we don't belong here • lrh

Chapter twenty seven | we do belong here

Chapter twenty seven | we do belong here

L U K E

"Come on," I exclaimed grabbing onto her hand, pulling her to the nearest exit. My grin not leaving my face as my much larger hand engulfed her very small one. The doors at the very far end of the hallway led to the courtyard, where usually when the weather was nice free time for patients were spent. "Hurry up, Valentine!"

"Luke we're going to get in trouble if we're caught," She said trying to reason with me, one of the only people who have been kind to her in this hell hole for weeks. My grip doesn't loosen but gets a little tighter at the mention of trouble. She tenses up as I stop dead in my tracks, right in front of the double doors. "Luke?"

I turn to her with sad eyes and my lips in a tight smile. I then say,

"Have you ever gotten in trouble here yet?"

When she doesn't answer, I sigh and take her hand again, bringing it closer to my mouth. As if I was going to peck the smooth skin but soon deciding against it. I place the back of her hand on my cheek in a way to comfort the both of us. She instantly feels relaxed as her muscles relax into mine.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," I say and connect my eyes with her grey blue irises. My heart picks up in speed at as she responds to my sweet gestures and words.

"After all," I say as I remove my hand away from her face and grip it in between my fingers again. "We don't belong here, so we have to stay together and protect each other."

"Yes we do, Luke. We do belong here. And you have to wake up."

•••

V A L E N T I N E

His eyes were shut and his pale skin was an almost sickeningly white. As white as the walls once were at the asylum. As white as the swans that used to swim in the lake at Park Moore, the place we spent most of our time as children. His annoyingly tall frame that once stood higher above all the others was now small and frail in the thin sheets of the hospital bed.

"I'm so sorry, Luke," I cried even harder that my chest was heaving in sobs. I could hardly breathe with the tough breathes coming out of my lungs. "If my stupid body hadn't passed out you'd still be okay, right?"

I walked closer to a chair in the corner of the hospital room and dragged in with me to the side of the bed. Once situated in the position I wanted, I sat down grabbing Luke's hand in mine.

"I love you, Luke and that means you have to wake up. Please wake up for me."