Framed

Sixteen, Part Three.

Niall and Selena are there, with the blonde Irish boy holding the dart gun in his right hand.

"Don't go to her. She's as good as dead." Niall smirks as he watches the effects of the chemicals take hold on Dinah, her breathing quickly becoming labored as Mani kneels at her side. Lauren, Camila, Ellie, and Zayn step forward, directly confronting the two while Harry joins Mani at Dinah's side.

"M-Mani. You're here." Dinah grimaces as Harry pulls the dart out of her leg, tosses it aside.

"Yeah I am, D. I'm here." Mani says, pushing two fingers into her throat to press out the cracking of her voice. For now, she needed to smile.

"Evidence." Dinah coughs out. "Blonde hair on the footprint. And the video Louis found, there was a missed angle."

"Don't focus on that now, focus on me, okay?" Mani pleaded, squeezing Dinah's hand, dustier than she remembers it.

"Sent it to LaF. Should be good."

"You didn't have to do that, Dinah."

"I love you, you know. I was scared. Didn't say it before." Dinah confessed, referring to the time she had rejected Mani and ran.

"That's okay."

"They sent a letter. Made me choose between me and you." lifting her hand, Dinah gestured at the blond boy and Selena, facing off with their friends. They looked to be in some sort of conversation, but Lauren had a hand in her pocket, holding her Swiss Army Knife for some semblance of courage.

"They made you leave." Mani realized, tears coming to her eyes. She didn't realize that the letter was there until Dinah was sliding it into her hand. She did so cautiously as if she didn't want to inflict a paper cut, although she looked at Mani's eyes the entire time she did so.

Dinah nodded slowly, then coughed again. "I chose you. And I left. Sent the letter to Ellie once I knew - that they weren't tracking me."

Her eyes were focused solely on Mani's face, honing on every detail, as if the picture her memory draws is the only thing she can take with her once she goes.

"I'm sorry, Mani." Dinah wheezed out, breaths becoming more rapid as she struggled to say each word.

"You don't have to be sorry."

"No, I am. I wasted the time I had with you." Dinah says. "I could have had you. Even if it was for just a few moments. But in the small amount of time I had with you, you've given me forever."

"Dinah don't you fucking say that, like you're going to die." Mani said, squeezing Dinah's hand tightly, to try to make up for the fact that Dinah's grip on her hand was loosening as she fell unconscious, her breathing still rapid.

-

"I'm surprised she lasted that long." Niall says aloud with a chuckle, as Lauren's hand is still in her pocket, perhaps just waiting for the right moment. "She was supposed to last for one minute, max. She must have had some things that she really wanted to say."

"You're a fucking monster, Horan." Camila spits out.

"You never said that when we first met." he's smiling now, eyes taking on the unsettling appearance that they had in his videos that he made for Camila, stored in a box in his car, under the front seat. "You thought I was nice."

"Until you killed five people."

"Going to be six, soon." Selena mentions, but unlike Niall there is no smile on her face.

Looking at the body language of the two people, you would never expect that they would be working together on anything, lest a series of murders. Niall was deathly calm, the only thing that exposed his inner thought process was the look in his eyes, a mix of anticipation, glee, satisfaction, and obsession. Selena, however, wasn't as calm. Her hands were patting at the edges of the pockets of her jeans, there were pine needles in her hair, and all her eyes showed was fear, as she took effort to breathe at a slower pace.

"How could you do this?" Lauren tells her, striding up to where Selena stood. "HOW COULD YOU FUCKING DO THIS? Ari is dead. Dinah is laying there fighting for her life. How can you live with yourself, how can you fucking sleep at night?"

"It's simple, her loyalties lay somewhere else." Niall smirked, although he stepped away from Selena, tightening his grip on the gun as Lauren tried to smack Selena, who dodged.

"Considering who has the weapon," Now Niall was switching the gun from hand to hand, in a careless manner. "I wouldn't think of that as advisable."

The early winter weather air was growing thicker now, the snow becoming heavy, as if poofs of shortening were falling from the sky, instead of frozen water. The snow flurried around them now, small tornadoes of snowflakes rampaging through the hair of everyone who was there.

"Why, Niall." Lauren watched as Camila spoke, and wondered if the tears falling down her face would freeze, too. "Why would you do this?"

"I did it for you!" his first outburst, his arm gesturing violently.

"That's the worst thing you've said so far." Camila told him.

"You didn't approach me when it was the first day of school. Even though you knew I was there. I told you that you could. We spent three days together this summer. The best days of my life. Then I see you in her - her arms." his hand waves towards Lauren. "I had to do something about it. But before I could off her, I noticed Austin eyeing you, and I heard about what he said to you. When Jauregui punched him - well, that made my job all too easy. I've heard the term called killing two birds with one stone, but I never knew what it meant until that day, putting the powder into his drinks after practice."

"Go to hell, both of you." Zayn says, not noticing that Ellie has wandered off, blending herself into the trees to make her location unknown.

Then sobs erupt behind them.

Mani and Harry are bent over Dinah, her body - her body - laying there on the ground, snow starting to fall on her. Harry has his ear pressed against Dinah's chest, and Mani is on her knees, peering down at Dinah's face, looking for some movement. Harry listens for a heartbeat for a little bit longer, and breaks into tears.

"She's gone." Mani cries out. "She's dead."

-

A/N: sorry @ everyone 

also kudos to calling-camren for giving me the idea for some of Dinah's last words back in like, May of 2017. It was supposed to be for an angst fic but oop!

Also, please do give her book, Growing Love, a read! It's almost at 50k and she deserves to hit that mark, cause i love her book so damn much (its fluffy!)