I waited {L.S}

3.9

I grabbed Harry and hung onto him, letting go of a deep breath. "Have they gotten Ken yet? I miss my sisters."

"Not yet, but we'll go back soon, baby. I promise. Don't worry about it." He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. "What should we do?"

"We're still supposed to stay inside," I reminded him. "If Ken thinks we moved and then he finds us here-"

"It's all going to be okay, Louis. Don't worry, were allowed to go out every once in a while. So where do you want to go?"

"I don't want to go anywhere," I said again. I had a bad feeling about going out. I always did, but this was literally twisting my gut. "You're going to say it's just what I don't know, but I'm scared to go out there right now, okay? I'd rather wait until he's gone gone."

"Okay," Harry whispered. "Yeah, we'll stay in, okay? Watch some movies."

Harry set me down, and just as my feet touched the floor, two loud knocks sounded on the door. Harry pushed me behind him and walked to the door, hand on the handle. I covered my mouth and tried to control my breathing.

Harry slowly opened the door and let out a sharp breath. "What the fuck?"

"Is Louis okay?" I took a step back and Harry nodded. "Open the door."

"It's okay, Louis," Harry told me before he did. There was an officer with one of his hands on his holster, like he had just put his weapon away.

"Good news, Ken has been arrested and will remain under twenty-four hours watch for the rest of his life."

"Bad news is he was right outside the house, wasn't he? That's why you had..." Harry looked back at me and trialed off. If Harry would have convinced me to go outside, Ken might not have been detained yet.

"Yes, exactly. How did he find you?"

"I don't know. We stayed away from the windows and we didn't leave. We did everything the way you told us."

I grabbed onto Harry and held onto him, holding my breath. "He's gone."

"He's gone," Harry whispered back. I nodded my head and let go of a long breath. "You can have a normal life."

"I can have a normal life," I whispered with a smile.
*

I woke up to Harry carrying me. I tightened my grip around his neck and sighed, finally looking up at him. He glanced at me and smiled before looking back at where he was going. "It's like 12 in the morning, and we're on the porch," Harry said, adjusting me to knock on the door, but not letting me down.

My aunt opened the door and smiled. "The girls are asleep, go ahead and lay down in Louis' room. It'll be a great surprise."

Harry nodded and carried me to my room, then gently put me on the bed before climbing in behind me. He wrapped his arms around me once I turned around so my face was in his chest and we both let out a long breath.

"We're safe now, right?" I mumbled, holding Harry tightly.

"Yes, we're safe, Louis." Harry kissed the top of my head and held me close. "Soon, you'll forget be existed, hopefully. Get some more rest, for now." I nodded and I could already feel myself slipping back to sleep.

When we woke up, I was confused for a few seconds. I looked at Harry, which relaxed me slightly, but there shouldn't have been anyone else. Then I looked around the room again and relaxed.

We were at my aunt's house. I didn't need to freak out. I closed my eyes again and let out a small sigh, wrapping myself around Harry. His hand moved to my hair and he squeezed me, but snored right after. "I love you," I mumbled fondly, letting myself fall back asleep.

An hour or so later, Harry was waking me up. I sat up and rubbed my face, listening to the clattering going on downstairs. "We're at Mary's." I said. Harry smiled and nodded before kissing me softly. I grabbed onto his face when he tried to pull away. "Kiss me, please."

Harry chuckled. "I'll kiss you whenever you want. I love you, and I always will."

"I love you, too," I smile, kissing him again.

Everyone noticed I was happy. My sister's did, my aunt did. Harry stayed over a lot more than he did before, which made me a lot happier. I liked that everyone wasn't acting like I wouldn't be able to handle it. I can handle it, it just takes me a little longer and more support to do it.

Harry sat down next to me and grabbed the drawing from me. I stopped mid conversation with Lottie to try to stop him. "Harry, no," I whined with a smile. I tried to grab it back from him when he stood up, but he just fought with me until he got his arm wrapped my waist with the picture behind him. "It's not done," I complained.

"I don't care. You promised to show me this a hundred times and you haven't." He kissed me quickly while I pouted at him and he looked at the drawing. "Louis..."

He didn't add anything else, so I started at him staring at it. "I told you I'm still working on it-"

"Louis, it's amazing." Harry turned to face me with a small smile. "it's so well drawn."

I looked down and played with my hands. "Should I be drawing this?" I asked, grabbing the picture. I had other ones, the ones Harry kept asking to see, hidden under my bed, but they were all based around what had happened with Ken.

This one was of the room, but everything thing was in black and white except for the bed and the closet. They were both red. And there was one red circle on the rug. Those were Ken's favorite spots to hurt me.

Harry took the picture from me and flipped it over, forcing me to look at him. "What has Dylan said about it?"

"He says it's fine, it's a way of me processing everything, but what if I never stop? What if this is all I can think about, Harry? I don't want to get stuck again."

Harry shook his head. "Louis, are you talking any of this out with Dylan?"

"Of course I am! I just... He doesn't know me that well and..." I looked away from him and tilted my head down. "No."

Dylan was supposed to be my new therapist, but I didn't like being around him. Half the time I ditched his appointments. He stares at me weird and didn't really ask me anything, so we sat in silence when I did go.

Harry frowned. "Look, you have to talk to him, Louis. He's here to help."

"I don't like him. He doesn't even talk, he just stares at me. I don't want to." I crossed my arms and turned away from Harry. "You don't have to get it, but it's not what he should be doing. I don't want to go meet someone who makes me feel unsafe all over again."

"Hey, since when does he make you feel uncomfortable?" Harry asked quietly.

"Since the first time I went! But you were all so happy that I went to talk to him and-" I took a deep breath to keep myself from falling apart. "I couldn't not go since you were all happy about it."

"Louis," Harry muttered. "You have to tell us that stuff or else-"

"I know, Harry!" I yelled. I pulled away from him and took a deep breath. "I know what I'm supposed to do!"

"So why aren't you?" Harry pushed.

"Go home," I muttered, walking to my room. I closed my door and leaned against it as tears collected in my eyes.  Why was it wrong? Ken was gone. There wasn't anything wrong with me deciding not to say anything yet. I was going to. I was going to say something, I just wanted to wait a bit.

"Louis," Harry called. I sighed and shook my head. I wasn't answering the door. I told him to leave. I don't want him over, he needed to respect that. "Don't make me bring this up to Mary."

"Don't do that. I wanted you to leave. Don't threaten me with something, Harry." I crossed my arms and kicked my foot into the carpet.

"You want me to leave because you don't want to talk. We need to talk-"

"I want to be alone," I said over him. I walked to my bed and sat down. "Just leave me alone," I whispered.