Music;

Bad moon rising (Cover by Mourning ritual)

What makes you beautiful ( One Direction)

Smooth Criminal (Michael Jackson)

While my guitar gently weeps (The Beatles)

I'm yours (Jason Mraz)

Please vote and comment:)

I slept so hard; I didn't know where I was when I woke up. The room was foreign to me and I had a little panic attack before I recognized Niall's room. I saw his sweater hanging from the chair, when I turned to the other side, I took a deep breath and inhaled Niall's smell from the pillow. My heart slowed down and I relaxed. I was safe, I wasn't back in my childhood-bedroom. I sat up slowly, my head had a guy banging on it. I touched the side that had the bandage on, it was warm and tender. A ping from my phone interrupted my wallowing, it was Lewis. "Update please"

"Tender, sore, head hurts. I haven't looked in the mirror yet, it'll probably crack. But alive 😊"

I groaned when I saw that it was past noon. No wonder I felt like shit, I had been asleep 14 hours. First things first, I had to use the bathroom. I spent half an hour trying to wash up without it hurting too much. I put off looking in the mirror as long as I could and gave a wince when I finally got the courage.

I was swollen and the parts peeping out from under the bandage were all kind of sickly colours; blue, purple, yellow, even green. I resisted lifting the bandage, I've seen enough. A tear sneaked out and rolled down my cheek, but I wiped it away before it hit my chin. No crying for this asshole. I felt fear bubble up, but I pressed it down quickly, I was done being afraid. I'd endured a year in purgatory, slipping out of it right before the gates to hell opened. I could deal with this as well. I straightened my back and met my stare in the mirror. "You've done it before, you can do it again." Then a knock on the door came and I almost pissed my pants. My terror turned over to laughter as I just proved to myself that all I told myself was a piece of bullshit.

"Carolin?" Niall's voice was hesitant, having heard me laugh. I turned the lock and opened the door. He was a sight for sore eyes. The girl ending up marrying him had to be the luckiest alive. Blue eyes met mine and I saw worry in them. He reached for me and I took his hand.

"Are you ok? Shall I get you some painkillers?" He took a step towards me, "Sorry for leaving, I had to work. But I left you a note." He glanced at the bedstand where I saw a piece of paper. I smiled, or tried to, my face wouldn't respond properly. Niall wrinkled his nose, and I had to laugh again. "What are you laughing about?"

I went to sit on the bed, "Here I am, in the room with Niall Fucking Horan, every girls dream come true." I pointed to my face, "and I end up looking like this." I tried to stop my laughter because it hurt to smile. Niall laughed too, although lower than me, then he dragged the chair over so he sat right in front of me. He took his right hand and laid it on top of my left breast.

"You are beautiful, inside and out. Don't ever think that I would see anything other than your soul."

I inhaled and looked up. "Not this, not now." I said to myself. I didn't want to feel right now, if I let one emotion in, the rest would follow.

He kissed me gently, soft, warm lips, that tasted of tea. I blinked furiously to get rid of the tears before they fell.

"Hungry?" He helped me stand. "If you have anything that doesn't need so much chewing?" Niall laughed, "I'll chew it for ya, babe."

I hesitated before entering the kitchen, knowing that they would stare. I had to think at it as I was up on stage, I was used to people staring at me. I nodded at Niall and we went in, hand in hand. The chattering died away, and the four boys stared at me. I raised my head and flung my hair over my shoulder. Louis was the first to speak, "Jeezes, Caro, you look like shit." I had to smile and bit my lip when that hurt. "Don't make me laugh, please." I said while laughing. Harry looked disapprovingly at Louis, "Don't listen to him, sweetheart, you look amazing. I would have booked a lapdance with you anytime." He smiled sweetly and I thanked him, happy for his lies. Zayn just shrugged and said he had seen worse before he continued eating. Liam hadn't said a word, he just stared at me. He stood from the chair and came over to me. I felt Niall pull me closer to him, was he going all alfa on me?

Liam stroke my good cheek. "You do realise we need to kill this guy, right?"

I couldn't tell if he was serious or not.

"I'll do it myself" I said and gave a smirk.

"Coffee?" Harry asked me and held up the pot, distracting me.

I was afraid that my stitches had loosened, I laughed so much during the lunch. I was sitting with my coffee cup when a lady knocked on the doorframe. She looked at me, "The police are here, asking for Carolin?"

"That's me" I affirmed and stood. "is there a place where I can talk to them?" Liam rose from his chair , said he could lend us his office and led the way out. I gave Niall a quick peck on the lips, not bothering to be discreet anymore.

DCI Lantry was waiting in the hallway, looking at the big house. He too winced when he saw me but pulled his face together. "Miss Fraser" he gave me his hand to shake. "Lantry. Thank you for coming down here." I had asked that, mostly because I was afraid of leaving the house, but I had blamed the pain. Liam introduced himself, and Lantry smiled. "You're my daughters' favourite, I don't know how many Liam dolls she had." Liam blushed slightly but thanked him. "I'll send with you an autograph, just promise to get this bastard." Lantry looked at me and nodded grimly.

The office was a big room, with a desk and two sofas. I sat down in the one sofa and Lantry sat in the one opposite me. "I read the report from the hospital. You're lucky he didn't hit you harder." I nodded; the nurse had told me that. Lantry looked at his notes; "This Mark guy is a difficult person to find. As much as we could see he hasn't a spot on his criminal records, and he has a registered address five hours away from here, but its just to a post box, not an actual house or apartment. We talked to your mom" He stopped when he saw me flinch, I waved him on. "She claimed she hadn't seen him since he turned 18. He lived with her for two years after his father died and then he moved to go to school. He got a part of his inheritance when he turned 18."

Lantry gave me a photo; it was a headshot, probably from the driver's license. I took it and looked down at the boy. He had changed some since I last saw him, you tend to do that between the age of 14 and 20. I couldn't say if I had seen him or not, unless I gave a private lapdance, I didn't really pay attention to the customers. He wasn't one of the regulars anyway. I shrugged and gave the photo back. He laid it on the table, "Keep it, show it to the others and ask them to be on the look-out."

"I don't think I have seen him, but if he's been in the bar he could easily go undetected. And I wouldn't have recognized him if I had seen him." I walked over to the window, "he was just 14 the last time I saw him."

"Have you gotten any more texts or photos?" I shook my head, "No, it seems he have progressed beyond that."

Lantry looked like he wanted to say something but was uncertain on to how to put it.

"Spit it out", I said with a soft voice.

"It is a bit...troublesome. When he goes from sending you roses and pictures, to the heart in the car and throwing a brick at you, in so short of a timespan."

He had his hands on his knees and moved them to and fro. "It seems he may be building up to something. Something bad."

I sat down again. "Like killing me?" My voice was monotone, shutting off. Lantry didn't answer my statement. "I have ordered a police-car to stay outside here 24 hours. I will also give you an alarm that goes straight to the station and to the police-officers in the car if you push it." He stood and pointed outside. "Don't go anywhere. If you must, then call me first and I'll fix a police-escort."

My head turned; this went really serious really fast. "You hear me? If anything happens that's not normal, push the alarm."

My breath went erratic, nothing was normal. I was a stripper, staying with One Direction, being stalked by my stepbrother, whose father had abused me. I could push the button right now.

Niall entered the room, it seemed he had a landline to my heart, like he could tell when I needed someone. He glared at Lantry, mad because it seemed he had upset me. Lantry didn't care, he just finished his speak while Niall sat down beside me and laid his arm around me. "You all need to be careful. If you are going to stay here, up the security. Show the picture to everyone staying here." Niall looked confused. "What picture?" I nodded to the table. He lifted it up and paled. "Is this your stepbrother?" He swallowed visibly.

Lantry gave a short nod while his piercing eyes examined Niall. "He was here. Just this morning. Fixing some electrical thing down in the studio." I couldn't speak. Lantry was on him like a dog. "You're sure?" Niall looked at the picture again, "Yes, he had a cap on, but it was definitely him. I saw him through the window to the booth. He stopped and stared at us, but I didn't think much of it, people tend to do that." He let his hands glide through his hair. "Did you talk to him?" Niall shook his head; "No, but you can talk to the guys in the studio, they will know more than I do." Lantry strode through the door and we had to run to catch up. Niall looked at me with wide eyes and I said with a low voice; "Apparently this bitch is potentially very dangerous." Niall squeezed my hand hard. We held hands all the time and usually I didn't realise we were doing it, it was so natural.

Lantry stopped in the hallway, not knowing which way to go, Niall pointed him in the right direction. The guys were working on editing a song when he burst through the door. They stopped, shocked by the blunt interruption. Lantry held the picture up, "Have this man been in here today?" The youngest one squinted towards the picture, then gave up and took it. "Yeah, he fixed our mixer." He gave the photo to the other tech, who just nodded. "Did you leave him alone at any time?"

"No, we were here the whole time, he chatted away when he worked. Nice guy, seemed to know his shit." Lantry looked around the room. "Did someone follow him out?" The two looked at each other. "No, he said he'd find his own way out."

Niall and I stood still at the door while this happened, not sure what was going on, just knowing it was bad. Lantry closed his eyes for a second. Then he stormed out the door, nearly pushed us out of the way. We followed him of course, and saw him stopping every person he met, asking them if they had seen the man on the photo. The fourth person nodded and pointed upstairs. "I saw him going up the stairs, and then when he came back down maybe 15 minutes later." The girl was frightened by the intensity of the questioning. "He was up there the whole time?"

"Yes, I was down here cleaning the windows." Lantry ran up the stairs, leaving the girl stunned. This felt like a goose-chase, as Niall and I ran after him. At the top, Lantry stopped abruptly and took a hold of my arm. "Where have you been this morning?" I pointed to the door to Niall's room. "I was asleep till noon, and then Niall came to get me for lunch." Niall took a key from his pocket, "I locked the door as well, not wanting anyone to wake her up." That seemed a bit drastic, but I knew I could have opened the lock from the inside. The inspector clapped Niall's shoulder. "Good thinking. Now we have to find out what he did here those fifteen minutes." He looked around, "Are there any rooms that are not locked?"

Niall thought about it, "The guys' rooms stay locked while we are not there, you'll never know what people will do. But there are some social rooms that are unlocked." He showed the way and opened door after door. Lantry made us wait outside while he went in and checked the room. For what I wasn't sure. It felt like I was watching a show, not thinking about the fact that the bad guy was after me. Niall opened the third door, "Here we keep equipment, things that we didn't fit in our rooms and so on." Lantry flipped the switch and bright light showed us suitcases, clothes, sporting-gear, and guitars. Or guitars and one that had been a guitar but was now in pieces on the floor. "FUCK" Niall swore. He rushed in before Lantry got to stop him. Niall picked up a piece with strings on. He looked at me, fury in his eyes. "My Taylor-guitar. I've had this since the beginning. God damn it, fucking bastard."

I wanted to go and comfort him but the fact that this was all my fault stopped me. The tears started dripping, I wouldn't cry for myself, but I could cry for Niall's sake. Lantry moved a piece with his foot. Underneath it a flash of red appeared. He bent to pick it up and gave a low "damn it" under his breath. He continued to move the parts and ended up with three red roses.

Niall picked up something as well, a note.

"Roses are red

Violets are blue

Neck's broken

Next time might be you"

He tossed the paper back on the floor. "I wouldn't hire him as my song-writer." I pointed to the piece. "You do realise that it is you he's threatening now?" Lantry gave his approval; "I don't think he picked your guitar on a whim. If it's a known thing that you play on this piece?" Niall nodded, "it was one of the first expensive guitars I bought."

I threw my hands in the air, "This is enough. I can stay at a hotel, if you can arrange it so I can stay under a pseudonym?" Lantry nodded. I saw Niall opening his mouth, ready to argue. "No, you can't be my knight in shining armour every time." I blinked. "Not when you are being threatened as well."

I could stand myself being on the line, but not someone I cared about. Niall darkened at my words. "This isn't about being a knight, I don't see you as a damsel in distress." I forgot about Lantry, and stepped over to Niall, angry. "Sure you do, how else do you explain this relationship? I am not someone you can save and then send on your way when you go on with your fancy life".

Niall, always this happy go lucky Irish lad, was mad. "How do I explain this relationship? I explain it with feelings. Real feelings. I sit up and watch you sleep, I pray to God that you are safe, I can't relax when you're not with me. When I kiss you, I try to memorize the feeling because I know you'll shut me out eventually. You're like the Ice-Princess in the fairy tales, not showing emotions. Fucking hell, you were abused by your stepfather and now his son is stalking you, harassing you, and you just act like it's someone else it's happening to."

I clicked. "I do what I have to do to get through this, you don't know how it was. Having his fingers inside me, checking if I was still a virgin. Making me stroke him so I would know when to stop if the boys in my class made me do it. Touching my breasts to see if they had grown. All while I knew that this wasn't normal, but I didn't stop it. If I need to be cold to forget that; I will be. No feelings are better than those feelings." I couldn't see because of the tears flowing. "I don't need anyone to save me. No one saved me back then and I made it through it."

I felt Niall's arms around me and I pushed him away, but he kept holding me. "Baby, baby, darling, macushla. I don't want to save you. I want to love you. But you have to let me."