Only One Bitten-Lashton

Chapter 6

I look at myself in terror. How did I get bloody? I couldn’t have gone out while sleeping. It’s possible, but still. I’m in worse condition so why would I go out now?

After slowly standing, trying not to cause too much pain, I stumble towards the bathroom. I look in the mirror to make sure I’m seeing correctly, and unfortunately, I am. Rinsing my mouth gets rid of most of the blood, but my teeth are still stained red so I grab my toothbrush and start scrubbing.

“You alright?” someone says with a groggy voice at the door. I look over and see Michael standing there with his eyes squinted from the bright lights. He steps closer as I shrug in respond to his question and keep scrubbing, hoping most of the red will be gone. “You’re kind of making it worse.” Scrunching my eyebrows in confusion, I look up towards the mirror and see blood dripping out of my gums. I groan and rinse off my brush, then my mouth to reveal that the stains are still there.

“I somehow went out while sleeping. I don’t get how this works,” I say while at the kitchen table with the boys sitting around it. “I mean, how does it just randomly happen?”

“You could ask that girl about all of this,” Calum suggests, getting an agreement from Michael, but nothing from Luke.

“I think she’s dead,” I said looking around to see the reactions, which I get from them, except from Luke, once again. I stand up, leaving, to retrieve the locket. Just before Luke got there I picked it up and put it in my pocket again, hoping it’d have a use sometime. I open it with my fingers since the button broke when he threw it down. “I went to that house I was going to show you guys, but all there was were ashes. I heard something in the woods, but nothing came out so I just left. When I almost got home, the guy in the locket came with some of his buddies and they thought I killed her.”

I hand them the locket and they investigate it. Luke gets a confused look on his face, saying, “I know him,” which causes everyone to look at him with round eyes.

“Who is he? How do you know him?” I ask anxiously, but Luke just leaves. He soon comes back with his phone and turns the screen towards me, revealing Adam and him holding hands. “What’s this? Why are you holding hands?”

“We, um,” Luke pauses, trying to figure out how to say it, “We used to date.” I somehow choke on the air I’m breathing in and start coughing, bringing back the pain of the bruises on my chest and back.

“What do you mean you dated? How could you have dated?” I ask, being really confused.

“Exactly what I said,” he replies with a shrug. He explains how he was friends with his sister, but never liked her, just him. He never thought he was gay, until then. Thinking back on how Luke is, it does seem like he would be, but I never thought he actually would be. We might have a chance now.

“But why did he date you, when he’s in this locket the girl had? They must’ve had something together,” I ask, feeling my heart beat a little faster.

“That’s his sister that I was friends with, they were close. He protected her when she needed it, which is probably why he beat you up, because he thought you killed her.”

So was he the one in the woods? I made a connection then. He’s the one who made a noise in the woods that day. He must’ve been going to visit her, but only saw me pick up the locket, standing in the ashes, making it look like I did it. But I didn’t.

I must’ve said that out loud because they were all looking at me, Luke nodding.

“Do you still talk to him?” Calum asks, which causes Luke to shake his head and mouth ‘sorry’ to me. I rub my face with hands, groaning in frustration.