A nice long chapter awaits if you scroll down. Thank you all so so so much for always coming back to read this story. It means the absolute world to me.
Harry felt aware of the eyes that were watching him intensely. He balled his fists into the tee-shirt of whoever was holding him and he began to rock. Animalistic groans emanating from his mouth. He wailed for the fact that he was like this: reduced to a weakling in front of his family and friends.
"Please. Please can I just be alone?" He whimpered, unable to look at anybody for fear of embarrassing himself anymore, he shook as sobs continued to wrack his body.
"Shhhh, Haz, it's okay. You're not alone, you shouldn't be, let us stay." Dougie whispered into his best friend's ear as he wrapped his arms round him more firmly.
"Baby boy, I don't want to leave you but I understand you're tired. We'll go to the hotel and pop by sometime tomorrow." His mum voiced from across the room where she sat, holding back the tears with all of her might, she was tired, exhausted from the overwhelming emotions that had assaulted her since she'd been at the house.
His dad agreed and together they made their way to the door with their two other children. Danny got up and followed them to the door.
"Danny, thank you, we're more grateful than I think you'll ever know, but I'm so glad he hasn't been alone. You've been the best friends to him. You've helped him. I only hope he gets over this. He's my son…" Harry's mum broke up as suddenly the flood gates holding back her tears broke.
"We'll be back tomorrow Danny, I'm sorry we're leaving you but it was a long drive down and I think that Harry is more comfortable with just you boys. Thanks son." Harry's dad clasped the hand of the boy that he had long considered a son and then gently led his wife outside to their parked car.
"Dan, call us if anything happens or you just want a break from him for a bit, thanks mate." Harry's brother Tom shook Danny's hand firmly, holding the grip just for a second longer while he looked into Danny's eyes, a message was passed in that moment and it conveyed Tom's gratitude.
Once they had gone Danny shut the front door. Resting his forehead against it, just for a few seconds, he could still hear sobbing coming from the living room and so made his way back there.
When he walked into the room he found Tom and Dougie both sat with Harry: comforting him. He made his way over and slotted in beside Tom. Together the four best friends all shed some tears that night.
After about half an hour Harry's sobbing subsided until he was just hiccupping and occasionally sobbing. Tom, Dougie and Danny each chose this moment to look at each other for the first time.
Nobody knew what to say. No words could make this any better. No words could erase the evil that had been done to Harry.
"Harry, would you like to watch a film with us? Like a comedy or something? Just see if it helps take your mind off it all for a few minutes." Dougie said gently to his friend who was still embraced tightly within his arms.
The three waited with baited breath for a response and no verbal one came. The only acknowledgement they got to say that Harry had indeed heard them was a slight nod of the head. Without further ado Tom jumped up and put on Toy Story 1. It was the first DVD he came across and he knew that Harry secretly enjoyed it, although he did moan when Tom usually put it on.
"Harry please talk to us?" Tom whispered while the DVD was loading.
Harry sniffed again, rubbing his sore eyes with the back of his sleeve. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired. But I know that's no excuse. I'm just not good company. I'm bad. I don't know why any of you like me. You don't have to force yourselves anymore though." Harry mumbled, stunning the other occupants in the room, then, with strength that nobody knew he had, Harry heaved himself off the sofa and stumbled to the kitchen.
The other boys sat and watched until the quickly realised what was happening and followed their friend.
What they saw when they entered the kitchen astonished them.
Harry was stood, stooped at the waist with a kitchen knife in his right hand. The hand was poised over the wrist of his other arm. Danny, who was last through the door, bumped into Tom, who had frozen at the sight.
Each boy was caught in a time lock. No one moved and not a sound could be heard apart from their breathing. Just as Harry started to move his right hand Dougie sprinted over to him, deliberately barging him into the counter behind him. There, he held Harry, as tightly as he possibly could. But Harry was still clutching the knife. For a few minute seconds they wrestled for dominance of the knife. During this Harry swiped the knife blade into his hand, cutting it slightly so it bled, he stopped. Absorbed by the sight of the red liquid oozing from the wound and running its way in rivulets across his palm Danny and Tom had awoken from their daze and between them managed to get the knife off Harry before anyone else got hurt. Dougie continued to hold his fighting friend.
Danny took the knife and put it on the furthest counter. Then he turned back around.
"Right, let's watch this movie. Come on Tom, Dougie, let's take Harry through."
Each of them took a hold of Harry and dragged his unwilling body through to the living room.
When they got there, Danny took a firm hold of Harry and pushed him down on to the sofa. Then he sat next to him and said very quietly and menacingly, "Try that again Judd and I will tie you down so you have no choice but to sit still." After that, there was silence in the room, Tom sat on the sofa next to Harry and Dougie went to close the kitchen door, which had a small bolt on it which he pushed home, knowing that Harry could re-open it but it would take a minute, in which time they would be able to stop him. Smiling softly to himself he too wandered over to the sofa.
About 20 minutes into the film, Danny looked over to Tom, together they shared a moment of concerned looks, and Tom reached over to pause the DVD.
Harry was sat, eyes slightly watering, breath quivering still from the exertion of the day, his hands slowly kneading his jogger bottoms.
"Harry, what the fuck was all that about mate?" Danny asked angrily. He had been trying to hold it in, reason with himself that Harry didn't know what he was doing anymore, but then it dawned on him that Harry was sober. No drugs or alcohol were influencing his mind.
Harry knew the questions were coming. But he tried to sit there, drown out the real voices as well as the ones in his head. The ones that, for the entire film so far, had been telling him "Silly ickle Judd baby. Can't even win a battle for a knife. You should have cut further. You know you deserve it. You know that you will do it again and nobody will be able to stop you. You're going to get that knife and slice it down your arm, not stopping when the blood flows out, not stopping when your arm goes cold. You will cut again Harry. And it will be the best relief you ever had. But we won't let you think past that. We won't let you think of the consequences. Because you deserve the pain, the misery, the death."
"Harry, answer the question dammit!" Danny was loosing the battle now. He wanted answers from his friend and he was determined to get them now.
"Dan, lay off him a bit yeah?" Tom tried to control the situation he could see forming. Dougie's eyes were watering and Danny was fuming by the look upon his face. Tom knew that Dougie was angry at their friend, as much as he was but they had to realise that shouting wasn't going to solve anything.
Tom took a tight, firm grip of Harry's left arm, the one with the cut in it. He hadn't yet managed to assess the damage and winced when he was that the cut was fairly deep.
"Harry, this must hurt. I'm going to go and get some things and then we're going to clean it and wrap it and you're going to let us." Tom told Harry softly.
As Tom moved off the couch to get the first aid kit, Dougie fell into his place and gently took Harry's arm yet again. As he looked at the self-inflicted wound he gently asked his friend, "Why would you do that Harry? Please talk to us. We just want to help you."
At this Harry sharply turned his head to face his youngest friend, "You know fuck all about helping me you little shit. If you wanted to help me you would have let me do it. Slice my whole fucking arm off if I wanted to. So no, I don't want your "help" anymore; in fact I want you all to get the hell away from me!" Harry was breathing heavily now, his chest rising with the exertion of having said so much after barely speaking for so long. He ripped his arm away from Dougie's gentle grip and winced when he pulled on the cut slightly. He stood up, swaying at the sudden feeling that assaulted his head. He went to stumble forwards, away from the sofa, but he lost his balance and fell to the floor, hitting his head off the cabinet to the side of him when he fell.
Danny, who could hardly believe the way his friend was acting swiftly moved towards him to try and stop him from falling. He'd noticed that Harry looked unsteady when he first stood up and cursed himself for not being quicker.
Tom, who had been in the kitchen when it all happened, darted back into the room. Dougie was sat crying on the sofa, looking down at their pitiful friend. Danny was crouched over Harry, who was lying on his belly on the floor. Tom couldn't tell if Harry was awake or had knocked himself out.
"Shit. Harry, Harry look at me now. Come on dude; just let me know you're awake. Come on mate." Danny swore, he was scared to move his friend as he knew it could be bad if they had a head injury.
When no response came, he took a deep breath and rolled Harry over, to his side. Then he took in the full extent of the injury. Blood was oozing from the fresh wound on his head.
Next thing he knew was that he had been knocked to the floor. Dazed, he looked up, wondering what the hell had happened and then he saw it.
A little ball of Dougie had propelled into him, pushing him away from Harry, now he was straddling his friend. His two little hands balled into tight fists that were hitting the drummers toned chest and he was weeping heavily.
Tom ran over and pulled the sobbing bassist off of Harry: who was just lying there, looking up at them all.
Danny shook his head. Wondering when it had come to this. Without further ado he moved closer to Harry once more and asked Tom to pass him the first aid kit.
Tom did so and then, while Danny started to patch Harry up, dragged Dougie from the room. They went to the kitchen and Tom carefully pushed his friend onto a chair and then knelt down in front of him.
"Doug, come on, Harry didn't mean that. He's just scared. Half the things he's been saying don't even make sense. We have to get him through this and I know, I know it's hard and scary…" Tom wiped at the tears he had flowing down his pale cheeks and then reached up to the young bassist's cheeks and thumbed his tears away too.
"Tom, I know. I just was so angry. I want the old Harry back. I wish this hasn't happened." Together the two friends broke down. Each crying as quietly as they could together for the way that life had turned out. For their friend who was so damaged and broken and for themselves who were so scared and fearful for what the future held.
After a few minutes they both quietened down and wiped away their tears.
"Ready?" Whispered Tom gently and when he got a slight nod, took hold of Dougie's forearm and pulled him to his feet.
They made their way back to the living room. Danny was still knelt on the floor, applying antiseptic and bandages to Harry's two wounds.
"How's it looking Dan?" Tom asked his friend.
Tom then took some more antiseptic and started cleaning the fresh wound on his head.
All the time Dougie simply stood and watched. He saw that Harry started blinking furiously and then tears started leaking from his eyes. Harry began shaking his head, in an attempt to hold back them back. But Dougie wasn't going to have that. So he quickly walked over and knelt next to Harry's face. He then put a hand on either side of the drummer's face and leaned in. So close that Harry had little choice but to look at him.
Furiously, he told his friend, "You are going to let us clean you up. Then you're going to sit with us. From now on you won't go a second without one of us watching you. We are going to follow you everywhere. You are my friend. I don't hate you Harry. Even after what you called me. I know you're having a shit time, but we don't want you doing this to yourself. Now, Danny, Tom, if you're finished, can we move him?" He asked looking up at their other friends. They both nodded and each took a hold of Harry. Pulling him to his feet and carrying him to the sofa. Once they had sat him down Tom knelt in front of Harry and took a hold of his jaw in his right hand.
"Harry you feeling okay? Don't want to be sick? If you do, that's okay, just tell us and we'll get you a drink and bucket and stuff?" Tom asked his friend, knowing that sometimes head wounds could make people nauseous.
After no response, Tom sighed and stood up, his back giving a small click. He went to the kitchen anyway, getting a tray and loading it with four drinks, some food and in his other hand he got hold of the bin which he quickly emptied.
He went back through to the living room and found Danny curled up beside Harry, keeping a tight grip on his forearm. He looked for Dougie, noticing that he was sat on the other side of the room.
Meanwhile the voices in Harry's head were going crazy. See, they all think you're a loony now. Hahaha Tom's even brought you a bin so you really are in the loony bin. Heheh and Dougie, well Dougie hates you. See, he can't stand to be on the same sofa as you anymore. We're surprised he still wants to actually look at you. You're disgusting to look at.
Tom sat down next to Harry, perched on the side of the sofa. Dougie, too, sensing that both Danny and Tom were looking right at him, also got up and moved closer. He then sat beside Tom and hugged him close.
Danny moved his hand in soft circles on the drummer's back, hoping to calm him down and keep him grounded.
Just as they were about to put the film back on, not that anybody would watch it, it was just a way of breaking the never ending silence, the phone rang.
Tom got up and went to answer it.
On the other end of the line he could just hear breathing and he asked "Who is this? Hello?" As he was about to put the phone down, having received no answer, a voice said something to make shivers run down his spine.
"Tell my favourite boy Harry that I'm waiting for him. I know he misses me. You won't be able to protect him forever Tom and when you fail, which believe me, you will. I'll be waiting and I'll take him from you. I've already taken his mind so there's not going to be much work needed. You're losing him Tom; your poor little drummer friend. Enjoy him while you can."
The phone beeped as it was disconnected from the other end and Tom gulped. He could feel eyes boring into the back of his head and knew that Danny and Dougie were sending questioning looks his way. He didn't have a clue how he was going to tell them what had just happened. But he knew that he didn't want to do it in front of Harry but now he knew he couldn't leave Harry alone for even a second.
"Wrong number" was the only explanation he gave and he knew, by the looks on their faces that neither of the boys believed him. But he sighed and moved back to the sofa. He put the film back on to play and for the next hour or so the four friends sat, their bodies entwined with one another, not a word was said and no more tears fell.
YAY! I really liked writing this chapter. I'm making it up as I go along, without drafts or anything, so I have no idea which way this story is going to go but I think I have a few different ways that are quite good. It may end up having a sequel and even a prequel. But I don't know. I honestly love this story and am more obsessed with McFly now that I think I have ever been. Managed to get tickets to see them on tour! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY *jumps round room squealing* but I got them through somebody else and I'm worried they're not going to be good seats. But then again at least I'm going so that alone makes my day! :') Bring on the 27th March! Whoooo! Anyways, before I get too overexcited thankyou as always for reading and definitely check out blackstar2177's stories…so so good! xx