You Know What They Do To Girls Like Us

Gasping for air, my eyes fly open to see the ceiling of my bedroom. I try to breathe steadily, but my lungs feel like two canvas bags. Pain shakes me in my ribcage and limbs. Moving my eyes around the room, it feels as if my eyelids are made of marble. My eyes finally settle on a brunette girl staring at me with wide eyes. Her delicate limbs seem to vibrate with hesitance as she sits cross legged on my bed.

“Robin?” her soft voice asks as if she doesn’t expect an answer.

“Sara,” I manage to croak out, but immediately start coughing.

“Shh,” Sara gently presses my shoulder back down as I try to sit up. “You need to rest.”

“Did I really… did Louis… did we actually…” I attempt to form words that make sense, but too many thoughts are running through my mind.

Her feeble nod is enough to confirm the fact that I almost died.

“He told me to ask you when you want to see him,” she tentatively states. “If at all.”

An attempt at deep breaths turns into shaky, short intakes of air.

“He can come in whenever he wants,” I manage to get out.

“Are you sure?” Sara asks with a slight frown on her lips.

“Yes,” I give a tiny nod.

“Okay,” before she leaves, she gives me a tight hug. “I thought you were going to…”

She stops herself with tears brimming at the bottom of her innocent doe eyes. I give her hand a squeeze and a small smile which she returns. With a sniff, she walks out the door to get Louis I assume.

Though I do want to see him, I’m not sure how I can handle being alone in a room with him.

Before I can think about it anymore, the door opens and he steps in. Closing the door quietly behind him, he stands there for a second before he cautiously pads over to the side of my bed. I can tell he is uneasy as he sits down gingerly on the mattress.

We do not speak. I count 71 seconds until he clears his throat.

“You could have died,” my voice almost cracks, but I swallow hard to hold it back.

“I know,” Louis’ eyes reach mine. Even the light of the fireplace cannot illuminate his eyes.

“You could have died,” I repeat. The realization hits me in the gut.

“Yes, but it’s okay n- ”

“We could have died,” my whole body is trembling.

“I know,” Louis moves to sit on the side of my bed. Putting both hands on my shoulders, he tries to calm me. “It’s okay now, it’s ok –”

“No,” my voice’s volume increases with each word. “It is not okay, it is no-”

Louis pulls me into him and wraps his arms around me. With shaky gasps, I play the near death moment in my mind a thousand times. I can’t shake the feeling of the water hitting my body at full force. I can’t breathe properly without feeling like my lungs are going to burst. My eyes burn with tears that follow a river down my cheek. I feel like Louis is suffocating me, but at the same time I want his protection around me.

Once my tears have stopped, I regain enough composure to breath evenly. Short breaths, but even.

“It’s never going to end,” I whisper into Louis’ shirt. The phrase struggles between a question and a fact.

“It will end eventually,” Louis’ voice is muffled against my hair. His warm breath against my forehead spreads throughout the rest of my body. “I promise.”

At those two words, I bring my head to look up at him.

“How do you know?” I ask. “Management will never stop.”

“Don’t be too sure,” Louis speaks softly as he starts gently wiping away the wetness from my face.

“What do you mean?” my curiosity takes the place of my fear.

“Where do you want me to start?” Louis exhales loudly.

“Just tell me what’s going on,” I surprise myself with the pleading tone of my voice.

He rubs his face slowly. That is when I see how faded his eyes are and how hollow his face seems. I feel stupid for not realizing that this has taken an emotional toll on him as well. He nearly died for me, and I still have trouble believing it actually happened.

“You need to rest,” I say. “We can talk about it later.”

“No,” Louis breathes as if he’s letting out anxiety into the air. “I can’t sleep anyway. Just ask me what you want to know.”

“Okay,” I start. I take a minute to sift through all the questions I have coursing through my head. “Why did you jump in after me?”

“Robin,” he lets out a short, sharp laugh. “I don’t know if you realize this, but I love you. And I don’t think I could go on after watching you die right in front of me. Also, I knew that if I attached myself to you, they wouldn’t go through with it. They wouldn’t dare kill me, so therefore they couldn’t kill you.”

“Oh,” I feel guilty now after thinking that he was trying to hurt me the entire time. “But why would they want to kill me?”

He pauses.

“You’re going to have to bear with me for this,” and so he begins. “We, One Direction, are management’s source of income; we are what make them. They basically live for our success. They will do anything to keep us at our current status or higher. When they see that something gets in our way, they eliminate it no matter what it takes.”

“But I don’t get how I would get in the way. They pretty much made you all choose us, choose me.”

“That’s because you were intended for one purpose, to keep us emotionally detached by providing only for our physical needs,” he takes a deep breath. “Management noticed when I started getting closer to you. They saw it, but they kept it under the radar. But when Harry came in, they knew it would cause conflict between us which meant potential harm to the band as a whole. Potential splitting up.”

“Why did Harry…” I try to put my confusion into a question. “Why did Harry do what he did? Why is he acting like that?”

Louis’s head jerks downward to look at his hands. His chest rises before he starts talking.

“Harry was born into a rich family. He never knew what it was like to live in the Outer Limits. He was taught to look down on those who did not ‘deserve’ to live like he did. He was taught that they were scum,” a look of disgust settles on Louis’ face. “And he still believes it. He was the one who tipped off management that Amelia wasn’t fulfilling Niall’s needs. Niall thought he was keeping her safe until the morning of the execution. He showed management the maps that Eliza was making.”

I press my fingers to my lips to suppress a sob. I knew something was wrong when I didn’t see her sitting with the other girls.

“He’s been slowly killing off every girl,” Louis says. “He’s been playing you this entire time, Robin. He knew that if the management saw you as the source of conflict between me and him, they would have to eliminate you.”

“But why did he take so long? Why did he say all those things to me? I thought he was being genuine…” I feel ashamed at my foolishness.

“It makes if ‘fun’ for him,” Louis spits out the word with distaste.

“So what do we do now?” I rest my heavy head on his shoulder.

“I don’t know,” he sighs as he rests his head on top of mine. I close my eyes and fall asleep with the thought of how management monitored everyone. How did they know what happened behind closed doors?

~

I wake up coughing. Slowly opening my eyes, a thick fog seems to spread throughout the room. No, not fog – smoke.

“Louis,” I shove him. He’s already awake and holding his shirt up to his mouth to filter the air.

“We need to move now,” he says and grabs my hand. We stumble to the door and when he flings it open, it’s like he opened the gate of hell itself. Flames engulf the entire hallway. I can’t even see the door to Harry’s room. The fire tickles the carpet of my bedroom as it starts to spread.

“What are we going to do?” I turn to Louis.

“Follow me,” he pulls me towards the bathroom.

“There’s no window!” I yell over the roaring of the fire.

“Just trust me!” he shouts.

My eyes dart from the fire that is growing closer to Louis who is pulling a panel off the wall. Once he gets the entire thing off, a dumbwaiter appears.

“Get in!” he yells at me.

“But you can’t fit!” I yell back. The compartment is just big enough for one person.

Louis grabs my shoulders and presses his lips against mine.

“I know,” he leans his forehead against mine, his eyes never leaving mine. “I’ll find a way out.”

“How are you going to get out?” I can’t tell if I’m crying from the smoke or from the realization of who is going to get out of this alive.

“Trust me,” his words solid.

I quickly shove myself into the tiny compartment.

“Louis,” I stop him before he pulls the handle. “I love you.”

“I love you, Robin,” his sad eyes are the last thing I see before the dumbwaiter descends into darkness.

Notes

Holy shit, that was intense.
I regret to say that this is the last chapter of You Know What They Do to Girls Like Us. BUT WAIT - there will be an epilogue in which all of you dear readers will find a satisfying ending. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and let me know what you think now that you know the truth behind everything! Thank you for reading and keep holding on tight for the next and final paragraphs of the story.
~ christi ellie