53

When I turned my head slightly to the side, Zayn was sitting right in the chair next to me, grinning stupidly at me.

I gently tapped his arm with my finger for fear he was about to disappear again, causing him to frown and eye me with concern.

"What are you doing there?"

Realizing that he was really sitting next to me in his white tank top and black sweatpants, I hugged him with a smile, tears of joy streaming down my pale cheeks.

"I was scared you weren't real," I sobbed into his arms, at which he laughed and rubbed my back gently.

"I only exist in the original," he replied and then broke away from me to suddenly look at me seriously.

"Mia, we have to get out of here. Before I checked myself in, I got a call from Kiyan. He's in prison for involuntary manslaughter. He could face 10 years."

I wiped away my tears in desperation and looked around the large room where a few others were sitting and playing cards with us.

"How are we supposed to get out of here? How did you get in here in the first place and why?" I turned my gaze back to him and impatiently waited for answers.

"Kiyan said I should get in here and get you out. Getting in here wasn't difficult. I went to the hospital and said that little elephants told me to wipe out humanity."

I looked at him confused until he suddenly started laughing wonderfully. That carefree laughter finally shed some light on my darkness and when I had to laugh, I was shocked at myself. I hadn't felt this good in so long it was starting to hurt a little.

"Now seriously," I smiled and he shook his head in amusement.

"I just described Adam. Told the doctor that I only sleep, hardly take part in life and that I'm generally very bad. Severe depression," he replied and my smile immediately disappeared.

"Poor Adam," I whispered and Zayn immediately took my hand in his.

"We can worry about Adam later. We have to take care of ourselves now," he explained and I had to agree with him, even though I didn't see a way out. I've been here for five bloody days that felt like forever, but with Zayn by my side, there was at least a glimmer of hope.

"Zayn?" I broke the silence after a moment and looked deep into his eyes.

"Yes?" he turned in my direction and I immediately leaned my head on his shoulder.

"I've missed you."

He stroked the back of my hand with his thumb and took deep breaths in and out.

"Who would have thought that we would sit here together, Babsi. I certainly won't," he whispered and then got up to pull me up by my hand.

"What are you up to?" I asked in surprise, but he didn't answer me and pulled me safely into the wide hallway to walk along the wall to the double glass doors at the back.

"If we can get through that door, all we have to do is go down the stairs and through the entrance. Then we'd be out," he said softly, and it seemed to me he was saying that more to himself than to me.

"Yes, but to get through the doors we would need one of the key cards," I retorted in frustration, then let go of his hand to lean against the wall behind me.

Zayn stood in front of the door looking through the glass pane and seemed lost in thought while I looked down the hall and saw Mrs. Kellerman at the back, just coming out of her office.

"Perfect," Zayn snapped my gaze from the therapist, and then when I looked at him, I saw that he, too, had turned and was looking at her.

"Perfect?" I asked uncertainly, and then when I saw him pull a small knife out of his sweatpants, my eyes widened and I took a step towards him. My hands were shaking slightly, but I ignored it.

"What are you up to? Are you crazy?" I asked angrily, but he just grinned and hid the knife behind his back.

"Either we come out of here and clear things up, or we stay here, stuff ourselves with pills and possibly end the Adam," he said seriously, and when Mrs. Kellerman approached us in a friendly manner, I felt my blood rushing through my entire body . I've never been in a situation like this and I've never felt so helpless. I knew the only way we were going to get out of here was by force, but it still felt like shit, threatening a woman with a knife.

"See you tomorrow," she sidled past me, and then as she held her card up to the machine, a faint sound came out and the door buzzed, Zayn grabbed her from behind, put the knife to her throat, and ran her out the front door out.

"It's okay, it's okay," she dropped her bag and raised her hands slightly.

"We just want to get out of here," said Zayn, who disappeared with her around the corner into the stairwell.

Heart racing, I stepped through the glass door, closed it quietly and followed the two down the stairs.

"You won't be able to leave this compound. Be reasonable, Mia. I'll help you," Mrs. Kellerman explained in a shaky voice, and when we finally got to the front door and Zayn motioned for me to take the key card, I grabbed it, opened the door and looked around in front of the building.

The small park was fenced off, but it wasn't high enough to stop me. I turned around, shaking with excitement and anticipation of freedom, but Zayn was suddenly gone.

I looked into the frightened eyes of Mrs. Kellerman, who was trying to talk me into it, but all I could hear was a loud hissing sound, and when I looked down at my trembling hand and saw the small knife, I dropped it in shock and took a few steps backwards and then just ran wide-eyed across the meadow to the fence, which I climbed crying to jump down the other side.

Running through the forest, my heart was pounding so hard that my ribs were already hurting and I had the oppressive feeling of not being able to breathe. I kept running through the trees anyway, and when I finally got to a road, I tearfully tried to get my bearings and pulled the hood of Micah's sweater over my head to make my way to the real Zayn.

Was I already a danger to others? And if so, wasn't it normal in my situation to imagine the savior in need? Maybe it was the pills... who knew...

What I knew was that I had to come up with something fast and I'd be safer with Zayn than with Micah because that's where my mom would look first.

After my legs slowly lost their strength and it was getting darker, I finally arrived at the run-down prefabricated building, which I never thought I would use as a refuge.

Red hood pulled low over my face, I rang all sorts of signs with my trembling fingers, not even knowing which was Zayn's.

I kept looking around and felt a little paranoid. As if there was someone watching me all the time, or as if I was watching myself, which suddenly made my heart race again.

"Yes, hello," came the intercom and I had to clear my throat to even regain my voice.

"I have a package for-" I managed to hurry out, then nervously scanned the bell tags. "For Palmers."

The woman didn't say anything else, but I didn't care either, because she had opened the door for me and as soon as the soft buzzing sounded, I rushed to the hell elevator I knew and pressed Zayn's floor.

The elevator door opened and when I knocked loudly on Zayn's door several times, I immediately felt a little calmer because I heard the footsteps coming towards me from inside and I knew immediately that I wasn't going to be alone any more.

"Hey," Zayn greeted me and I immediately threw myself into his arms. I felt him flinch and startle at the sudden closeness, but he patted my back several times reassuringly and then carefully pulled away from me.

Of course the tears ran down my face, even though I didn't want to cry anymore, but it couldn't be stopped.

"What happened?" He first looked down at me worriedly and then looked behind me into the dark hallway. "And where is Kiyan?"

I widened my eyes in disbelief and looked at him in disbelief.

"You don't know?" I asked through sobs and took a deep breath. "He was arrested."

Zayn looked at me without expression and seemed petrified for what seemed like forever until he shook himself, closed the door behind me and walked into the living room with me.

Adam sat on the couch looking out the window while I sat down next to him and Zayn paced excitedly.

"Tell me what happened."

I collected myself, leaning back and Adam turned to me to listen very carefully.

"Thomas pushed me... and Kiyan then attacked him. It was too much for me and I passed out, I only saw blackness," I began, fighting back tears at the memory of that bad day. "Then when I woke up, my mother didn't want to believe that Thomas had killed my father and made me-"

"What's up with Thomas?" Zayn interrupted, wide-eyed, running both hands through his brown hair. "What the fuck is this."

Without interrupting me again, he let me tell everything and then stood silently at the window.

"We have to get him out of there," I then turned to Zayn, who didn't answer me, but just stared into space, lost in thought. I kind of knew how he felt so soon after I threw everything at him, but I didn't want to waste another second trying to get Kiyan out of there.

"I'm going to jail," said Zayn, who put on his jacket and disappeared through the door so quickly that I had no chance to stop him.

What was he thinking? As if they would just let him in... first of all, it was already dark outside.

"Adam?" I then turned to the blonde next to me, whose gaze then met mine. "Can you please tell me everything about the accident? Where it was and what time exactly and all that?"

I looked deep into his tired eyes and only then did I realize what I was asking of him. He was definitely stoned and I was also completely wired. I probably really did have a go at it, otherwise I wouldn't have fancied Zayn, but no matter how confused I was, no matter how scared it made me, I wouldn't let it go.

"Adam, please," I said again, putting my hand on his shoulder to urge him to tell me everything I was sorry about, but had to do.

It was now 1 a.m. and there was still no sign of Zayn. Adam was asleep, but fortunately he had told me everything as well as he could beforehand, which was still no help to me.

The accident was after 6 a.m. on the corner of Green Street where the tall building is... the tall building... that...

I got up frantically and grabbed the phone from the table that the background said belonged to Adam and excitedly typed some stuff into Google.

Greenstreet, building, house number, offices, owner...

Jackpot!

Full of enthusiasm about what I found out, I ran to the door, but since it was the middle of the night, I stopped my movement and ran back into the living room, where I sat down next to Adam on the couch and took a deep breath.

If it worked out the way I envisioned it, I might actually be able to fix everything... as long as the sun finally came up again.

When I was woken up by loud voices, I opened my eyes and sat up on the couch to look out the window, totally exhausted.

The sun was already shining brightly and even through the closed window you could hear the birds chirping happily, whose happiness made me immediately jealous.

I wish I were a bird...

But I wasn't one and I felt absolutely crappy. My stomach was churning, my head was pounding, and I felt like I'd been on drugs consistently since the day Kiyan was arrested.

"You want?" Adam snapped me out of my thoughts, sitting next to me and kindly handing me a joint, which I immediately declined with a shake of my head.

I had to stay clear!

"You're a selfish little whore!" Zayn suddenly came out of his bedroom and hit the wall with full force.

did he mean me

I widened my eyes, began to breathe uncontrollably and then saw Chloe coming out of the bedroom behind him, the sight of whom made me so incredibly angry that I got up immediately.

"What does she want here???", I asked angrily and took a few steps towards the two. Chloe arched her eyebrow provocatively and again I mentally saw myself banging her head on the floor, over and over again.

"She was about to leave," Zayn hissed, his voice sounding so broken I looked at him in pity.

He was so pale and the dark circles under his eyes so pronounced that looking at him made me gasp. There was nothing left of the confident, arrogant guy he used to be. Just a shadow...

"Just to clarify," Chloe said suddenly, tossing her black hair over her shoulder. "It's Kiyan's own fault and I'm definitely not going to jail! Besides, maybe in the cell he'll realize all the things he had on me."

I couldn't believe what she was saying at all. Didn't she love him? How could she be so cold and selfish?!

"Just fuck off!" Zayn said dejectedly and pushed her back towards the door, but I blocked them both.

"If he's ever meant something to you, then help him... please, Chloe!"

It took all my strength to beg for something from that bitch, but I didn't do it for myself, I did it for the man I loved and to get him out of there.

She looked me up and down, then took a step closer to grin so maliciously that it made my stomach queasy.

"You're going to go down, just like him," she breathed then, curling her lips to suddenly and unexpectedly spit in my face.

I was about to freak out when Zayn came to my side and stood between us.

"I'm serious! Fuck off or I won't guarantee anything anymore!"

She looked from me to him and then left the apartment grinning while I wiped her spit off my face, feeling like shit.

"I wanted to make one last-ditch effort to urge her to tell the truth," Zayn said next to me, leaning against the wall to take a deep breath with his eyes closed.

I did the same to calm myself, but then pulled away from the wall and glanced at Adam, who was busy on his cell phone.

"Zayn?" I drew the brunette's attention back to me, pulling off Micah's red sweater. "Give me a black sweater, please."

He nodded in confusion, disappeared into the bedroom and came back with a thin black jacket, which I hastily put on.

"Listen to me. I'll be going home for a while while my mom's at work. There's something I need and if I'm not back by tonight then...then..."

I took a deep breath and then looked deep into his eyes, taking one of his hands in mine at the same time.

"Then look up the local psychiatric clinic in the phone book and please do everything humanly possible to get Kiyan out of jail."

He nodded and it seemed to me that he was completely overwhelmed with everything, but I immediately turned away from him to disappear from the apartment.

In the elevator I went over my plan from start to finish and was sure that it would all work out if only my mother or Thomas weren't at home.

Luckily, when I ran faster than usual through the sun and finally arrived at my front door, I didn't see the Porsche, which gave me a calming breath. I walked cautiously around the house and was even lucky. My father always had a spare key hidden that my mother didn't know about. Thank God!

I took the key, opened the front door and, after I was sure the coast was clear, ran quickly to my room and looked for Kiyan's blue folder, which I then saw lying on my desk.

My gaze fell briefly on my bed and my mirror, which caused goosebumps all over my body.

"I'll see you again soon," I whispered, thinking of his brown eyes. At his indescribable smell and his touches that triggered so much in me.

It wasn't until I got into the hallway and suddenly heard someone unlocking the front door that I was jolted out of my thoughts and rushed right into the bedroom to hide under the bed.

"It doesn't matter if he's in jail now. The main thing is that we get the money!", I heard Thomas' disgusting voice, but it wasn't what made me sting, but what I heard afterwards.

"It didn't have to come to that," I suddenly heard Chloe, whose voice came closer and closer.

I lay on my stomach, didn't even dare to breathe anymore and looked at the door, where I saw her red high heels.

My heart was beating so hard I was sure they would hear me, but they just kept talking.

"You screwed that up with the accident back then! You should bind him to you and not scare him away! If he had really fallen in love with you, it would have been easy to get his inheritance!"

Apparently Thomas was angry with her, but the mere knowledge that the two are in cahoots sent a shiver down my spine. No wonder nobody believed me. I couldn't believe what was going on here.

"Baby," she breathed suddenly. "It doesn't matter now. He's in jail, we get the money."

I had to cover my mouth to keep from throwing up.

"Oh, did you know that Mia is with Zayn?" she then asked him and immediately I held my breath tightly again.

"Don't worry. Nobody believes you anyway. Not even her stupid mother."

"Are you fucking that bitch?" Chloe asked angrily.

"Do you want me to fuck her?" Thomas said excitedly and when I heard them both moan softly and kiss each other, I immediately wished I went back to the psychiatric ward.

The bed above me shook and I closed my eyes and covered my ears because I couldn't bear it.

That was hell!

Those disgusting people! My father had to die for money! Kiyan was in jail for money! And because of money I had to listen to this circus here...

That would have consequences for these two psychopaths!!!