Day 2        Liam POV          (December 18th 2013)

I strained my head to glance back at my watch. After having to painfully twist my wrist I saw that it was nine o’clock in the morning. It was the start of our second full day in captivity.

I had stayed up through the night again. Around four in the morning I had finally convinced Harry and Louis to lie down. As stubborn as they were they didn’t fall asleep until around five. I was still wide eyed and wired hours after.

The rope bounding my wrists ripped against a new spot of skin as I shuffled around. I bit back a curse.

“Liam?”

I looked up into the newly awoken eyes of a scared girl. Charlotte’s face was just as innocent as always, her chocolate brown eyes gleaming. Her hands clutched at each other to keep warm. I could see goose bumps forming from the cold against her silky porcelain skin. She stared down at the fresh pink and red blood trickling down my fingertips.

“Hey there, love.”

“Did you sleep last night?” She asked a question but already knew the answer. Her eyes blinked at me dazedly.

“I wasn’t tired.”

Charlotte stood above me with her arms crossed. “Why did they tie you up?” She asked. I knew she had wanted to ask since the moment she saw the thick stuff wrapped around my hands.

“I woke up before they wanted me too,” I said. “The dosage of that drug wasn’t enough for my size. They had it measured to your standards. So Harry and I both woke up when they drug us in here.” I took a pause. “We tried to fight them.”

Charlotte took a seat beside me. I waited until she tilted her head towards me, her hair falling down across her shoulder, before I continued to explain.

“There were way too many of them.”

“How many?”

“I couldn’t count. But I know there were at least six… because we were all dragged along by one.”

Charlotte looked to Harry. “Why didn’t they tie him up?”

I smirked to myself at the picture of it. “They did. But the second that they left he managed to slip out of it,” I said. “Mine are just too tight.”

She nodded, finally understanding the situation a bit more. I saw something strange flash across her face. I couldn’t make out exactly what was running through her head. This frustrated me, only because I used to be able to read her so well. But our time apart had given her time to change.

“What’s up?” I asked casually.

She shrugged and stared ahead at the wall thoughtfully. Then she said, “Oh I just had a weird thought…”

“What is it?”

Charlotte made a pinched face at the ground. “It’s just… I just can’t remember if I cleaned the guest bathroom or not.”

I laughed at her.

“Out of everything we have to worry about. You choose that?”

“I told you it was weird,” She said with a light giggle.

Louis rustled from his fetal position against Niall. He sat up straight and rubbed his eyes. Lou glanced around the room dazedly. His gaze landed on Charlotte and me, a sad smile playing on his lips. His short hair was spiked up in crazy peaks.

“Louis,” Niall whined sleepily, “You’re sitting on my hand.” He yawned, his deep growing voice cracking just slightly.

“Oops. Sorry man,” He said as he shuffled around.

Zayn groaned, “Can you all just shut up? I’m trying to sleep. This room echoes.”

“Nothing we can do about that Zayn,” Harry said, making us all realize he had been awake for a few minutes now. “Sorry if our hostage home isn’t up to your standards,” He snapped bitterly.

Zayn made no reply. He only rolled away from Hazza whilst mumbling under his breath.

Niall stood up. He rubbed his face, his shoulders hunched. I ached to do the same.

Charlotte read my mind. “It’s not fair to you,” She said quietly. Her eyes darted to my ropes.

I shook my head left and right. “I’m fine. Really isn’t that bad.”

She raised her brows at me doubtfully.

“Don’t worry about me, love. I’m a big boy.”

“A big boy who still watches Toy Story,” Louis cracked.

I was about to reply.

Harry took all of our attentions then. I was pretty sure he just straight up snapped. It was like it had all just pushed him over the edge. And there was no pulling him back up.

He had jumped up off of the ground, mumbling curses. He brought himself to the door. His hands ran along the seam to find some sort of fault. I knew that he would come up with the same conclusion I had: we were screwed.

He did.

And Harry didn’t take it very well.

With a loud crash his foot collided with the metal door. His knuckles grew white as he went in for another blow. The ringing metal echoed throughout the room like a big brass bell.

No one did anything to stop him.

We all knew he would just keep going.

Harry started to get red in the face. His teeth were grinding together. Time after time again his foot struck that thick door. I felt like I was watching a sinking ship. Charlotte covered her ears with her hands. Probably more to block the mournful and angry noises he was making rather than the loud crashes.

I set my head up against that pole. I closed my eyes and waited.

A strange and distant noise jerked my attention.

“Harry,” I said, my words drawn out and nervous.

He completely ignored me.

That alien noise started to grow louder.

It sounded like stampeding horses.

“Harry,” I said with more intensity. “Harry stop.”

Hazza turned his body and screamed at me, “No Liam. You can’t tell me what to fucking do anymore!” He kicked the door even harder, his jaw set tight. The curls closest to his face stuck to his skin with sweat.

“Harry-”

“Stop acting like you know what you’re doing!” Harry shouted. “You’re just as fucking stuck as we are! You aren’t the boss of me, you know?”

I was in too much of a panic to care about his stupid rant. “Harry stop-”

“NO!”

The noises I heard suddenly stopped: just like I was afraid it would.

They were here.

The door tore inwards. Harry stumbled back at the force. A huge brawny man ran into the room. His eyes watched Harry’s suddenly scared face with anger. He lunged at Harry before anyone of us could react. The man grabbed Harry by the shirt, clenching the fabric in between his fingers. His huge arms easily lifted Hazza up to press his back against the wall.

Another man came in behind him just as the first man pulled a gun. If anyone was going to make a defensive move on Harry’s behalf they definitely weren’t going to then.

Charlotte quickly crawled beside me. Niall stared at her from the other side of the room: his face painted white.

The burly Frenchman growled at Harry in French. I couldn’t understand a single word of what he was saying. He jabbed the gun into Harry’s chest in between his ribs. Harry cringed.

“Ne pas tirer sur lui. Nous ne sommes pas leur faire de mal,” the second man said coolly. Somehow, I knew he was trying to calm his friend down.

The gunman gritted his teeth before dropping Hazza. With two burning green eyes he twirled around to face me. He spoke quickly and angrily.

I caught only one word from his French.

He was talking about Charlotte.

“No,” I pulled against my ropes and growled.

But in only a few steps he was grabbing Charlotte by the neck. The gunman snatched her weightless body from the ground. She made no noise. She didn’t even struggle.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Harry and Niall both make a move. The second man held his hand up warningly. Zayn took Niall by the arm to calm him down.

The barrel of the gun was pressed against the underside of Charlotte’s chin. It sat cockeyed, just waiting to send one of those bullets up into her head. Her eyes stared off blankly into the distance.

“Attendre. Ne rien faire ... encore. Ils vont gâcher à nouveau.” The second man looked to me with a cold hard gaze. He wasn’t the one holding the gun, but I was just as scared of him. “This is a warning. My angry friends can only hold back so long.”

I tried to pull against my ropes.

“Do not test us. We will hurt her.”

“Leave her alone, dammit!” Niall barked.

“Punish me. She didn’t do shit,” Harry said through gritted teeth. His eyes were trained on that shiny black gun.

“We aren’t to hurt you,” The man said seriously. He glanced out of the door, as if telling us a secret. “You are the ransom.” He pointed to Charlotte. “She is not.”

I stared at her in horror.

Charlotte was their leverage.

“Que leur dites-vous?” The man with the gun asked.

I wanted so badly to know what they were saying.

The English speaking guy said, “Laissez-la partir. Ils ont l'idée.”

Whatever it was that he said got the gun to fall from Charlotte’s skin. Before he let her go he stared at her stone cold features. He smirked, making my blood boil. Then he pushed her away from him. She stumbled but caught herself against the wall.

He and the other started for the door.

As the door started to creak close we heard the second one warn, “These people love to cause the pain. Cut the stunts.”

With a loud click and a scratching slide the door was shut.

Niall rushed to Charlotte.

She heard his feet but stayed with her back facing all of us. Her hands were pressed against the wall, her head pointed straight ahead.

“Charlotte,” Niall said softly. He reached out to touch her.

When his hand met her skin she flinched.

I cringed at the sight of his fallen face.

“I’m fine,” She said hoarsely. She tilted her face to be in front of Niall. But her eyes never moved. “I just need a minute.”

Niall nodded whilst biting his lip. “Okay. Okay…” He unsurely walked backwards towards me, leaving her all alone.

Harry looked incredibly regretful.

“I’m sorry.” He took a breath then said again, “I’m sorry everyone.”

I closed my eyes as he started to walk to me.

“And I didn’t mean any of it, Liam.” Hazza sat down beside me. I opened my eyes and watched as he ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. About all of it.”

“It’s okay,” I said truthfully. “We’re all stuck.”

Harry looked down at the ground at the repeat of his own words. “I love you man,” He said with a sad smile.

I wanted to reach out and ruffle his curls. “I love you two, mate.”

Louis and Zayn wandered over to my spot. They sat down in a circle with Hazza and me.

We sat there for a long time. Just closing our eyes and taking a deep breath.  

“He was speaking French,” Louis said as casually as he could. His words broke the silence and the tension.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“I wonder what they were saying,” Zayn said. “It was too fast and too fluent to catch.”

I nodded. “I want to know, too.”

“He told him to wait.”

We all turned our heads at Charlotte’s quiet voice. She was still facing away from us.

“He told him not to hurt me yet,” Charlotte continued.

I blinked. She could speak French?

“Since when does she speak French?” Louis voiced my thoughts.

Niall said from his standing spot above me, “She always has. Just doesn’t show it off.”

Finally, after an hour, Charlotte dropped her arms from the wall. She took a very deep breath and stepped away from the vertical cracking concrete.

Niall tried to keep his eyes trained on me. But all he really wanted to do was go and catch her in his arms. But he stayed still. I did the same. Charlotte needed her space, and we should have been giving it to her.

Charlotte slowly walked over to us.

Her sparkly black Toms patted the ground. Her braid hung over her shoulder.

Charlotte walked to Niall. She brought her eyes up to meet his. Niall roughly pulled her into his embrace. His arms were wound tightly around her. Hers were just pressed against his chest. She closed her chocolate eyes and leaned her head up against him.

I sadly smiled to myself.

We had each other.

That was the most important thing.

We were alright for now.