Thunderstruck [One Direction]

Two

Faith gets there first, swearing and launching herself out of the bed, ripping wires out of skin and ignoring the blood that runs down her arm. Mimi continues to scream that piercing cry, writhing helplessly on her bed.

"Mimi!" Bailey cries, and even Holly sits up, blinking around before swearing loudly at the sight of the scene.

The smaller girl is twisting, face contorted into an expression of pure pain. Arms and legs flail as she screams, and upon instinct, Faith grabs one of her hands, squeezing it tight in hope of some sort of comfort for her friend while they figure exactly what's wrong.

What happens to her next she could never have expected, though. Pain, a thousand needles piercing her skin, acidic poison tearing through her veins, the unbearable heat of a roaring flame searing across her body, more pain than she'd ever felt in her life, ever thought she could feel, burning through her like a wildfire in a forest. Stinging, aching, slicing, stabbing, burning, a crippling, unspeakable fury. It's almost blinding, white hot flashes in her vision and the burn of where Mimi's fingers dig into her palm. Her head feels like it's about to explode, and Mimi's never ending scream is magnified a thousand times more horrifying, echoing again and again across the inside of her skull. The immensity of it makes Faith's knees buckle, and she collapses backwards, her grip on Mimi's hand slipping away as she falls to the polished hospital floor.

And just like that, it all vanishes.

Bailey swears louder this time, hurtling over Faith's bed to get to Mimi, reaching to grab her hand in the same way that Faith did, with probably the same intentions. "No! Don't!" Faith cries, but it's too late. Bailey already has Mimi's hand clutched in hers, and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of the pain that Faith felt.

"Mimi! What's wrong? Talk to me!" The tall girl says desperately, trying to make sense of the flailing arms and contorting body. Behind her, Holly is jabbing at the nurses call button and yelling for help at the top of her voice.

Faith crawls away, shaking violently. She feels sick. Her head is pounding and her heart is racing, she can still remember the feel of that impossible burn running through her veins. Mimi's scream is so loud and it seems to tear right through her heart. The nurses come, confused and shouting things to each other. They hook Mimi up to millions of machines, try to calm her down, and end up having to literally strap her to the bed while they wheel her away. 

Holly and Bailey look at each other with similar expressions of horror as her screams slowly fade into the depths of the hospital. 

"What the hell was that?" Bailey breathes. 

Holly only shakes her head, hand over her mouth as she breathes in deeply and wills herself not to have a panic attack. 

"Hey, Faith, are you okay?"

Faith whimpers a little, shivering. The blood has drained from her face, eyes wide and panicked.  Her breath comes out short and raggedy. "Faith?" Bailey says again, moving closer towards her. When the brunette doesn't respond, she reaches out to touch her shoulder. 

Only to have Faith jerk away as if she's been burned. 

"What the fuck?" She hisses. 

Bailey and Holly glance at each other. "What?"

"That! I could...I could almost hear you -" Faith breaks off, face turning green.

"I'm going to be sick." She declares, before running out of the room and throwing up violently in the toilet. 

**

"So why are we still alive?" Louis asks, crossing his legs from where he sits on his bed. 

"No one knows, really. You five and the four girls in the other car all came out relatively unscathed." The woman tells them as she checks the IV feed he's connected to, as are the four other boys in the room. 

Harry frowns. "So they're definitely okay?"

"Yep. You have all become quite the medical marvel, surviving a near fatal crash and then proceeding to be struck by lightning. A miracle, really -"  A glass shattering scream cuts her off. The doctor's eyebrows furrow together and she dismisses herself, disappearing to discover the source of the noise. 

Zayn looks up from the hospital leaflet he's flicking through aimlessly. "What is that?" 

The screaming is loud, and it slices through the air like a chainsaw through chocolate. It's a pained, terrified scream, and seems to be getting closer. Niall stirs from his slumber, yawning loudly. Even Liam looks up from where his face is pressed into the pillow, blinking. 

"Hm." Louis muses. "I might go have a look." And with that, he hops neatly off his bed, peering round the door and into the corridor, ever the curious one.

A girl, with dark, cropped hair is being wheeled down the corridor at top speed, followed by a horde of nurses and doctors. She's the one whp's screaming, twisting and writhing in pain. The conversation surrounding her is loud and frantic, and Louis catches some of it and they go by.

"...18 year old female, recently been in a head on collision with another car, came out looking relatively uninjured, showing signs of distress and pain.." 

I'll bet, Louis thinks.

"..running the temperature of.. " The nurses checks a machine again, sighing and shaking her head in wonder. "...47.3 degrees."

"Are you definitely sure?" The other nurse says, and that's the last Louis hears of the conversation before they're too far away to make anything out. He frowns and goes back to his bed, confused. 

"Did you see anything, Lou?" Niall asks. 

Louis scratches his head. "Yeah. It was one of the girls from the crash I think, except she was screaming and twisting, like she was in pain. But I thought they were fine?"

"Maybe it wasn't her." Harry says. 

The Doncaster boy considers this for a moment. But there's something else bothering him, something strange. "Liam," He begins. The boy in question turns his head so he's facing Louis, raising an eyebrow warily. He looks tired, Louis thinks.

"Yeah?" Liam asks. 

"What's the right temperature of a person?"

"37.5 degrees Celcius."

Louis's face pales dramatically. "So, what would happen if you were, hypothetically of course, 47.3 degrees?"

Liam chuckles. "You'd be dead, Lou." He says simply before turning back round, burying his face back into the pillow and hugging it tightly. Louis blinks. No fucking way. They must have been mistaken when they took her temperature, he thinks. That girl wasn't dead! But then again, the nurses seemed pretty dumbstruck by it, too. Maybe the machine was broken. 

He sighs and tries to forget about it.