Vikk's P.O.V.
My headphones plugged in, I stared out the window with blank eyes and tired thoughts. I leaned my head against the glass and felt the vibrations through my body, almost falling asleep as the three others in the car chattered amongst themselves.
They were trying to be as quiet as possible, I think they thought I was asleep and I was grateful for it as I was exhausted. I felt the car bump, meaning we had just pulled up in the driveway and I groaned. I ran my hands over my eyes, squinting at the lights and pulling my headphones out, waiting for the onslaught of noise now everyone knew I was awake.
"Finally awake now?"
"I don't think I was ever asleep." From up in the front seat Josh laughed and Simon turned his head back so he could look at me.
"Bloody hell just go to bed already, you look like shit." I nodded.
"I know, I feel like shit too." JJ was in the seat next to me and he looked around too, actually looking slightly concerned.
"You know you didn't have to come right, we could have filmed football without you." I sighed, knowing it was true but I went anyway.
"It's not like I could have slept anyway, Lachlan was using my set-up."
"I thought he was going to sleep."
"That too."
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I pulled myself up from kitchen bench, placing the empty cereal bowl in the sink and waving goodnight to Simon and Josh, even though it was only 5 o'clock. I was exhausted, the sleepless nights of the past week catching up on me and my almost non-stop recording tearing me apart.
Lachlan had been using my set-up when we left because the we hadn't replaced some of the screens in the guest set-up, not since we had moved anyway. I knew he was exhausted, just as I was, and I had made him promise he would go to bed after recording two videos, which could take up to three hours.
He had been staying with us for just over a week by that point and had been out recording some videos for a special project for most of that time, sometimes out for 14 hours of the day. I only found out when he collapsed as soon as he walked in the front door and I had made him rest for two days before allowing him to go back as long as he was back before 8.
"Lachlan?" His call came back down the stairs within seconds and he sounded weary.
"Yeah?" I almost sprinted up the stairs, dressed in my football gear and ready to go and film the football videos with the boys. I pushed open my bedroom door and saw Lachlan sitting at my desk, his eyes showing complete tiredness.
He was already recording but from the looks of it he had given up, reaching up to turn off the camera but before he could I grabbed his hand and kissed him.
"Hey babe, how you feeling?" He sighed.
"Crap, I've got a massive headache and I can't really wake up. I think I might be getting sick, it's literally come on in the last 10 minutes." I kissed his forehead gently, wrapped my arms around his neck from behind.
"I'll see you later okay, make sure you're asleep before I get back or I'll drag you there." He smiled again, leaning up to kiss me. I frowned, he tasted almost metallic, like there was blood in his mouth so I pulled back.
"You aren't bleeding are you? You taste like blood." His eyebrows raised.
"Vampire?" I shook my head, laughing and glancing over his desk. There was a steaming hot cup of hot chocolate, barely a few sips taken out of it. A voice came from the door and I turned to see Josh's head stuck around the door.
"Move it lovebirds, we don't have that much time Vikk." I flipped him off, kissing Lachlan again.
"Definitely not, love you Lachy." With one last kiss, I headed towards the door. Lachlan pulled his headphones over his head, turning to the computer.
"Love you too babe, see you later."
I scrambled up the stairs tiredly, checking Lachlan's room only to see it empty and the bed empty. I sighed, knowing he was still recording as he wasn't anywhere downstairs and even if he was the boys would have woken him up.
As I approached my bedroom I frowned, not hearing anything. No voice, no footsteps, no yelling. I supposed it meant that Lachlan had fallen asleep in my room, but I wasn't functioning enough to think straight, so I headed straight in.
I could see Lachlan's head on the chair, slumped at an unusual angle so at first I thought he was sleeping. Then I saw his hand.
His nails and the tips of his fingers were pale but the rest of his hands were purple and his skin looked waxy, like a fake model of himself. I stepped closer.
I took in his pale lips, his unmoving chest, his waxy skin and the way his eyes had sunken into his head and screamed. He would have looked peaceful if it wasn't for the awkward angle his head was leaning at, and that fact that he was slumped in the chair, looking rather uncomfortable. It was like he was sleeping sitting up.
I stumbled backwards, falling onto the floor and scrambling away, in shock. With my hand covering my mouth I bolted down the stairs, crying and on the verge of screaming again. Simon and Josh looked up in shock as I entered the kitchen and I fell to my knees in front of them, sobbing.
I knew Lachlan was dead, I didn't know why but I knew.
"Vikk! What happened?!" I covered my mouth again and felt desperate arms around me, trying to get something, anything from me.
"Lac- Lachlan! He- he-" I dissolved into sobs again, feeling and hearing as one person tried to leave the room before I called out again.
"Do- Don't!" They froze and when I looked up I saw that it was Josh that had tried to leave. "He- he's-" I choked on my words again, coughing and spluttering.
"He's what Vikk?" Josh suddenly took a step back, looking out towards the door and his mouth open in shock.
"Oh god. He's- Oh god Vikk you aren't serious?" His voice was desperate, eyes wide with understanding. He also looked sick, face pale. Simon was looking between the two of us, confused.
"What am I not getti-?" Josh cut him off.
"Stay there. I'm calling 999. Keep Vikk distracted." Simon looked down at me again, I was shaking and biting down on my knuckles, attempting to block out the image of Lachlan's lifeless body from my mind.
"Vikk?" I shook my head, trying to dissipate my sobs.
My mind was running in over-time, struggling to grip the reality that I was so desperate to throw away. I felt a welling feeling inside my chest and I couldn't breathe, clinging to Simon as he sat there, still confused. He didn't know what happened.
"Lachlan's dead." It shocked me how I managed to keep my voice from breaking with the sentence and Simon gripped my arm even tighter.
"What! Vikk- Oh my god this isn't happening... This isn't real." His head found it way to the back of my neck and I felt his breathing faltering, shock setting in.
"Guys? The police are on their way." Josh's arm made their way around the two of us and rocked me gently, the hitching in his breathing showing he knew.
"It's true?" Josh nodded his head, the tears starting to flow down his face.
"There's nothing we can do, he's been dead for a while." My sobs had almost subsided, but at that they grew again.
He had died alone, before his time, before he was ready to go. I knew it had been his plan to propose, at least after he asked for my ring size a few months before but now everything was ruined, everything had been torn down.
"He looked so peaceful."
