All of Me ~ Luke Hemmings ~ Prolouge

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Prologue;

I can still remember the sounds, and the cool weather of fall with the slightly chilled winds. The colour of the vivid blue sky clouded up with smoke. The sounds of wailing fire truck and ambulance sirens. What a great way to come home from school. One minute you're laughing with your friends, not a single care in the world, then you turn your attention to smoke in the sky emitting from your cozy little home that you've lived in your entire life, then racing around the corner to find it crumbled to the ground. All your belongings, memories, and loved ones burnt to the ground, with nothing you could do about it.
"Michael..." My hushed voice hardly audible through the screams and sirens, but my brother stops dead in his tracks right along side me, all of our friends behind us whispering things like: "Oh my God..." "I'm so sorry.." And "Oh no."
I couldn't bring myself to move any closer. In fact, I couldn't bring myself to move at all. Tears stung my eyes, but I wasn't gonna let them spill over, not in front of everyone.
"Delilah." My brothers voice caught in his throat and he choked at the end of my name, I looked over at him, tears pouring down his cheeks. I gripped his large hand in mine and squeezed tightly.
We were three houses down, not even close. All I could think about were my parents, and my little sister that was supposed to get picked up from daycare twenty minutes ago. Maybe they left to pick her up and were out of the house when the fire started. Yeah, they were out and they're okay. I reassure myself, and take one small step forward, before my feet hit the pavement hard, and without me even realizing it, I was dashing towards the house. Running as fast as my feet could take me, hearing my name being shouted behind me. But I didn't care, I needed to make sure my parents weren't in the house.
I ran straight past the police tape and into the ruins that were my house, I heard someone shout at me and then two pairs of strong arms gripped me and pulled me up and off the ground, where I hadn't even realized I collapsed.
"Miss, do you live here?"
"Do you know who lives here?"
"Are you okay?"
"She's so pale,"
"Delilah..." I heard my brothers voice above all the others. My vision had gone blurry and my mouth went dry as my head spun.
"Could I get some water?" I whisper, my voice harsh and cracked as I spoke.
"Get her some water! Now!" I heard Michael scream to somebody, I tried hard to get my brain to focus on him and only him, as his hands gripped my shoulders tightly.
"Delilah...? Delilah?" Michael calls my names over and over, but I couldn't bring myself to respond, my voice not working. I felt my eyes roll to the back of my head and it rolled loosely to my right shoulder, my neck unable to support it any longer.
"Delilah?! Delilah!! Oh my God- can I get some help please?!" Michael calls over his shoulder, his strong voice breaking under his sobs.
"Michael..." I whisper, my vision became cloudy and the last thing I remember was slumping forward into my brothers arms, and then complete blackness.

*****
It's been three days since the fire. I haven't spoken to anybody but the police officers, and only them once. I had been staying at my grandparents house with Michael and Delah, our little sister. She was only three, she didn't understand, but she still screamed for mommy and daddy every night. Breaking our hearts.
How did you tell an infant that her parents were dead? Hearing her wails made me crunch up into a tight ball in the top bunk of the bunk bed I shared with Michael. They were agonizing, and I just wanted to hold her and never let her go. But I couldn't do it, because I knew that if I went up to her in a state like that, I would start crying too, and I couldn't cry in front her, I needed to be strong for her. So instead, I let Michael and our grandparents comfort her. While I sat wrapped up in a bundle of blankets and tried hard not to cry myself. I was never successful. Silent sobs and tears streaming down my face as I buried myself into the soft down pillows that were once my parents. Though, I had managed not to cry in front of anybody yet, I didn't let anyone see a tear escape. I couldn't let them, they would try to comfort me, and that's the last thing I wanted. Comfort and sympathy. I wanted to be alone, all alone, for the rest of my life.
But that wasn't possible, not with the funeral today.
Michael peeked his head through the door, I didn't turn my head, just continued to stare out the window as the birds chirped and the puffy white clouds rolled by in the cold wind like there was not a thing to worry about.
"Are you ready?" He asks, stepping into our shared room. I took a moment before turning to look at him. He was wearing a fitted black tux with a purple orchid corsage. Mom loved purple orchids.
"Yes." I say and Michael smiles, that was one of the only words I've said to him since it happened.
He held his hand out to me, and I walk up to him, placing my hand in his. He squeezed softly, letting me know that he was there.
"I invited your friends," he tells me, helping me walk down the stairs in my heels. "I figured it would be good for you to have them there. I also invited my band mates, they were sentimental to the situation and I thought that..." I tuned out his voice, not caring who he invited, I wasn't going to talk to anybody anyways.
It took me forever to finally get out of bed and go into the shower, I hadn't actually showered since the day of, so I smelled pretty ripe. And cleaning up actually made me feel a little better, physically at least. Once I had gotten out, I brushed my teeth, and straightened my hair, not doing anything too crazy. But I knew how much my mom had loved my hair in braids, so I took the opportunity to pin up half my hair in a Dutch braid and let the rest fall down my left shoulder just under my breast. I wore a simple black dress that flowed a little bit lower than mid thigh, about three inches above my knees. It was long sleeved and fit snug, but not too snug, just enough so that it stayed fitted on my body but hid my unwanted curves. The cloth buttons on the back were hard to get done up, so I had called my grandmother in to help me, she was elated to help and kept telling me over and over again how beautiful I looked. I simply nodded and thanked her for the help before telling her that I needed to finish getting ready. I only had a small amount of makeup on, knowing my father hated it when I wore a lot of makeup, he said up he liked seeing my natural beauty. So I applied a thin stroke of eyeliner and one coat of mascara on my red puffy eyes, I put bold red lipstick on my chapped, split lips. I used a tiny bit of coverup and concealer to hide the tear stains on my cheeks from this morning and the dark crescents under my eyes from lack of sleep last night. Hardly satisfied, I put on my heels with a sigh and waited for Michael to come get me.
Now here we were, getting into the car and driving off to the showing, day one of the funeral. Well, it wasn't really a showing, since there caskets were closed. Who wanted to see burnt bodies, it would more than likely traumatize Delah, and me.
The car ride was silent, once Michael realized I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying, he had stopped talking.
"Here goes nothing," I whispered to Michael as the car stopped in front of the funeral home he looks at me with genuine surprise on his face and I lace my hand with his. He smiles sadly at me and pecks my cheek before hopping out of my grandpa's large jeep and turning around to help me down as well.

*****
"My condolences go out to you and your family."
"I'm so sorry for your loss."
"You look beautiful today."
"It'll get better sweetie."
"They wouldn't want you to be sad."
Same thing, different people. Everybody came up to me where I sat in the corner in a lone chair next to a couch. I hadn't cried once yet, and I wasn't going to. As long as I stayed away from the caskets that were at the very front of the room.
"Delilah." I heard my best friend, Sandy, speaks from beside me. I look up at her, a sad expression across her face. She looked beautiful, like she always did. She wore high waisted, skinny, black dress pants with three shiny black buttons going up each side of the waist band. Tucked into her pants was a red camisole and a black blouse over that, also tucked into her pants that raise up to her belly button. Her long black hair was in perfectly curled ringlets and her pale grey eyes held nothing but mascara and her cheeks were flushed pink and her lips were a beige colour. She looked perfect, and it wasn't fair that it came to her so effortlessly.
"You need to greet people, everyone is wondering where you went. I know it's hard right now, but you have to get through this. If not for yourself, but for Delah." She stopped and crouched down in front of me, taking my hand in hers. "For your parents." She whispered. I looked at her, holding her gaze for a beat, then turned my head and pulling my hand back. She sighed and stood up, before giving me a small hug I didn't retaliate to then walked away.

The rest of the showing was insanely depressing, and four hours later, people were starting to leave. I hadn't moved from my spot in the corner once, and I still hadn't been up to the caskets. Once the room was empty, I slowly stood from my chair, my butt numb from sitting so long.
Taking a deep shaky breath, I began to walk towards the caskets. My ankles shaking, making it even harder to walk in these damn heels. My steps were slow, and half way there I stopped. I couldn't bring myself to do it, but I knew I had to. With a tear falling down my cheek I took another step forward, and another, and another... Until I stood in front of both their caskets. I don't know how long I stood there for, but my knees began to shake and I placed a hand on either one of their caskets to steady myself, before kneeling on the prayer bench. Uncontrollable sobs broke through my dry lips, and my body began to shake and I gasp, trying to get air to fill my lungs, but my sobs continued to break off my attempts, making it hard to breath. Tears upon tears poured from my eyes unbelievably quickly and I couldn't stop them even if I tried.
"M-m-m-m-mo-mo-momm-y," I sputtered out through sobs, falling to the ground completely and wrapping my arms around my knees, hugging them to my chest. "D-d-d-d-dadd-d-d-dy." I whimpered, burying my face between my knees. My chest heaved up and down and my lungs burned from lack of oxygen and I choked on sobs as I tried hard to breath.
"Delilah-" I hear an unfamiliar voice call my name, but I don't turn to look. Just continued to sob loudly and frequently. Loud footsteps came rushing towards me and I was being wrapped into someone's large arms. I sobbed louder, trying hard to break free of their grasp.
"Le-l-let me-m-me g-g-g-go." I cry out loudly, hoping this person would back away. I push myself up and don't turn to face them. Just look down at my parents caskets, placing a flat palm on either one as I tried to regain myself. Not only had I just lost all control, but someone had just seen me lose control. And I was embarrassed and ashamed of myself, I should have kept it together until tonight, when I safe in my bed, to silently cry with Michael sound asleep below me.
Once regaining my composure, I wiped under my eyes in hope to rub away any eyeliner or mascara that I'm sure had given me raccoon eyes. I slowly turn around, in hopes that the person had left. But just my luck they- well he, was still standing there.
"Delilah," he said, his accent thick and rough. I knew who he was, although we had never officially met, this was Luke. He was in my brothers band, and I had only saw him a few times before this when Michael had his band over to rehearse in the basement. His blonde hair was messy, sticking up in every which way, just as it was every other time I saw him. His crystal blue eyes were locked on my hazel ones, he wore a traditional suit completed with a slick black tie. He took a step forward towards me, I took one back.
"Everybody has been looking for you," he whispers, a frown on his lips as studies me, as if he were afraid to say the wrong thing. "It's time to go." He tells me, trying to take another step towards me. I simply nod and quickly dart past him and out of the room.
God, I'm such an idiot.




Hahahaha, kay. So that was depressing. Anyways, this is like my first 5sos fanfic I really hope you like it cause I'm like booming with ideas on how to write this and I'm excited as shit. Anyways, enjoy!!(:

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