traumatized minds, luke hemmings

i'll never feel free.

( Charlie Abbot,

September 7th, 4:20 AM )

I spent a lot of my life running from things. I ran from the police, my family, and people who actually wanted to help.

I had spent a lot of the last week running. More than I'd ever ran. I ran from Luke and his weird, caring ways. I ran from my dad and his new life, and I ran from myself. I got myself hurt multiple times, and nearly died, too.

So, I sit here with Luke Hemmings examining the cuts and bruises all over my body thinking about how I was going to explain.

I hissed at the sudden contact of pain, gripping Ashton's hand tightly. "Fuck," I winced. Tears filled my eyes.

"Sorry, honey." Luke apologized quietly, gently putting gauze over the deep scratch on my side. He was trying his best to be careful. "When was your most recent tetanus shot?"

I blinked away my tears. "I don't remember. Recently, I think."

"Alright, sweetie." Luke backed up slowly. "One cut done. I promise it won't take long,"

I nodded and looked down at my bare legs. They were aching terribly, and I longed for a hot bath. Luke brought out more bandaids, and disinfectant.

"What were you doing out there?" Michael asked and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I—" I swallowed, fiddling with my fingers. How the hell was I going to explain my situation? Knowing Luke— not even him, knowing the four of these men— they would go crazy. "It's complicated."

"Complicated?" Luke raised his eyebrow.

"Yes—" I hissed, feeling Luke press a bit of gauze to my cheek.

"How so?"

I gritted my teeth, "I—" I swallowed again, "I think you should sit down for this one."

And so, the four of them sat down— and I told Luke, Ashton, Calum and Michael about my uncle and what he had been doing that night. How my dad showed up after I tried to apply for a job, I left out certain parts though. I told them about how my uncle started shouting at me late at night, and how he threw glass at me and chased me out of my home with Strawberry. I explained the cut on my stomach, and how I tore my shirt from a nail sticking out of the fence.

Luke's jaw was on the ground. Calum's eyebrows were together, and Michael and Ashton were about to burst with anger.

"I know I shouldn't have kept it from you." I looked at my hands.

"Woah," Ashton said, catching me off guard. "This is not your fault. You're a kid— this was out of your hands."

I felt my tears fill my eyes up. It wasn't my fault?

Luke got down on his knees in front of me, putting his hands on my shoulders and smiled. "We're going to help you out of this, Charlie."

The next morning, the process started immediately. Luke called Oliver, asking him to gather my birth certificate, and when doing that— Luke found out my real name was Charlotte and I granted him permission to use it.

Oliver delivered my information and the process of getting justice began.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Charlotte is a gorgeous name."

I smiled as I walked down the hallway of the hospital with Michael. "Thank you. I never thought I'd go by it again," 

"Of course," He ruffled my hair and smiled down at me. "Are you excited to finally feel free?"

I laughed. "I'm not sure I'll ever feel 100% free."