help → lashton ✓

seven

Ashton's POV

It didn't take long for Carl to vacate his home next door, obviously eager to go out and look for Luke either on the street or get into contact with whoever he had last time Luke tried escaping. I'd barely finished cleaning out the cuts on Luke's face when Michael told us Carl had left, and we were eager to use the time available now to get Luke to Michael's.

Leading him down to the hallway, Luke was very clearly feeling nervous about what we were doing if his fidgeting was anything to go by. He had right to be sceptical about this plan working and he had right to be scared of Carl finding him again, but we just had to hope that this all worked out.

"Okay, so are we going now?" Michael asked as I moved closer to the front door, both he and Luke were looking up at me with nervous expressions.

"Yeah, if you're okay with that?" I said, looking to Luke for confirmation and he nodded quickly before biting his lip, "Do you need anything before we go?" I then questioned, sensing his reluctance.

"W-What about like clothes? I-I didn't bring anything with me."

Furrowing my eyebrows at that, I asked, "Would it make you feel more comfortable having some of your stuff?"

Luke continued to bite his lip as he nodded, "I-I don't want to leave everything behind again, but I-I can go and grab some stuff and then we can go?" I quickly shook my head at his words.

"No, we'll get you to Michael's and I'll go in and grab some clothes for you, okay? I want you to get away from here sooner rather than later." I offered, rather having me going in than him going back and there being a potential he gets trapped in case Carl comes back. I know it was risky even me going back but if it'd make Luke more comfortable to bring some of his things with him then so be it.

Moving to wrap his arms around my neck, Luke thanked me before wiping away the remaining tears off his face with the backs of his hands.

"Okay, so you go with Michael in his car and he'll call the police, I'll be ten minutes behind you tops." I said to Luke, taking hold of his hand again and leading him towards the door, "You're gonna be okay, Michael will look after you." I tried reassuring him before he had to chance to worry more.

Nodding, Luke turned to look at Michael who smiled at him again before moving to slip an arm over his shoulder, "Ash will be right behind us, we just want to get you away from here first."

"Thank you, y-you have no idea how much this means to me." Luke repeated what he'd said to me earlier but looked like he was on the verge of tears again, overwhelmed by the situation.

Giving him one last smile, I opened the door for the pair of them before watching as they headed to Michael's car, Luke's gaze not leaving me as the car began driving off. Letting out a deep breath, it felt like a relief to see Luke leaving, he was one step closer to safety at least. I know it was spontaneous to get Luke to leave now and Michael and I had barely even talked about what to do before he showed up at the door, but I couldn't risk sending Luke back, not when he'd fled out of pure terror at the thought of having to leave everything here and move away with Carl.

Grabbing my phone and car keys, I made my way over to Luke's house and walked upstairs to where I imagine the bedrooms were. Obviously not knowing which room was his, I spent a little bit of time trying to locate the room but when I did I just went straight to the wardrobe and grabbed one of the bags inside and then the clothes that looked most like Luke's.

It felt odd being in the house, knowing that this had been the place where Carl had hurt Luke for so many years felt weird. It was a surprisingly tidy house though, I expected it to look a lot more sinister than it did, and I guess to anyone who didn't know what was happening this would look like a normal house shared by a couple. The only thing that stood out to me was that there was a clear sign the pair didn't hold happy memories because there was a lack of pictures of the two together, which you'd expect of a couple.

Just as I'd finished putting Luke's stuff in the bag and zipping it up, I heard the front door open and I froze on the spot. Carl was back a lot sooner than expected.

The front door closed with a slam and I jumped in response to the loud noise, "I've got to find the fucking little shit." I heard Carl speak angrily to himself as I carefully picked up the bag from the bed and slung it over my shoulder; it was a good job I hadn't let Luke come back here.

Sneaking towards the bedroom door, I stopped again when I heard Carl near the bottom of the staircase, "Where the fuck is he? I left the house right behind him and you're telling me he's somehow disappeared into think air?" He seemed to be talking to someone on the phone.

"I checked with the neighbour, I don't think he would've been that calm if he was hiding Luke, someone comes running to you all bruised up and crying and then they're fiancé shows up at your door? I doubt you'd appear relaxed." Carl was obviously trying to tell whoever he was talking to that he thought he could read the signs of if someone was lying to him or not, but I knew for a fact he clearly wasn't good at that if was talking about me.

Carl was still talking but his voice began to get quieter as he moved away from the staircase and into some other area of the house. Taking this as my chance, I crept my way out of the bedroom and close to the top of the stairs before silently making my way down them. However, I practically jumped into the living room when Carl came out of the kitchen further down the hallway, "Hold on, I think I heard something of the stairs." He said to whoever was on the phone before shouting, "Luke?!"

Holding my breath, I could feel every muscle in me tighten as I tried just staying still to avoid making any noise whatsoever.

"Luke please, I won't be mad at you if you come out now, you came back to me and that's what I care about." Carl tried a softer approach, obviously believing the noise he heard to be Luke hiding somewhere.

My heart was beating fast, it was more tense and stressful trying to sneak around someone's house than I honestly thought it would be, but I almost breathed a sigh of relief when I started hearing him walk upstairs. "Baby bun please, don't hide from me." Carl said as he walked up the stairs, and I took this as my chance to move towards the front door, only stilling for a second when the door made an obvious sound upon my opening of it.

"Luke!" I heard the older male shout and I didn't waste any time in running out the door, shutting it quite loudly behind me.

Rushing over to my car, I opened the door and dumped the bag inside before trying to act as normal as possible so that Carl wouldn't suspect that I had anything to do with what he just heard in his house. If I made it looked like I was just getting in my car then I should be fine, and I felt a reassurance that my plan seemed to have worked when Carl came running out of the house, pausing as he caught me opening the driver side door of my car.

"Ashton!" He called, fully catching my attention before I could slip into the vehicle.

Knowing I had to look unsuspicious, I flashed the male a small and nodded slightly as he walked closer to me, "Carl? What's up?"

Carl's attention wasn't focused solely on me, I could see his eyes darting around the area, presumably trying to catch a glimpse of Luke that I already knew he wasn't going to get. As he reached the other side of my car, he asked, "You haven't perhaps seen Luke around here have you?"

"Yeah, I think I just saw him run that way." I replied calmly, pointing in the opposite direction to which I was going to head in, "He looked really upset."

Carl looked more upset now than angry and I didn't know if that was an act or whether it was genuine, either way his feelings about losing Luke were not anything I really gave a crap about.

"Thank you, really." Carl said before turning around and quickly making off in the direction in which I'd told him, scanning around the area as he did so.

Once his back was turned, I got into my car and let out a deep sigh of relief. That was a tense situation, fooling Carl twice was something I was surprised about but he clearly wasn't as observant as he thought, or I was just a better liar than I though. However, I knew by now that Michael would have called the police and they would hopefully be on their way over here but I knew by now that Michael would have called the police and they were hopefully on their way over here, so I wouldn't have to worry much longer about Luke's safety.

-----------

sorry if any of the names are wrong, editing this back into a 5sos book is throwing me off and the names are getting confusing to edit lmao