Zayn and I looked at each other then at the scared kid. He said his name was Charlie, he had a grey shirt one with a blue flannel over it. His jeans were faded and dirt was on his face. He looked like a kid you would see throwing papers on his bicycle. His eyes were a pale blue. I could see pain and fear in his eyes. It almost killed me to see someone- a kid like this. He had wiped away his tears and managed to say again,
"Hi. I'm Charlie."
I couldn't find the words. The thought processed in my mind. A kid. We had just let this kid in here, I mean, what were we gonna do? Where was his parents? Where did he come from. Can we do this? I snapped out of this thought when Zayn nudged me.
"Hey, we gonna help him?" Zayn whispered to me. I nodded, and tried to gather myself up the best I could. I cleared my throat and began.
"H-Hi, Charlie, I'm Izzy, a-and this is umm my friend Zayn." I said as I tried to smile. Charlie nodded and examined both of us but then slowly put his head down. I was confused, what is he doing? Then his shoulders bounced up and down, then I knew he was crying. It was a faint helpless one. I walked up to him and put my hand on his back. Rubbing it up and down to comfort him. Zayn knelt down to him and said quietly,
"What the matter bud?"
Charlie looked up, the tears were washing the dirt off of his face. His eye's were puffy from all of the crying he had done. He moved his hand up to his face to wipe the tears away.
"I-I-I'm hungry!" he cried out as if he had gotten in trouble. I got up and asked if PB&J was alright, and he agreed. I walked him over to the kitchen and got out the ingredients. Zayn stood in the corner watching me, though he was thinking too. He bit his lip and looked down after I noticed. Charlie sat quietly at the table. Staring at the boarded up windows. The poor baby looked tired. I turned my attention back to the food. I spread the jelly on the bread slice slowly. My eyes and head hurt. I thought maybe a nap after this. After applying the peanut butter, I suddenly felt dizzy. My fingers went numb. I started to panic. I looked up to find a creature running towards me. I SCREAMED and dropped the knife and ran into Zayn. Images of the monster flashed through my mind. I was screaming NO, NO! and HELP ME! I closed my eyes not wanting to see the horrible monster. The thing's face was peeling off, and it jaw was hanging. Blood covering it. It's skin the color of a nasty green pastel. I couldn't hear anything but my own muffled screaming. I was flailing my arms everywhere and kicking. My heart was beating fast. I thought it was going to pop out of my chest it was beating so hard. I was scared. Terrified. I needed help. My hearing cut back in and I heard:
"LOOK AT ME DAMMIT!"
I opened my eyes. I recognized Zayns voice.
"ISABELLA. ITS OKAY!"
My eyes were wide open now.
I felt a tear run down my cheek. It was warm.
Zayn was holding my face. He gave me another hard shake. He screamed something. I think it was my name. I felt super lightheaded. I couldn't move. I was trying. So hard, but nothing happened. My hearing slowly came back and I could hear Zayn now. He was panting hard. Silence. All I could hear was my heart still pounding and our intense breathing. I looked around slowly. Everything was okay. No monster, nothing. I felt more warm and salty tears rolling down my face.
No.
There WAS something wrong. A fucking apocalypse is happening, we got stuck with a kid, and very thing is NOT OKAY.
I backed up fast from Zayns hands. I once again scanned the area slowly. Again, nothing. The monster wasn't there. Wait was I- no. I couldn't have. Was it a hallucination? I started to cry as I thought this. Oh God. No no no no no, please. Zayn slowly approached me like I was an animal going to attack him. He extended his hand out slowly toward me. I looked into his eyes. I felt much safer. I reaced out and took it. He pulled me into his arms and cradled me. He kissed me on my forehead softly. I was past the point of crying but now I was sobbing in his arms. I was trying so hard to hold it back, but couldn't. Come on, I have to be stronger. But the thing was- I wasn't strong.....I was weak...I sobbed harder.
"Zayn, d-d-did I-?" I choked out, but couldn't finish it. He nodded and spoke ever so softly.
"Yeah.." he replied. So I did. I hallucinated. It was crazy, nothing like that ever happened to me. Was I going mad? I looked up at him. Then Charlie came into my thoughts. Crap. I turned to see where he was. There, he was still at the table, sitting. Though more tears were coming, but no weeping. No sound, just tears. He gave me a sorry look then look back down. Zayn stroked my hair.
"It's gonna be okay Izzy. Everything is gonna be okay..." Zayn whispered in my ear.
I repeated his words in my mind. Over and over again. But they couldn't process. They just couldn't. Thought it was because they weren't true.
Truth was:
Everything wasn't going to be okay.
