Mend Me? ➸ hemmings a.u

17. Bones Ignite

"Look, Michael. With your pale skin and dark hair, mysteriousness works well with you. But when you drag me out of bed and scare the hell out of me, it's not the best time." Michael sighed and kept his eyes firmly focused on the road. "Wait and see. It won't be long," was the only thing he said to comfort me.

With the complete unknown awaiting me, the same feeling of heaviness in my veins before the weightless moment took over, this time, however, mixed with a terrible concoction of dread and terror. I forced my eyes shut and shallow, ragged breaths to even.

"Michael," I whispered. I sensed him turn to face me, and then I felt his hand on mine. I only then realised I was gripping onto my seat for dear life. I relaxed and felt his thumb graze over my knuckles. "Relax, Ava. It's fine. I don't want to cause you any more pain," he mumbled as he finished.

I looked up and saw him chewing on his bottom lip. "Both hands on the wheel," I muttered, causing him to smirk. "Of course."

I closed my eyes again and focused on the screaming wind outside the window and the bumps and rocks caused by the imperfections on the road. "Almost there," I heard him whisper, and that was the exact moment I heard it. It was as if the car somehow travelled into the scene of a terrible movie.

I opened my eyes, everything blurry at first. My ears tried to make sense of the commotion in the distance. I heard a piercing wail and dozens of voices and spine chilling screams with heartbreaking sobs. My eyes focused eventually and darted around to put together the pieces of the strange puzzle around me. Flashes of blue and red blinded me, but they were nothing compared to the sea of bright orange consuming the large mansion-like house before me. I stepped out of the car with my eyes trained solely on the dying structure, forgetting to shut the door behind me. I approached it like a zombie, under an indescribable trance from the fluorescent blue, red, yellow and orange of the scene.

Michael's arm shook me out of my daze. "Ava, holy shit," was all he could say as his eyes ran marathons to capture every piece of information surrounding him. "Ava, do you know-" he gulped. "What?" I placed a hand on his cheek and guided him to look me in the eyes. "Do you know who's house this is?" He asked slowly. I shook my head, wide eyed with fire threatening to burst out of my veins. "Rose's," he mouthed. My head snapped back to the inferno with my jaw dropped.

Calum and Ashton then jumped in front of us with wicked grins. "The witch's lair is compromised!" Ashton giggled and Calum burst out laughing. I stared at them in shock. "You're happy about this?" I spat. "Aren't you?" Calum's eyebrows furrowed. I shook my head and turned back, watching the firefighters battle the blaze in complete chaos.

I pushed past the boys and began walking towards the commotion, only to have a policeman push me back. "Miss, your safety-" "I'm not going further," I stated simply. He nodded once and turned back to help another officer pull someone away from the mansion's front yard. "No!" I heard them yell, and I recognised his voice immediately.

I watched as the two men struggled to tame his flailing arms and legs. He fought like a wild animal, seeming as if he wanted to jump into the flames himself. "Luke!" I yelled, and his moves faltered for a moment before he continued fighting against their force. "Luke, it's Ava!" I yelled over the screams and commotion of the emergency vehicles and crowd the neighbourhood created.

I felt Michael's arms around me again, and he tried pulling me further away from the danger. "It could blow up, Ava," I heard him say into my ear. "It's Luke!" I pointed and his head snapped up to where Luke was. Screaming and thrashing against hands with nails that dug deeply into his flesh. He was helpless, with nothing but boxers and a white t-shirt on and his hair a blonde, wild mess. There was nothing more painful than hearing his vocal-chord tearing screams making themselves loud and clear amongst the chaotic mixture of sounds I couldn't believe weren't drowning them out.

"Lucas!" Michael shouted, his voice loud and booming. Then a brave and reckless Ava from another strange dimension must have taken my place, because I escaped Michael's embrace in what seems like slow motion, with Luke the only thing on my mind. I surprised the officers when I appeared behind them, my arms clinging to Luke's back like some sort of a koala. His head spun to face me, and as soon as his eyes locked with mine, his body slumped and relaxed in their grip. I took his arms and dragged him away from the two men, who quickly returned to patrolling the rest of the area.

I guided him to a car, and as soon as his back made contact with the door, he slid down and landed on the hard ground with a thud. I crouched down beside him and placed a finger under his chin, forcing him to look up at me. His lips were quivering, and his eyes were almost as red as his lips and cheeks. The bright blue was rimmed by a striking red, and fresh tears were spilling over drying ones on his puffy, stained face. "Ava," he took in quick, shallow breaths to fight against his constant, painful sobs. "Luke," I replied, moving away the hair glued to his forehead from sweat. "She didn't deserve to die," he trembled. "Rose? How do you know she's dead?" I asked. "She's dead," he answered simply. "She's dead!" His fists clashed painfully with the gravelly ground at his sides. "Dead!" He yelled, his bleeding hands covering his eyes and smearing his cheeks with red and dirt.

I sat before him, stunned. "She didn't deserve to die," he shook his head adamantly. "She didn't, Ava," he looked up, only then seeming to recognise my presence. "Ava," he sobbed, sitting up and pulling me with him so we were both kneeling and holding each other tight. "Ava," he said again, as if it were somehow comforting him. "Luke?" I pulled back and he pressed his nose to mine. "Don't let go, or I'll surely go insane," he pleaded against my lips.

"I won't," I promised, gripping and clawing onto the material on his back with more strength than I did to the car seat earlier.