Vanished | N.H

One | Bravery comes at a cost

Anna's POV

"Come on.. Where are you, you son of a bitch." I mutter to myself as I cautiously walk through the dark house with my gun and flash light held up in front of me.

My feet slowly come into contact with the wooden floor as silence continues to fill the house. I know he's here, all the evidence leads to this estate -- all the months of me studying this sick bastard, all the time of looking over his past kills, leads up to this moment. I can finally bring him to justice and make the streets a little more safer. In this case, a lot more.

"Kent, you there?" I heard Niall say into my ear piece, my eyes still scan around as I turn my gun into corners I pass.

"Yeah, so far." I mutter to him.

"You find anything yet? Any bodies? Blood?" I could hear the anxiousness in his voice rising.

I shook my head, "No, not yet." I moved my gun to a room securing it, seeing that its also empty. "But he's here. I know it." I moved down the hallway, "He's just hiding. Like the coward he is." I said a little louder then necessary, but honestly, I hope he heard it.

I heard Niall heave a sigh over the speaker, "This isn't a good idea." he grumbled, I could imagined him running his hand over his face and through his blond hair. "I should be with you in there, the last thing you should be is alone," he paused, "I'm calling in for back up."

"No," I said sternly, practically stopping in my tracks. "Niall, you and I both know thats out of the question. Im not even supposed to be here right now -- if the chief finds out I went against him, my ass as well as yours is on the line. For all we know, he could already be gone." I assured, hoping that will make him re- think what he was about to do.

"I can't just sit in this fucking car waiting for you to get yourself killed!" he exclaimed, I heard him strike the wheel in frustration as he said it, I made Niall stay behind in case he tried to escape, if anything happened to me, Niall could cut him off before he could run for it. It took a lot of convincing to make him stay, I knew it was hard for him to let me go in this alone. We were partners after all.

"I can handle myself--" I tried to defend.

"This is a serial killer, Anna! For 2 years this fucker has covered his tracks perfectly, he has always been one step ahead, and always has a plan A, B all the way to fucking Z! If I call in now, they can get a SWAT team here in 10 minutes flat." he tried to persuade.

I shook my head, stopping in the hallway, "No! By the time the SWAT team gets here -- he's going to be gone, we can't risk it!"

"Well I'm not going to risk you!" he yelled into the speaker, and there was a short silence. I was afraid he was going to try to go further with that statement, I only hoped he wouldn't. If he confessed some kind of feelings he had for me, which I knew he had, our partnership would have to end.

I shut my eyes sighing to myself, I ran my hands through my red locks. "Niall.. this is our job we are talking about--"

"Do you think I give a shit about that right now?" I could hear disbelief in his tone, "Your life is far more important than this god damn job, it was hard enough letting you go in there by yourself. And if you're not gonna let me call in for back up, then I'm coming in." I heard a car door open and a cock of a gun.

"Niall, please just listen--" I begged.

"No, you listen!" he barked, and I shut my mouth, "I get it Anna, really, you want to be the hero, you want to stop this fucker from taking another innocent life, I feel the same damn way, but if you stay in there alone, you're going to be the next life he takes. And I'm not goin' to sit back and let it happen." I heard him jogging from the speaker and his uneven breath. I shut my eyes for a moment.

"We're partners, we stick together, we look after each other. I wouldn't be doing my part if I let you do this alone." he explained, a more gentleness to his tone.

I sighed, leaning against a wall in the dark hallway, letting his words seep in. As much as I didn't want to admit it, he was right. Even if I wanted to do this on my own, having a partner was to ensure that doesn't happen. I trusted Niall with my life, as he trusted me with his. "Alright," I muttered quietly, "You clear the downstairs, I'll go up."

"Just be careful." he advised to me, as I found my way to the stairs hearing his creaking steps come into the house.

"You too." I whispered, my gun at the ready as my feet descended up each step.

I peaked my head over the edge of the wall, my eyes scanning the hallways perimeter. I took a small breath, starting to move along the wall steadily.

"See anything?" Niall questions into the speaker, and I shook my head but remembered he couldn't see me.

"That's a negative," I answered, peering into each room with my gun leveled. "what about you? Hows your end?"

"Clear so far, but I got a bad feeling." Niall murmers lowly, I chew my bottom lip nervously -- I hate to admit it, but I felt the same way. It felt like we were treading on string that was about to snap any second, a string that was about to be severed from the very man that was possibly somewhere in this house. No, he was in here, I knew it. And we would find him.

He wasn't going to hurt anyone else.

I heard a creak, and I whipped around to see one of the doors down the hall opening slowly. My gun was still up, my flashlight moving around the darkness. I squinted my eyes at the door, seeing no more movement. He was in there, and he was taunting me. Smug son of a bitch.

"Niall, theres movement up here." I informed, "It's the last door down the hall on the left, I'm going in." I say, starting to slowly walk down the hall with determination set in my features.

I didn't hear anything back, furrowing my eyebrows, "Niall?" I muttered quietly again, "Horan, do you copy?"

Silence.

"Niall?" I tapped my earpiece, not hearing the static or anything at all -- the signal was dead. I assumed his battery on his ear piece must have died, not the first time that's happened. He tends to forget to charge it after constant use. "Dammit," I cursed, clicking mine off and placing my hand firmly on the gun with my flashlight still up. I debated on falling back, and going to find Niall -- going in there alone would be incredibly stupid and Niall would kill me for it. But I couldn't let this guy get away.

So I still moved forward carefully, my heart pounding louder and louder the closer I became. I eased to the corner of the door, counting to three before whipping out to the room my gun up with my flashlight. My eyes peered around, not seeing him anywhere near the doorway -- which meant I had to go in. I took a slow breath, treading into the bedroom.

As soon as I was far enough in the door shut behind me, and I turned around ready to face him but saw no one. Instead I saw a string leading around the door on the doorknob, attached to the doorknob of the closet - which meant someone had to trigger the closet door for the regular door to close. Like a chain reaction.

I could feel a presence behind me, his distinct fowl smell was lingering -- I swallowed slowly to stop the trembling and before I could whip around again I felt a sharp zap to the back of my neck. I gasped as the electrocution stung up and down my spine, until it faded and I was falling to the floor with my gun, my flashlight rolling away from me to his combat boots.

I tried to keep my eyes open, his dark siloughette towering over my paralyzed body. His shoulders shook from his deep chuckle, "Not so brave now, are we agent Kent?" he teased, while my eyes rolled to the back of my head.

+

A/N: Short story for you guys, should be real quick :) i always wanted to do a fbi niall au so this is really exciting, and i actually started this a long time ago but recently found inspiration to start it up again. I hope you all like it, let me know what you think! x