Under the stars || James McVey

chapter twenty four

My apologies for the lousy updates recently. I've been so busy with college stuff and starting my new job. It's been hectic and I am so sorry for not updating sooner, especially when I left you all on a cliffhanger. Whoops!

I'm going to try and get some writing done over this next week because it's half term at school (in England in case you're not familiar with the termonology), although no promises. It's my birthday on Friday and I've got tonnes of stuff to do before then so please just, bare with me.

Anyways, double update tonight. I hope you like this next chapter. It is a flashback chapter, so any flashbacks I'll be doing will be in italics from now on. I warn you, there will be a few more flashback chapters during the course of the story because I find it easier to write the past like that, so if it gets confusing, don't hesitate to ask me about anything you're concerned with.

On a whole, that's about it for an author's note. I hope you're enjoying the fanfic so far.

Love you all and thanks so much for all of the reads.

Lauren :)x

FLASHBACK

Katherine’s POV

“Come on, my little Champion.” I chuckle at him as we make our way out of the stadium.

“Little? I’m taller than you now, Kate.” He retorts back at me, bumping my shoulder as we wave goodbye to his friends and their parents, as well as his football coach.

“Oh shush you!” I reply laughing along with him. “You did well tonight, Will. I’m really proud of you.” He wraps his arms around my shoulders due to the slight height difference. He wasn’t much taller than me, maybe an inch or two, with dark curls cascading from his head and green eyes like mine. Many people commented on how alike I and my little brother looked and we’d shrug our shoulders and laugh about being twins despite the three year age gap.

“Well seen as I’ve done you proud, can we go for ice-cream now?” He grins at me as he pulls back. I laugh at his cuteness and ruffle his hair like I’ve done since we were little.

“You’re fourteen; do you really need ice-cream?”

“You’re never too old for ice-cream, Katie Cat.” I roll my eyes at the nickname he’d given me. He and Josh came up with it a few years ago when I dressed up as Catwoman for Halloween. I stare at his cute little pout and knew I’d give into that face eventually. I always did.

“Ok ok, we’ll go for ice-cream!” I exclaim in between laughs, dragging him through the car park to the car. We made a few jokes on our journey and just as we neared our ride, I fumbled through my bag to find my keys. “Damn, we are they? They’re in here somewhere.” I mumble to myself as Will laughs at me. I needed to find these keys as soon as I could. The night was getting darker by the second and it seemed too quiet for my liking. Nothing good ever come from a place being noiseless and dark. For some reason, my fingers could not find the bloody keys and I was starting to panic. Of course, I had every reason to be.

“Having trouble there sweetheart?” I stop my actions as I look up and see two people standing in front of us. The smaller one emerges out of the shadows so that I could see her clearly, whilst the other, male, stays back. Out of instinct, I drag Will behind me and keep my hand secured around his wrist to hold him back.

“What do you want?” I ask them sternly.

She laughs at me maliciously. “Oh sweet girl, you know exactly what I want.”

“Please, you don’t have to do this.” My previous thoughts of standing strong had failed. My hand tightened around Will’s arm and he’d moved closer to me as my body shielded his.

“Oh, but I do.” That’s when I see what they were holding. A gasp escapes me and I turn slowly to face my brother.

“Run.” I whisper to him. He looks at me confused and I push him away from me so he’d get the message. “Will, run!” He finally understands and takes off quickly, making his way to the exit of the car park. I turn back to the people in the black wear only to see one of them had disappeared. That’s when the first shot fires. “WILL!”

“You don’t think we’d let you go that easily, do you?” She mocks as she shoves my brother into the side of a car, making a grunt fall from his lips. Luckily he’d not been hit as he tells me with thumbs up and a reassuring nod. I try to go to him but am stopped by the barrel of gun being pointed at my face. “What a predicament we have here.” I am backed up against the car and I act on the initial thoughts I had running through my mind. Extending my arm and hand, I knocked the gun from the attacker’s hand, letting it slide a couple of meters across the gravelled ground. We’d been learning self-defence a lot in school recently and I was trying to recall as much as I could as fast as I could. I try my best to defend myself as he comes at me but he was too strong. That’s when the gun fires again. I fall to the ground in agony, clutching my left side and feeling a strange substance soak my shirt and coat my fingers. The gun fires twice more and it takes me a couple of moments to realise it wasn’t me that had been hit another time. It was Will.

I try to keep my focus but my sight was blurry due to the substantial amount of pain and a pair of black combat boots became an obstacle to seeing the body lying on the ground just a few feet away. I feel fingers grip onto my chin and lift my head up so I could meet her eyes with mine.

“You take away my love and I’ll take yours.” She hisses into my ear before she walks away with her accomplice by her side. Now she’d gone, I could focus on the seemingly lifeless body lying limp in front of me. I try my best to crawl over to Will’s side, watching as the red liquid coats his football shirt and spills to the floor.

“No, no, no, no, no, please, God no.” I mumble through my tears as I trace my fingers over the stained patches on his shirt and I pull his body closer to mine. “Come on Will, stay with me. Please, just stay with me.” I hold him in my arms, rocking him back and forth, trying to ignore the increasing pain through my body as I do so. His eyes were closed and I couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not. It was getting harder for me to keep my eyes open and I could feel myself slowly falling into a slumber. “Will, please, we’re supposed to go for ice-cream remember? Double chocolate for you, pistachio for me; our usual after-practice ritual, right?” My breathing was getting heavier now as Will fails to respond each time and I was struggling to breathe, let alone stay awake. My hands were still pressed to his stomach to try and stop the bleeding as best as I could but it didn’t seem to be working; blood still pours over my hands at a heart-breaking level. Something was telling me I’d already lost him and I couldn’t bear the thought of that.

 I faintly hear sirens and shouts in the distance but that wasn’t enough to keep me conscious anymore. Holding onto Will and myself was becoming increasing difficult and I was starting to slip. Just as the voices got louder and closer, my head hits the ground as bright lights were being shone all around us and my eyes finally flutter closed as I fall into the unwelcoming darkness.