Dreams On Fire || ✓

Chapter 4

Date: 29th July, 2016.

I'm muKE AF AND IT'S FUCKING ME UP.

"I'm sharing a room with the cliffaconda."
- Luke Hemmings

UNEDITED

Its been three days since Luke has left his room. Nobody except his mum had come in and it usually resulted in the poor woman sobbing for the loss of his son. He didn't not deserve to die this young, he should have survived and lived his dreams.

At times like these, Luke would usually sit as far away as possible from his mum and curl in a ball, hiding his face in his knees so he wouldn't have to see her cry. It broke his heart to hear the whimpers and sobs of pain escaping her.

As Luke laid on his back, staring the ceiling the urge to see his band mates hit him. He had been suppressing this urge since three days now and he couldn't hold it it any longer.

Not that you could blame him, all of them lived together and hadn't lasted a day without each other.

Exhaling a puff of nothingness, he stood up and sprinted to Michael's house, where usually everyone hung around.

He walked right into the house and as he had seen three days prior, Ash and Cal lay there on the couch, the only difference being they were in different clothes and Ash had a beard.

Ashton had no motivation to move, let alone shave his beard.

Ash had an arm draped over Calum's shoulder and he tiredly spoke, "Why did it have to be this way? I cannot help but think that this is our fault."

"What do you mean?" Calum asked, a frown etched on his face. (if y'all comment the lyrics to What Do You Mean by Justin, I stg I'll kill you).

"Look at it in this way, if we never left the band and decided to go solo, Luke wouldn't haven been so fucking upset and he would have not got into a car crash." Ashton explained further and realisation hit Calum's face and he widened his eyes, tears filling them instantly.

And in that moment, Luke wanted to do nothing more but scream out that it wasn't their fault, they were doing what was best for them and Luke had forgiven them for taking that decision but he was a ghost now and no matter how loud he cried out, nobody could hear him.

Michael had been locked in the room since the day Luke had died with an exception of him attending the funeral. He would let Ashton and Calum in only for an hour everyday and both of them were worried about him

His method of grieving wasn't healthy.

They had decided to give Michael some space until they themselves dragged him out of the room and talk to them.

Dejected, Luke walked right through the door of Michael's bedroom and he wasn't sure what he was expecting. The room was in the same condition it had been three days ago but it definitely had more alcohol bottles in.

Luke's nose wrinkled as the strong smell of alcohol hit his face and he made a gagging noise. He dragged his feet to the window and opened it wide, letting the much needed fresh air in.

Michael looked over to where Luke was and when I say looked, it meant that he made eye contact.

Luke stopped inhaling, more of a habit than need, and widened his eyes when Michael furrowed his eyebrows.

No, Michael wasn't under the influence of any alcohol this time, he was sober.

"Luke?" He called out, tentatively.

"Right here, love." Luke answered with a softness in his voice.

Michael rubbed his watering eyes and shook his head as if shaking his head would make Luke go away - which Michael thought was just a fragment of his imagination.

He had every right to be uncertain though, he just missed Luke so much that he would't be surprised if the blonde haired and the blue eyed boy that stood a few meters away from him was just what his mind had created to cope up with his loss.

"Is it really you?" Michael questioned back, his voice moulded as an innocent five year old.

"Yeah." Luke spoke, his heart breaking all over again.

Suddenly, Michael had a fit. He kept on chanting 'no, it isn't Luke' and the younger boy stood there, not knowing what to do.

The red-haired boy stood up and stormed out of his room, going out for the first time since God knows when.

Minutes later, he returned with several bottles of Vodka and he opened the cap, taking a brave gulp and winced when the liquid burned his throat and left a hot trail behind.

Luke stood there, frozen. He had never seen this side of him, not even when the girl Mikey was madly in love with had cheated on him.

When Luke finally came back to his sense, he watched with wild eyes, Michael chugging the contents of the bottle down as if it was water and he hadn't had a sip since days.

"Michael, stop." Luke pleaded, desperately.

This just made Michael cry harder and drink more. He wiped his mouth with the sweater paw and he threw the bottle at the wall, the sound of glass shattering echoing all around.

Luke whimpered and choked. He couldn't speak. This is how he cried, instead of tears, he couldn't speak.

He let out a strangled 'please stop' and Michael tugged the ends of his hair.

"No, Michael. Luke's not here. He died, he fucking died. You're just seeing things." Michael kept on reassuring himself and hearing this made Luke choke harder. He let out a few sobs.

After the third bottle and Luke constantly pleading Michael to stop in a pained tone, he finally stopped.

But no, it wasn't willingly.

Michael drank until he passed out and the world around him switched off like somebody had flipped a light switch.

• • • • •

So, that happened. I got sad while writing this but it's okay because I'm always sad.

Also, Dreams on Fire is on #569 in Fanfiction, thank you so much :)

All the love,
Pia xx