Luke's POV
It's a combined funeral. That's what everyone decided was best. We had been best friends for so long that we can't imagine anything like this to be done separately.
So right now, I'm sitting in the front row of the service. My family is on my left and Clara and her family are on my right. My eyes haven't left the six caskets in front of me.
Ashton. Emma. Michael. Calum. Malia. Grace. That's the order the caskets are placed.
The police managed to find all the bodies. It took them a couple days but they recovered all of them as well as the bodies of the madmen who were responsible for all of it. The houses were found and are scheduled to be torn down within the next month. They wanted to keep them up for a bit so they can investigate but I just want them destroyed as soon as possible.
The second to last speech is being said right now, it's by Grace's dad. He's a man that I've hardly seen sad or angry. He always has a smile on his face and he's always the happiest person in the room. Right now, he can hardly get his words out because he keeps breaking down into sobs.
I can hear Clara crying next to me and I grab her hand to intertwine our fingers. I give her hand a reassuring squeeze and send her a small smile. She returns it, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
"I'll miss you forever, Grace." That's how her dad ends the speech and I know that it's my cue to go up.
The families asked Clara and I both to make a speech. Clara refused to, she's hardly said a word since that day we escaped so I didn't expect her to do a speech. I hesitantly accepted to make a speech. It wasn't something I was looking forward to doing but I thought that my friends deserved it.
I walk up to the podium and place my crumpled up paper with my speech in front of me. I look down at it before looking back up at the crowd of people.
"Hi. I'm Luke Hemmings, but I'm sure you all know that. And I'm assuming that because I had been best friends with Ashton, Emma, Michael, Malia, Calum and Grace for forever. As well as Clara. We all met in preschool and at first we didn't really like each other. We were in the faze when we thought boys and girls had cooties." I say and that causes a small chuckle to come from the crowd.
"But we became the best of friends. Always supporting each other and making sure we had the best for each other. We love each other probably more than we love ourselves." I smile sadly at the caskets then at Clara, who is still crying.
"Now, we're stupid kids. Really really stupid kids. I can't tell you how stupid we are. I have no idea why we decided to go into that house and I'll never know why. But what happened in that house was unspeakable horror. I can't talk about it and I will probably never speak of it again. But unfortunately, only two of us eight made it out. And we barely made it out. According to everyone, we had been in there for 3 days."
I stop for a second as tear spill down my face. I take deep breathes and try to catch my breath so I can continue.
"Let me tell you, there's all kinds of pain in the world. There's heartbreak, loneliness, literal pain and just plain sadness. Each one gives you a different sense of pain. The worst pain you could possible feel is the pain of watching your best friends die before your eyes and you can't do a damn thing about it. Your head gets dizzy, your chest starts to ache, and you can hardly breathe. You can feel their wounds on your own body and you begin to sob uncontrollably. You feel like someone has removed all your vital organs and stomped on them. You can hardly get yourself to move. But in a situation that I had been in, you have to move. You have to leave them there and try to get away from everything."
