Runaway. || Luke Hemmings

Chapter 8

"Bel. Bel, wake up." My eyes parted reluctantly, the image of Luke's face hovering over me and surprisingly close, too. His hand was placed on my shoulder and he was gently shaking me awake, and my eyes flicked to the coffee table. My glass was exactly how I left it, and Luke's was empty. I inhaled deeply and rubbed my eyes, sitting up.

"Thanks for waking me," I yawned, lying my head back for a moment with my eyes closed before Luke started speaking again.

"We have to get home. Its 1am," he sighed. 1am? How the hell was it so late? We came here like 2, 3, 4 hours ago... I still didn't understand it. We arrived here at noon.

"Are you drunk?" The words left my mouth quicker than I could react and I clasped a hand across my face.

To my surprise, he laughed. "A little."

"Luke! I told you not to drink that much!"

"I'm sorry, okay. " He lifted my legs from the couch and sat himself down, leaving my legs resting across his. I looked at him as he sighed and closed his eyes. There was still the sound of people chatting out the other room and this room was empty apart from both of us,  of course. I pulled out my phone and confirmed the time for myself, I couldn't believe it was 1am and that we were here for that long. And now that I look at him, Luke looked pretty drunk. I just hope he was able to control it.

He ran a hand over his face and turned to me. "You ready to go home?"

My mouth dropped open. "Uhm, you're drunk, Luke..how are we supposed to get home?"

"We can rent a car?" he laughed, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I rolled my eyes. "Were only like, 2 miles from my house. Its too dark to walk home, and... too scary."

"Come on, ever heard of a little fun in your life?"

"Y-yeah."

"Well then come on! It'll be fun."

"I'm not walking home with you." I said firmly, sitting up and holding out a hand to Luke. "Come on, I'm calling a taxi."

I pulled Luke up and helped him as we walked through the bar and through the door. The horrible smell of cigarette smoke filled the air outside the bar. Drunken men sat along the low windowsills with bottles in one hand and cigarettes in the other, muttering and laughing quite eerily to each other and ashes were scattered around the path. Needless to say,  it was pitch black, the only light available was coming from the orange coloured streetlamps overhead.

I gripped onto Luke's large hand to give him some support as we stood on the sidepath waiting for a cab. It was actually quite a warm night, it felt stuffy and the air was heavy. I just couldn't wait to get home and change into something lighter.  I held out my hand for the next passing vehicle, which flew straight past us, not flashing an eye to us at all. I did the same for the second, third and fourth car, but no luck. Each one flew past as if we didn't even exist, like we were invisible or something.

Sighing,  I started walking down along the path with Luke stumbling behind me, although his hand was gripping mine. A vehicle pulled up on the sidewalk, and I nervously knocked at the passenger window. It was black, so I couldn't see a thing through it. It began to roll down as soon as I knocked.

"Hop in," a deep voice said. I reluctantly pulled open the back door, half regretting my actions. I let Luke in first, then myself. "Where to?" It was a man's voice, as I had suspected.

"The first estate outside the city," I replied quietly. I looked at Luke, his eyes were wide open and he was suddenly very alert and wary of his surroundings. "Luke?" I whispered.

"Bel, where are we going?"

My eyes widened. "Do you know this guy?" My attention flicked back to the driver, who drove past our turn off. "No, no, down that road-"

"Don't question me. I know what I'm doing."

"S-stop the car." I trembled.

"Here? Fine by me."

The car jerked and made a sharp turn before it rose off the hill of the road and flipped over a hedge, landing on its side. I screamed and dug my fingers into Luke's leg, thank God we were wearing seat belts.  When the car stopped rolling, which I decided after the creaking had finished, I glanced over at the driver. "What the hell was that?" I screamed.

He stayed silent, but through my fuzzing eyesight I could barely make out the sight of his hand fumbling around in the gearbox. Finally, after a few moments, he pulled out something small and black, clicking it into place. I squinted to get a better look, although I knew what this was, and I was not looking forward to my next few moments.

I fumbled around with my seatbelt, panicking, panting, and screaming over and over that I was innocent and had done nothing to deserve this.

"Luke!" I shouted, turning to him. He looked unharmed, for now anyways. "Luke!" I repeated, violently shaking his shoulder. "Get out of the car, he's gonna kill us!"

I grabbed Luke's belt and jerked and pulled at it until the clutch gave way. It flew upwards and I grabbed it and hauled it over his head, holding onto his shoulders. "Get out the window!"

No sooner had the words left my mouth,  a sharp sound filled the car. A gunshot. "Luke!" I screamed again, half crying, half terrorised. I wasn't sure who got shot, I wasn't sure if it was me or not or if it was Luke. It didn't even pass my mind that it could have been the driver, until I glanced over and saw that he had collapsed into a heap in the driver's seat, a pool of crimson blood surrounding him, leading from his head. The gun was lying on the floor of the car. Shaking, I pulled at Luke's jacket, desperately trying to regain consciousness in him. "Luke, please wake up," I whispered, teardrops landing themselves into the leather fabric. "Please, don't leave me here on my own."

Slowly, his eyes began to open and his lips parted, his hand suddenly grabbing around my arm with force. "What the hell happened?"

"The driver," I tried to say through my sobs, "he killed himself. I don't know why, I don't know who he was, all I know is that that gunshot was probably meant for me."

With each word, his eyes grew wider and wider and his attention towards me grew stronger, as well as the grip he had on my arm. Struggling to remove himself from the seat, he said, "We have to go."

"Do you need help?" I whispered, my voice shaky as I sniffled.

"No, I'm good, just.." he said almost breathlessly, climbing through the shattered window, one leg at a time. "Just, hold there a sec, I'll get you."

I held onto the seat with all my strength and finally, when Luke was out, he caught my leg and my hand and gently pulled my through the window, him standing there with me in his arms, like some heroic act. I rested my head against his chest, panting, this was too much for me.

"You okay?" he whispered, forcing me to open my eyes and meet his as he lifted my chin with his finger. I wiped a tear from my cheek and sniffled again. "Yeah, just a little freaked," I tried to laugh. "You?"

I was hoping Luke's drunkness had worn away by now, but I don't think it does that easily, from what I've heard. He shook his head, whispering, "No, I'm fine. You need to get home."

"Stay with me," I whispered shakily, tears streaming down my cheeks as I  firmly held Luke's jacket in my fingers. "Please."

"Of course," He answered, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead as he began walking away from the messed up car in the direction of the estate.