“You pick out the next movie, I’m heading out for a smoke.” Zayn shouted to Louis from across his flat. After a day full of promo and radio interviews, Zayn and Louis had decided that a proper boys night in was just what the doctor ordered. Since they got back to Zayn’s apartment two large pizzas had been devoured in a fashion that Niall would have been proud of and Pineapple Express and Superbad had been watched.

Exiting out the back entrance to his apartment – for obvious reasons – Zayn pulled out his lighter and a cigarette. He got in two good drags before he heard it. Screaming. Someone nearby was screaming as if they were being murdered. His lit cigarette dropped to the ground as he ran to the front of the block.

What is going on?, Zayn thought as he ran towards the screaming. He followed it to a dark alley next to a dive bar down the block from his apartment. What he saw at the back of the alley nearly made him puke. Nearly. But mostly it just enraged him.

“Oi! Piece of shit! Get off of her!” he shouted to the man on top of the screaming girl. The man turned around, a sick smirk plastered to his face. Zayn sprinted towards the man and ripped him off of the girl – Zayn could see she had passed out – and attempted to deal the man a few harsh blows to the face before the man could escape. But he broke away from Zayn and bolted away from the alley as fast as he could while fumbling with his undone jeans.

From the stinging in his knuckles, Zayn knew he had successfully gotten in a couple punches, but that didn’t matter to him now. Panting, he was staring down at the girl. She was bloody everywhere.

Shit, what do I do?, Zayn thought as he ran his hands hurriedly through his hair. Kneeling down, he gingerly buttoned up the girl’s pants so she was no longer exposed. He looked closer at the girl. Her lip was starting to scab and he could tell she would have two black eyes soon. Her hair was so matted with blood that he couldn’t even tell what color it used to be.

“Fuck,” he whispered, pulling his iPhone out of his back pocket.

“Lou, man, you’ve got to get down here. This girl’s unconscious and she was beaten and raped and you’ve got to help me get her up to my flat so she’s not on the street and fuck man just get down here!”

*

I was drifting in and out of consciousness, although maybe I was just dreaming it all. It seemed like I was floating. But that couldn’t be right, could it? No, people can’t float. Its not natural.

No, wait, maybe I was being carried. My head rolled to the side and I think I let out a groan. Why did that hurt so much? My eyes opened a little and everything was too bright. They shut automatically, the bright light of wherever I was nearly blinded me. I tried again, squinting, and briefly glimpsed white-painted brick of…a stairwell? My eyes swiveled up once more and I could faintly make out someone with brown hair and blue eyes.

Who is that?, I thought before the blackness overtook me again.