Innocence

Chapter #9

“Ready to get up and explain?” Charlie whispered into Harry’s ear, his cold breath hitting Harry like a tidal wave. He had been crying for the past fifteen minutes or so, as he was being told at least. His bum hurt, for whatever reason he couldn’t identify, and so did his pounding head but most importantly, his heart.

And then there was poor Niall, doing the same as Harry in the backseat of Anne’s navy minivan: pouring their hearts emotions through the only way they’ve ever known, and that was to cry alone with nothing to hold onto. Harry shook his head vigorously, his head pounding harder against his skull as he thought more and more about Niall. “I-I’ll never b-be ready t-to face him.” Harry chuckled, what a stupid question to ask.

Charlie, with his ever-so brolic and strong arms, began to drag Harry up from the undergrowth beside the highway in a sinch and brought him face-to-face with the stars above. Harry glanced at them and identified ever so quickly which one he chose to be Niall; the brightest one. Also, the one that will guide me home. Little did Harry know, Niall decided to call the very same star Harry.

The two shuffled over, well, Charlie strided over and Harry gave little to no response when Charlie nudged him to walk faster. Once they finally reached the car, Harry slammed the car door in the backseat while Charlie stole shotgun from him. Bastard.

Harry glanced outside of the window, sniffling every couple seconds. He spoke with a slight crack in his voice, “So, uh, I’m guessing you want me to explain huh, Charlie?” He nodded with a slight frown on his face, and Harry could only assume he knew that a depressing-ass, sob story was going to flow from Harry’s blubbering mouth like a god damned river. Well, in that case, he’d be right.

“In the beginning of this story, I was kidnapped.” Harry checked to see if Anne was still awake, and, thank god, she wasn’t. He wanted to tell her in private because she was his world. He kind of felt as if to say, “How’s the cancer going? Did you miss me when I was kidnapped?” and watch the world crumble down around him, because that’s just how sad it was.

“I was outside and it was nighttime. I was walking to the local cafe, you know, to do typical college boy stuff: study for exams, write essays, and so on. Anyways, as I was walking through this kind of dangerous neighbourhood, a guy with blue eyes and tousled brown hair came up to me and flirted with me. I mean, that’s what it looked like, of course, until he basically shoved me into his van and dropped me off in his buddies place.

“To say they weren’t very nice to me is a pure understatement. They tortured me in so many ways, most I wouldn’t want to say in front of, uh, Niall here.” Harry smiled a little bit in the most sincere manner he could in Niall’s direction but he was so infused in his story that he didn’t notice Niall with his head suffocated in his clammy palms. Rape, was all Niall thought. They totally raped him.

“Anywho, it was hell in that god damned warehouse. I swear, every time I weighed myself, I lost a couple of pounds, and I checked myself every week. They would use me as their toy, something they could call and I would be their slave to most any demand. I thought I had no hope and, thus, I became the trainwreck called Harry Styles. I used to sneak some of Zayn’s cigarettes and burn a couple of the butts into my flesh to get used to pain. Once they beat me up, it became normal and sort of numbing to me.

“Everything was falling apart for me, and there wasn’t much to begin with. In a couple months, I considered myself suicidal, because I attempted to kill myself several times, using all new methods every time. One day, on September 21, I was told to walk into a grocery store and kill anyone in there. Thankfully, there was only two people in there, a couple. I hauled their bodies back to the warehouse and I was completely shell-shocked. I’d never killed anyone, nor heard the police sirens call my name, and it was all so frightening. The very same day, Niall walked into my life.”