Luke's memories were still jumping around like crazy, the sounds of reality blurred and muffled into something that was akin to listening to noises through glass. He could hear the pitches of voices, an odd vowel here and there. But never a word. And certainly not a comprehensible sentence. A sea of green was holding him under, tauntingly bringing him up to the surface for a few moments to gasp for air before dragging him straight back under again. His lungs were burning with the need for oxygen, for some kind of release from this endless torture. He was in a prison of his own making, everything he had ever said or done rolling around and around in his head like some sort of scratched record, warped in some places where the music occasionally changed pitch.

If he focused hard enough, he could feel blood trickling out of his mouth.

Another wave sucked him under, its salty spray stinging his eyes and poisoning his mouth until his throat began to burn from the constant attack. He fought and clamoured to stay up towards the surface, but there was nothing to hold onto except the volumes of water that slipped right through his fingers as if it weighed nothing at all. As if it had no power or strength. Which was an incredibly deceptive notion, because that same element was sucking Luke down right into its gaping jaws, its captive struggling and resisting all the way because he knew. He knew what memories he was about to relive. And they were too bittersweet to be enjoyable.

It was seven years ago; he had been fourteen at the time, entering his first year at The Royal Academy of Arts. It had been a brilliant year for both him and everyone he knew. He was studying music, one of the things he loved most in the world, and he had Bronwyn, who had somehow managed to convince him to take art. She had remained to grow in kindness and beauty every day, teaching and helping Liam through his visions all the while. She had shown him how it was best to never keep what he saw inside but to let it out, if not through words then through art, music, or even sport if it helped to let out the bottled up energy.

Luke had been best friends with Bronwyn for a long time now, four years to be exact. They were practically inseparable. And he wouldn't have it any other way. He remembered the time when he had found her crying because of her mother's cruel words, pressuring her to prepare to join The Counsel of Elders. She had been distraught, weeping over how her parents seemed determined to take her life away before it had even begun. It had broken his heart to see her like that, and he couldn't bear the thought of her leaving him to join some dumb government of dictators. 

So he had taken her away from the school building to his favourite place in the whole wide world. It was situated in a secluded part of the school gardens, one where hardly anyone went because it was too far into the forest to find. It was a beautiful place, really, especially in the autumn when the overhanging ceiling of trees was painted in the glowing colours of fiery orange and gold, leaves of scarlet dancing to the ground all around them as he attempted to cheer her up, playing a cheesy song on his phone and placing it on a small rock, teaching her to waltz as he had learnt from his mother whenever he was feeling down. "Dancing can make anyone happy." He had echoed his mother's words, and gotten so lost in her eyes that he fell into the small stream cutting through the clearing. They had fallen together. Laughed together. Gotten completely soaked to the skin. But they had also shared their first kiss. And it was everything he had imagined it would be. Short and sweet but still leaving them both blushing as red as the leaves falling to the ground around them.

They had been 'an item' since then, he supposed. And he did his best to make her happy, spending all of his savings on their first date to the nearest theme park. Because that was what had been cool at the time. He never went a day without trying to make her smile, and he always held her close whenever she collapsed from the pain of a strong vision. It was quite miraculous that both she and Nate had inherited the sight, and their parents knew it too. He had often heard them referring to themselves as 'The Pure Ones.' A family of seers from generation to generation that they very much intended to continue. 

Luke had always assumed that they didn't really mind him dating their daughter, though, and at his first end of year dance, he had been so excited. His dad had even let him borrow one of his expensive cars, with a chauffeur to drive him of course. He had been beyond excited. It was going to be a brilliant night for everyone, his little brother included. Liam had his two best friends, Nate and Flynn, round at his house and those eleven-year-old boys were planning to have the most epic sleepover of all time. Apparently, it involved Nerf Guns.

Flynn was the younger brother of Bronwyn's best friend, Samantha. As far as Luke was aware, Bronwyn had been friends with Samantha since before even their little brothers were born, meaning that the two boys had almost literally been forced into companionship since birth. Samantha had always been the rebellious sort of person and had never really been all too keen on her younger brother. Neither she or her father had been aware of her mother's ability to see the future, not until Flynn had been born with the gift. It had drawn a kind of barrier between the two siblings, and their parents' relationship had never quite been the same, strained by the knowledge that such a large secret had been kept for so long. And Samantha had seen this new hardship between her parents' marriage and blamed the whole ordeal on the birth of her younger brother. For, in her eyes, if Flynn had never been born then her mother could have continued to keep her secret. And the family could have lived in some kind of messed up, ignorant bliss. She adored her younger sister though, who had recently turned six, and focused all of the sibling love left over from Flynn onto her.

Luke happily stepped out of the car, pausing for a moment to adjust his bowtie in the wing mirror of the car in order to make sure it was straight. His cheeks were flushed with happiness, excitement fuelling his every move as he thought of him and Bronwyn twirling around the dancefloor, perhaps even sneaking off to the secluded grove where they had first danced together and shared their first kiss. Where he may or may not have set up the perfect midnight picnic for the both of them. With fairy lights and everything. It was going to be beyond perfect.

However, as he approached the steps of the large manor house, he saw something that he never could have prepared himself for. Bronwyn was crying, tears spilling onto the beautiful, pale green gown she was wearing as she screamed at her mother, gesturing frantically at the boy who had joined the two women on the porch. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights, eyes wide and blinking as he stared at the goddess in front of him. She truly did look beautiful, even in this state, the only bright thing in the dimly lit driveway. 

"Oh, give it up, Bronwyn," her mother's clipped tones filled the frosty air and wrapped around Luke's body in a blanket that was far from comforting, "it was never going to last. You need a real boyfriend. Not some human boy. It's time to get realistic, darling. You need to be with someone who is worthy of you, who will carry out our family's legacy in the right way. Someone with seer blood, Bronwyn. It's nice to have a little fling, I agree, but it's time to get serious. This boy is perfectly capable of seeing you to the dance. I picked him out myself."

Luke hadn't really known what to say. Or do, for that matter. He had just stood there in the driveway. Frozen. All thoughts halting in his mind as he stared, horrified, at the scene in front of him. He wasn't even quite sure what emotion he was feeling. It was not something that he had really experienced before. But it was incredibly painful. And it left him reeling, close to feeling light-headed as her beautiful eyes turned to meet his. Tear-filled and frantically shaking her head. Was he really going to lose her so soon? Was this his fate? He had always imagined himself to be at her side; he had never really thought that there could be any other alternative. He...he had just assumed that...dreamed...hoped that...that...they might just be together.

He ended up not going to the dance, despite Bronwyn's protests. 

Besides, he was sure that her mother would prevent her from leaving the doorstep if she even thought of leaving with him. So he walked up to the front doorstep, stepping into the light and refusing to look her in the eye. He took a look at the boy standing next to her, and vaguely recognised him to be someone in their year at school. Someone in their art class. As much as it pained him to think of her with anyone else, surely it would only be for one night. Then he could convince her parents that he was worthy of her. He just needed a little bit of time. But he wouldn't stop her from going to the dance, he wouldn't take that away from her. He knew how much she would be longing to go. And he didn't want all that he had set up to go to waste. 

So he handed the boy the flowers he had brought for Bronwyn, told him to look after her and take her into the forest. That she would know where to go. And he had given Bronwyn a kiss on the cheek, despite the cry of outrage from her mother. And walked back to the car. Slowly. Never once turning around to look her in the eye. It was the first time he had wished to be someone he was not. The first time he had wished to have the sight that so many around him possessed. The people he loved. To see the future just for a moment just so that he could stand a chance at having a future with the girl he had so desperately fallen in love with.