I can see right through them like a half empty glass of water. They are giving up, they are losing the determination. The way the bags under their eyes droop low along their faces, the laugh lines they had fading and turning into aging wrinkles. It's so devastating looking at them, it's depressing really. 

But I'm not giving up, and neither are the boys. We fight night and day, we barely sleep or eat but how can we? Our mate, our brother is out there suffering through every minute of the day. The time may be ticking for him, he may have a gun to his head right now, right this second. He could be getting shot right now and dug into some man-made grave out in the boonies. Deep somewhere where no one will ever find him again. 

No, I can't think about that. That's what will throw me off my game. I need to think about Niall alive, those pale blue eyes and smiling straight rows of teeth. The picture in my head should be him smiling, safe and happy in our arms. A little bruised, a little traumatized. But alive. 

We are going back from where we ended the search yesterday, go by some woods and see if there is anything. Again this will be a full day search, and for me and the boys, a full night also. The police will  nag us, and Niall's parents will insist for us to get some rest. And my mom has been calling me nonstop telling me not to worry too much, or else I'd get sick. 

But I already feel sick, and I'm trying to tell her Niall is my cure, Niall is the medicine I need to make everything better again. And the boys will agree with me. 

My feet are sore, the blisters on the back of my ankles hurt, but nothing will stop me. 

Always searching, 

Zayn Malik

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It was pure silence throughout the car ride to the last place they had stopped looking. Everyone had their phones out, scrolling through twitter. Hashtags praying for Niall and his family have been trending ever since the blond had been announced missing. It was one thing that had actually given the boys some sort of happy feeling. But it was still so much pressure knowing the world was on the edge of their seat, waiting for the answers no one had. 

The car jolted to a slow stop, police cars were already in the area, a little parking lot by the woods where there was a pathway into it. When the boys had opened the doors, they all whipped their heads up to look at them, giving them small nods and smiles. 

The detectives, the bosses of the situation, had moved quickly towards them. They normally had no emotions of course, their lips formed in straight lines and their eyes in some permanent detest. 

"Good morning boys, ready for another day? Niall's parents are already looking, had just got into the forest when you pulled up actually. If you catch up you can follow them in. We'll come with you all." One of them said, the boys all nodded silently, moving towards the forest and into the pathway. Immediately they all got blanketed in dull darkness from the tree-tops covering the equally dull skies. It was probably going to rain soon, and that wasn't so good for evidence and clues. 

Maura and Bobby were ahead, they could see their little group a couple meters away, police with them and their dogs as they looked and sent the police dogs to sniff around the bushes. The boys had decided to go at their own pace, all four of them in a line as they searched around the area, squinting into the brush. Louis had taken a stick that had fallen from a tree, taking it and sweeping it over large mounds of leaves or dirt.