Below Zero

Chapter 9

Asher

I walk out of the bathroom wearing a pair of Pyjama pants. I grab my towel and ruffle my hair with it.

When I walk inside the living room I find the boys just sitting on the couch. "Should we cook dinner or just order something" I ask them "Let's just order something" Joel answers. I nod for myself and a thought suddenly crosses my mind or a person would be more correct, Elle. I look around not seeing her "Where's Elle?", "She went to the store" Henry says "She said she needed to buy something" Elio ads. I look at them confused "But we went to the store in the morning" I say confused. All of them just shrugs their shoulders unbothered.

We ordered the food and an uneasy feeling is starting to disturb my thoughts. Elle hasn't come home yet and it's starting to get late. Boston isn't as bad as other cities when it comes to safety but it's still a big city and there're creeps everywhere. My phone is buzzing and I grab it, Elle is calling. I answer and I'm not even able to say a "hi" before I hear a panicked voice ringing in my ear "Someone is following me, please help, I can see the playground from here-" the call suddenly ends and I jump up. I grab a white shirt from a chair and throws it on before grabbing my car keys and jacket. The boys asks me questions but I just ignore them "Grab your jacket Henry, we need to go" Henry stands up and does exactly what I said, being a captain has its advantages.

Henry sits in the passenger seat and I drive. I speed over the limit but I don't care, Elle is my priority in this right moment. I don't wanna know what Mrs. Moore is going to do if something happens to Elle. Henry has already gotten an explanation and we're both looking desperately looking after Elle while driving towards the playground.

Two figures are standing on one of the sidewalks. I park the car and get out of the car and start to run. Henry follows right behind me. My stomach drops seeing a man with a knife in his hand standing near Elle. I run even faster and the guy sees me. His eyes widened and he moves suddenly towards Elle more determined, but I won't let him touch her. I throw myself over the man while hitting his face. The man screams in pain and Henry comes between. Henry sign me to take care of Elle while he takes care of the guy. I turn around, Elle is sitting on the ground shaking badly. I move towards her and her head moves up slowly. Her eyes meet mine, they're filled with tears and they show pure panic. She stands up and takes slow steps towards me. She hugs me when she's close enough taking me off guard. She cries out and a lump forms in my throat. I look at Henry who's having a worried look on his face while looking at Elle, we fucked up again.

"I should call the police?" Henry says grabbing his phone "No!" Elle cries out even louder "I want to go home" she says. "Ssssh home it is" I say while stroking her hair. I grab the plastic bag with Elle's groceries from the ground. I look inside it and find packages with pads, she's on her period. We begin to move towards the car leaving the unconscious man on the ground. I sit in the backseat with Elle and give Henry the keys. She almost sleep immediately when we get inside the car. Her head is on my lap and I'm stroking her long hair.  I breath out a shaky breath, scared as fuck not knowing if she will be completely destroyed by the incident. "Should we call Mrs. Moore?" Henry asks looking at me through the rear view mirror. "Let's deal with that tomorrow" I answers while looking at Elle.

We arrive at the house and I carry Elle in bridal style. Her head rests in the crook giving me a tingle feeling. The boys turns quiet when we walk inside seeing me carrying a girl. I can't blame them for doing that, I do not even look at girls normally and now I'm carrying the same girl again. The room is completely quiet. Henry walks towards the couch sitting down before placing his face in his hands. The others sit down with him "Why did we let her go?" he says devastated "You didn't know" I say and moves towards the stairs. My hand grabs the door handle of Elle's bedroom door but she suddenly tugs my jacket gaining my attention. I move my head to the side meeting her tired puffy eyes. Our noses are almost touching sending an electric feeling through my whole body. "Can I sleep with you, I don't want to be alone" she asks. I swallow hard "You sure you want to?". Her head nods and I immediately walk inside my bedroom. I place her on the bed and turn around but she grabs my hand "Don't leave me" she says weakly "I'm just going to grab a glass of water for you". She lets go of me.

Elle is sleeping when I walk inside the room. I place the glass beside her on the bedside table. I lay down on the bed and cover myself in the cover. Her body turns towards me and her arms snake around my waist and her head is resting on my chest. I chuckle a bit at her cute snores. Her dark hair is smelling clean and fresh.

What are you doing with my feelings Elle? Why is my eyes only looking at you? Why do you always appear in my thoughts?

I brush the thoughts of me and I fall asleep.

My eyes open and Elle is not beside me. I put on a hoodie and checks the bathroom if she's there, it's empty. A smell hits my nose when I open the door, cookies. I walk inside the kitchen and freezes on the spot at the seen I'm seeing. Elle's is baking tons of things. There are cookies, bread and a lot of more. She's focusing on icing some cupcakes at the moment and doesn't seem to notice me. Elio walks inside the kitchen "What in the world, is happening here?" he asks. "What the f-" Henry exclaims coming from nowhere. Elle lifts finally her head making us all three more worried. She's still wearing her sweet smile, but she has dark circles under her eyes. She's exhausted.

Henry moves towards her and grabs the icing bag from her and place it on the counter before he leads her towards a chair and makes her sit down. "You need to rest" he says "No, no I don't need any rest, I am used to work hard without sleeping" she says trying to stand up but Henry grabs her shoulders preventing her to move. "I'm fine guys" she tries to reassure us. "You're certainly not" Henry says being protective. I walk beside Henry and whispers into his ear "Take her to her room and I'll Mrs. Moore, she needs her" Henry nods and leads Elle away.

The call with Mrs. Moore were turbulent. Her voice were sharp but still broken. It knocks on the door and I open the door finding a newly awake Mrs. Moore but tears are visible on her cheek. "How is she?" she asks impatiently "Not so good, follow me and you'll know what I mean". She follows me inside the kitchen and she gasps. "She bakes when she's sad or stressed" Mrs. Moore explains. "Could you bring the boys?" she looks at me with worried eyes.

Henry is the last one to walk inside the kitchen "She's sleeping" Mrs. Moore smiles warmly at him while sipping on her coffee. "Don't blame yourself for this boys, it's a big city and how would you know that a man would follow her" she says in a calm voice while we're looking down at floor. "Elle's going to be fine, but you need to know that her childhood weren't maybe the best..." she pauses. I look up at Mrs. Moore waiting for her to continue. "...her parents were quite extreme when it came to her ice skating" she says a bit unsure probably weighing her own words. "I don't know what happened behind closed doors and I don't how her parents actually treated her, but I know for sure she wasn't treated the right way". We boys look at each other confused. We looked at a few interviews of Elle and her parents before she came here and they were like the sweetest family. We wanted to at least know how she acted and she seemed like the sweetest girl with loving parents.

"There are scars no one sees, wounds that aren't bleeding, tears that don't flow and screams that can't be heard" Mrs. Moore ends with before going to Elle's room leaving all of us scared and even more confused.

Next part will be uploaded in a few days probably. Hope you liked this part!