You're My Everything

Chapter 35: The Third Floor

*Vic's POV*

A new day dawns, promising to hold nothing more than sadness and loneliness. I feel Lou beside me, but that doesn't mean I don't ache for Liz without Harry or Zayn without Perrie. Woah, that rhymed. Shut up. Right. It's something in the air. Something in the way the sun shines these days. It's something in the leaves as they fall, dyed and withering. It's something in the early morning frost still on the ground. It all feels fake. Don't trust it. Never trust it. Yet even after I come to this conclusion, I find myself trusting my eyes. It all looks too scenic outside, too pretty. How can anyone not be happy on a day like this? It's a good day. Maybe Harry will come back; Perrie will show up. These are the hopes I secretly think every single day. So I feel good this morning. Happy, cozy, okay.

I reach over, groping the sheets for his hand. His fingers curl around mine instantly in his sleep; unconsciousness doesn't dull our love. I lay there in my bed, simply lay there. I don't have anything to do, and even if I did, Louis comes before them all.

I stare at the ceiling, carving its pattern into my mind.

Louis wakes up shortly later, groggy. He moans unidentifiably.

"Hm?"

"Vic," he says in a voice hard to hear. I lean over to kiss his cheek softly. His eyes flick open, crystalline blue. His long face slides into a smile. "Hey," his arms slip around me, locking behind my back. He rolls to the side taking me with him. He ends up on top of me, legs on either side of my body. His arms are by my shoulders holding him up. He slowly stoops his head to kiss me.

"Oh, get off me." Grinning, I push him off of me, so I can sit up. "I'm gonna go eat something." I say, leaving the room.

"Hey! You just leave me here all alone?" He yells from the bed.

"Yep," I call back, giggling.

His phone starts to ring, and he pulls it out immediatley. His eyes widen and he stares at it for a moment.

It must be management or something. Well, now he's off my back.

He pulls the phone to his ear hurriedly and runs out of the room.

Why would he run? I think for a second, then slowly follow him quietly.

"What do you mean? This is - you can't just - how, why..."

"Yes. Of course. And..."

"You do it! I can't simply tell-"

"Okay. I know. I'm so sorry this happened...I will. I shouldn't have..."

"No, I mean it. We'll be right over. Just give me a few minutes."

"They'll be alright. She will. Okay?"

"Thank you for calling, and, um... you know. Just...thank you, Harry."

Harry? "I'm sorry. It'll be alright, you know."

"Okay, see you soon." He smiles a little bit. "Bye."

As he hangs up, I move closer to him.

"Harry! As in Harry Styles! Louis Tomlinson, what is going on?" I demand.

You can see him panic. "Vic...Didn't see you there...Were you-?"

"Yes, I was listening to your entire conversation! What's wrong? What happened? Has he come back? Why didn't you give him a piece of our minds? And what are you hiding from me? Don't try to lie, I can see it in your eyes."

"Vic..."

"Louis!"

"See the thing is-"

"Why would you want to keep something as important as this from me?" I question.

"But I-"

"Louis," I trace my finger down the sleeve of his knit sweater. "You can tell me these things." I look intently at him and whisper, "Just tell me."

He sighs; deep, aged lines crease his forehead. He's too young to look like he did in that second; too innocent. "Look, I just...okay, so I don't know how to say this--how to tell you this."

"But...?" I prompt him.

"But...so that was Harry, obviously. It was my first time hearing from him, same as you. And, well, he called to say that Liz and Kate are in the hospital. Kate's going to be okay. The doctors said that. And I'm sure Liz will, too."

"W-what happened to them?"

"We already know they went after Perrie. They've been gone for a week and a half now. And, well, somehow they managed to call 911...Harry was sitting at a park nearby and he...He heard Liz."

How could he have heard Liz? Unless...

"He found Liz and Kate in pools of blood, and Perrie unconscious on the ground, bruises covering every inch of her body."

I can't breathe.

"They had fled the scene, the 911 enforcers showed up seconds after Harry did. But...obviously the damage was done..."

"How bad is it?"

He turns away.

"How bad is it?"

"Let's go."

~~~

By the time we get there, I've said exactly five words and Louis has said four. Things are looking to dreary for conversation.

I bust through the doors. "We're here to see Liz Darling and Kate Sezcrekezs," I say shakily.

"They're on the third floor."

I run to the elevators and hear Lou whisper a quiet "thank you" to the woman behind the desk.

We stand in silence in that elevator. It always seems to make an appearance.

It jingles, telling us we've made it to our destination. The doors slide open, and I immediately spot Harry.

With a few quick strides, I reach him. He looks up.

Slap.

"Good of you to make an appearance," I say coldly, furiously.

He doesn't respond. He simply takes what he deserves. I watch as an angry red hand print develops on his left cheek. Somehow, this makes me even more furious. No matter how much I hurt him, it's not enough for what he did.

"Where are they?" I manage, voice wavering with barely controlled fury.

He motions over to the door on our right.

"But you aren't admitted in," he says hoarsely. I ball my fists to stop them from lashing out at him. Who is he to talk to me like that? He's been gone for almost a month, and he comes back as if he still has the right to.

Suddenly, his words reach past my rage: you aren't admitted in. Oh, no. Is it that bad?

A woman comes out of the door Harry had motioned to.

"Kate is going to be okay," she says formally, clipboard on her left hip. "She was...fortunate. If you could call having your intestines ripped apart fortunate, but that is the best way to describe it. Her injuries will take a great deal of time to heal. Seeing as she was slashed in the area of some of her most vital organs. But...well, that's all I should say. It'll be very painful for her, as I'm sure you can imagine, but she got extremely lucky here. You all got lucky."

None of us here look like we've won the freaking lottery.

"And...Liz?" Harry asks softly, the energy to form the sentence clearly from only adrenaline, the only thing keeping him going.

"We don't know. I'm really sorry. We don't know anything about her recovery at this point, or if that's even a possibility. The charts are all over."

Dead. Is that what she means? That she'll die?

"Will she live?" I find myself asking. Shut up, she just told you! They don't know.

"If she does..."

Harry's head sinks lower and lower.

"She won't be the same."