I wake up surrounded by fluffy blankets, and a glass of water and two painkillers on the bedside table beside me. "Cat...?" I hear her soft footsteps come into the room. "Brooke, you're awake!" "What time is it?" She glances at her phone. "Ummmm, around four-thirty" I shoot up out of bed. "We missed a WHOLE day of class?" She pushes me back down into the bed. "Before you explode, both of our professors emailed our work for today in, they let me stay off to look after you." I smile at her. "Thank you Cat". She wordlessly hands me the glass of water, and I swallow the pills quickly. My stomach grumbles, and she helps me up. I collapse down on the couch, with an array of bowls and plates covering the coffee table in front of me. We look at each other as we both shout, "Movie day!!". Skittles, Kit Kats, M&M's and Doritos. This girl knows me too well. "What do you want to watch first?" she asks, holding up several DVD cases. Frozen, The Avengers, Lord of the Rings, Mulan. This is going to be a good day.

---

"Hey Cat, I think I'm going to head down to the university library to finish off my work, I need some of the textbooks and the computer programmes." I yell from the kitchen. She pokes her head out of the bedroom. "Are you sure? It's almost 7:00pm!" I consider it before answering. "Yeah, I think I will. I don't want to be too behind in class tomorrow!" She looks at me with concern, and replies,"okay... text me when you know what time you're heading home, I can pick you up if it's dark out?"
"That would be great Cat, I'll let you know what's happening!" I pick up my phone, wallet, and go to grab my keys... but it's pretty warm outside, I think I'll just walk. "Cat, I'm walking!" I yell as I put one foot out the front door. "Don't get pregnant!", she yells back. "Don't smoke weed!", I reply. "Wear a safety hat!" Her voice is getting fainter now. I turn around, and finish the joke, "Use protection!". I giggle and rush down the path onto the street before she can reply. It's a long running inside joke between us two, it probably sounds pretty weird to the neighbors but we do it every time we leave each other. I shake my head to myself at our strange relationship, and begin the 20 minute walk to the university.

---

Three hours later, I sigh to myself and shut the computer down. Finally caught up on my work and the library completely abandoned apart from me, I look out the window at the dark night sky. I pick up my phone and wallet, and start to walk out to the carpark. The cool night air chills me, and I wrap my jersey tighter around myself. The gum trees' leaves are making a creepy nose in the breeze, and I start to get goosebumps. Suddenly, a movement behind me. I pull out my phone and turn on the flashlight, hoping to calm my fears. But nothing's there. I sigh in relief, and pull up messenger to ask Caitlin if she can come and pick me up. Suddenly a hand is placed on my shoulder. "Going somewhere, princess?". I turn slowly, already knowing what awaits. "Yes, away from you." I reply, backing away slowly. "Yeah, not so fast", he smirks, "we've got a lot to talk about".

I can't handle this alone. I slowly start to type into messenger - carpark help now - but before I finish, a hand rips the phone out of my grasp and throws it onto the grass. "You won't be needing that." I whimper slightly, and without warning, turn and run. My feet pound the grass, but I already know he's catching up. His hand grabs a fistful of my ponytail and drags me too an abrupt stop. My scalp stings, and I cringe as I instinctively put my hands up to protect my face. A hand connects with my head, and another slugs me in the stomach. I fall to the ground, groaning, as his heavy boot kicks me in the back, again and again. I scream out "HELP ME, SOMEBODY!!" A boot crushes my hand as I reach out to anything, anyone. "You know it won't help you to yell" he smirks, and his heavy fist connects with my head. I go dizzy, and black spots start to appear in my vision. A trickle of blood seeps into my eye, and it stings. His hands are connecting with my abs, every pound of his fists causing me to curl up tighter. A foot connects with my face and I cry out, feeling my forehead split open. The beating suddenly stops, and I cautiously open one eye.

I think my ribs are broken, every breathe is killing me. When I see what he's got in his hand, an involuntarily scream escapes my mouth. The knife is familiar, he used to use it when he was really angry. The scars on the tops of my thighs burn with recognition. He brings it down closer to my face, the moonlight glinting off the blade. "Remember this?" he questions. I start to shake, squeezing my eyes shut. "I said, do you REMEMBER THIS?" His voice raises to a shout and a hand wrenches my head back so I'm forced to look at his snarling face. His hand lifts my shirt, and I drag it back down. He slaps me and brings the knife down to the smooth skin of my stomach. I whimper as the blade cuts into my skin, deeper and deeper. I begin to scream as blood pours down my side. He pulls the knife out slowly, and tears pour down my face. There's a brief second when he leans back, and I take my chance. I push him backwards, and scramble up, ignoring the pain that's blinding my senses. What the hell do I do? The Gum tree! There's one with low branches. I launch my self up towards it, hearing Jake growl behind me. The branches rip my hands, breaking the skin. I ignore the pain, hissing, and scramble higher, feeling his hand graze my leg. Suddenly, once I'm about five metres off the ground, my ankle catches in a fork in the branch I'm on. I tug at it frantically, hearing him climbing after me. Suddenly the pain from all of my injuries catches up to me and I slump against the branch. Beneath me, he's getting closer. I start to cry again, desperation clouding my vision. A hand punches my jaw, causing my vision to dance, blurring my surroundings. "Good luck getting out of here", he smirks, and smashes his foot down onto my trapped ankle. I feel bone splinter as my ankle is wedged deeper into the tree. I'm starting to black out as Jake climbs back down the tree, and as he looks back up at me, smirking. My vision finally goes black as all hope fades away.

My eyes snap open as I see headlights cutting through the darkness. The branch is swaying beneath me, and I am suddenly terrified. I can feel the blood pooling in my t-shirt and running down my face, everything is in agony. "So this is the university?" a faint voice echos through the night. It sounds English, but I'm not too sure of anything at the moment. I try to yell for help, but my voice cracks. "Hey, look lads, someone's dropped their phone!". An Irish voice rings out. "Carpark help now? what does that mean?" A deeper British voice starts to speak. "I think there's someone here!" The branch shakes beneath me as I try to raise myself up, but my arms collapse. My ankle is still trapped tightly, and I'm pretty sure it's broken. Five phone torchlights are snapped on and begin to cut through the darkness beneath me. "Pl-please... he-help me" I can barely talk, I'm too quiet. Shit. "Hello?" A voice calls out. "Shut up Niall, I heard something!", the same voice snaps. I try once more. "Please... up he-here". "Lads, I think she's in a tree!" There's a whole lot of crashing underneath me, and suddenly a light is shined in my face. "Oh shit", someone exclaims. "Boys, I've found her. She doesn't look good." The light is burning my eyes, I can't see. "Liam, you're blinding her, put the light down!"

"Holy shit, is this blood on the ground?" They're all looking at the spot where Jake cut me with the knife. That's way more blood than I thought. How bad did he cut me? The boys look up at me, fear lacing their expressions. They look very familiar, but I couldn't care less who they are right now. I try to raise myself up again, and the branch makes an odd noise. "Babe, please don't move." The tall one calls out. Liam. His name is Liam! I know these boys. I feel my face growing white with shock. Louis calls out cautiously, "Love, you're about seven metres off the ground. Please don't shake the branch." I must be higher than I thought. I nod my head once, I don't think I can speak. Suddenly, the branch cracks. I look back, and see a dark gash running from underneath me to where the branch connects to the tree. I whip my head back around and down to the boys, silently pleading with them to get me out. I feel fresh blood soaking my t-shirt, and my head spins. Almost in slow motion, one hand slips, than the other. I hear a yell, and then am abruptly jerked to a stop. My ankle. It's jammed in the tree. I let out a scream of agony, and then hear a sharp crack and a pop. And suddenly I'm falling again. Wow, the ground is so far away. But it's getting closer... closer... closer. My eyes squeeze themselves shut as I await the impact.

My body slams into the ground. and I hear something snap. I can't breathe. Everything is swimming in and out of focus. There's some annoying sound echoing at the back of my mind. Someone's yelling at me, but they sound so far away. "Wake up... WAKE UP!!" "Shit, she's bleeding everywhere!" Someone else is yelling. I feel like I'm listening through a bad telephone, everything's all quiet and there's a noise like static rushing through my ears. My eyes snap open, and pain hits me like a fist of agony. There's five faces looking down on me. I try to speak, but no words come out. Strong but gentle hands lift me up, and I'm swaying in someone's arms. I smell the smooth leather of a car seat, before my hair is pushed out of my face. Something soft is pressed against the wound in my side, and I see a shirtless Niall staring at me with a mixture of fear and pain. "Why has someone done this to you?".

All I feel is pain, and tears start to leak out my eyes. "Harry, drive fucking faster!" Someone with a Doncaster accent is on the phone , yelling something about blood and hospital. Niall pulls me close in a gentle hug. "I'm so, so sorry, I'm so sorry", he murmurs. He's crying. I don't know why, it's not like he knows me. Someone lightly touches my ankle, and I scream. "Zayn, no!" Niall yells. "There's bone poking out mate, this is worse than we thought!" Zayn replies. My breathing starts to quicken. Liam, in the middle seat, is cradling my waist. "Her kneecap's all twisted, this is bad." My breathing becomes shaky, and everything's swimming. I'm starting to get scared. "Hello, please open your eyes", a soft Irish voice says. His hands are holding my head up, but all I can see is blue eyes. They're almost the same colour as Jake's, but these are soft and bright. Jake's are hard and cold. Jake. Where did he go after he left me helpless? He could be anywhere! I start to panic, and suddenly everything is ten times more painful. I start to moan, and suddenly everything rushes upwards and my vision goes black.

Notes

Hey everyone! This chapter is quite violent, but I worked really hard on it, so please don't hate!
I hope I got the right emotion into the scene and characters, it took me ages to write :D

Please rate, subscribe if you like it, and chuck me a comment if there's something you think I could improve on <3

I'm working on getting a banner done at the moment, thank you so much to @jenniferhoran, she is such an amazing banner creator!

Lots of love,
Half_a_heart x