Whispers

“What are you doing?” Niall practically screeched as Rae stumbled out of the room. She had blacked out momentarily, falling to her knees, her mind going completely blank. He grabbed her by the shoulders, looking at her eyes. The room was still spinning as she grabbed his forearms keeping herself on her feet. “What the hell is going on?”

“Finn is on his side,” Rae said. It felt like her words were slurred. She grabbed the front of her head, feeling a knot forming from where she had slammed her own head into Finns. “We need to get to Trystan now. They threatened her.”

“We need to get to Harry-“

“No!” her voice had the effect she wanted. Niall flinched back from him, his blue eyes surprised at the vehemence at which she spoke. She squeezed his arms tight, as if trying to assure him that this was important. “They threatened my best friend. We are going to her right now. Harry can wait. This is Trystan.”

Niall didn’t argue. Together, they blocked the laundry room door, keeping Finn captive. Rae also removed Finn’s phone from the redheads possession. They pulled furniture and heavy objects in front of the door before rushing out of the house, Rae still reeling.

There was no question about who was driving. Niall jumped in the passenger seat as Rae called Trystan. There was no answer, which made her panic. Rationally she knew that Trystan couldn’t answer the phone. Rae was risking her best friend losing a job by calling her again, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was that not a blonde hair on Trystan’s head would be touched.

Nothing else in the world amounted to the anger and the fear that she felt. Every single blink of her eyes she saw flashes of what could happen to Trystan. Rae knew that if the girl was hurt, that she herself would kill whoever touched her. She would maim them, rip them apart, and she would go to the ends of the earth to make sure that they regret the moment they had a violent thought about Trystan.

It shocked Rae how angry she felt. She had felt angry about Harry several times, but it was nothing like this. The rage was so potent that it tasted like metal in her mouth as she grit her teeth. Niall seemed to notice the volcano that was being to spew, because he stepped on the gas pedal harder.

“How did she hide it for this long?”

“Because you don’t ever expect what lives next to you,” Rae said dully. In that rage, there was also self-loathing for her own blind spot. She hadn’t seen what was right under her nose. “I should have thought about it ages ago, honestly. An enemy in friendly territory.”

“No one could have known. Not even Liam.”

Rae sighed. “It’s going to crush him.”

“Right now let’s focus at the task at hand. We’re grabbing Trystan and calling the boys. I’m fucking done with all of this and we’re done not fighting back.”

Glancing at Niall, Rae realized for the first time how angry he was too. His face was flushed with red and his knuckles were bone white as he gripped the steering wheel hard, ringing it with his hands back and forth. His jaw line flexed as she ground his teeth together, defiant. “What are we going to do? Go mob wars on them?”

“Absolutely not,” Niall said. He turned the corner of Trystan’s work place. “We’re going to be them at their own game. They like to set traps and leave notes and run around a maze? Fine. We’re going to do exactly the same thing.” He threw the car in park. “Except our ending version doesn’t end in something gory and insane. It ends with the sound of prison gates sliding shut.”

The last few words barely registered with Rae. Her appreciation for Niall’s anger was forgotten as she jumped out of the car, running full speed down the sidewalk. People looked at her with pointed expressions but she didn’t care. She dove past a couple and into the restaurant, looking wildly for Trystan.

“The fuck are you doing?” Rae whirled around. Trystan was coming from the left room, dressed in her clothes and looking at Rae like she was crazy. “Finn was looking-“

“Finn tried to take me out for Leon,” Rae blurted. For some reason that was the first thing she could think of to say. To make sure that Trystan understood they were in treacherous waters and it was full of sharks with smiles. “Tell your boss it’s an emergency. We’re leaving.”

“You’ve got a knot on your forehead,” Trystan said, undoing her button. She tossed it on the hostess stand. “Did you know that?”

“I head-butt a bitch.”

“Impressive.”

As Trystan went to tell her manager something, Rae spun around to see Niall getting off the phone. He instructed her that Liam and Zayn would be at his house shortly and that none of them had talked to Harry. Niall seemed worried but Rae wasn’t at all. She felt it in her heart that Harry was fine. If he wasn’t, she would know.

With the three of them together, they all got in the car, Niall taking off. For some reason, even though everything felt insane and like she was about to go to war or something ridiculous, Rae felt a calm settle over her. It was like there was a soft mute on everything around her and it was just her in the car, ready for everything.

“You okay?”

Trystan asked. They were turning on Niall’s street. Rae hadn’t even realized that they were already there. Zayn and Liam were standing outside. Rae’s heart skipped a beat when she saw that there was another person standing there, and that person was Harry. Louis was just stepping out of the car. “I’m fine,” Rae said, voice on autopilot. She was looking at Harry. He turned around and looked at her, as if he felt her gaze. His face was placid, like she felt. “We’re going to be fine.”

“What makes you say that?”

Rae opened the door. “They fucked with the wrong people.”