No Control

“What the hell are we going to do?” Callie sighs, falling back onto the couch.

“I don’t know.. we have two cheerleaders storming through the school alone, a dead principal, and we have no idea where the English and Art teacher are.” I said and looked around. Everyone’s eyes were on me expecting me to continue, but I had nothing else to say.. “I was just summing everything up. I don’t have a solution or an idea.”

Harry rolls his eyes, “Well we can’t just sit here and wait around.”

Niall’s head shot up and he started shaking it frantically, “Oh hell no. Don’t go all Rambo and expect us to start wandering the school in hopes to save the day. I’m happy sitting here next to the alcohol and toys.”

Callie nodded, “Yeah, I’m perfectly fine just sitting here. I don’t know what’s out there and I can live with not knowing.”

Again, I stared between the two of them. I was starting to realize how similar these two actually were.. stupid and cowardly. I inwardly smiled at how ironic it was for a life or death situation to bring these two on the same page. Harry shook his head, it was like he was almost asking for someone to have mercy on him for having to deal with the two.

“Well then let’s all sit here and wait for the fucker to come kill us off one by one. Niall, you set up the keg and the we can play the waiting game.” Harry said sarcastically as he fell back onto the couch.

“Now you’re talking-” Niall smiled and began to walk towards a keg.

“I was joking you damn idiot.” Harry yelled, making Niall slump his shoulders and cower down.

I stared at Harry with amazement, I actually couldn’t take my eyes off of him. He somehow slipped into this ‘fearless leader’ role and I hated myself for it, but I was impressed. For a minute, I wondered if this newfound respect I had for him made me slightly turned on. Then, I remembered I was supposed to hate his guts, so I shook the thought away before my imagination started to run wild.

“He’s right.. we can’t just sit here.” I nodded, looking at everyone.. then back to Harry. He sat with a content look on his face, probably because I was actually agreeing with him.

“Well what do you expect us to do?” Liam asks, and I now knew he was part of the ‘let’s wait this out’ crew.

I thought for another minute, trying my best to come up with a plan. I mean what could we even do? Would we wander the halls until we come face to face with whoever was doing the killing and ask them to politely stop? That would go down about about as well as a nun.

“We need to find the teachers.” I said.

“Mia, do you realize that there is almost no chance at them still being alive?”

“I know, Liam, but what if they are? We can’t just leave them to die. We need to go and help them, and we need to do it fast.”

The more I thought about it, I was getting more confident in my plan. If anyone in this room was in the teacher’s positions, they would want someone to come help them. Besides, I didn’t want anyone here to think that the males were the only one’s capable to do the heavy lifting even though we were all in the same screwed situation.”

“What about Alyssa and Perrie?” Callie asks.

“If we happen to see them out there, we can try to bring them back too. Although, I don’t see that happening. If anything, I’ll just drag Perrie back here, with or without Alyssa.”

“Oh yeah, what the hell is Perrie’s deal?” Niall cuts in, “She seems like an actual human being, all this time I thought she was infected with the same virus as Alyssa.” Almost everyone in the room was nodding their heads, agreeing with him. I have been thinking the same thing all night, and even now I still can’t believe it.

I glance at Dax, who’s sitting with a stone cold expression on his face, clearly overthinking what Alyssa told him earlier, “You alright?”

He jumps out of the daze he was in and looks over at me, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You know, nobody listens to Alyssa right? She’s like the commercials you see on tv, always on but nobody actually pays attention to them.” I smile, and he does a small one back.

He looks at me, almost thankfully, “Good to hear. I might be crazy, but I’m not Hannibal Lecter crazy.”

My smile widened as I saw the humor in his eyes. It was such a breath of fresh air seeing him joke about himself. I glanced over, noticing Harry’s eyes on me, his head was cocked to the side.. clearly he hadn’t missed the exchange between me and Dax. He seemed appreciative.. probably because I was talking to him like an actual human being.. but he had also seemed curious. I was questioning his stare.. he still probably thought I had a soft spot for him and I was on some mission to bang his brother.

I shook my head at him and looked between everyone else, “Alright, well this is the time we separate the pansies from the men. Who’s staying and who’s coming?”

“Hey, I have no problem admitting I’m a pansy.” Niall raises his hand and sits himself on the floor, making it obvious he had no intention of moving.

Callie nodded, “Yeah, I second that. I’ll keep guard of the alcohol.”

I had to resist the urge to scoff sarcastically. I wasn’t at all surprised that she was going to stay with Niall. He looked over at her and gave her an air high-five.

Beside me, I heard a heavy sigh, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with dumb and dumber, I’m sitting this one out.” Liam said.

Harry shook his head like he was disappointed, “I thought better of you man.”

Liam turned to him and threw his hands up in defence, “I was almost out of the door! I wouldn’t even be in this situation right now if I weren’t such a loyal friend, so screw you, and screw anyone who thinks I should go out there to meet my possible death."

Harry had to bite his lip to keep back his laughter at Liam's outburst, “Woah, calm down.. there’s no need to have a Britney breakdown man.” Liam glared at him for a moment, then shook off his anger, and smiled slightly, “Well since I am infact a man and not a little bitch, I’m going.”

Dax nodded, “Me too.” Harry looked at him skeptically, and for a second I thought he was going to actually tell him to stay in the hall, he didn’t though.. he just bit his lip and slowly let out a breath, before turning to me.

“You coming?”

“Just because I have a vagina, does not infact make me useless.”

“Woah woah woah, what are you trying to say?” Callie asks, almost offended.

I ignored her and kept eye contact with Harry. He nodded, and a slight grin started to rise to his lips. He started walking for the door, but when he passed me, he stopped and whispered, “Don’t worry, if you get scared, you can hold my hand.”

“The only way I’d do that is if I was holding it down in a pot of boiling water.”

He was full on smiling now, and despite the fact it was because I just said something harsh to him, and despite the fact we were about to walk out of the doors that were keeping us safe with no promise that we will make it back alive, I still admired it. It was just a smile, but it was Harry’s smile, and Harry has one of the best smile’s I had ever seen.

I honestly hate myself for thinking about him like that. God, what is wrong with me?

“What about you kid?” Dax’s voice snapped me back into reality. I looked over to see who he was talking to, and once again I forgot that Wes was even here.

He looked around nervously, then shrugged, “I don’t mind. I’ll come with you guys if you want.”

His voice was shaky, and I could tell he didn’t really want to come, he just didn’t want to say no. Harry and I looked back at each other, sort of like we were mentally discussing what to do about Wes. I knew we were thinking the same thing, even though we didn’t say a single word. If he came with us, it would almost be like we were babysitting him, and we didn’t have time for that. We were going to be on a mission and trying to keep track of little Wes would only distract us.

I turned to him and smiled, “Actually, that’s alright.. you can stay here with them, thank you for offering though.”

He smiled back at me, and I noticed the relief in his eyes, “No problem.”

“Alright then, come on men, off we pop.” Harry says, making his fingers into a gun and pretending to shoot at the door. He was the first one out, and Dax was the last.

“He just called me a man.” I whispered to Dax, as he stepped through the doorway.

“Let it go.” He nearly pleaded, not wanting to be a referee between the two of us again.

Harry looked around for a minute, then signalled us that it was safe. We followed his lead down the hall, “We’re going to Miles’s office.”

“Which floor is that on?” Dax asked.

“Second.” We both answered at the same time. Harry looked over to me, and we tried to keep in a laugh. We were both all too familiar with that office.

“Been there often?” Dax looked amused, and again Harry and I tried to keep from laughing.

“I think I’m in there more than I am my actual classes.” Harry admits, and I agree.

As we neared the office, I could practically feel the tension in the air. I sensed the nervousness lingering between the three of us. Now, I was seriously regretting not bringing some type of weapon with me.

“What are we going to do if he’s still in there?” I asked Harry.

“Well, we either run like hell, or I’m going to throw you at him while me and Dax make a break for it.” He answered, not even bothering to look at me. Then, after a few seconds he turned to me with a smartass grin plastered on his face, “Actually, considering the size of your ass, I’ll probably waste too much time trying to pick you up.”

It was a habit to punch him when he would make those type of comments about me, so I did. I drew my fist back and decked him in the arm as hard as I could. He let out a loud groan and I suddenly realized our silent entrance was out of the window now.

“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Dax yelled in a whisper. Not like that mattered anyway, if anyone was around, they knew we were too.

“Help!” We all snapped our heads at the female voice.. that was surely Ms. Roberts.

We bolted down the hall, considering the call for help was nowhere near the principals office. In the distance, there were two figures stumbling out of some classroom.. well, one was stumbling.. the other was out cold. Ms. Roberts was trying with everything she could to keep Mr. Clark from falling on the floor. One of his arms was slung over her shoulder and her free arm was wrapped around his waist.

“I can’t hold him anymore,” She called to us once she noticed us running. When we reached her, Harry and Dax each took one of Mr. Clark’s arms and wrapped them over their shoulders.

“What the hell happened?” Harry mumbled, while trying to adjust the passed out teacher.

“He came for us. When we got in, none of the landlines were working. Nothing was, and when we were about to leave, the door opened and he was there-” Ms. Roberts explained all with one breath. The tears were coming down now and I debated on hugging her or something.

“Why didn’t he kill you?” Harry asks.

She was still breathing heavily, and her tears have not subsided, “He came in and the first thing he did was knock him out-” She said, pointing at Mr. Clark, “-and after he played that song down the announcement system, I took advantage of him being distracted and hit him in the head with the laptop.”

I was surprised at the tiny blonde woman who doesn’t look like she could hurt a fly, and apparently so was Harry, who was staring at her with a smile of admiration, “Good girl.” He said.

“Wait, so is he still there?” I ask.

Ms. Roberts shook her head, “I don’t know. Once he was down I grabbed David carried him to this room since it’s the only one on this floor with a lock.” She told us. I was having an internal debate with myself, and I stopped walking.. the others turned to me and looked at me like I was crazy.

“Mia, what are you doing?” Dax asked, his voice was urgent, I knew they wanted to get back to the hall while they still had a chance, but I couldn’t go without an answer just yet.

“We need to find out if he’s still in there.” I said, “What if he’s still passed out and this is our chance.” I don’t know why I’m suggesting this right now, I was apparently channeling my inner Lara Croft or something because I could feel the nerves all over my body screaming at me, telling me I’m an idiot for wanting to do this, but I had to

“What if he is? What are you going to do?” Dax was challenging me right now, but I don’t blame him. I probably sounded completely mental right now. I hold my laughter back at the irony.

“I don’t know, but we need to do something. If she knocked him out, maybe we could tie him up and get the hell out of here.”

“Look, let’s just get him to the nurses office, because judging from the blood on his head.. something’s cut open up there. Plus, she could use an ice pack on her face as well.” I looked over at Ms. Roberts and saw the big purple bruise beginning to form under her left eye.

“We need to che-”

“I’ll come with you alright? Let’s just get them to a room with a lock and medical shit first.” Harry cut me off, and began walking towards the stairs.

I followed behind up to the third floor, where the nurses office was. Since our school was considered to be ‘rough,’ there were two nurses in the school, but the other office was on the first floor, and on the opposite side of the school. Truthfully, it wasn’t even headaches and stomach bugs that our nurses here dealt with.. it was more-so black eyes and pepper sprayed tears.

Once we reached the nurses office, Ms. Roberts took a single key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.. I’m guessing it was a master key to every door in the school. Inside, the brothers rushed for one of the beds and slung Mr. Clark onto it.

Harry turned towards Dax with a serious look on his face, “Stay here and lock the door behind us. Also, find something to fix his head and her face.” He widened his eyes once he realized how the words came out and snapped his head to Ms. Roberts, “Not your face, I mean there is nothing wrong with your face.. I was talking about the bruise, not your actual features. You’re hot, so it doesn’t need to be fixed.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm to stop his rambling, “Come on Romeo,” I said and pulled him out. With one final look over my shoulder, I pointed to Dax then the door.. “Lock it.”

When we were in the hallway, Harry was staring at me with an annoyed expression, “I just wanted to explain that it wasn’t supposed to be taken how it sounded coming out.”

“I knew exactly what you were doing,” I scoff and I begin to walk down the stairs. That asshole was trying to hit on the art teacher even though we were currently in the middle of a fucked up situation.

“Is that jealousy I hear in your voice, Elliot?” He asks, following me down the stairs.

“No, that would be judgement that you hear. Judgement that you’re still trying to dip it in even when we’re stuck in the middle of this shitty situation.”

“Don’t judge me.. this shitty situation is exactly why my little guy wants to join the party. What if this is our last night alive? He just wants to explore new places.” I groan in disgust, and he looks at me almost seriously, “Sex is like a reflex for people, especially in life or death situations, like this one here.”

I shake my head, “No, it is a reflex for pigs and slime balls,” I counter, “The rest of us normal people concentrate on the more pressing matter, like staying alive.”

Harry scoffs, “Little miss high and mighty over here eh? Actually-” He turns to me and cocks an eyebrow, “Tell me miss not so high and mighty, who had the pleasure of deflowering you?”

“Mick Jagger.” I say in a completely serious tone.

“You dog Mia! He’s so old.” Harry replies, pushing my shoulder playfully. I couldn’t help my smile as he went along with it, I knew he was going to press the matter.. but I was thankful that he didn’t right now.

“Yeah, well that didn’t seem to slow him down.”

“I bet.. tell me though, did his neck look like his balls? You know, all wrinkled and shriveled up..”

“At one point, I got confused and didn’t know which one was which.” I say, and Harry bursts out laughing, I couldn’t help but to join in. We were about to check an office to see if a murderer was in it, but we actually end up making Mick Jagger sex jokes. That probably says a lot about us as people.

We soon end up reaching principal Miles’s office.. actually, I guess you could say principal Miles’s old office, and we stop beside it. Harry takes a step in front of me, one of his hands reaches back and he pushes me completely behind him. I expected his hand to drop as soon as I was where he wanted me, but it didn’t. He kept it there as we slowly moved towards the door.. if I wasn’t so nervous, I would have probably slapped it away by now.

Harry reached the door frame, and since the door was already wide open, he peeked his head through, and slowly made his way inside. He took his hand off of my side, but kept it behind him telling me to keep a safe distance. Again, if I wasn’t so nervous I would have probably slapped him for being so protective and caring. I can protect myself. When he lowered his hand, I moved up next to him.. both of us scanned the room.

“Holy fucking shit!” I gasped. Principal Miles was laying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood, which came from the huge slash on his neck.

“That poor bastard.” Harry muttered, shaking his head as he stared at the body. I was actually a bit surprised when I heard the bit of compassion and sadness in his voice.

Ladies and gentleman, Harry Styles infact does have a heart.

“Come on, let’s look around and see if there’s anything we can use. Don’t step on him or anything.” Harry says, and nudges me before walking over to the desk.

Well, there goes the heart theory.

We both move around the room as quietly as possible. We didn’t even need to say it to one another, but the killer has been long gone. I don’t know what we’re even looking for, but Harry was going through the principal’s desk, throwing things out that were useless. I moved to the side of the room, furthest away from Miles. It creeped me out, not going to lie, being in the same room as a corpse and all. I would be so screwed if I was a CSI agent or something. I would take one look at a dead body and would probably show my breakfast to anyone in the same room as me.

I looked around the room, still not quite sure what exactly we were looking for. Did he mean clues?

What, were we now apart of the Scooby gang?

“Jackpot motherfuckaaaa!” His voice filled the room, and I was just about to comment on his awful wanna-be American accent, until I noticed we may have actually hit the jackpot, because in his hand was a butterfly knife.

“What the hell is Miles packing?” I ask, not believing he has one of those knifes,”Why the hell does he have that?”

“He was secretly a member of some warrior gang back in his younger days,” Harry joked, rolling his eyes, “It’s in a drawer with a bunch of other crap that he must have confiscated from kids.” I felt completely dumbfounded when he told me that, I actually believed that he kept a knife in his desk just for the hell of it.

I walked over to stand beside Harry, laughing at the random crap in the drawer, I picked up a purple bra and looked at him with an amused expression, “I’m guessing this had something to do with you?”

“It’s not mine if that’s what you’re asking.” He smiled, grabbing it from me, “Think we can use it?”

“What as a weapon? What are we going to do with it? Ping the killer to death?” I ask sarcastically, and the smile on his face widened. Like always, his smile throws me into some false reality where it’s only the two of us and nothing else seemed to matter.

“So that’s a no for using it then?”

“Well.. I can use it. Not sure if it will do much good for you.” I say pointing at his chest.

He thought for a minute, looking between my chest and the bra, before shaking his head, “No, you couldn’t use it either.”

I looked at him confused, “I couldn’t?”

“Nope, there’d be too much free room.” He snickered and poked one of my boobs. I slapped his hand away faster than I probably ever have and glared at him.

“No sampling the goods, Styles.” I snapped.

“What? I can’t try before I buy?” He asks innocently, and drops the bra back into the drawer.

“You’re banned from this shop, pretty boy.” I tell him, and I see the corner of his mouth twitch up. His eyes lowered on the girls again, biting his lip, and I resisted kicking him in the nuts.

“Too bad.. I’d be the best customer you’d ever have.” He muttered.

I punch his arm playfully, “You do realize that your metaphor just turned me into a hooker right?”

He looked down at me, thinking his last statement over and began to laugh, “Oh yeah.. it did.”

I shook my head in amusement, then turned to look at the desktop. There were a bunch of papers scattered over it, all dotted with red from Miles’s blood. I also noticed how the laptop Ms. Roberts struck the psychopath with was placed back on it.

I looked to Harry and sighed, pointing at the laptop which was now on the start-up screen, “He must’ve cleaned up before he left.”

His eyes traveled to the screen and his face scrunched up, “Why would he do that?”

I shrugged, not having any clue. Leaning into the laptop, I studied it.. looking for anything that could hint at a clue or something. The Scooby gang vibe was strong right now. Suddenly the screen went black, and I jumped straight at Harry. His arms went around me, and we watched the screen.

Letters began to appear, like they were being typed.

‘Stay tuned viewers. Thirty minutes until showtime.’

Notes