Fireproof: A Harry Styles Fanfiction

Chapter 7: Suspicions/"I'm Obviously Not Dead."

Eleanor's pov

I stepped outside on the back porch with my phone in hand. I looked up to my second floor to make sure that the window to the spare room where Chelsea was wasn't open. Sure enough, it wasn't. I breathed a sigh of relief and quickly unlocked my phone. I went to my contacts and hit call on Louis. I put the phone to my ear and listened to the ring. It rang twice before Louis answered.
"Hi baby!" his voice sang through.
"Hi babe." I said, my own voice cracking.
"Uh oh. That doesn't sound good. Something happen? Who sent you hate? I'll make sure whoever it is will pay!" he said in all seriousness.
"No, no one sent me hate. It's something way worse than that."
"Like what?" he replied, scared yet confused. I didn't answer right away. I tried to form the words, but I couldn't. I finally managed to say,
"There was a fire..."
"WHAT?!?! WHERE?!?! ARE YOU OKAY?!?!"
"I'm fine. It wasn't our place..."
He sighed in relief before he said,
"Then whose was it?"
I was silent again before I spoke,
"Chelsea and Harry's."
I heard Louis gasp before he asked,
"Is she okay?!"
"She's fine, except for a broken knee. She got that when she jumped out the window from her and Harry's bedroom."
I heard him sigh in relief again before he said,
"That's a relief!"
"But all is not okay. The entire house is charred. Hardly anything remains. The garage is okay, as well as the cars and everything else in there, but there's something else that is quite disturbing and shocking. It got Chelsea very upset and she is distraught right now."
"Whatever do you mean?"

I let a few tears fall before I said,
"She said the firefighters were digging through the remains of the house and they found a body..."
I could just sense Louis' eyes growing wider and wider by the second as I described the horrific details of the body that was found in the charred remains.
"And?"
I sniffled a bit.
"They believed it to be Harry's body and that they needed Chelsea to confirm it. They unzipped the body bag and there Chelsea saw him! Harry's body! He's dead! What's more horrifying is his hair was hardly damaged, same with a couple of his tattoos, including the butterfly tattoo!!!" I sobbed.

Louis' pov

Eleanor just told me that Harry was dead, due to a house fire. Okay, there's absolutely no way my best mate could be dead. I mean, he's coming onto the bus right now...

Back to Eleanor's pov

Louis was silent on the other end. I'm guessing he was groping for words, but he couldn't find the right ones. He finally said,
"El, I really have no idea what you're talking about..."
I cut him off.
"BUT IT'S TRUE!!!! CHELSEA SAID SO!!!!"
"No, really, El. Harry can't possibly be dead."
What???? What is Louis talking about?
"And how would you know that?"
"I know Harry is not dead 'cause he is standing right in front of me!"
I could faintly hear Harry's Cheshire accent say,
"Louis, I'm obviously not dead."

I gasped and nearly dropped the phone in shock. If that indeed was Harry I heard in the background, then Chelsea and Harry's house was just hit by the LA arsonist bandit!!!!
"Here. Let's transfer to FaceTime so I can prove it to you."
"Okay..." I shakily say as we hit the FaceTime button on our call. After it was loaded, I saw Louis and then, I saw Harry sitting on the couch on the bus.
"Oh...my....god!" I said.
"El, you okay?" Harry said through the camera.
"Oh my god! You're alive!"
"Um, yeah. I think that was established a few minutes ago. What's wrong? Is everything okay?"
I was silent for the longest time before Louis pushed,
"El?"
I sniffled and let tears slip before I said,
"Chelsea thinks you're dead, Harry."
His eyes widen before he said,
"WHAT?!?!?! WHY?!?!?! WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?!"
"There was a fire, Harry. Yours and Chelsea's house caught fire. She made it out okay, except for a broken knee..."
He cut me off.
"How did she break her knee?!"
"She jumped out of the window from your guys' bedroom."
"Okay, and too, she hasn't been answering my calls. Why is that?"
"Her phone's broken. She tossed that and a bunch of stuff out the window before she jumped. Everything but the phone landed on the grass. The phone landed on the pavement, breaking it."
"Oh. But why did she grab so much stuff?"
"She said it was all stuff of value and important to her. It was mostly pictures. Her pictures, your pictures, pictures of the two of you. Grabbed the scrapbooking stuff, iPod, laptop, chargers, phone, and she even grabbed the roses you sent her. The real ones and the fake one. Also the pendant you gave her with the roses and she also grabbed the note that came with them."
Harry sighed and put his head in his hands before he said,
"But why does she think I'm dead?"
"After the fire was out, they were sifting through the remains and they found a body. They believed it to be you, but Chelsea needed to confirm it. When they unzipped the body bag, she broke down crying because it looked enough like you to pass off as you. What's more horrifying is that your hair was all still there and some of your tattoos were still visible, including your butterfly one."

Harry's eyes widen at the thought of somebody looking like him to pass as him.
"Where is Chelsea now?"
"She's in one of the spare rooms here. I told her to go up there and get settled in while me and Perrie and Sophia made hot cocoa."
He tugged at his curls before he said,
"God, I can't believe this happened! I should've known! That bad dream I had 2 months ago! I should've known then!"
"Harry, don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault." Louis said to him.
"It was an honest mistake. A big one, at that. When do you guys come home for a break?"
"Next week, actually." Louis said.
"No. Really, in a couple days, we get to go home. Why?" Liam said as he came onto the bus, followed by Zayn and Niall. Louis took a deep breath as Harry buried his face in his hands.
"What happened?" Niall asked. Louis then said,
"Chelsea thinks Harry's dead."
"How?" Zayn asked.
"House caught fire. Chelsea's fine, except a broken knee. Firefighters found a body. Body was believed to be Harry. Chelsea saw the body and believed it to be Harry as well."
Liam's, Niall's, and Zayn's eyes grew wide.
"Then we should make it a point to get back to LA as fast as we can. Before any funeral is planned." Liam said.
"Oh, don't worry, Liam. Chelsea is too distraught to do any funeral planning for that matter. Plus, the autopsy of the body isn't even done yet. They will call Chelsea with the results when it's done."
"Okay. Hey, El, my battery's gonna die soon. We'll all be home as soon as we can, okay?"
"Okay, Lou baby. I love you."
"I love you, too, babe. Night night."
"Night night." I said before we blew each other a kiss and hung up. I was in shock now. Harry's not dead. Why would someone do this to Chelsea and Harry? I come back inside to find Sophia and Perrie standing in the kitchen with cups of hot cocoa in their hands.

"We took Chelsea hers already." Perrie said in a low voice as she handed me my cup.
"So what did Louis say?" Sophia whispered. I hesitated before I said,
"He didn't believe Harry was dead."
"What? Why?" they both said softly. I waited a few minutes before I said,
"Harry's not dead. He's still on tour with the boys and they're coming as fast as they can back here to LA."
Their jaws dropped all the way to the floor.
"Are you serious?" Perrie said.
I nodded. Then, I looked up at her, in which she looked like she was thinking of something.
"Per, what is it?" Sophia said. Clearly, she noticed, too. Perrie finally said,
"I think this is the work of the arsonist bandit."