It had felt like an eternity since that metallic thunder had come ripping through the house. In truth it had been about five minutes, but as Niall and Will clutched each other, gazes locked on the door at the top of the stairs, they knew it was only a matter of time before this moment of being frozen in place would come to an end.

Niall swallowed hard at the lump in his throat, the noise seemingly breaking the bated spell and calling their focus back to the present, shaking them into some form of action.

Will was tempted by the urge to call out for Jess to see if she was alright, and yet somehow he already knew the answer. Everyone at this point has seen too many horror movies to know what was expected, what was going to happen, and yet no one really knows how to react when you suddenly find yourself in one.

"I don't suppose we can hold out here and wait for all of this to blow over?" Niall whispered, his voice barely audible above the sloshing of water below. In a grim display of humour, Will couldn't help but give a stifled chuckle at the situation and Nialls words. He suddenly found himself in a midst of confusion with a very, very, prevalent streak of unfairness.

Regardless of whether Niall means his actions, or is just acting out because he doesn't want to be slaughtered while single, for the first time in ever he reciprocated Wills feelings. He accepted him and kissed him back, kissed him first in a manner that struck like the time at the party but thousands upon thousands of times more wanting. Like lightning in the dark, and he held him. They clung to each other not only like it was the last thing they were going to do, but because it was the only thing they wanted to do. So Will should be ecstatic. And he was. The only way he could be happier was if the pair of them weren't at the heart of a massacre and were patiently waiting for their time to die.

But that was the point. They are at the heart of a massacre. There was someone up those stairs giggling as the light left the eyes of his friends, and they were waiting. They were prepared, on home turf, and undoubtedly new the pair were down here.

Will was frightened. Although curiously, he was not as frightened as he thought he would be. It was a low tremor, an echo from a distant room, reminding him of what might be lost should he die. It struck deeply, vibrating his bones. But equally as vibrant was courage. Or was it purpose? He couldn't be sure, he just knew there was a confidence now. A certainty in his need to protect the man in his arms. He learned in that moment that he was quite happy to die for that. To die trying. If he had the time, he would ponder on the strangeness that came with an acceptance of his own, possibly soon, death. On what it meant.

Niall found comfort here. Despite the situation; the throbbing of his mangled leg, the knife wielding, trap-making, maniac upstairs: Niall found himself almost at peace. He couldn't quite place it, but he had a strange feeling that it was Will that made him feel this way. His hand just seemed to fit perfectly with his own, his arms the perfect length to be snug but not restricted within. The weirdness Niall felt didn't seem to go away in the slightest. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't an idiot, he knew he had feelings for Will. In a horribly, daunting way that the time passed, by folding in on itself all up to this moment: he felt like he always did. The feelings were always there, like the near silent ringing of silver bells at the base of his skull. Probably right next to the sign that read: "You're an idiot."

It all seemed to come so natural. To fit so perfectly, that he hadn't even thought about the implications of the pair of them being men. While this was by no means a weathered relationship, or even if it was a relationship at that, he expected a little more awkwardness about these sorts of things. Being as they're both men, he thought their would be a subliminal, silent, fight for a certain type of unspoken dominance. There were things you were expected to do, expected to say as a man. Kiss first. Take the lead. Pretend you know what you're doing at all times. Yet, he felt none of that from Will, and found that he himself wasn't leaning to do it either. It just didn't seem needed. They just were.

The pain was dull, pulsing with each heavy footstep, it ached in spiderweb like patterns around his inner thigh and up his side. Niall wasn't quite sure he could feel his foot on that leg until accidentally knocking it against a step and immediately causing a painful static to fizzle upwards. He had one arm around Will's shoulders as Will hooked him around the waist in an attempt to take as much of the weight as possible.

They had no doubt that they had not traversed the stairs with any name to the word stealth, yet they still felt the need to open the door slowly, and peek out the crack that had formed. Wills eyes found the pool of blood that seemed horribly perfect in its puddled shape, but he couldn't seem to see any sign of Jess or the killer.

Together they managed to shuffle into the living room. Everywhere seemed to be on lock down still which meant, unless there was an emergency escape somewhere, they probably weren't getting out until they found a way to unlock them. After getting Niall situated on one of the arm chairs that allowed the widest view of the room, they looked around for some form of console. A security pad or something of the like.

That was when Wills eyes landed on her. She poked her eyes around the corner, frightened wide like they might never close again. Her hands were caked in flecks of dried blood, pale where she had wiped them on her clothes. Will gave a quick, wary look around, before gesturing for her to come closer.

"Emma it's clear." He whispered beckoning her with open arms. Cautiously, she tip toed around the edge, like a deer after a close call with a hunter. Once she had made it two feet from her starting position, she broke out in to a scrambled, low-to-the-ground, run. Throwing herself into heaving sniffles as she buried her nose into Wills chest. Emma did her best to muffle her cries as Will enveloped her and held her close, swaying gently with a hand at the back of her head in an attempt to soothe her.

After a minute or two he led her over to Niall, causing her to almost break down once again as she fell upon him too with a hug. Although immediately recoiling, and whispering an apology, when he hissed at the sudden weight to his leg.

"Have you seen anything?" Will asked, taking extra care to make sure his back was to a wall and he could see as much of the house as possible.

"No." She shook her head "I panicked when I heard Jess scream for help and I hid in a cupboard. When I thought the coast was clear I came out and... I-I found Jennifer upstairs. Oh god, what is happening? I don't wanna die!" She sobbed, doing her best to hold herself together.

"Listen, we need to get out of here--"

"What about the storm? Even if it has stopped pissing it down, it's most definitely still flooded." Niall interjected.

"I can walk through thigh high water, I can't walk through multiple stab wounds."

"Good point."

"Emma, this is your house right? How do we get the shutters up?"

"The master bedroom has a security pad next to the light switch on the left side of the door... Assuming we can get to it before the backup generators run out, we should be able to open them from there..." She answered, her voice little more than a squeak at first but gradually gained in confidence, from not knowing what was going to happen to suddenly having a plan, a direction, gave her focus.

"Back up generators?"

"When the flood worsened it knocked out the power. But the generators are state of the art so we didn't notice, and they're off the ground. I don't know how much they've got left though."

"Alright, let's go" Will commanded, making to heave Niall off the chair. He looped his arm over his shoulder and pulled, causing Niall to groan in stifled agony as he gritted his teeth together, before pushing himself off of Will and back on the chair. Will gave a frustrated and determined look before gripping Nialls arm again only to find him wrench it free and away from Will.

They were silent as Niall looked at his leg, at the foot stall, at the ground. An unreadable expression that seemed to flip-flop between anger and resentment seemed to flicker intermittently on his face, as he clenched his fists.

"Leave me." He whispered with a growl.

"Yeah-no, not gonna happen." Will said, reaching to hoist Niall back up again, this time more determined. He'd been going to the gym for years, and there was no way he was leaving Niall behind. But Niall fought him back, giving as much of a shove as his disadvantageous position would allow, which was enough to get Will to move back a step or two.

"Look, right now, I am dead-fucking-weight. Even if that psycho is in that room, lugging my fat ass around is going to get both of you killed. And I can't live with that. So the two of you, get to that room, open these doors, and then you can carry me all you like. I'm bored of walking anyway." Niall spat, his eyes burning with a furious determination as they bore into the disbelieving Will. He didn't mean it in the slightest. The last thing he wanted was to be left alone with a murderer running around. So much so that he painfully regretted his words, almost immediately wishing he could take them back. But he didn't. He knew what he was doing was the right thing to do. He knew it. Emma knew it. Will knew it, even if he didn't want to admit it.

This time, instead of feeling like a metaphorical burden: Niall was being a literal, physical, burden. And there was no amount of reassurance or explaining away that could discount it.

"You asked me not to leave you..." Will said looking away from Niall. Well aware that he was delaying the inevitable, but still doing it anyway just in case Niall changed his mind. The chances of them all dying would increase but Will didn't care so much if it was with Niall.

"I know. But you have to. Or else we will all definitely die. This is our only chance of escape."

"Stay with him... Please..." Will said turning to Emma who had been watching this exchange as she awkwardly shifted her weight from side to side while keeping paranoid eyes on all the entrances to the room.

"What? No, don't be stupid." Niall argued "You can't go up there alone."

But Will was having none of it, ignoring Niall he stepped closer to Emma, making sure to focus her attention on him.

"Stay with Niall. I'll be as quick as I can I promise." Will asked, planting a kiss on Emma's forehead when she nodded. "Where's the bedroom and what have I got to do?"

"Left up the stairs, and it's the door at the very end. The panel should be right next to the light switch on the left as you go in. The passcode is 4351, and from there should be able to just follow the on screen prompts." She croaked out, staring into his eyes with wild fear before shuffling out of the hands he had placed on her arms and standing behind the chair Niall was sat on.

Will gave a last look towards Niall who stared at him with equal amounts rage, longing, and fear, before walking towards the stairs.

A/N: So fun fact, this new work schedule has got my sleeping pattern ALL KINDS of fucked up. Like there isn't any rhyme or reason to it? Hence why I woke up at 3 am to write this chapter.

Anyhow, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!

Let me know what ya think, and as always: thanks for reading ^-^