And if the sky grows heavy
Wrap your arms around me tight
We'll be alright, yeah

"You look... you're..." I stuttered, trying to find the correct words to describe what I was looking at. "Wow."

Natalie was right in front of me, wearing a red strapless dress with golden decorations that literally made her look like a queen. It was ankle-length and I had no idea where the fuck she got it from, but I was frozen in my place trying to grasp what I was seeing.

We were getting ready for this Golden Hour thing, Alex and Alissa were in their own room and we were supposed to leave in an hour. It was ironic how the ball wasn't happening during the golden hour though.

I don't know why I was thinking about that, but okay.

After we find out about the change of dates yesterday, Natalie had a breakdown. She let go all of her pent up frustration and pain and her excuse was that she wasn't ready for this ball to come so quickly, but she didn't have to explain herself because I'd hold her anyways.

I couldn't begin to imagine how much pain she was in, the only thing that was keeping me from crying was the fact that I could feel her heartbeat tickling my fingertips. I had been frantic about losing her lately.

I don't know why, but everything that happened with Zayn only made me feel more protective of her. I wanted to save her in a treasure chest and protect her from the world, fucking kill anyone who wanted to hurt her.

Zayn's death had a major impact on both of us. Fuck, it even affected Alex and Alissa somehow. There was a lot of stress and tension hovering around in the house and that's because we knew we weren't safe anymore... we knew there was a possibility that our plans didn't work out.

The only safety I got came along with Natalie, bringing us back to feeling her pulse. I had a feeling she'd snap broken eventually and I didn't know what that meant, but not getting the answer was freaking me out more and more as the days went by.

She was handling too many things at once and something told me she wasn't going to be able to grasp it anymore at some point. I was trying my best to help her, but the only thing I could do was hold her and tell her everything was going to be alright.

Problem was, I wasn't sure about that anymore.

I knew I'd give up on myself for her to live, but I had no idea what to expect next. The bullets had been hitting us out of nowhere and I didn't know where the following one would come from, which was freaking me the fuck out.

I just knew my sole purpose right now was keeping Natalie safe, at least from the things outside. I had no clue how to protect her from herself.

Alissa and I talked and she was worried about her too. I knew they weren't as close, but Lis developed a soft spot for Natalie quickly and it was cute seeing how she cared... but she had no idea what to do either.

I just can't understand what I expected from this. Maybe I thought things would go just fine, but nothing goes just fine when you're dealing with killers. They hold too many grudges and they have too many people against them, something was bound to happen.

This was the most interesting thing that had happened to me in two years, so even if I hated to admit it, I liked the thrill and adrenaline of the moment. But now everything was falling apart, Natalie was falling apart.

I felt biased though, because a part of me wanted to go back in time and never accept this job, but that meant never getting to know Natalie. I simply knew I'd regret that decision once I made it.

Last night, she asked me to sing her to sleep again. It seemed to be the only thing that calmed her and she actually dozed off, but she woke up an hour later panting desperately for air. Her whole body was shaking and I nearly had a heart attack, she scared the living shit out of me.

Fuck, she always worked on few hours of sleep and now she couldn't even try to close her eyes... the nightmares were killing her and I just wanted it all to stop, put an end to all of this and the pain she was going through.

Nat didn't deserve it.

She had had night terrors before, but I never knew why. And now this... fucking hell, she was already suffering way before any of this started and now this was only adding on top of it all.

Alex and Alissa were trying to let me handle it because they knew she trusted me better, but I also knew she needed their support too. I didn't like to admit it, which probably made me a selfish son of a bitch, but Alex was one of the main factors why Natalie's mood cheered up sometimes.

I don't know what they talked about, but he always managed to put a smile on her face and I was eternally thankful for that. It seemed to me like they understood each other in a way not Alissa or I could sense... it was so nice.

I guess I should stop being jealous about it because Natalie didn't need that right now, she was already handling a lot of stress all at once and she sure didn't need an angry boyfriend like the cherry on top of it all.

I was planning on telling her today that I loved her, probably before we got on the car or after it, but it seemed as though Alex and Alissa were always around and I really didn't want them eavesdropping on our conversation.

I had been holding it back for too long and I wanted to tell her already. I didn't know exactly how yet, but I'd figure something out along the way. I just needed her to know.

I didn't even care if she didn't say it back. I mean, of course I'd be really fucking sad about it, but my main purpose was clarifying my feelings for her... fuck, we were getting married someday, she deserved to know.

I loved all of her and it was incredible the many times I thought of telling her, but I ended sucking it all up god knows why. I guess I was just too scared to ruin things, but this was it: she was going to know.

Well, that... if we made it out alive.

I doubted we would fail because we had backup now, but everything seemed to be going south lately and I simply knew we'd have to start being more careful if we didn't want to get ourselves killed.

The look in Natalie's face told me she was in the mood of cutting some dicks and I sure wasn't going to be the person to stop her. God help me if I got on her way.

"You look so handsome," She wiggled her eyebrows at me, lingering a playful smile on her lips.

She walked towards me, adjusting the tie around my neck that was making me feel claustrophobic. I was never a fan of tuxedos and suits and this was the second time in two months that I was wearing one.

"Thank you, you look beautiful." I grasped her hips, leaning down to peck her lips.

"Do you think this is gonna work out?" Nat bit the corner of her lip, fidgeting with her fingers.

"We're gonna make it work," I nodded confidently. "We'll be alright."

She nodded, looking down at her feet briefly before the door at the end of the hallway opened. I caught eye of Alissa wearing a very fancy black dress that went down to her ankles. She was also wearing a pair of lace gloves and she actually looked really pretty.

"Well, look at you." Natalie motioned with her head, scanning her eyes up and down her body.

Alissa turned towards her, but her gaze landed downwards and her jaw dropped to the floor. I was feeling exactly the same.

"Babe, you look like a fucking queen." She widened her eyes, smiling as she walked towards Natalie and hugged her shortly. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be." She nodded, stroking Alissa's forearm before she pulled away. "Where's Alex?"

"He went to buy the masks, he'll be back soon." She explained, but she looked uneasy about it.

That didn't sound right to me. We were already not safe in this house and Alex was alone... fuck, what if something happened to him? Did he even take a gun? I couldn't let anything happen to him, mostly because of Nat-

"That's fan behaviour, stop talking about me." His thick accent suddenly echoed in the room.

We all turned around to meet a very fancy looking Alex carrying a small plastic bag. There was a wide grin on his face and he kept pushing his hair back, trying to clear his view.

I sighed in relief once I knew he wasn't dead and he handed each of us a mask, starting off with Nat and Alissa. Alex probably bought this masks in a random costume shop, but they were actually quite beautiful.

The girls had matching masks, Alissa's blue and Natalie's golden. They were thin and delicate and they had little white sequins decorating the outline of the eye and the vertical center of the mask.

Ours were different, they covered up half of the face and they matched Nat's and Alissa's. Mine was a checkered gold one and Alex's was blue with white and aureate decor.

Nat's mask matched her skin and her dress and she looked as beautiful as ever. If I hadn't known her, I'd probably confuse her with some monarch's daughter or something. She was looking as beautiful as ever.

Each of us put on our masks and we were ready to go, but then again, the nerves resurfaced. I got a weird pit in my stomach when Natalie hooked her arm with mine, starting to walk down the stairs and to the door.

My brain was overworking itself non-stop, imagining and numbering all of the what-ifs and worst-case scenarios where one of us died, or someone discovered us, or basically everything went to shit.

I didn't want to cause a scene in the masquerade, I knew there would be a bunch of high class people and security guards. I was just really fucking hoping they didn't find out about the weapons we were carrying with us.

This was all just to be safe, it made me feel more protected knowing that all of us were armed. I had no fucking idea how Natalie was supposed to reach out for her gun under that dress, but I wasn't planning on leaving her alone.

I also didn't know how we'd get into the place. Did Louis buy us in this time too? Or were we supposed to just kill everyone that crossed our path? I wasn't scared... I was terrified, so many things could go wrong in little to no time.

Natalie was nervous too, I could see that. She had already made her lip bleed twice and she didn't even seem to care, she just kept chewing on it like it was candy and she didn't even mind the lipstick. She never seemed to notice she was hurting herself.

I reached out my thumb, running it through her mouth to loosen it up. Natalie immediately let go of it, looking at me with an ashamed look. I knew she didn't do it on purpose and she couldn't control it, but I didn't want her to hurt herself.

Coping mechanisms are a bitch.

The car Louis sent for us was waiting outside, but he brought a fucking limousine this time. All of us just gawked at the car until the driver stepped outside to open the door for us, letting us all in one by one.

The limousine was huge.

I had never been in one of these, but I had seen them in movies. There were two seats facing each other and compartments with all sorts of candy on each door, I felt like a fucking celebrity driving around in this.

I eyed Alex and Alissa in front of us, but there's was something off about them. She was stroking his thigh and he was taking deep breaths, both of them staring at something on the other end of the car.

I followed their gazes and noticed they were staring at a small bottle of Tylenol peeking out from the pocket. I then looked back at them with furrowed eyebrows, trying to understand why it was making them so nervous.

Alex's leg was bouncing up and down on the floor till Alissa decided to lean over him, grabbing the bottle and tucking it in her purse. He let out a deep breath and they muttered something under their breaths, but I couldn't understand what.

My mind was drifted away from them when I heard the window running down, so I turned to Natalie. She was clicking on the button to lower her glass and a world of questions invaded me once more.

Fuck, this car ride was making me so nervous. I constantly found myself noticing how many secrets everyone kept, Nat never explained to me what was her obsession with lowering the car windows except for that brief talk when she said she 'could never remember'.

I sometimes felt like the normal one in this group... which was kinda true? It wasn't necessarily bad, just odd. They were all the same, all of them killers that were used to drugs and gangs and blood and all that shit.

I was starting to get used to it, it was basically my life too now, but it was weird looking back to two months ago and seeing the old me. I thought that was normal before.

I was... a civilian? It felt funny saying it that way, but I kinda was. I had never stopped to think about it and seeing all of them together was only making me rethink everything... but not in a bad way, no, just in a different one.

But what mattered was that I loved Natalie and I had a soft spot for Alex and Alissa, I was already too invested in this to go back and I wasn't planning to either. I was here, and I liked being here so damn much.

The trip was silent and it didn't last long, we arrived at wherever the fuck we were in about ten minutes and the driver opened the door for us. The building was tall and had a very long staircase before it in which a lot of fancy-looking people could be seen.

Wow, this gave me strong Barcelona flashbacks. It felt like years ago, I was a completely different person then. That was our first job after we left London, it made me feel kinda nostalgic even.

Mostly because our feelings were completely different back then. We hated each other, we hated Alex and Alissa, Natalie wasn't so broken, we weren't so drained... we weren't terrified of what could happen next.

We should've been.

Natalie hooked her arm with mine and Alissa and Alex imitated our actions. We both walked up the staircase and I immediately panicked even more when I noticed the two security guards standing on the entrance.

My heart started hammering against my chest and Natalie clearly noticed, because she squeezed my hand reassuringly. I squeezed it back and now we found ourselves standing right in front of a gigantic man staring down at us.

There was a clipboard clutched under his fingers and he raised a suspicious eyebrow at me... right before looking down at Natalie's cleavage.

I clenched my jaw and fought the impulse to punch him right there. What annoyed me the most was the fact that he didn't even hesitate before doing it, as if it was a routine by now, and that made me sick to the stomach.

Natalie cleared her throat and he immediately looked back up, not looking phased at all. I literally wanted to puke by his actions, he wasn't the same as the security guy back in Barcelona... this guy was a prick and I was going to do something about it later.

"Names?" He asked with a very thick British accent.

I guess we're taking the risk.

"Harry Styles and Natalie Perkins." I grimaced, giving him a hard look.

"Your names aren't on the list, sir. I'm afraid I can't let you in." He flicked the pen over the names written on the paper before looking back up at me.

I chuckled. Natalie had gotten us in last time so I guess it was my turn, but I wasn't some pretty girl so I couldn't just seduce the dude. I had no choice but to choose agression.

"Listen out, you just fucking checked out my girlfriend and that's not something I'll fucking allow. Let me and my guests fucking in before I decide to go have a little chat with your manager, yeah?" I arched an eyebrow, leaning forward so he could hear me.

He clenched his jaw, seeming like he was about to snap the clipboard on his hand. He moved to the side and I smiled innocently at him before leading Alex, Alissa and Natalie into the place. Luckily, there was no more security.

"That," Natalie pointed out. "Was a huge turn on."

I chuckled under my breath, getting lost amidst the dancing couples. All of them had their masks on and it was hard to distinguish them, but we had been given a detailed description of the trader's appearance and everything was supposed to run smoothly.

There was classical music playing and I had a faint idea about this ball being for charity, so I guess it must've been a fundraiser or something of the sort.

I was more nervous than usual because we hadn't gotten an exact time to the trade, which meant it could be happening right now and we wouldn't fucking know. Fuck, this was all such a huge mess.

I was worried about Natalie, random people kept crashing against me and the suit was too tight.

Yeah, everything was great.

I unhooked my arm from hers and grabbed her hand, intertwining our fingers before I slid my thumb upwards to her wrist. I felt her veins under my touch and I immediately sighed in relief when her heartbeat pumped against the pad of my finger.

I never thought something like this would calm me down, but I couldn't help it... it just did.

"Hey, dork, I'm alive." Natalie giggled, linking our fingers again. "Are you-"

A sudden explosion followed by screams caught as all off guard. I heard Alissa cursing behind us and I instinctively yanked Nat towards me, slumping her body against my own and holding her tightly while everyone started scattering around.

Natalie's pulse immediately started thumping against my hand and my heart joined, my anxieties rising while I looked around to find out what the hell was going on.

"What the fuck was that?" Alex asked, giving us a worried look.

"I don't know, but-"

Another explosion, this time sounding closer to us.

We should've probably been running by now, but it felt like my feet were glued to the floor. All I knew was that it wasn't a coincidence, this bombs weren't casually going off right when we stepped into the place.

Someone was setting us up.

Who?

"Fuck," Natalie hissed under her breath, standing up straight and tossing her mask. "Fuck... fuck, fuck, fuck! We need to get out of here."

"What's going on!" I yelled up in frustration.

There were chunks of marble and bricks flying around and there was a small fire starting to fuel up while everyone was screaming and running, trying to save themselves. Well, everyone except for the four of us.

I don't know why exactly, but none of us were moving. I felt guilty for all of this people, they were here to have a good time whatsoever and we were ruining there nights. Or at least I think we were the reason.

I just knew those bombs weren't set there accidentally.

Fuck, what if someone died or got hurt because of them? This people were good as far as I was concerned, and now I was back to torturing myself over taking away innocent lives.

"There's an emergency exit right there, come-" Alissa pointed at a door on the other end of the room, but a bomb right next to us went off right then.

I didn't see it coming when my eyes were suddenly closing, everything seeming to be black and blurry. I couldn't focus on anything but the feeling of Natalie being pulled away from me, very far away...

what was that

two more chapters to go everyone!