rainfall | ashton irwin au | completed

ten

I did not wake up in my bed, though I was certain I had fallen asleep there the previous night. I could feel the cold, harsh concrete below me, and I could not move my hands. My eyes felt like there were stuck together, and it took great effort to pry them open. When they were finally open I wished that I had kept them sealed. The room looked dimly lit and appeared to be some kind of basement. My heart pounded against my ribcage as two silhouetted figures stood in front of a glowing fireplace, chatting as if they did not have somebody tied up in their basement.

I tried to shuffle my hands out of the rope that bound my hands together but it was no use; its texture was only scratching and blistering my skin.

"Was tying them up really necessary?" One of the figures asked. It was too familiar, sending a cold shiver through my body as my eyes adjusted to the light and I realised that it was the boy I had sat on a roof and stargazed with not 48 hours before. He ran a hand through his hair in stress, something that he had done a lot around me. I always thought it was adorable, but now I wasn't so sure. 

He had said 'them.' As soon as the thought registered I acknowledged a series of whimpers coming from a shuddering Anna who was tied up next to me. On the other side of me was Michael. Fear jolted through me at the sight of his wide eyes. He was afraid. That meant that I should be afraid too. The emotion was too overpowered by the feeling of betrayal, though. Ashton was working with somebody - who I realised to be Matt as I allowed my eyes to focus again - and he had three of his own coven tied up in some dirty old basement.

My mother and the fortune teller had been right. They were trying to warn me, but it had been too late. It seemed like they had been planning this for months; they must have been if they had snatched us in our sleep.

"Don't worry, I won't harm your precious little girlfriend," Matt mocked, smirking at me as he realised we were conscious. "Speak of the devil."

My brain could not comprehend what was happening. Why had Matt and Ashton tied us up? I looked at Michael desperately, but I knew there was nothing he could do.

"What's going on?" I asked shakily. "Why are we here?"

"I thought you said she was smart," Matt teased. Ashton looked at me, his lips carved into a thin line and his eyebrows knitted together. Matt walked towards me at a painfully slow pace before crouching in front of my curled up body, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. I was breathing so heavily I thought that I might have passed out. "It seems your boyfriend here has not been very honest with you."

Matt's dark eyes glimmered with menace, and I suddenly didn't want to know why I was here. I hoped for the darkness to engulf me again, but it didn't. I looked up at Ashton with wide eyes, but he only shook his head in despair. He wasn't going to help us, because he was the reason we were here.

"Look, just please let us go. We'll give you whatever it is that you want," Anna pleaded, tears rolling down her face at an alarming pace.

Matt simply stood up and walked back to the fireplace. Ashton tried to mouth something to me, but I refused to even look at him. I knew that I could not trust him from the night we shared in the storm, yet I had convinced myself to do so anyway. I cringed at my own stupidity.