Zayn's pov:

After the conflict with my parents, I walked straight to my room and locked the door behind me. I wanted to smash everything in front of me and destroy my room. But all of my thoughts slowed down when her face appeared in my mind, and the only thing I wanted to do at that moment was to be with her.

I am still unsure of the reason.

I had tried my best to talk to her the whole day. I called and texted her many times, but after she ran away from the school, and Harry drove her home, she never responded to any of my calls or texts. So I did what I felt was the right thing to do and sneaked out of my house once my parents slept and drove straight to Malory's house.

I stand under her window now, watching all of the lights turned off, leaving the whole house surrounded in darkness. This indicates she might be asleep. I feel bad for waking her up but I severely feel the urge to see her and be in her presence right now.

I pick up a few stones from the ground and hit them one by one on her window to wake her up like I did last time, praying that the window wouldn't smash. But I get no response from her. With a sigh, I lower my head in defeat as my eyes land on my wristwatch that says it's midnight.

She must be asleep.

"Zayn?" I hear a whisper from above, making my heart skip a beat. On hearing that voice, I look to find Malory standing on her rooftop, as she slouches at the corner to take a look at me.

What is she doing there at this time?

I motion for her to come down, but she shakes her head in response. "Please," I say softly, hoping she would listen to me.

She closes her eyes for a brief moment before making her way downstairs to me, making me sigh in relief. "What are you doing here at this tim-" she closes the door behind and, as soon as she turns around to see me, her sentence stops in the middle as she examines my face and I do the same with hers.

"Have you been crying?" we both ask each other at the same time, our eyebrows squeezing together.

She becomes quiet and lowers her head, making me follow her actions as I do the same. "Yes," we both mutter at the same time and look up at each other again. Her eyes seem puffy and heavy, light red in colour which matches her nose as well. I can see the faint glimpse of tears still glittering in her eyes, however, I don't point it out, seeing as I'm almost certain that I am mirroring the same look as her right now.

"What happened?" she asks, her voice groggy because of crying, I assume. But concern is dripping from her tone and features as she steps closer to me.

"I wanted to see you," I lower my head as I slowly speak, fidgeting with my fingers. "Why did you run away today?" I quickly raise my head and ask her the question that I had been wanting to ask her, the whole day.

I watch her bite her lip, quietly, as she looks away from me, closing her eyes. I don't know what I am doing, but I take my hand to her face and gently hold her chin with my fingers, tilting her head towards me.

"Let's go," I speak without a second thought and her eyes open, again showing me the light shade of red in them. Before she can say anything, I grab her hand and guide her to my car's passenger seat. She looks at me with confusion but does not protest or argue. As soon as I hold her warm hand, a feeling of warmth and security runs through me, which makes me slightly lift my eyes to glance at Malory, who is already staring at our hands in silence.

"Where are you taking me?" she asks softly, our hands drifting apart when I close the door and walk over to the driver's side. I take my place there, as I look over at her briefly before I start the car.

"Somewhere safe."

The whole ride she kept her eyes shut, leaning her head against the window, so I did not disturb her, however, I couldn't help but continuously glance at her from where I was seated. The person I was looking at, did not look like Malory at all. The person I was looking at, did not look like Malory at all. The usual anger or smile on her face was not there. It was just a dull face, looking so tired with everything that in that moment, I had wanted to embrace her in my arms and tell her that whatever was wrong would be alright. I wanted to be there for her. I had forgotten what was wrong with me, I only saw her and my problems did not even matter.

"Mal," I slowly call out as soon as I stop the car and look over at her. She opens her eyes and turns her head towards me before her eyes scan the surrounding. Soon her eyebrows knit together as she quickly gets out of the car, leaving me confused behind her.

I rush out of the car and look at her in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"How did you know about this place?" she asks me, her eyes a little wide, her eyebrows squeezed together as she looks at me.

"This is my secret place," I answer her, still confused by her reaction.

Malory's eyes widen a little at my words, a look of amusement forming over her features as she looks away from me. The wind sways her long wavy brown hair, as she admires the lights below us. "Mine too," she says, making my eyes widen now.

I look at her in amusement, a little smile present on her face as she looks at me now. I walk over to her, standing right next to her as we both feel the cool wind hit us in the middle of the night on the hill.

We stand on the hill, with a view of all the houses below in the distance. All of them illuminated with yellow street lights, giving them a beautiful look. But the most beautiful of them all-the Aladdin's set. Just below the hill was a set of Aladdin's stage show, which glowed with colourful lights during the night time. A magic carpet, a little castle, Jasmine and Aladdin, all made with colourful strings of light gave it a beautiful view from above, which could be seen from the edge of the hill.

I turn my head to look at Malory, who is staring at the lights in peace. The full moon from above, illuminating her perfect features; her tear-stained cheeks, her rosy lips and her emerald eyes.

She grabs my hand and takes me by surprise, walking with me to the edge of the hill, when she sits there, hanging her legs, her hand still entwined with mine, as she tugs it and gestures for me to take a seat next to her, so I do the same.

Her stressed facial expressions from before have eased, as she looks calm and peaceful here.

"How do you know about this place?" she asks me, looking at the Aladdin's set below.

I inhale a sharp breath before answering her slowly, "My brother and I used to come here daily,"

She turns her head to me, "My father and I used to come here daily at night," she says, softly. "But-" she looks down at our entwined hands, "-when he died, I still came here every night,"

A frown forms on my lips at her words as I look at her. She still doesn't look up so I squeeze her hand a little, in comfort. "I'm so sorry about that," I say and she looks up at me, slightly lifting her shoulders up and then pulling them down.

"How come I never saw you here?" she asks.

"My brother and I used to sneak out of the house during the early morning hours when everyone was still asleep and used to come here," I say. "The fresh morning breeze when the sun still hadn't come up, it was just perfect..."

"Do you still come here?" she asks and I exhale a long sigh.

"Yeah...but just alone now," I say, looking away from her.

"What happened to your brother, Zayn?" she asks me firmly.

I have never talked about this to anyone. After Shawn died, I never opened up to anyone or talked about what happened- or how my parents killed their own son.

His death left me devastated. He was my only brother, my best friend. The only one I had by my side.

Am I ready to talk about it after four years?

The only person I ever talked to about what I felt was Shawn, I never let anyone after him know what I feel or think. Shawn was my personal diary. Can I trust someone else besides him?

My eyes look up at Malory who stares at me patiently, a concerned expression intact.

The person in front of me is Malory. Even if I want to hide everything from everyone- I can't hide anything from her. My trust for her comes from within and it's been there since the first day I talked to her.

I look at our hands still intertwined with each other. She gives me a feeling of security. Maybe I don't have to hide anything from her. Maybe I can tell her anything and everything without having a fear or any regrets.

I trust her.

More than anyone.

"My brother was older than me, when I was in middle school, it was his last year of high school, four years ago..." I trail off, exhaling a sharp breath. Malory squeezes my hand and I close my eyes before speaking again.

"Before going to college, he wanted to travel the world. Every country that he loved, he had marked all of them on a board in his room and his journal," I say, recalling my brother's excitement whenever he used to talk about his travelling plans, a smile forms on my face at the memory of him.

"He was so adventurous. We used to sneak out of the house every day and discover new places in our town and beyond, especially whenever mom and dad left for their long business trips, we used to explore cities," I say, running out of breath, as I happily chuckle and tell Malory about my memories with my brother. She quietly listens to me, with firm expressions.

"He was older than me, but it never felt like it. It felt as if we were twins, just like you and Harry," I say and a smile comes on her face. Her grip on my hand tightens as my eyes start to get watery.

"On his graduation day, he told mum and dad, he wants to travel the world before going to college. We could afford it too since my parents are very rich-"

"Yeah, the Camaro back there answers that," she stops me in the middle, pointing to my car and a snort comes out of my mouth. Malory laughs with me and I roll my eyes at her, before our laughter dies down, because I'm about to continue.

"They didn't allow him and pressurized him to go to a business college straightway after graduation. He told them that he never liked business but wants to do major in astrophysics," I say giving a pause and looking at the moon above. "He just didn't want to travel the world, he wanted to travel the galaxies,"

A tear drops from my eye, as I remember my brother's excited face when he told me that he is going to tell mum and dad that he wants to be an astronaut.

"They cancelled his world travelling plans and also enrolled him in a business school, telling him that his dreams won't make him successful. They crushed him," a whimper comes out of my mouth and I quickly lower my head remembering how they had hit my brother the night he had a fight with them.

"Zayn..." Malory trails off, squeezing my hands tighter, her other hand finds it's way behind my neck as she slowly strokes my neck from behind.

"He left me a letter that told me to follow my dreams, that he loves me and to forgive him for what he did," by this time I have broken into sobs, as Malory quickly scoots closer to me and engulfs her arms around me, from the side.

"He left that day and went missing for days until one day, mum being an FBI, was called near a railway station as some people had found a dead body," I break into sobs and Malory shushes me, pulling my head onto her shoulder as I bury my head there and hug her, breaking down in her arms.

"They killed him, Mal, my parents killed him, I hate them so much," I whimper and feel her arms tighten around me.

"I miss him so much," I close my eyes when I feel sniffles from Malory before she places a light kiss on my head.

"I'm here, Zayn, I'm here."

~*~

More Zalory in the next chapter. What are your thoughts about this one?

Q: Do you all still think that Zayn's brother is the "Him" Malory keeps crying about? You'll get to know about him in the next chapter.

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Thank you, loves ❤