Runaway. || Luke Hemmings

Chapter 22

At a guess, I awoke two or three hours later with the sun on my face. My eyes peeled open, swollen and sand-like from the million of tears I had previously shed. And once I remembered what had happened, my stomach turned, my heart breaking all over again. New tears replaced themselves, and I felt as if a sheet of plastic was wrapped onto my face, plasticising my skin. She was cold; not the cold you feel when you awake with the blankets off your legs, not the one that engulfs your body when you step outside the door on Christmas morning. Ice cold, solid. Frozen.

Dead. I just couldn't believe she was really... gone. As soon as I saw her hardened face, her eyes firmly shut with her thin, blood-red lips in a straight line, I knew that I regretted it. And what did I regret? I regretted not spending as much time with her as I should have; she was there for me when nobody else was. She was the only one who could feel my pain as much as I could. But now...now it was too late. I couldn't do anything to bring her back.

As I glanced around through blurred eyes, something clicked.

Luke.

My heart leapt, but I couldn't leave Natalia here. Two sides of my brain fought with each other, deciding if I should stay or look for Luke.

I slowly stood up, taking a few short steps forward.

"Luke? Are you there?" I called, my voice bouncing back off invisible walls.

I looked around, peering through the slipped gaps between the forest trees. Something moved, and my heart picked up it's pace.

"Luke?" I repeated quietly, wanting to squeeze my eyes shut and shield myself from this world, this whole universe. I watched. It moved again. I took another step forward. I whispered. "Please."

A distant hand moved back a branch of a tree, and my heart pounded hard against my chest. A face came into view.

And it was him.

I sighed hugely and jogged over- rather unevenly, wrapping my arms around him, my mouth pressed against his chest so firmly I felt I couldn't breathe. "Luke, oh my God. Where were you?" I gasped muffly into his warm skin. I felt his strong hands crawl onto my waists, pulling me in tight. His face fitted into the crook of my neck like a jigsaw, and I felt his lips against my bare skin. He was panting heavily.

"Jesus Bel. I thought you were gone." He whispered, and moved his hands to my face, meeting it with his. His trembling thumbs rode over my cheekbones, catching some strands of my wet hair in with them. My face was damp, as was his from newly-wetted tears. I looked up, our faces were so close together, our breathing moving in sync.

"I missed you so much," I breathed out after a couple minutes of silence, just our heavy panting audible. My hand tripped down his neck to his collarbone. I kept it there, my fingertips playing music on his skin. I lifted my head, my eyes meeting his, tired ones.

"Me too."

I looked down. "I didn't know what happened to you."

"I'm fine." He said slowly, although there was a quiver disguised in his voice. I looked up and met his contact. "I'm okay. Really. Don't worry."

I shrugged slowly, not knowing which words I should use. My eyes flicked around. "I..I can't help but worry, Luke. I mean, I don't want you getting hurt because of me."

"Hey-" he pressed a shaky finger against my lips, shushing me. "I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me, or anything else." And after a moment or so, he put his large hand to the back of my head and pulled me into his chest, his bodily warmth engulfing me like flames. He stroked my hair down a few times, his lips pressed against my head as he whispered something.

"We'll be okay. I promise."

I watched the wind swirl in loops in the air, I could feel his heartbeats against my ear, loud and jagged. I waited for the right moment.

"Luke?"

"Yeah?" He answered, looking down. I caught his eye. And before I had even begun speaking, the tears started falling.

"They killed Natalia."