Beyond (Niall Horan) (COMPLETED)

Chapter Fifteen

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Mariana's POV

I feel Dad lift me up and, as I groan in pain again, he mutters, "Don't worry Mariana. We'll go to the hospital and get you checked out."

At his words, I panicked. Hospital?! He was taking me to the hospital?!

"Dad, I can't go!" I blurt out without even thinking about it. Dad stops in his tracks and looks down at me. Mom and Eric, who were walking behind us, come forward to see what the problem is too.

"What are you talking about Mariana? You're hurt!" Dad exclaims. Mom comes forward and places a worried hand on my forehead.

"She doesn't feel warm," Mom tells my dad as she steps away from the two of us. Eric remains completely silent, quietly viewing the exchange that was taking place.

"I-I can't go," I say again, shaking slightly in my father's arms. The shaking hurts my ankle tremendously and I have to grit my teeth together not to cry out in pain.

"Why not?" Mom asks, a worried tone easily detectable in her voice. She looks down at me with worried eyes and-once again-places her hand on my forehead. It was as if that was the only thing she knew how to do.

Well that...and ask an endless amount of questions.

"H-He needs my help," I tell them. I can't believe that I'm actually coming out with this, but the pain from my ankle is starting to spread around to the rest of my body as well. Thinking about what to do is literally the furthest thing from my mind as I just try not to scream out in pain. It would just freak out my parents even more and I already knew that that couldn't happen.

"Who?" Dad asks, his voice suddenly taking on a more demanding tone, "Are you sneaking a boy into the house Mariana?!"

"No!" I exclaim within a second of him asking the question. I was horrified...hell, I was more than horrified. Why would my dad even think that?!

"Then who is he Mariana?!" Dad demands again, now staring down at me with cold eyes. Mom stays silent throughout this entire ordeal, but as I glance quickly over at her, I see her facial expression is that of worry and slight disappointment.

No...did she think that I was sneaking a boy into the house too?!

"I'm not sneaking anybody into the house!" I exclaim angrily, feeling even more pissed off than I've ever felt in my entire life. "How could you even think that?!"

"What I want to know," Dad spits out, in a voice that is ice cold, "Is who the hell is the 'he' you're talking about?!"

I close my eyes, not believing that I was about to do this. But it was too late now...I had to tell them. My father already didn't trust me and if I didn't answer his question then that would just make him not trust me even more. Hell, he'd probably search the entire house for the 'boy' that he thinks I'm hiding.

"Dad...the 'he' I'm talking about...is Niall," I admit in a soft voice, refusing to look at him. But I don't have to.

In a voice that sounds the most confused I've ever heard them, both my mom and my dad ask, "Who's Niall?"

I sigh again and I'm about to respond to them when, surprising even me, my brother Eric decides to speak up.

"Niall Horan. The boy from the news," he says matter of factly, phrasing it as a statement rather than a question. I nod, surprised that Eric even knows who I was talking about.

But just then, the memory comes back to me. I had looked up the history of the house and Eric was in the room while I was doing so, so I had chosen to read the article out loud for both him and I to hear.

Oh yeah.

"Who's Niall Horan?" Das asks.

He asks it at the same time that Mom asks, "What news?"

Eric sighs as he looks from me to my parents. "Before we moved, Mariana and I did some research on the house. We found an article that talked about a bombing that took place in the house during World War II. Most of the family got out safe, but there was one boy that went missing. And that boy's name was Niall Horan."

My parents are stunned into silence for a few minutes before my Dad looks at me. Slowly, he asks, "You think that there's a...ghost in this house?" He asks. And then I see the realization dawn in his eyes, no doubt as he remembers the times where I slept on the couch downstairs and claimed that there was a ghost in the attic and all those other weird things that I did that made my parents probably start to truly believe that I was crazy.

"She's delusional," Mom says before I have time to get a response out, "It's probably the pain from her ankle affecting her. She's in so much pain that she can't think straight. We need to get her to the hospital now Nick."

Dad nods again and seems to get back on track as he carries me down the stairs to the first floor. Mom and Eric follow us and, just before we exit out the front door (which will ruin my chance of helping Niall), Dad turns around so that he and I are facing Eric.

"Eric, I want you to stay here and watch the house while we're gone," Dad tells Eric, which surprises and horrifies me. What if Eric got hurt too?!

But before I can warn him, Eric nods and waves goodbye as Mom, Dad, and I leave the house. He doesn't seem fazed at all.

Why would he? He probably thought that me breaking or spraining my ankle was some freak accident-I just fell down the stairs, that's all.

As we exit the front door, ruining my chances of warning Eric, I look up at the house one more time, wishing that I could sneak back in there somehow.

As I look up, I see Niall staring at me from the attic window.

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