I screwed my eyes shut as we walked. The now familiar feeling of his hand around my wrist now the only thing leading me through the darkness. Part of me wanted to run at full speed in the other direction, to scream until my lungs were empty. That part of me causing my muscles to anxiously tense up every step we took.
But the second part of me told myself to breath, to keep walking forwards and to trust the raven-haired boy who said nothing as he guided me through the halls.
And then we stopped, and his hand left my wrist.
"Lucas?" I whispered, my voice quivering.
"Lucas this isn't funny." I said again, beginning to feel sick to my stomach.
And then the hand returned.
"I'm here." He sighed.
I let out a sigh of relief, shaking off the nervous feeling that had augmented itself like a weight on my shoulders, as if someone had lifted an anvil off of my body.
"You can open your eyes. We're about to meet everyone else."
And he was right, because I could hear the bustle behind the door. The sound of laughing and a distant rumble of the low base of music.
I opened my eyes just as he flung open the door, and immediately I was met with the blinding light of the room in front of us. An electric room. People dancing, some drinking, others simply standing, talking and laughing about everything at the same time.
I couldn't possibly understand how people could feel so alive in a zombie-ridden world.
Luke turned to me with a goofy grin on his face and this time enclosed his fingers with mine on both hands, slowly walking me backwards into the crowds. And I must've zoned out, the people greeting us becoming distant figures in the mist, the music turning into echoes that were beginning to hurt my ears.
But suddenly those voices weren't echoes anymore, they were screams.
And the low bass wasn't music, but the sound of gunshots. Gunshots that were way too close.
So, then I was running, submerged into a crowd of absent minded-thinking people with only the motive to escape, to survive.
Some went left into rooms; some ran downstairs through back doors. I went up. Climbed the staircase up until I found myself standing on the roof with adrenaline pumping through my blood and a metallic taste in my mouth.
"You know going up after hearing gunshots without a plan isn't the smartest idea, right?" A voice behind me said.
I turned to face the person.
Brunette, similar height to Lucas, blue eyes that also seemed to fade into grey. He had his arms crossed and a cocky grin on his face.
I said nothing, out of breath and also quite speechless.
"Well, what was your plan?" I finally managed to gulp out, shuffling out on one foot in an attempt to hide how nervous I was.
"Oh, I had a plan." The boy said, before bringing one hand up to his head almost in salute.
And then he fell backwards.
And by fell backwards, I mean fell backwards.
In an instant he was gone, And I could just about hear the splash of water as my mouth dropped open.
The footsteps on the stairs behind me were getting louder now; and however much it terrified me I knew I had no other option.
My fingers crossed over each other in a triangular motion just as I heard a familiar voice, Lucas's voice, shouting "Elodie, jump." From behind me.
I raised my hands over my head and took a shaky deep breath in.
Then I dived forwards.