Ghost of You

16

-Luke-

Kennedy slept on my shoulder the entire flight home. All the crazy events were a bit much for her and she passed out the moment we took off. We got to our house with it's fully repaired windows and I carried Kennedy in bridal style not to wake her from her deep slumber. I tucked her into her bed and she soundly slept.

I went back downstairs and sat in the living room with my lyric notebook and a pen in hand. I turned on the tv for background noise and flipped my notebook open. The pages were covered in ink from all the things that had just poured out of me lately. I scribbled something down on the page and looked at it pensively, "I don't wanna think about a moment with you, I'm kinda hoping for forever." It rolled off the tongue well. I doodled a little in the margins as I thought. My ears perked up as I heard my name come from the television. It was one of those celebrity gossip shows and the hostess had just dished out what she was calling today's biggest story.

The overly spunky tv personality went on, "5 Seconds of Summer's lead singer, hottie Luke Hemmings, was spotted with a mystery girl at Vegas's event of the year just two days ago. Fans were shocked as Luke's new love interest quickly transformed from an elegant lady to a fiery club goer. The fandom has been going crazy scouring social media to figure who the unidentifiable girl is. Though we thought things couldn't get any worse, things exploded after an anonymous twitter account tagged the girl, identifying her as Kennedy Rose Coleman."

My eyes widened, I knew they would figure it out eventually but I didn't count on it happening so fast. A fandom could probably solve a mystery faster than a team of private investigators if they really wanted to.

The woman droned on, "The post included pictures of Coleman in little to no clothing with markings covering her skin."

My mouth dropped open in total shock.

"The caption read 'she likes it rough' implying that the marks were a result of some sort of pain or punishment fetish. So it turns out our mystery girl isn't so good after all. I think what we're all wondering is if Luke into kinky stuff too."

The pictures of Kennedy that flashed on the screen were much like the ones in the hate mail that Will had sent us. Her eyes were closed in all of them because she was passed out from being beaten. Her body wasn't covered in love bites from some sort of a kinky sexual experience, but instead her skin depicted the results of abuse. My sweet little girl was being beaten up like a punching bag over social media and exposed to the world. After the shock settled in, pure rage bubbled through my veins. I called the management team and all of the band in a blur of fury.

Minutes later everyone was gathered in the living room with me and I was yelling uncontrollably.

"Luke, you really need to settle down." Michael advised putting a hand on my shoulder.

"You'll wake her up if you keep yelling like that." Calum chimed in.

I sat down with a huge sigh, clawing my hands through my hair.

"Mate, you have every right to be upset. What's happening is wrong but we are trying to fix it." Ashton who was always the diplomatic one added.

"I know," I muttered. "This is just so disgusting. Those pictures were taken by her crazy ex after he sexually abused her! Her body and her most vulnerable experiences are being exposed to the internet! Look at the comments on the post! 'What a slut', 'Is there a ship name that goes with kinky Kennedy?', 'I'll gladly beat her out of Luke's life', 'at least she's got a hot bod', this is just too much!"

Mark, our legal person who had been on the phone with various social media sources came into the room, "Good news, they completely understand the situation and are working to take the media down. The bad new is that it's so widespread between screenshots and edits that it's going to be hard to eliminate all of it."

"Hey that's a step in the right direction!" Michael smiled halfheartedly.

"So what do we do now?" I asked still in a stage of rage. I had to do everything I could to protect Kennedy, she had already suffered so much in life.

"Well you're not going to like this but the best thing to do would be for Kennedy to make a statement about what happened to her." Mark explained. "I know you want to shield her from the media, but if you turn this around as an opportunity to speak up about abusive relationships it would not only blow over faster but also be something to help other people in similar situations."

"I'll talk to her. God, she doesn't even know what's happened yet." I sighed.

"What don't I know?"

I spun around to see a sleepy Kennedy, walking down the stairs. She was so cute with her bedhead and sleepy eyes. It broke my heart to have to explain this to such a good person.

-Kennedy-

My heart dropped as Luke finished updating me on the latest move Will had made in his sick revenge plot.

I took a deep breath in, "I want to see it."

"Ken, I don't know if you want t-" Luke stuttered.

"No, I want to see the pictures." I asserted.

Luke sighed in worry and pulled up four photos on his phone. He put his hand in mine as he slid the phone into my view. My breath was sucked out of me as I saw myself at the lowest point in my life. The dark marks on my skin, the memories of feeling completely powerless, the forceful control that Will had over me, the fear, it all came rushing back at once. My throat began to close and the tears welled up in my eyes.

"Kennedy," Luke consoled.

He began to wrap his arms around me in what was supposed to be a comforting embrace but the feeling of touch made my skin burn. I pulled away, the room seemed to spin and blur together. I backed away, feeling exposed under the eyes of all the people around me.

"Kennedy, you're pale. Why don't you sit down?" Luke calmly gestured to the couch.

I shook my head viciously, the tears running down my cheeks as if someone had turned on a faucet. "I- I- I need to be alone!" I screamed, dashing for the door.

"Ken!" Luke yelled after me.

I couldn't see anything, but I kept going. My entire body felt like it was on fire as I raced through the night. I made it to the woods and darted through the trees. My legs burned but refused to stop moving forwards, deeper and deeper into the forest. I felt everything and nothing all at once, and the sensation was overwhelming. Suddenly my entire body lurched forward as my foot caught on the root of a tree. I screamed as I tumbled down the sloped area, twigs and rocks digging at my skin. My body finally stopped at the bottom of hill as my head slammed against the base of tree and it all went black.

- - -

A bright light blinded me, and I knew my time had come. My body was now numb and the pain disappeared.

"Kennedy?" A voice called out.

All I could stifle out was a murmur in response. I was ready to be taken away from the toxic place that was the earth.

The most beautiful figure I had ever seen kneeled in front of me, he was saying words but I didn't hear anything. I just kept looking at the lines of his face. They were chiseled out so perfectly, he was divine. The celestial being was close to me; I was captivated by his ethereal presence. I had never seen an angel before, but now I understood why people were fascinated with them.

"Beautiful," I mumbled, weakly reaching out to touch the shadowed face in front of me. He took me into his strong arms and cradled me to his chest. I stared up at his golden hair, like light from the heavens. He stood up, carrying me securely against him.

"Where are your wings?" I managed weakly.

There was no response. I felt confused as I looked up at him. His crystal blue eyes shone in the darkness.

They were filled with tears.