Up In Smoke - adopted by all time low

Chapter 5 : and you caused it

I stare out into a grassy field, the sun is shining brightly but it's a nice breeze. I sigh in contentness and savor the small time of calm that follows me while I allow the wet grass to breeze past my ankles.

Suddenly, there is an uproar of whispers. They all are saying my name and they surround me. I open my eyes and feel dread quickly fill up my entire body.

"No, no no no no no no!" I yell out as the ground beneath me turns into a crisp brown and the smell of smoke fills the air. I look up and see a house. It's not the care home, it's not my childhood home, it's not even the tour bus. It's a simple White House, it looks just like the ones on Stock photos. In the upstairs window, I see two faces. Rian and Scarlett.

"Fuck, no! No no no no!" I begin screaming as I run inside, the quickly growing flames immediately swallowing me. I scream in pain but still move toward both Rian and Scarlett. I'm not losing them, not this soon.

I start coughing, tears streaming down my face as I yell out both of their names, thrashing against the pair of arms that tightly squeezed me.

"Emb! Ember, wake up! Ember, you're okay, it's just a dream!"

My eyes shoot open and it takes me a second to take in my surroundings. We are in the tour bus on our way to LA where we were moving into the new band house. All Time Low began fostering both Scarlett and I a week ago. I was safe.

When the coughing fit and my breathing are under control, I cuddle into Rian tiredly. I tried to warn them about the frequent nightmares. We hadn't really talked about a lot this week as they were finishing out their tour and the most we did/talked about was music. For me it was a little boring because I wasn't very interested in the behind the scenes stuff, where as Scarlett was very invested.

Rian poked my side and I whine before turning to look up at him. He was playing with my hair and smiled down at me.

"Do you wanna talk about it? It might help."

Thinking about it, I thought, fuck it, why not? So I sat up, my fingers wrapping around the necklace from Amb and running my thumb across the engravings.

After retelling what I saw, Scarlett looked horrified, Jack, Zack, and Rian all looked sad, and Alex trapped me in a hug. I wiggled out of it and sat on the floor, opening the locket and staring at the picture. I made sure to wipe away the tears before I stood up and went back to my bunk. I heard someone following me and when I turned around it was Scarlet. She looked really upset and it sent my mind into a guilt spiral. I know I've been snappy about my anxiety with all the changes and I could tell Scarlet was a very sensitive person and probably thought I hated her or something.

"I'm sorry"

"Why?"

"I don't know. About your brother, that you get nightmares every time you sleep, that I can't help with any of that. And I'm...I'm really sorry if I did something to make you hate me.."

Jumping, I immediately latch onto her tightly, I feel her crying as I try to calm her down. I see Alex rushing back with concern but I mouth to him that I have it covered. He walks away with his hands up and I smile slightly, rubbing a circle into Scarlet's back.

When she's calm enough to back up a little so I can see her face, I smile at her.

"Scar, I don't hate you. I don't hate anyone really, it's just...I get frustrated at myself I guess for having anxiety and then when people are concerned I get more irritated at myself and take it out on the other person. I know that's a lame excuse but I have no idea how to stop doing it."