✔ Run Baby Run ✖ punk hood au

xl - promise.

g w e n:

My pain was the loudest thing in the room, and my screams had enough sting to power a ship on the Sydney harbor. My chest was constricting, I couldn't breathe, and my throat was on fire. I knew I was screaming; yelling with fury and despair but I couldn't hear it. Slow motion would be cliche but there's no way I could describe it. Time moved slowly and it was the ultimate punishment - I was able to see, to hear, to feel things longer, and it was the worst form of torture.

I could see, hear, and feel things with such detail that I didn't think I could ever erase it from my mind. It was carved into my brain, written with power like lightning and I had no control. My screams and agonizing cries carried into the wind as I clutched onto my stomach - pain suddenly sprouting in random areas of my body.

I couldn't take it.

Not in that moment, and especially the moment in which the boy who meant so much to me was lifted and wheeled away. Lifeless yet ethereally beautiful, my heartstrings continued to be yanked in every which way, ripping me apart with no mercy. As the tears perpetually cascaded from my bloodshot eyes, I held onto my chest, afraid that my heart was going to rupture into flames.

"Luke!" I screamed, jolting forward in attempt to hold my dear friend one last time. But I was suddenly stopped when a strong arm held my frail body.

"Gwen, no," Calum's voice was soft, slowly soothing me from the inside out.

"Let me see him! Please!" I tried to wiggle my way out of Calum's clutch, but he just held me tighter.

"It's going to be okay," he told me, his voice never changing from its consoling inflection.

"Let me go Calum, please!" I cried, trying to pull myself away from Calum's grip. "Please, I want to see Luke," I turned to look up at him, watery eyes and desperation, I begged, "please, let me go."

"Baby," Calum shook his head and pulled me into his chest, "not right now. Just stay with me."

I shoved him, punched his chest, and even attempted to slap his face in my endeavors to escape Calum's grip, but he did all he could to keep us chest to chest.

"Please," I whimpered, my fists pounding against Calum with as much power as I could ever muster. But it wasn't long till I lost my strength and lost myself altogether.

I broke down. I saw my entire world shatter at the palm of my fragile, shaking hands and the pieces slipped through my fingers. There was nothing I could do about it, and that's what hurt the most. Luke was gone; in one second, in a snap of a finger, in an exhale, the boy I considered my best friend had slipped away.

//

Calum held onto me. He never let me go, not even when officers tried to pry him away to question him. Whether I knew it then or not, I needed his embrace and Calum was there to give it to me. When I woke up about a day later, the first thing I felt was warmth lace my fingers. Balmy palms pressed together as my eyes slowly opened to a dimmed room.

"Gwen?"

I turned my head, feeling pain rush through my neck and head. Wincing from the pressure, I quickly shut my eyes again but found myself squeezing the hand that still held onto mine.

"I think she's waking up,"

I slowly opened my eyes again, this time trying my hardest to keep them open. Everything was blurry at first, only shadows moving across my vision. But soon enough, the frizzy images focused before me.

"Hey princess," Calum's voice was calming as he stroked a hand through my hair.

"Hey Gwen," the bright smile of Charlie illuminated the room as she hovered above me with relief painted on her face.