Downfall [Punk Niall Horan]

57

NIALL'S POV

I remember the first time I had ever seen Tylie.

It was after one of my training sessions with Jim when I had heard a beautiful song being sang by the most beautiful voice that I had ever been blessed to hear. I was sixteen at the time, and I didn't know it then but Tylie was ten.

I had made it to the Garden where the tune was coming from and when I realized who it was I hid myself behind a pillar. Jim had warned the other men that if they tried in any way to harm his daughter that he would kill them. Maybe this was the first time I had ever gotten a hit of pure adrenaline.

Maybe it was the danger that drug me towards her.

I peered through the cracks and spotted the most beautiful creature I had ever spotted in my entire life, when I saw her it was like starbursts of colors were dropped off like bombs in my grey world. Just like that, at the first sight and sound of her, Tylie Brooke Owens lit up my world in the most extravagant way possible and I would never be the same after seeing her.

All I knew at that point was that I didn't even know this girl at all, but I had to know her. I didn't know how old she was but something in her face told me that a horrible event had aged her, and she seemed very wise for however old she was. I was mesmerized as as she twirled around and sang like nobody was watching, and I took in how the flowers seemed to dance along with her.

Tylie was wearing a baby blue dress, getting swallowed up by a swirl of lace and bare feet. Her naturally curly, brown hair floated around her, and as it seemed her feet floated off of the cobblestone ground. A handmade (quite poorly made) flower crown adjourned her braids that circled the top of her head, but it was still the most beautiful crown I had ever been blessed to look upon.

She held a bouquet of red roses, and it had me left in awe at how well it contrasted with the blue of the dress, and the natural pink of her lips and cheeks. When she turned up and flashed her gorgeous hazel eyes up to the sun with a smile, I could've sworn the sunshine revealed galaxies hidden within her eyes. I remembered my heart beating wildly in my chest, beating out towards the goddess-like human in front of me.

But as much light as she had brought into my harsh world those few minutes, it diminished as something internal hit her in the stomach like a sack of bricks. A single tear glistened down her cheek, Tylie had stopped mid stride and in the middle of a high note. Her eyes traveled somewhere else in the infinite space she held within them, and the bouquet of flowers fell from her hands and crumpled onto the ground.

Her sad lips formed around a single word, "Harry". I had no idea who he was at the time, or what happened to him that made her so sad. Never in my life had I felt so much pain before, not even when my ass of a Step-Dad busted a Vodka bottle against my head. Without even realizing, I had dropped to my knees right there behind that pillar. Tylie gasped and turned straight towards me, locking eyes with me through the giant pillar.

"Who's there?" She asked firmly, all though there were tears still streaking her cheeks. That was the moment I knew I would have respect for this strong woman forever. I wanted to pick those flowers up and go to dance and sing with her like everything was okay, but I couldn't. She was the purest soul I had ever gotten the pleasure to lay my eyes upon, but she could never be mine for the mere fact that I was a damned soul and I wouldn't take her down with me. And for that reason, I ran.

I always ran.

**********

There was a slight ringing in my ear, and no it was not because of the flare gun just shot at Jim and I. It was because the girl that I loved shot that gun at us knowing that I was in here, knowing that she could hurt me or even possibly fucking kill me. It fucking hurt knowing that she did that to me.