𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐈𝐄 - 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

"𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝, 𝐧𝐨 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬' 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡." - 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦

WARNING: somewhat graphic scenes involving death and details of murder. Please read at your own risk. Should you need any support at all, my DMs are always open ♡

Harper found herself walking into hotspur way with her head hung low. She didn't know how she would be able to face Harry and Dele after failing to follow through with her promise. She was going to find them at training to let them know that they didn't have much time left before Howard came to arrest them. The thought of it made Harper feel sick to her stomach. Two innocent men would face potential life in prison and have their reputation tarnished whilst the real killer walks free, searching for his next victim.

"Harry, Dele, can I talk to you for a minute please?" Harper called on the two boys and they left their training exercise with the permission of their coach and the eyes of their teammates on their backs.

Harry approached the detective and he could see by her peaky looking face and the fact that she was avoiding eye contact that whatever it was she was going to talk to them about, it wasn't good news.

"I thought I'd come and tell you both that Howard is building a case against you both and it's not looking good. He'll have a warrant out for your arrest in the coming days." Harper spoke and as she looked up from the ground, she could see the looks of disappointment on their faces.

"I'm sorry." She whispered the last part and Dele placed a hand on her shoulder. She might not have been able to fulfill her promise but she had tried her best and that meant a lot to Dele. Harper, a detective, was the only person among everyone that he knew that was willing to believe that they were both innocent. Everyone else jumped at conclusions.

Dele walked away from the detective and his friend to get back to the training session that had been planned. If Dele was going to end up serving many years in prison, he wanted to savour every moment of freedom and football that he had left. Football had been his first love and it would always be that way. He had been incredibly lucky to be able to pursue it as a career and he was sad that it was ending the way that it was.

"I'm sorry, Harry-" Harper started and Harry could tell that she was beginning to get a bit emotional so he moved her out of sight of everyone else and entered a janitor's closet. It hadn't been used since the training centre was constructed and it was well hidden. Bizarrely enough, it was where Harry liked to come when he needed a minute away from all of his wild teammates.

"You did your best." The London boy whispered, pulling the detective into his chest for a hug.

Harry's heart felt heavy. He couldn't bare the thought of going to prison. It was a scary thought for him but he tried to be hopeful. He had heard of many stories where someone had been wrongly accused and new evidence comes to light a few years down the line. He knew that Harper wouldn't give up on them. She was too good for that.

"You can make it up to me though." Harry spoke lowly, breaking Harper out of her trance. As Harper looked into Harry's eyes, she could see the lust that they held. Considering how Harper barely knew Harry and only had her gut feelings to go by, Harper knew that she liked Harry. If only she could find something that would pass the blame onto someone else then maybe she could get to know him better and explore her feelings.

"Your wish is my command." Harper whispered before attacking his lips with her own. It would no doubt be their last rendezvous for a while and harper wanted to make the most of it.

Everything about it was desperate. They wanted each other badly but both of them wanted to savour the moment for it would be the last one together for a good while.

***
The rendezvous between Harry and Harper was steamy and once they were both done, they dressed themselves and tidied their appearances so as not to draw any attention to themselves. The last thing either of them needed was people hearing about their affair.

"You go out first, I'll tidy up here and then I'll come out later." Harper instructed the footballer and he nodded.

Harry didn't want to leave the closet because as soon as he did, everything was over for him. He wouldn't have any other secret sex sessions with Harper, he would be getting charged with murder and his career would be no more. Something that he had worked so hard for would all be gone in an instant.

Harry opened the door to the hallway and stepped out, closing the door behind him.

Harper propped the unused cleaning products back in their usual place and made sure to leave no trace of either of them.

Peering out of the doorway, Harper found Harry dead in his tracks.

"Harry, you're supposed to leave!" She whisper yelled, wondering what it was that had him so frozen. When Harry didn't reply, Harper sighed and left the tiny room.

As Harper approached Harry, she looked at his face and noticed how the colour had been completely drained from it. She had no idea what was going on. Harry gulped audibly and pointed to the ground.

Lying on the ground was a member of the coaching staff, his head nowhere to be seen. The blood was pooling on the tiled floors and so Harper grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him backwards.

"Listen to me, you're going to be okay. you were with me. That's a solid alibi." Harper spoke to Harry but he didn't hear her. The blood was rushing to his head and all he could hear was a constant ringing in his ears.

Harry was a million miles away and Harper knew it.

a/n: things are spicing up a bit! Following the advice of the spice girls and spicing up their lives (I'm sorry, that was a really bad pun, we can all ignore that).

It's the third of December already! I feel like this year has been really long (for obvious reasons) but also really short. I'm almost finished my first semester of uni already.

This question might be a bit difficult to answer but what's one thing that you'll miss about 2020? There's got to be a positive in there somewhere, right?
- I'm very much a family person and a home bird so if the UK vaccination programme is a success and life returns to normal, I'm going to miss all of us working from home. It will be strange when/if my parents go back to work and not having so much free study time if I end up back on campus.

Enjoy and stay safe!

Lots of love, e x