The Damned and Deranged ⇝ Luke Hemmings ✔️

chapter thirty-four

I added in the first bit to wrap up that part of the plot so now we're nearly finished so pls comment and vote no one does and this is one of my fave books

Luke's wearing my dogs collar around his neck, my dog legit has that one

Also there's another character death

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Luke sat in the university cafe, waiting for Ben to arrive, he'd texted him to come over and meet him. Luke hadn't said why he hoped that the book his birth parents gave him would be enough. Reece had walked him here, said he was busy leading a search party for Calum, it was official that he was missing and probably by the Witches. Ashton was basically shitting himself with anxiety.

When Ben entered Luke saw him and smiled, waving him over. Ben walked over and sat down in the seat opposite Luke. "Hey." Ben said, "good to see you're not dead."

"Yeah, always good to be alive." Luke smiles tightly, Luke then placed the book on the table. "My parents told me something very uh crazy, and I learnt I was adopted, Reece knew the hole time actually but it wasn't his place to tell me so he didn't. I found out my birth parents lived here in Etheridge."

"Really? What happened to them?"

"They were murdered brutally, Reece says they never found out by who." Luke then gulped, "I had two brothers, Jack, he uh died the day my birth parents did. But I had another, he was also adopted here and stayed in Etheridge." Luke then opened the book to a certain page to Bens dad, the sheriff, "by him." Luke said.

Ben stared down at the page, seeing his dad. Luke watched him gulp, "oh." Ben scratched at his cheek, "so uh we're brothers."

Luke nodded, "Yep, also you know what will really piss you off, our parents thought Reece and Michael were responsible enough to babysit us, Calum and his sister." He smiled trying to joke.

"Fucking—Reece of all people? Babysitting four kids?"

"He gave up and made Michael do it."

"That's even worse man."

Luke giggled, flipping to another page showing Luke and Ben with their birth family. "This is them, they got along with everyone, they were loved by the town, I'm pretty sure our mum was in charge of the witches until she died. One day I want to find out who killed them and I want to do worse to them."

Ben sighed, "god this is fucked up. How did dad never tell me?"

"Probably to protect you, but then you got involved anyway, then I happened to show up. It's some weird fucked up fate." Luke flipped through some more pages, showing photos of their family with Reece and the sheriff, "they were all the best of friends, the thought that Reece probably saw me born makes me want to laugh."

Ben bit his cheek, "I want to speak to my dad, can you come with me? He's at the station."

Luke nodded, "Sure."

They left the cafe and walked to the police station together, Luke told Ben about everything he'd learnt about their family. When they arrived at the station it was chaos as people were joining search parties, Luke heard Reece somewhere, yelling instructions and orders at people. So Luke smiled to himself and the two of them walked down the corridor to where the sheriff's office was. Ben knocked at the door, hearing someone drop to the floor, a curse and a yell to come in. They entered and Luke looked at the sheriff who picked up a book, then sat down, he looked up, "oh hey you two." He smiled warmly.

"Hey." Ben said, coming further in to the room, sitting down in the chair. "Can we talk?"

"Sure what's up?"