David shivered in fright as the front door was repeatedly banged. A shriek almost left his mouth as with a loud crashing sound, the door finally broke apart and around ten heavily armed police men came inside.

"I do not want anyone of them to get away from this place, mind you morons, check the house thoroughly and remember that we want them alive." David heard a heavy voice order gruffly.

He was presently hiding in a secret passage just above the kitchen, sandwiched between the first floor and the roof of the ground floor. The passage was nearly five feet in height which led to the underground basement and finally, out of the mansion.

Just some half an hour ago, he had woke up to loud noises in the house. He was curious at first, so he slowly creaked open his room's door, remembering Shawn's warning to not to come out because the four men were "sick in their heads and killed for joy."

Upon peeking from the creak, he found Zayn or "Malik sir", as he had been taught to call him; downstairs looking out of the window, a gun tucked in the waistband of his jeans. He dismissed the commotion totally after that, remembering what he had heard about "Malik sir" being the worst among the four.

But then as the sound of engine revving up was heard, he came downstairs and by the time he was able to actually understand something, he was all alone in the house.

He had believed that they were simply going out on some job. So he simply shrugged his shoulders and decided to take a nap but suddenly a phone rang up.

He had neared the phone, realizing that it's Shawn's and picked up the call after much hesitation, and before he could say anything, a man shouted over the phone, "Don't go towards the city! They are waiting for you there! Go towards the forests! Go now!" And then the line went dead.

Frozen for a second, he stood there looking at the phone wide eyed. Though as the noise of sirens blaring reached his ears, he jumped into action and sprinted towards the kitchen and into the secret passage.

He was frantic to say the least, and just thinking about his younger sister and bed ridden father back at home made his stomach churn in discomfort and his heart ached.

Breathing in sharply, he slowly started crawling as he heard the policemen starting to check the whole house. It was the best if he could get out of this place as soon as possible, for claustrophobia had started to claw him and it won't be long that he would be panting for air.

He could hear the thumping of the boots of policemen above him, as they checked the whole house but a sudden familiar voice from just behind him alerted him and he turned around, only to see Zayn just behind him, looking smug as always.

"Hey kiddo."

David opened and closed his mouth, wanting to speak something, but the realization of not being alone in this situation brought a sense of overwhelming relief flood his body and his throat constricted, and eyes started watering.

"Now, now-" Zayn said with a grimace, "-don't start the waterworks. I hate them with all my guts."

"I thou-thought that y-you people left me." David hiccupped and sobbed.

"We did." Zayn thought to himself, but smiled a convincing smile at him nonetheless, "We never leave our partners behind."

David smiled back cheerfully, not really caring how Zayn even got to knew that he was hiding in secret passage but then again who cares.

Zayn cringed mentally at the sight of David smiling so innocently at him , but he kept himself composed. Clearing his throat lightly, he whispered, " Now, c'mon kiddo, gotta get out."

"Why you're going there?" David asked as Zayn started crawling backwards, "Ain't policemen there?"

"Of course, they are-" Zayn started and then smirked, "Come, it's gonna alright. I have a great plan."

A little confused, David followed Zayn until they were near the opening of the passage in the kitchen.

"Now listen to me and listen very carefully-" Zayn instructed him, "- we are going to get out of the front door, okay?" David nodded at Zayn, "Then, once we get out, I will attract police's attention our way-" David's eyebrows furrowed at this but he spoke nothing, "-then, when they come out, I will run away in the car and you will stay back."

David's eyes widened in shock and he started shivering again but before he could say anything, Zayn intervened, "There is nothing to be afraid of. You will be fine. When they lock you up-" David looked scared and a cry left his lips, making Zayn sigh and place a hand on his shoulder, before continuing, "-show some resistance at first, but when they ask you about where we went, tell them we had been planning to go off to Bradford and also that we were planning to kill someone with a last name Parker by next Sunday. That's it. They will release you. And if they don't, I will come to get you out of that place. Alright? Am I understood?"

David blinked back the tears, and nodded, hoping that Zayn won't go back on his words.

"Good. Let's go, we are running out of time." Zayn mumbled more to himself and started climbing down.

David too climbed down behind Zayn, when suddenly realization struck him.

"They don't know about the ambush."

"Malik sir!" He shouted as they neared the door.

Zayn turned around, looking at him with a funny expression before grumbling and opening the front door, "Not now, when we get out of the door."

David was anticipating to see policemen with their gun raised towards them, but nausea overwhelmed him as he saw dead bodies lying motionless on the ground; some in puddles of blood around them, some with their body parts twisted in oddest angles.

Taking a deep breath in, he looker away, trying his best not to vomit. Then he remembered he is yet to tell Zayn about the phone call.

"Malik si-"

"Don't call me that." Zayn deadpanned before taking a small cubicle box out of his pocket and nearing a car.

"But listen to m-"

"Yeah, yeah, speak. I am all ears." he mumbled, quickly crouching down and fitting the cubicle box under the car.

"Sir-"

"For fuck's sake, do not call me that." Zayn growled, before getting up and wiping his hands.

"Fine. Someone called just after you left-"

Zayn walked back towards a fidgeting David. Time to time, he looked up at the first floor of the mansion, finding it quite odd how no one was out yet. Yes, he had used a silencer on the gun to kill the policemen, but still it made some noise and if not the gun, even then there was quite a commotion outside.

"Are they deaf or something?" He scowled to himself as he had some more blood and bullets.

His attention than snapped towards David, who was fidgeting all the while, the broad daylight attenuating the trail marks of dried tears that ran down his triangular face.

"You were saying?" Zayn asked, grasping his bony forearm and pulling him away from the car, which was about to explode; all the while making a mental note to get him out of the gang the moment this mess sorts out.

"-the person who called, he was shouting. Apparently the call was for Shawn, bu-"

"Quit stalling, we don't have much time. The bomb goes off in some ten seconds." Zayn snapped with a snarl, making David gulp visibly in fear at the sudden mood change.

"O-Okay...the man was saying something about not going to-towards the city-"

Zayn stiffened.

"-that someone is waiting there for you to-to come the-"

"What the fuck, you retard?!" Zayn yelled, taking a firm hold of David's neck, a vein protruding out from his neck as his face flushed in anger; and just at that instance, the car blew up, alerting the policemen inside.

David's breath started laboring, his face turning slight blue due to lack of oxygen, as he saw Zayn loosing his calm, becoming an incarnation of devil himself in mere seconds.

"Are you nuts, you motherfucker? Why you didn't told me this before?" Zayn screamed in fury, shaking David's body like a ragged doll, lifting him off the ground.

David flailed his arms around in the air, coughing and thrashing around in attempts of getting Zayn's murderous paws off his neck.

"Do yo-fuck!" Zayn stopped mid sentence as he realized policemen must be now aware of their presence outside the mansion.

He let go David, who fell down on the ground on his knees, coughing like a hag trying to catch his breath. However, Zayn could not seemed to care much, his pity for him long forgotten as his mind now focused on what to do next.

A/N: So that was nerve wrecking. I hope you guys liked the chapter :) I know the pace is bit slow and we did not have had much of Harry and Cynthia's presence, but the next chapter will surely have both of them.

So stay tuned for the next chapter :)

Thanks for reading xD

P.S. : I might update on this Friday too. So keep an eye out for the notification :)