Long Live. // Luke Hemmings 5SOS (Vampire)

Chapter 31 - Coming Back

Photo above is an original edit by me. Please enjoy this chapter :)

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For a moment, Rosemary thought it must have been some kind of sick joke. It did not seem like a real option, an actual possibility, that the man who'd been staying in her home under false pretences - the one who'd gladly went along with the charade that they'd never met before, that he was just some random event planner who'd invaded her personal space and asked too many questions - that he was her brother.

Not just her brother, either. Her brother who had supposedly performed a spell which stripped her of her magic and all memories of it, and came back to... to do what? To make sure it was holding up? To rub it in her oblivious face?

And Calum knew. And Vera knew. Vera walked around their house, brought that motherfucker into their home, knowing full well that half of the problems that had been plaguing Rosemary's life - the memory loss, the dreams, the insomnia, the confusion and the fear - had all been caused by him. She knew all of this and she still acted like a friend, played nice and protective and comforted Rosemary when she struggled to live with the unexplained trauma that she'd been through - lied to her face and let her believe that it was some freak accident. Pretended to pity her and told her I wish it could've been different... What. A load. Of shit.

The deception, the betrayal... The embarrassment. Rosemary could hardly process it. It felt like she'd been walking around with a giant 'kick me' sign on her back, being laughed at and manipulated the whole time and being none the wiser all the while. It almost made her cry... Almost.

"No." She blurted in response to Calum's statement. She'd been shaking her head, subconsciously hoping that if she just denied it enough then none of it would be true. That she'd change reality and find herself back where she was before she'd even considered magic, let alone Sebastian... But she realised that was never her reality.

That was the reality that Sebastian had created.

"No." She repeated, backing away, not knowing why or what from, until the back of her legs hit the bed and then she was sitting. She looked at Luke, wanting comfort - suddenly fearing that he couldn't provide it. Suddenly realising just how possible it was that he was another person who knew her reality before she did and hid it from her, musing in her ignorance... He'd kept secrets before, after all. She brushed that thought away, refusing to fall into that paranoid trap.

"This is- this is some sick joke." She spat, looking back at Calum and seeing him wince slightly. "Sebastian is not my brother. I don't have a fucking brother." She insisted, looking desperately at Calum and Luke - although, it was clear they weren't the ones she was trying to convince. "I don't..."

"I'm so sorry." Calum spoke softly and genuinely, knowing that her aggravation was only thinly veiled despair. Luke's eyes fell to the floor. He strangely felt like an intruder in this situation.

"Why?" Rosemary whispered, dropping her gaze to her lap where her hands were gripping her legs. Calum furrowed his eyebrows, believing her question was in response to his apology - he quickly realised that wasn't the case when she spoke again. "Why would he do this?" She just wanted to understand.

"He's... He's not a nice person." Calum muttered, making himself wince again in fear that he was making a redundant statement that may only irritate Rosemary more. It didn't - she was barely even listening. She was in her own head, attempting to find a single train of thought to follow.

"He's not my brother... He can't be." Rosemary thought out loud, pressing her hands against her head stressfully. Luke stepped towards her again, hoping to comfort her, but before he could she was standing up again and, for a moment, pacing. "How is- how is this..." She found herself gasping for breaths, lifting a quivering hand to her mouth and shaking her head.