Flames ☀ Michael Clifford

FLASHBACK

Leah Reeves - 3 YEARS PREVIOUSLY

It was quiet, for most of the evening. Except for us, our group of friends, drunkenly stumbling through the town at 10pm and laughing at the most boring things. It was dark, considering it was Autumn in England, but the change between the darkness and the vivid orange was quick. Harsh memories flashed through my mind, in black and white and my body stopped.

The smoke of the distant flames prickled up my skin, feeling like knives against my back and arms. The sensation was all too familiar. Images swirled in my head, my body still frozen. 

"I'll be back in a sec, wait here." I caught up to my friends, only to wander off in the direction of the smoke. 

Curiosity bubbled in my stomach, overruling the initial fear I felt upon sensing the smoke. I wasn't completely sober, which probably explained why I had a sudden confidence to explore the situation, much to the annoyance (or confusion, in Calum's case) of my friends.

At this point, I was promenading at a right angle, to we had originally come from, following the small sensation of heat and smoke I could feel. There was a sharp corner, in which I turned, to be faced by small flames, burning all kinds of orange. Behind it, a larger fire. I gasped, my hand over my mouth, and immediately sobered up. Wanting to get out of there as soon as possible, I ran. I retraced all my steps, all the way back to where my friends were standing, confused and huddling together, after becoming cold whilst waiting for me to come back from my little "mission".

"We need to call 999." I rushed out, once I'd reached them, out of breath and in shock. 

"Why what's happened?" Calum senses my fear, taking my upper arm in his hand, rubbing the skin beneath his palm with his thumb. 

"I felt smoke, so I followed it and there's this huge fire and I'm so terrified, Cal." I realised my original mistake, as soon as the words came out of my mouth. I should have never even followed my half-drunken instincts and followed the smoke, causing so much upset to myself.

"Let's get you home." 

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Word Count:  369 words

Songs I listened to whilst writing this (if you're interested lol):

Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High? - Arctic Monkeys

What A Feeling - One Direction

Afraid - The Neighbourhood

Cage the Elephant - Come a Little Closer

R.I.P 2 My Youth - The Neighbourhood

Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood 

A.M - One Direction

Cough Syrup - Young the Giant

End of the Day - One Direction

What About Now - Westlife (I almost burst out laughing when this came on, knowing that I was making this list, lmao)

Into You - Ariana Grande

We Don't Have To Dance - Andy Black

(And a shit ton of Spotify ads, because I'm broke af)

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Hi there,

If you're reading this, that means you've either skipped an entire part of this book, or you're genuinely interested in reading this book.

Thanks for that, by the way.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. The chapters will get slightly larger, I hope, as they go on. This part was only particularly short because it was a flashback and nothing too special.

Everyone who's reading, I love you,

M.