This Time

Chapter 14

We had been walking for hours; the air was still and the sun beat overhead. The blood had dried, my bruises were starting to show and I could feel the headache pound methodically beneath my skull. Louis, Harry and I took shifts carrying Niall’s unconscious body. Everytime they handed him over to me, I would try again to heal him, and each time it would fail miserably. I was trying not to get discouraged, by with the recent occurrences; I wasn’t feeling all that great either.

The only thing that got me through was the memories. I walked along, replaying moments over in my head. The most repeated was our wedding, I went over every detail repeatedly.

The cool white sand, the calm ocean, how beautiful I felt in my dress.

Niall’s face when I appeared at the end of the aisle... that was my favourite memory.

He looked at me like nothing else in the world mattered, like I was the only thing that existed.

But, as happy as I felt remembering these things, it made it all the harder to snap out of it and look down at him, still unconscious, limp and unmoving.

‘How much longer can you hold it?’ I called out to Zoe, who was still being half carried along by Liam.

‘Maybe another hour, but that would be a stretch.’ She said, not bothering to turn around.

Liam kissed her head lovingly and I felt envious. They hadn’t had any problems in their relationship yet and I yearned to be the same.

With all the walking in silence we had done, my thoughts were swirling like a whirlpool.

Niall did love me, but didn’t want to marry me. I couldn’t work out how I felt about this.

Because all I could see was him breaking up with me. Getting bored like a teenage boy would. However, none of that mattered unless he woke up and I was beginning to think he never would. Whenever Louis or Harry offered to take him, I would reluctantly let go, hoping that the next time I held him in my arms, he would curl his back around me.

My leg hurt each time I put pressure on it, which was every second step, but I didn’t say anything. I just kept dragging myself along, sometimes with Niall in tow, letting my pain get worse and worse in the blistering heat. Rachel wasn’t as injured as Zoe or I, so she didn’t need to much help from Zayn. But they still walked together out front, with Zoe and Liam behind and the rest of us brining up the rear. Nobody had mentioned Nicola, although I knew we were all thinking about her. Even though I felt like crying, I knew if I did, I would have to answer questions. And that was the last thing I felt like doing. Well, second to last. The last thing I felt like doing was walking anymore, but that wasn’t an option.

The road was long and stretched out onto the horizon. Each side was desert plains that had no end in sight. I don’t know exactly what we were looking for, maybe a hideout or a place to rest safely.

Maybe nothing. Maybe all we needed was to put as much distance between ourselves and what we left behind.

I closed my eyes as we walked, thinking back to the scene outside the training centre.

It made me feel sick at the time, all the broken bodies lying in blood. It was weird, having the battle frozen around us.

It did make me smile, just a little, when Harry suggested we kill all the Elicks then and there.

However you can’t do anything to anyone that has been frozen in time, which includes killing them.  It was a relief to get away from there, but I also felt sad. Because I knew I would never go back, I knew I would never see that place again.