Imagine A World (Luke Hemmings a.u.) [in editing]

27 Stories

Luke's POV

My breath hitches as my mother rubs my forehead once more, then leaves.

Riley? She couldn't mean...

But what if she does? I open my eyes again when I'm sure she's gone, and I glance at Madeline, who's still fast asleep next to me. Hopefully, she didn't hear any of that. I don't want to know what would happen if she discovered Riley is my cousin. I didn't even know that.

The rest of the day goes somewhat quickly. Madeline and I meet up with the boys once she's woken up, we do some swimming (willingly this time), we check the progress of our YouTube account (we decided to make it together and call it "Hemmo_and_Mad"). We already have 200 subscribers and our first video has nearly 1,000 views.

Soon enough, the 5 of us are gathered around a fire pit in Michael's backyard and bickering over what to do next.

"I'm telling you, funny stories! Scary stories are too...scary," Calum pouts.

"Yeah, but we won't tell anything 'hide-under-the-covers' or 'shit-your-pants' worthy. I'm not that cynical," Michael counters.

"Don't swear!" Ashton says from Madeline's left. "But I do agree with Michael, scary stories are better. Come on, Cal, lighten up."

"What do you think, Mad?" I ask her, squeezing her hand gently.

"Oh, what the hell, let's do scary stories. I doubt any of them will be that bad," she replies, throwing a hand in the air. Ashton and Michael cheer as Calum mutters something under his breath that Ashton smacks him for.

"Okay, who's first, then?" I ask, and Michael's hand immediately shoots up and he wiggles in his chair like an excited schoolboy. "Okay, I guess you, Mikey. Shoot."

He rubs his hands together, smiling maniacally, then begins.

"One night, there were two people walking together in the woods-"

"Really? You're doing one of those stories?" Calum whines, earning another slap from Ashton.

"Shut up, CalPal. Anyway, like I was saying, this couple was walking in the woods, and they felt like they were being followed. They found an old treehouse and hid in it, thinking that they had to be close to civilization because it was there. 'We'll rest up here until daybreak,' the man said to the woman, 'then we'll find some help and get out of these woods.'

"The woman insisted on keeping first watch instead of the man, because she could see that he could barely keep his eyes open. He finally gave in after a long argument, and fell asleep.

"Now, after a while of nothing happening, the woman started to nod off as well, until she heard the crunch of dead leaves below her. She immediately perked up and peered out the doorway of the abandoned treehouse to see what made the noise. She didn't see anything, so she assumed it was just a rabbit or something. Soon enough, she, too, had fallen asleep.

"Now, in the morning, they both woke up and the man yelled at her for not waking him for his watch, but they settled it quickly, wanting to get out of the woods as soon as possible. They climbed down from the treehouse, but while they were coming down, the woman slipped on the ladder, losing her footing, and fell to the ground, breaking several bones. The man screamed, but he couldn't do anything about it, because at that moment, a knife struck him in the shoulder blade,and he fell to the ground as well, dying in the process.

"The woman slowly turned her neck in the direction the knife came from, and saw her father standing there, a malicious look in his eyes.

"'I told him to leave you, to get out of your life,' her father told her. 'It was about time he listened.'"