Downfall [Punk Niall Horan]

36

a/n Damon Vixean will of course be played by the one and only Ian Somerhualder. Enjoy. (:

Guilt.

Overwhelming guilt and embarrassment were flooding through me right now that I was around everyone. Now that I was out here in the light, looking at Niall's happy face, I felt extremely guilty. I had no idea what had taken over me, but I wish it wouldn't have.

Niall didn't deserve this, and Luke didn't deserve to be led on. I loved Niall for Christ sakes, yet I was noodling with Luke? Something clearly hazed over my rational thought process, and I had no idea what it was. Niall was happily smiling at me from across the plane, and all I could manage was a disgruntled pull of my lips.

I would tell him later.

It would be bad, very bad. I knew Niall wouldn't take it well because for some reason unknown to me and everyone else, he hated Luke. Niall will probably hate me now, and I hate myself for screwing up whatever we could've been. I'm such an idiot- such a stupid fucking idiot.

Gasps flew around me, and for a moment I thought I might have said it out loud but soon I noticed everyone's gaze was locked on something behind me. Confused, I spun around on my heels and my eyes widened in shock.

My hand fell over my mouth as a relieved breath pushed past my teeth, everything suddenly forgotten for a moment. A small, disbelieving laugh slipped past my lips as a smile took over my face.

"Val?"

Val's skin was still deathly pale, and purple bruises had formed underneath her eyes. Valie's normally thick, blonde hair was slicked back with sweat and looking considerably thinner. It seemed as if tons of weight had dropped off of her in a matter of hours, leaving her bones jutting out awkwardly. She did not look better at all, only worse.

This wasn't the look of someone who was going to live happily until they were 100. This was the look of someone miserable, who had no chance of surviving till her 20s. I swear my heart fractured in my chest, and I almost buckled to my knees sobbing. But I didn't want Val to be sad. At least she was up and moving.

"I've got a massive headache," she grumbled, voice hoarse. Everyone seemed to let out a breath that they had been holding. They probably thought she was going to pass out in the floor, or turn into a Bender right there and then. But she didn't. She was still my Valie, just a sick version of her. And it was tearing me apart to look at my crumbling bestfriend.

"No shit," Calum muttered quietly, sarcastically. I almost didn't pick up on it because Calum almost never spoke. He hasn't said much of anything to me or anyone since the first day I met him. But apparently Calum had a sarcastic side, and it was much appreciated right now.

Brief, tense chuckles sounded around us, and I cautiously walked up to Val. I layed my hand on her wrist and looked into her eyes. "I can get you some aspirin?" I initiated, almost jumping back when I saw the dazzling blue of her eyes were now engulfed by black.

Val stared back at me with something hidden in the depths behind the blackness of her eyes, and she almost looked disappointed at something. She shrugged my hand off her casually and pushed past me easily, breezing down the isle.

I stood staring at the spot she had just vacated, eyebrows furrowed in confusion at her behavior, until I finally decided to turn back around. Everyone seemed to notice her behavior too, for they raised inquisitive eyebrows at her as she passed them.

For a moment my brain fluttered over what everyone had told me about the Bend, created by my father, and what I had witnessed myself. It changes who you are, and it bends your mind until you break your own humanity until you become almost animalistic, wiping all your memories from your life away and replacing them with one word.