“Ugh, it’s so dreary out…” my sister Allie said, looking out the big bay window at the pouring rain. I joined her at the window and looked out across the water.

“Yeah, but there’s just a beauty about it, ya know? I kind of love it…” I sat on the window seat with her and looked dreamily at the rain.

She looked at me like I was crazy. “Yeah, Hannah, okay.”

I shrugged, hopped up, and began walking to the kitchen to look for food. I was always up for food. “Hey, Allie, do we have any more of those yogurt covered pretzel thingys?” I called while staring blankly at the pantry.

“Uhh, yeah, they’re in the oven!” I stopped and popped my head around the corner to make sure she was being serious.

“The oven?” I questioned.

“Yeah, it’s the only place Jake won’t look!” I heard the exasperation in her voice. Jake was our younger brother, and a total scavenger. I raised my eyebrows in agreement and went back to fetch the Jesus snackies. They were truly sent from heaven.

“Hey, did Jessie say she was coming over today?” Allie called.

“Yeah, I believe she said she’d be here-”

“I’m here!” A voice yelled over the howling wind from outside as our front door flew open to reveal the sopping figure of our next door neighbor and one of my best friends, Jesenia Avecedo. I bolted around the corner and pounced onto her. Since we lived next door to each other, we pretty much ended up living at each other’s houses.

“Yay! So now we can do math together!” I released her and smiled sarcastically.

“Yeah, we have that huge test on Monday that we’re both just so prepared for!” she smiled equally as sarcastically. “So, yeah, as soon as I dry off a little, we’ll just get to it-” she stopped suddenly and sighed in frustration before continuing “-as long as you turn off this music, if you can even call it that!”

I stopped to listen to what was playing on the iHome I had plugged my iPod into. “Ah!” I gasped and put my hand on my chest. “No! This is my favorite song!” I faked horrible offence as she insulted my all-time favorite band: One Direction. “IT’S GOTTA BE YOUUUUUUU!” I indignantly sang in her face. I knew that she didn’t like them are barely tolerated my near-obsession with them. Oops? …No regrets.

“Please, Hannah, every song is your favorite!” she rolled her eyes.

“Not true!” I deadpanned. “Have you heard Stole My Heart.”

“Alright, well let’s just get going on this work so that we can have the rest of the weekend to be weird and not worry about it.” She plopped her bags down next to our couch and began pulling out her math binder and book.

“Ugh, can’t we just eat and watch a liiiiittle TV before we commit to our inevitable demise?” I whined.

“Um, diva much?” she chuckled and tossed her books on the dining room table, which was connected to the living room.

We lived in a small community on the shores of Connecticut. Literally across the street was a little field and then the beach. The part of Connecticut that we lived in was just a fifteen minute drive from New York City, which his where all of our parents work. It was awesome because while we were that close to so much activity and excitement, Kearney was a rather sleepy town. The best of both worlds, right?

“We really shouldn’t…” Jessie intoned as I tossed her the Jesus pretzels and flipped on the TV to MTV where there was an interview being shown. The subjects of the interview? One Direction.

“YES!” I grabbed the bag back and fell onto the couch. “Day. Made.” I stuffed four pretzels into my greedy mouth as Jessie shook her head and said, “You’re crazy…” I held up my hand and, spitting crumbs everywhere, protested, “Hush, child! Harry speaks!”

“…we’re very excited to come back to America for our first ever performance in Madison Square Garden on, uh…” Harry said in his charmingly mellow tone before looking to Louis for guidance.

“Monday!” Louis piped loudly.

“We is a’comin’!” Zayn goofed.

“And we’ll also be having a general admission concert in Times Square for anyone who’d like to come and see a short little show on Saturday afternoon!” Liam added.

“Be there!” Niall pointed at the camera and gave an adorable half smile.

“Well, there you have it right from the boys! This…” the reporter continued.

“Ahhh I love them so much…” I sighed and fell into the couch.

“Yeah, we know.” Both Jessie and Allie grumbled. Neither of them were too crazy about One Direction, and they were even less enthusiastic about my, er, obsession with them. “Honestly, Hannah, you never talk about anything else!” Allie had told me numerous times. “You’ve really just made me tired of them!” was the other one that I had heard from her.

“I’m just so excited to be seeing them on Monday!” I squealed and almost started crying.

“Really, Hannah? You haven’t mentioned it!” Jessie said sarcastically, obstinately opening her math things. Her sarcasm stemmed from the fact that I had been talking about this concert since July when I got it. But I hadn’t only gotten tickets for this concert. In July, as my seventeenth birthday present, my parents had gotten me VIP passes to the entirety of 1D’s North American part of their tour. This Saturday was just a preview performance, with Madison Square Garden on Monday. But since I was in my senior year, I would get to travel all over the country over the summer to see them. I had always wanted to travel, so this was my opportunity. The bummer was that I had to pay for my own transportation, lodging, and food. I’d been saving for the past five months.

“Now, are we going to do this or what?” Jessie gave me a pointed look.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get your knickers in a twist, then.” I huffed my way over.

“God, you’re even talking like them!” she face palmed.

“Hey! Up until now I have never been obsessed with anyone or anything! I have the right as a teenager to this! YOLO…” I peaced out as I took another handful of pretzels. I was just about to focus on math when I heard those two guitar strums that got me straight out of my seat and dancing around.

As the first lines were sung, my other sister Crystal, or Crys, burst around the corner from the den and sang out with me, “YOU’RE INSECURE! DON’T KNOW WHAT FOR!” Jessie threw her head back and her hands up in exasperation.

“I officially give up!” she laughed.

We continued dancing around until we got to the chorus when my other sister (yes there are 5 of us, me being the oldest!) came down the stairs singing along with us. Mikaela was only 7 but knew almost the entire album. Crys wasn’t exactly a fan, but knew all the songs because I played them pretty much nonstop. It was safe to say that I’d corrupted them.

Jessie grew tired of our shenanigans and went over to sit on the window seat with Allie.

“Hush, hush! It’s Harry!” I hushed them all as we approached Harry Styles’ solo at the bridge, which basically got me pregnant every time I heard it. We were just standing there, mouthing the words and being moved immensely by his perfect tones, when Allie said, sounding odd, “Hey, guys…?”

“Shh! Not now, Allie!” I hissed.

“No, Hannah, come here. Now.” Jessie’s tone was serious and she sounded almost scared. No, not almost. She sounded terrified.

My brows drew together and I jogged over to them. “What?” I asked.

“Look.” Allie pointed. But she didn’t have to. I saw it as soon as I reached the window.

Way down, around the big curve on the long street that we lived on, I would say about 5 football fields away, we saw a big black bus speeding in our direction. Now, while that doesn’t sound all too impressive, and very far off, we could see that it was weaving dangerously, hydroplaning on the slick road. And, to top it all off?

The front of it was on fire.

“Jessie, call 911.” I said calmly, my gaze fixated on the bus. I figured that we had between 30 and 40 seconds before it crossed in front of our house.

“Oh, my god, Hannah, what if they run into the…” Allie trailed off, but I knew what she was going to say. Directly across the street from our house, in the little field, was a large oak tree. No one knows just how it got there, but it’s just there. The only tree in the entire field.

And I knew exactly where her mind was headed.

What if the bus ran into the tree?

“Well, then, that would not be good.” was all that I could say.

“Hello? Yes, my name is Jesenia Avecedo. I’m calling from 453 Beachwood lane to report a bus that’s out of control and about to crash…” I heard Jessie making the call while I watched helplessly as the bus didn’t slow down but continued on its inevitable path into the tree.

“Crys! Go get mom and put Mikaela into her room.” I called without looking over my shoulder.

“Kay.” I heard her understanding reply.

“If that bus does crash into that tree, Jessie and I are going out there.” I met Jessie’s eyes as they widened at my words.

“Hannah, there’s no rational reason that we should go out there if something like that happens-” Jessie put a hand over the speaker and addressed me furtively.

“Jesenia, lives may be at stake! If- When this happens, we are going out there. The police and fire stations are at least ten minutes away, and by then it will be too late!” I said seriously. “Allie, go get all the First Aid stuff outta the bathroom and laundry room and set it out on the dining room table. Then get a bunch of towels and pillows from upstairs.” I said forcefully, completely expecting the worst.

“But I-”

“Go!” I stopped her protest loudly. I heard her go off to complete the task. “Tell the operator that we have trained volunteers on the scene.” I told Jessie strongly, meeting her eyes forcefully before turning back to watch the bus. We were both CPR certified, had taken an emergency control course, and had participated in an Intro to Pre-Medical Studies course, all at our local technical school. This had included on site training with real crash victims that I had a feeling would come in handy in about twenty seconds.

I saw her nod out of the corner of my eye. She began relaying the message when she let out a sudden gasp.

We had just witnessed the bus crash headlong into that big old oak tree.

“Here we go!” I shouted, flinging the door open. “Jess, give Allie the phone and come with me!” I ordered and began running towards the crash. The bus had crashed in a way that the back of it was partially suspended in the air, and the front was now part of the tree, which was now on fire, too. I knew that we didn’t have much time.

As we ran, I yelled over the wind, “I can see a back door and some windows. Open the door and get whoever’s in there out-” As I was saying this, the back door opened and a few figures began jumping and falling out. “Ok, just get everyone out and back to the house as fast as you can!” I yelled again.

When we got to the bus, I had counted seven figures making their way away from the bus. I could tell one of them had a serious head wound; he was being supported by two others, who both had various tears in their clothing and scratches and blood running onto the ground. Another was cradling a bloody arm, and another was limping. One seemed unharmed and was carrying a smaller figure, a woman, who looked to be unconscious.

I approached the one closest to me, which was the one with the injured arm and asked, “Is everyone out?” The man was tall and Arabic, with beautiful dark eyes and distinct features. For a split second I said to myself, “I know this guy…” Then it suddenly struck me that I was looking up at Zayn Malik.

Before I had the chance to freak out, I noticed that he was dazed and bleeding, and just shook his head indistinctly in answer to my question. I surveyed the group to see if my fears were true.

I didn’t recognize the man with the head wound, but something familiar struck me about the boys carrying him. The one on the left was shorter with blonde hair sticking to his head from the rain, and the one on the right was taller, strong looking, and had light brown hair almost covering his eyes and clinging to his cheeks. Niall Horan and Liam Payne. My stomach did a backflip not only because of who they were, but also because of their frightening condition.

The man who was limping was very tall, muscular, and had very sharp features. I looked down to his left leg and saw a horrible gash running down the outside of it. Looking back to his face, I finally recognized Paul Higgins, the boys’ body guard. I cringed at his condition as well.

My gaze finally returned to the boy holding the girl, and recognizing him as Louis Tomlinson and the girl as Eleanor Calder, my stomach dropped when I realized that someone was missing.

“Is Harry still in there?” I yelled to him.

“Yes!” he croaked. “I couldn’t carry them both…” he looked down to Eleanor’s sleeping face, his voice sounding distraught.

“Ok, Jessie, get them back to the house.” I addressed her momentarily before turning back to the boys. Any other day I would’ve been either fangirling like crazy or trying to play it cool in hopes of getting someone’s number. But not today. Today there were lives at stake. The boys I had loved from a distance were now standing in front of me, broken and bleeding, and it was up to me to keep them safe.

“Are you sure there was nobody else!” I said to the group. They all shook their heads. “Alright, I’ll go get Harry, you all head to that house right there, yeah?” I pointed to my house, already jogging for the blazing bus.

“Hannah, this is stupid! Wait for the firefighters and the EMTs! Don’t do this just because of who it is!” I heard Jessie’s angered cry.

I turned in a fury, the urgency infiltrating my voice. “This is a life! It doesn’t matter whose!” I yelled. There was a person in that bus, and he didn’t have very long to live.

At this moment, I saw Niall turn around towards me. I saw the flicker of recognition in his eyes as he realized what I was about to do. In a split second, he had grabbed Jessie, since she was closest to him, and put the man’s arm around her shoulder.

“Take him! I’m going to help her!” he shouted, his voice sounding hoarse. Jessie slumped under the man’s weight, but Liam immediately perked up and took more of the man’s weight onto his shoulder. Not giving Jessie or anybody a chance to protest, Niall jogged over to where I was and stuck out a hand. “Niall Horan.” he said solemnly.

“Hannah Clarke.” I shook his hand firmly before returning to the bus. I looked inside the door into the dark smokiness. “Do you know where he is?” I yelled over my shoulder.

“Uh, he’s probably in one of the bunks. We were all in the back here, but he was napping, I think!” I looked towards where the bunks were supposed to be, but only saw a large piece of bus blocking the way.

“Ok, we have to move this!” I pointed to the piece, which turned out to be a sofa. As we began putting our weight behind it, trying to push it away, I started calling out, “Harry! Harry Styles, can you hear me? Harry, listen up, my name is Hannah, and your buddy Niall and I are coming for you, ya hear?” I kept yelling over the rain pattering on the top of the bus and the crackling of the fire that I knew was growing and would soon reach the gas tank, causing a major explosion that would leave us all dead, no doubt.

When we finally had moved the sofa away from the entrance to the bunk area, we were greeted with major flames. We didn’t have much time. I looked briefly to Niall and met his worried eyes with mine. He then led me to Harry’s bunk, which was the bottom, which was not good. When he pointed to it, I just barely saw a curly mess sticking out from it. Otherwise, the overhead bunks had all collapsed on top of him.

In my mind, I quickly devised a plan. The smoke was beginning to cloud my vision and my thinking, so I knew we had even less time than I had hoped. “Okay, Niall, you’re going to have to lift as much of this debris as you can so I can get Harry out!” I yelled over the now roaring fire. “Just get your arms under it and when I say go, you lift with all your might until I say let go, okay?” I made sure Niall was looking me in the eyes as I relayed this plan. He nodded silently and got into position.

I bent down, ready to grab Harry. “Okay, ready?” I looked up as Niall nodded, then looked back and positioned my hands. “Ready, and, GO!” I yelled.

It all happened so fast. Niall got under all the debris and lifted it up just enough so I could see the rest of Harry’s body. It looked fragile and broken, and though I was afraid to hurt him more, I quickly reached around his torso and dragged him out, placing him on the floor. “Let go!” I yelled as I saw Niall begin to struggle.

Niall looked horrible, but not as horrible as Harry. I didn’t allow myself to really take in all of his injuries yet and just focused on getting him out. I looked up at Niall. He was resting against the wall, breathing heavily, and I could tell that something was wrong. I didn’t know what, but something was wrong. There was no way he’d be able to carry Harry out.

“Niall, go! We’ve gotta get out of here!” I yelled and began to pick up Harry. He was a big boy, almost five inches taller than me, and heavy like guys usually are. This was probably going to be the most difficult thing I had ever done was my line of thinking.

His eyes suddenly registered what I was about to do. “No, Hannah, let me!” He reached out his arms for Harry. That was when I saw the disfiguration in his right arm. It looked like a bone had broken and was not in the right place. My stomach churned at the sight but I didn’t let myself dwell on it. No time.

“No way in hell. Just get out!” I yelled, already positioning my body around Harry’s. I got his head, shoulders and arms over my left shoulder, my left arm curled around his torso, and my right arm cradling his legs. He was partially slung over my shoulder, partially being carried bridal style. I turned and saw Niall still frozen, watching me. My eyes widened as I heard popping coming from the front of the bus. Not. Good.

“GO!” I shouted at Niall and began making my way out of the bus. He finally got it and I let him get ahead of me and jump out of the door first. I was afraid for a moment. Just afraid of jumping. Then I saw Niall on the ground, holding out his arms. “Run, Niall!” I screamed again, this time in a panic as the popping got louder, now with creaking added.

“No! Not until you jump!” He yelled back. “I’ve got you!”

I closed my eyes and took the leap. The back of the bus was probably a good 5 feet off of the ground, so the jump was a lot scarier than it would normally be, not to mention the fact that I had a broken human being in my arms. Miraculously, I landed on my feet, knees bent and all, nothing hurt. Better yet, I hadn’t hurt Niall, but he was still there, making sure I was okay.

“You alright?” he asked, concerned.

I looked up at him briefly and was momentarily carried away by the total care and softness of his blue eyes before I remembered the precarious and highly dangerous situation we were in at the moment.

“Yes, I’m fine, but we need to get out of here!” I said. “Help me with Harry a bit?” I nodded to his legs and Niall immediately caught on; he took the weight of his legs with his good arm. “Okay, we need to run! NOW!” I yelled as the creaking and popping got louder.

We began running across the street onto my extremely large front lawn. It was a good 50 meters away from the road, and the bus was going to blow at any second. I heard the sirens drawing near as I started to gasp for breath. We were almost halfway across my lawn when suddenly-

You know in the movies when something explodes and in slow motion they show you the people getting thrown from the sheer force that the explosion produces? It feels the exact same way. I heard the incredible BOOM from behind us, and the next thing I knew, I was flying through the air in slow motion.

There wasn’t much I could do except think in those few seconds that felt like forever. I was conscious enough to somehow flip my body in the air so that, when we landed, it was I who landed on my back with Harry on top of me so that he didn’t get any more injured than he already was.

You know in the movies when people are thrown from an explosion and they usually get up as soon as they hit the ground? That is plain old bullshit. The impact of me hitting the ground after being thrown was the most painful experience in my entire life. I couldn’t move, could barely think or breathe. It felt like I was in a dream. I heard moaning from both on top of me and beside me, and maybe even coming from my own mouth. I also heard my name being yelled slowly and in low tones. I couldn’t process anything except for an incredibly bright light ahead of me, which I now know was the raging fire that was once One Direction’s tour bus and an oak tree.

“Hannah!” I heard an unfamiliar voice and a familiar one calling. The unfamiliar one was deep and urgent with a British accent, and the familiar one was smooth and peppered with a light Puerto Rican accent, but equally as urgent. I suddenly snapped out of the dream like state and sat up sharply, every inch of my body now aware. I looked down to see Harry Styles’ limp body now lying next to me instead of on top of me. I looked up to see the faces of Jessie & Liam Payne looking incredibly worried.

I looked back at Harry’s body and immediately rolled over, putting my hand on his chest and my ear against his nose. In a panicked moment, I heard and felt nothing. Then, thank the Lord on high, I felt a light flutter against my ear and felt his chest lift a bit.

“He’s alive, but just barely…” I croaked. I stood shakily and made my way over to Niall with Liam’s help. “Niall!” I said, my voice stronger now. No response. I knelt beside him, placed my hands firmly on his shoulders and shook him, saying “Niall! Niall Horan! Can you hear me?”

His eyes opened groggily. I looked up at Jessie and said, “He’s good.” I stood, turning to Liam and holding out my hand. “Hannah Clarke.” He took it and shook it, saying “Liam Payne. Thank you, so much, for getting my mate Harry out.” The sincerity in his eyes and voice touched me. “I don’t know what we would’ve done without you and your girl Jessie, here.” His eyes wandered from mine to behind me as red and blue lights began reflecting on his face.

I turned to see a fire engine and two police cars pulling up. But something was missing…

“Dear God, where the hell is the damned ambulance…” I put my hands on my hips and shook my head, looking down at Harry and Niall, who were still lying on the ground. “Okay, Jessie, I need you to-”

“We need help in here!” I heard an urgent cry from the doorway. I turned to see Louis, looking rather petrified. Without even thinking I ran to the doorway and followed him in as he began explaining. “It’s Eleanor. She was unconscious but breathing so I laid her on the couch and took out my phone to call Simon to let him know what was happening before the media got hold of it, but when I turned back to her she wasn’t breathing or responding…” He ran his hands through his hair and tears formed in his eyes as we reached the couch.

Sure enough, when I checked for breathing, nothing was happening. “JESSIE! I’ve got a Code Blue in here!” I yelled as I lifted Eleanor’s body and placed her gently on the ground. We had learned the Code Blue thing during our Intro to Pre-Med course.

I heard Jessie come crashing through the door as I tipped Eleanor’s head back, pinched her nose, and gave her mouth to mouth. I started on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and said, “Jessie, do the counting and give her the breaths when we need to!” I kept pumping her chest until it was time for Jessie to give her the breaths, then kept going. “Anything?” I panted as Jessie checked for life.

It was dead silent for a moment. Then, “Nothing.” We kept going.

“Dear, God, Eleanor!” I heard Louis whimper tenderly behind me. I remember around that time was when I started seeing the black spots. Dear God I can’t black out now… I gritted my teeth and kept trying to pump life into her.

“C’mon, Eleanor…” I pleaded through clenched teeth. Jessie gave her another breath and listened again. Dead silence…

“Nothi-” her eyes widened. “Oh, my gosh, she’s back…” Jessie sat back in relief.

My shoulders slumped in relief as I dragged myself off of her. Louis was immediately at Eleanor’s side, cradling her, stroking her head and crooning her name. I watched as her eyes opened and she looked, dazed, into Louis’ eyes, saying “Louis?” softly. I smiled, glad that I had done something to help.

Then the black spots took over and I fell into nothingness.

Notes

Weeee first chapter iNtEnSe eh