The Passage (h.s)

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Is she breathing? Tell me what's going on. Please fucking help her."

Harry is pleading through his hysterical sobbing. I'm not awake, but I can hear several voices clearly talking and a lot of moving and shuffling around. My body slumped on the hard floor, but I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing down here.

"Mr. Styles, please give us some space to take care of your girlfriend. You need to stay calm."

Whose voice is that? Why does he need to help me? Why can't I wake up? And why does my head hurt so bad?

Millions of questions are swimming around my muddy water brain right now. I have no idea what's happening, or why Harry is so terrified. The only thing I remember is him kissing me on my forehead before he left to get us food for our picnic. I was packing my bag, and then...after that I remember nothing.

"How the fuck am I supposed to calm down? My girlfriend was attacked and she's bleeding everywhere. I don't want to leave her. Please, she needs me!"

Why am I bleeding? Who attacked me?

Harry is crying which means something is terribly wrong, and it's scaring me. I want to hold his hand and tell him I'll be fine, but I'm not even sure if I will be. I'm floating in between different states of consciousness. I can't move any part of my body, apart from briefly fluttering my eyes open then closed again. Each time they open, the pounding in my head gets worse, so I've chosen to keep them shut.

A slow pulse tries to circulate the blood through my veins; the flow is barely a trickle. It feels like a heavy weight is causing me to sink further into whatever oblivion I'm stuck in. Other than the brief moments of blinding light, everything continues to stay black and I have no voice. I'm so confused and it's frightening not being in control of anything.

"Harry, c'mere, let them take care of her. Give them some room."

Harry's sobs are muffled, I'm assuming it's because Sam is trying to console him.

"I shouldn't have left her. This is my fault; I'm so scared. What if she doesn't wake up?"

Sam's comforting voice interjects again.

"Everything's gonna be okay, this isn't your fault. James did this to her, not you. He's the one that tried to kill her."

Kill me? What the hell is going on? Where are my daughters?

"You can't be with her 24 hours a day. And how were you supposed to know this was going to happen? You saved her life."

He continues sobbing, I know Sam is scared too, but she's always been better than anyone at staying calm in stressful situations. She's been my rock through everything, and now she's being a rock for him as well. It makes me love her even more. I've never been let down by here; this time is no different.

"He would've never done this to her if we hadn't started dating. I know he did this when he saw pictures of us together on social media. That has to be what set him off. I should've listened to her when she tried to walk away, she said she didn't want to complicate my life. Instead I'm the one that complicated hers. I'm so selfish, but I love her Sam."

"Stop it right now, you can't blame yourself for this. I know you love her Harry, and she loves you too. But James is a sick bastard, it's not the first time he's hurt her."

"No... she promised me that he'd never hit her."

"Look Harry, she's ashamed of her past. She still blames herself for not being able to fix him."

"It's not her job to fix him."

"You know her heart, how compassionate she is. Always wanting to help everyone, even when they're undeserving of it. She knows how much you love her, but that probably made her terrified to tell you the horrible things he's done. And she also knows you would've wanted to kill him. Keeping this a secret was her way of preventing you from having to deal with that burden every day."