Runaway [5SOS AU]

21- Luke Stares Intently at Calum, Ashton and a Big Biker's Wrist Tattoo

Luke:

Calum, Ashton and I were all in the same cell with about four other souls. No one knew each other except for us three. While the others slowly began to break, we stuck together. When I would try to sleep I would lay awake, wondering what would've happened if I had been put in a cell with strangers. Would I end up like the other four? So scared that I couldn't speak. So terrified that I never moved. Then I would push it out of my mind and thank whoever was controlling this twisted world that Calum and Ashton were with me.

I stared at Calum and Ashton and noticed the way they looked further towards the dead than the living. Calum usual brown skin had turned pale in the torch light that flickered through the metal bars. Ashton's eyes had lost their child-like glimmer while his face was void of dimples. I began to feel the weight of the living push down on my shoulders as I noticed how gaunt their faces had become. The shadows that cast across their faces made them look like ghouls with dark bags under the eyes and blackness hollowing out their cheeks. The other boys looked the same which I assumed meant that I looked none the better.

"We need to get out of here," Calum muttered to us. "I need to make sure she's okay." When he said she Ashton and I both knew who he was talking about. It wasn't as if he'd really care for anyone else.

"We will mate," Ashton said comfortingly.

"Yeah...but how?" I didn't want to be the devil's advocate but it needed to be asked. The wrought iron bars were set into stone on the floor and ceiling. Between each was enough space for our arms to reach through just below our shoulders. The only way in and out was the barred door that was constantly locked.

Torchlight flickered on the wall outside the cell and danced off our faces. It provided minimal light and warmth. "I just need to think..." Calum whispered to himself. I looked over to my friend and saw him curled tight with his eyes shut. He was talking in his sleep again. To my right Ashton had sprawled himself across the ground and was giving off light snores.

I craned my neck back so that it was pushing against the wall. I shut my eyes tight and screwed up my face in concentration. I was thinking so hard that I bega--

"What're ya trying to do? Rip the door open with your mind? I wouldn't do that if I were ya. It looks like your about to shit a crowbar." Standing up on the spot I leapt to the bars and grabbed the stranger by the collar of his shirt. He had a flaming red beard and long bushy hair. His hands were the size of dinner plates and he had the aura of a biker to him. I knew he could take me out with one thump if he could but luckily the bars were working in my favour.

"Give us the keys or I'll rip the beard from your face." My lips were moving without me telling them to and my voice seemed distant and menacing as if it weren't my own.

"Woah there kid. You're a feisty one aren't ya," he unfurled my fist from his shirt and stepped back a bit. "Don't worry I'm on your side." He pulled a jangling set of vintage looking keys from his big jacket before opening up the bars.

Everything was telling me to round up Calum and Ashton and run out of there. But I just stood there staring at my exit. Staring at freedom.

"Who are you? Why are you letting us go?"

"I've made mistakes in ma' life. I regret every single one. See this is ma' retribution. Now grab your friends." I did as he said and shook Calum and Ashton awake. We tried snapping the other guys to life but they wouldn't respond.

The big man took my hand in his huge ones and curled the ring of keys into my fingers. At the edge of his jacket where the skin of his wrist peaked I saw a little tattoo of a falling red feather. Underneath it was written:

"Kaitlyn, my little Phoenix, I'm eternally sorry"

He caught me staring at his wrist and his eyes grew glassy under his eyebrows as he looked at the tattoo himself. "Your the only ones in the boys section left. They made the others do terrible things. There's only one other cell left in the girl's section. They've been spared because Damien took a liking to one of em'. Get em' out of there. Before he does something to 'er." He gave us the directions to where to go and turned his broad back on us.

"Aren't you coming with us?" Ashton asked.

"I'll hold em' off for ya. Now GO!"

"Hold who off?" Calum requested quietly.

As soon as he finished speaking the man caught a whizzing knife by the blade before it almost hit Calum in the forehead. Blood dripped from his hands but he hardly seemed to notice. He swatted knife after knife as he took up the entire width of the hallway. We couldn't see the attackers. We couldn't even hear them. But knife after knife would slice the air before either clanging to the stone or sometimes landing in his arm. Blood began to trickle to the cobblestone floor as more and more knives sunk to the hilts.

"RUN!!!" He boomed. As Ashton and Calum grabbed me by my almost paralysed arms I saw the glimpse of the big red haired man leaning against the wall as his movements became sluggish.

Then I turned away and ran the corridor. I took the left like he told us to before taking the second right. I continued running with Calum and Ashton by my sides. My throat was tight and my eyes were blurry. I wanted to drop to the ground and break into tiny little ash size pieces. Instead I gritted my teeth and pounded my feet into the stone. 

Let's make sure his retribution wasn't in vain.

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A-N: Sooooooooooo...it's the long weekend and I made pancakes for breakfast. Not because I felt like treating myself but because there was literally nothing else to have for breakfast in my house. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 Anyways, thanks for anyone who's still reading this due to terrible time management. I really appreciate it.