Falling

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Hello! :D This is the last chapter before the epilogue which will be up tomorrow v_v we're sure going to miss it! And, just thanks for reading and saying that everything's amazing and yeah, thank you so much <3 Here's chapter 27! Comments are always welcome c: 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

(ZAYN POV)

I woke up the next morning with a sense of finality, a sense that everything was going to be over in just a matter of hours. We had decided not to put things off any longer. 'We' was referring to Niall, Jordan, Harry and me. All of them felt that there was no time better than the present to take action, and I had agreed. Except at that point in time of the discussion, the present had been a little too late in the day for our liking, so we had decided to do it the next day.

Regardless of how it ended, it would be a closure nonetheless, and everyone would be glad for it.

I thought back to the conversation yesterday, and couldn't help but think it was true, and Niall was right, we could just have called the police on Clark. But somehow it felt more humane to give him a chance to explain things. Innocent unless proven guilty, right?

But to be honest, he was already guilty, no? Harry and I had witnessed everything he’d done first-hand, and we knew what he wanted, regardless of his motives.

It was ironic, considering how he never gave Niall a chance to explain or prove anything before handing him the death sentence.

I just felt so bad for Niall, that the poor guy had been dragged into such a situation without being aware of it at all. And yet he handled everything so well, it was commendable on his part. If it was me in the same situation, well, let’s just say things would've gotten ugly. I didn't think I was the calmest, most forgiving person in the world. Put me next to Niall and I probably looked like a monster.

Jordan would be able to fix the whole situation, though. Or at least I prayed that he could, anyway. Harry, Niall and Jordan were supposed to be going with me to Clark Industries in about half an hour, as the clock on the wall indicated. I rubbed at my eyes sleepily. The hour hand was way too low down on the clock for my liking, and I couldn't say that these early mornings were actually doing me any good at all. I needed my sleep.

~*~
"How are we actually going to proceed about doing this?" Jordan asked, as we made our way to the tall office building that was Clark Industries.

Niall looked at him as if he was crazy. How would anyone know? "I don't know, man, why are you asking me? I'm not his son..." At this, I gave him a look, as if to say, 'well you're really sensitive to others' feelings, aren't you?', and then he hastily added, "I mean, well, I guess you could go talk to him and try to explain...?"

It felt like we were all walking in blind, with no idea what to do at all. It was stupid, really, how big of a fuss we were making of this whole scenario, and I knew I had had the thought many times, but it still popped into my head again: we're overreacting, aren't we?

The whole time, Harry had stayed silent, and I was actually afraid something was wrong with him. “Are you alright, Harry?” I asked, falling back from the group to walk beside him as Niall and Jordan lapsed into easy conversation a few steps ahead. “You and Louis made up yesterday, right? I mean…I didn’t ruin it all, right?”

Harry shook his head quickly, alleviating my worries. “I just…I don’t really know what we’re all doing. And it just feels like all this while, my life, your life, Louis’ life, everyone’s lives,” he gestured to Niall and Jordan in front of us, “has been…dominated, so to speak, by this problem.” 

I nodded in agreement, and sighed.

He was right. It was going to feel really odd going back to normal life. I didn’t really have one, at the moment. I’d spent all my life working for the bad guys and doing their dirty work. Now I knew I didn’t want to go back to that. I had no idea what I was going to do at all.