laconic ↦ luke hemmings {au}

nine: red

CHAPTER NINE:

| luke's pov |

Ash patted my back. "Stay safe," he muttered before heading out of the house. It wasn't dark out, but I made sure he left before it was.

It was just too much of a risk to have him here for too long. Vicky might drag him into all of this, and that's the last thing I want to happen to him.

"I'm glad you made a new friend."

I shut the door quickly and face the devil myself, showing no emotion whatsoever on my face.

Vicky flashed me a sick smile, like she has something under her sleeve. Her hands cupped my cheek as she moved closer and closer to me. "It's just because you've been a really good boy. I decided to give you a reward."

I stared at her with dull eyes, hiding the disgust I felt as she kept moving her face nearer mine. I had the urge to vomit every single time she was so close.

"I'm not friends with him," I firmly said, keeping my gaze straight into her eyes. I had to look disinterested, so maybe Ash would be spared from this hell.

He can't turn out like me.

Vicky scoffed as she took her hands off me and backed away. "I don't mean that boy, Lukey. He's just some kid who oh-so desperately needs money to live." She shook her head and chuckled. "I'm talking about the doll, or should I say... Emma?"

I stayed quiet. I even think I stopped breathing for a few seconds from surprise. Does she know something that I don't? Was I really seeing the doll move as if it were alive?

Her lips curled into a smirk at my silence. "What's the matter? Did I say something wrong?" she asked, faking cluelessness. It was as if she was taunting me to say something I know I'll regret.

But I know better now. Vicky can't get the best of me anymore.

"She's dead." I held my ground. I was certain, more than I've ever been before, even though a part of me broke as I said those words. And as if my mind was playing tricks on me, memories flood back into my head, and I remembered.

I remembered her.

-

"She just wouldn't shut up, would she?" Amused at what she had just done, Vicky laughed–so loud that it should have made me angry, but everything happened too fast that all I could see now was red.

Red that came from my shoulder and red that came from her head.

I held Emma in my arms and hugged her tight. Maybe if I held her tight enough, she would tell me to stop because it was embarrassing or tell me that everything was going to be okay even if it won't. I just wanted to talk to her, even if it's for the last time.

But now, she's gone.

All that's left in my arms is her lifeless body with a hole bore in the middle of her forehead. All that's left in my mind are her memories and her last words. All that's left in me is sorrow and regret.

I didn't even get to tell her I love her.