Niall stood to his feet, his hands covered in Jake's blood. His mind had gone blank the whole time, and as he came back to, he had no clue what he'd done. Shaking his head furiously, he began to tremble. He looked passed his hands and at the lifeless body in front of him.

"Oh my gosh. . ." He backed up and began to absolutely panic, a thousand thoughts running through his head. What to do, what to do.

He hopped over Jake and ran through the orange, dying leaves, ducking under tree branch after tree branch. He came upon the lake down a sloped hill and fell before it to his knees. Tears were streaming down the young boys face as he dipped his hands in the cold water, scrubbing off all the blood.

He knew it had gotten all over his face too, as he felt the clammy, sticky substance on his cheeks. He splashed the water on his face, scrubbing away all the blood there, too.

He even cleaned off the knife as well as he thought he could, staring blankly at the glistening blade. "What did I do," he breathed aloud, shaking traumatically.

Throwing the blade into his camera bag. he stood up, made sure there was no blood on his jacket and rushed out of the forest.

Once he was closer to his house he realized he'd screwed up. He left his bike parked on the hill. He was too freaked out by what he'd done to remember about it before. He stopped and thought about going back and getting it. But he figured it had been too late, and frightened by the thought he could get caught, he decided to come up with a story instead.

He thanked his lucky stars that when he got home his mom had been out with his brother, and not there. He quickly opened the door to the house and ran up stairs.

Niall locked himself in the bathroom and looked in the mirror at the boy he once knew as himself, and he became horrified at who he saw.

He saw himself, only this boys eyes held so much fear, his hair was soaked, face red from the scrubbing. He turned away from the mirror, the trembles now returning. He couldn't take anymore, so he turned the shower on as hot as it would go.

He kicked off his shoes and noticed a little bit of blood on the lace of the left shoe, and he picked it up and tried to scrub the blood away in the sink. But it was already too dried up, it left a visible stain.

Just then, he heard the front door closing. His mom and brother were home already.

"Niall?" his mom called.

Niall breathed in deeply, swallowed the lump in his throat and called back, "About to shower!" He applauded himself at the Oscar-worthy response.

Once he finished showering, he threw on some clothes from the clean hamper in the bathroom and looked down at his shoes. It would be way too obvious had he taken them to the trash in plain sight. He knew that.

Niall grabbed the shoes and covered them with his dirty clothes, finally leaving the bathroom. He looked down the hall and heard his family talking downstairs somewhere. Slowly, he tip-toed to his bedroom, opening the door. He closed it gently and hurried to his bed where he disposed of the shoes for now. He buried them in the far back of his bed, hiding them behind the random junk he kept under there, and he sat back and sighed in relief.

"Honey?" The door opened and Niall's mom revealed herself, worry plastered on her face. "Why are you on the floor?"

Niall jumped up and walked right passed his mom. She quickly followed after him down the stairs. She grabbed him to stop him in his tracks, and he looked at her with fear.

"What's wrong?" she asked in a gentle voice.

"Nothing," he said, as if it was any normal day, and he smiled. "I'm hungry." He walked away from her and into the kitchen, where he found his brother trying to solve a rubix cube.

"Oh, hey bro," Paul said. Paul was 6 years older than Niall, being 18 at the time. He had just graduated high school earlier that year, and was going to college soon. Niall was happy he would be getting a slightly bigger room once Paul had left.

"Hey," he said, sitting beside him at the dinner table where the three of them had beef tacos, before calling it a night.

But Niall couldn't sleep.

He was taking in the fact that he, Niall Horan, defeated the bully.

And it only took him a few minutes.