Deadline≫hemmings a.u

3.0

The water poured down, the cold water causing my clothes to cling to my freezing body as my mind dulled and everything real seemed to be a foggy illusion. I could feel the hard tile pressing into my back and my lips throb from biting down on it until a metallic taste flooded my mouth, but I didn't care. All that mattered was that I was supposed to be dead but I'm not. And now everyone knew it.

Since we got into our car to leave the hospital, I had driven us over five hundred miles from San Antonio, Texas to El Paso, Texas, but even still, I couldn't escape the horror of being resurrected from the dead in the eyes of everyone I knew. The moment we entered out hotel room and turned on the news, I was met with the same ghastly face I had seen at the bar not too long ago, only this one held much more hope and a little more pain. Calum wanted me back home, but that couldn't happen. Not in my wildest dreams. I was a criminal now, and even he couldn't deny that. Even so, his pleading voice still reached my ears, calling me home.

Poor Luke, the world swaying before his eyes from the two flights we walked up and the meds we managed to snag on the way out, shut the TV off as quickly as he could and even tried to stop me from shutting myself away before I closed the door and the floor rushed up to meet him.

It felt a little ironic that a few weeks ago that I had to be distracted so I wouldn't cry and now when the perfect reason to cry came around, I just couldn't. It was like when I was dead to everyone, I was nothing but emotional. Now, I was emotionally deprived like that of a walking corpse.

My cheeks stung, the warm water heating my insides as my fingers turned to prunes from resting in the water that rushed around me, racing for the drain. I'd been sitting underneath the shower for far too long, the wet heat drowning me as the air sticky. All the same, it still felt like I would disintegrate to dust if I got out.

But no sooner had these thoughts formed did I hear a very faint click and a gust of cold air that reached me through the steam. When the shower curtain was finally pulled back, there was a soft sigh tinged with relief.

"Melanie."

I kept my head on my knees and my eyes shut, refusing to respond to Luke's voice.

"Are you ever going to come out?"  Luke whispered softly.

I huddled myself more tightly together and to the wall, expecting him to touch me. No, I would not.

"Please," he pleaded and without having to see him, I knew he was running his long fingers through his hair.

I stayed still and silent,  clinging firmly to my decision. Why would I go out there, into the real world? Everyone knew or would know that I was alive and wanted. And not for good reasons. What would happen if I got caught? Jail? For how many years? And as of Michael and Luke? What would happen to them? I couldn't let anything happen to them. I was better off locked away in here. We all were.

Luke didn't speak again for a while and I strained my ears to pick up any footsteps, although I heard none. Another minute passed and I heard a faint shuffling and the shower curtain being shifted again. There was a quiet sigh, and then the sound of Luke stepping into the tub with me and sitting down on the watery floor.

I lifted my head in surprise, my eyes opening to see Luke's face, water streaming over the curves of his cheeks and plastering his blonde hair to his forehead as his gray sweats and blue shirt darkened. Luke's blue eyes met mine with a gentle sort of stubborness that said he refused to leave, but wouldn't bother me if I let him stay.

I stared at him silently for a long time and waited for him to speak, but he was just as silent as I was.

Eventually, I stopped waiting and put my head back on my knees and shut my eyes. Luke made no attempt to talk to me again. I sat under the steady stream of warm water, sheltered in this small tub from the real world  and all of the dangers that awaited me.