Fragile // 5sos [under MAJOR reconstruction!]

Prologue.

(Revised)

"Did you guys see Ryan when he fell over? God, I have never laughed harder in my life!" Calum exclaimed and the boys laughed in response as the fresh memory played through their minds again of the boy falling at the bowling alley. They all had come from the rink after a close friend's birthday party and were going to Ashton's car.

"That was pretty fuckin' funny." Luke agreed, taking a chip out of the bag Michael held and putting it in his mouth. He looked at him with disdain before the sound of distant screams and the swerving of car tires brought them out of their little bubble.

Every pair of eyes on the dark street turned towards the frantic girl hobbling down the centre of the damp road. The fear in her face was evident as she frequently kept looking behind her as she limped her way to safety. But she didn't reach it in time; a large silver van with tinted glass disguised with cleaning stickers and logos came squealing across the corner. The driver kept turning the wheel left and right to gain control of the vehicle but his efforts were ignored. The van skid sideways and its speed was too fast for the helpless girl. The side of the van hit her hard and she went underneath. The van toppled over on its side, narrowly missing the girl's head, and rolled three times before it landed on its roof. Glass and car parts flew everywhere and the boys quickly ran for cover behind a park bench.

The sound of the girl's bones cracking under the pressure resonated with Luke and repeated inside his mind; all he could think of was the paralyzing fear that there was no more screaming and no movement from the broken girl laying uncomfortably on the uneven road. None of his friends moved, they were all too scared to breathe a fraction in case something happened to them. Their attention was diverted from the girl to the van, where the two doors were busted open and two big, tough looking men came crawling out, coughing from being winded in the accident. Cuts littered their faces as they crawled towards each other, looking around through the smoke that emitted from the front of the car. The boys ducked under cover, thankful that the darkness enveloped them from the prying eyes. Luke looked through the wood panels and saw that one had a gun in his hands, and he looked ready to use it.

The distant sound of sirens seemed to scare them off as they ran from the scene. With the immediate threat gone, Ashton sprang up and ran towards the girl with the others following suit. Someone must have called the police when all of this was occurring, because none of them certainly did. All they could see was blood everywhere; it was smeared on the ground from where she was dragged by the van for a couple metres and finally managed to detach herself.

"Oh my god, is she alive?" Calum asked frightfully, but no one had the answer.

They were all freaking out as they looked at her with wide glossy eyes, the adrenaline continuing to circulate through their bloodstreams. Her ankle sat the wrong way as it lay on the ground and she was heavily bruised and scratched up. Luke looked down at her hands, both bloody with broken knuckles as if she had escaped from somewhere with a struggle. Her knees were scraped and her whole front side was covered with mud and dirt like she crawled across the ground in a hurry. He could hardly see her face with the amount of swelling and bruising that was there; her entire face was a collection of pale purples, greens and blues. He put his hand on her wrist and felt something poking at the skin, before realizing that it was her bone. He repelled his hand back, almost retching at the thought of touching her.

They watched her chest closely and saw it moving up and down, then breathed a sigh of relief. They all stayed with her as they waited for the ambulance.