Ashley's Asylum (3)

01| Ashleys Asylum

She glanced over at the door handle with wide eyes.

Would she survive at this speed? Probably not but did it really matter?

The back doors locked with a defined 'sholt' which sent Ashley's heart souring. She caught how Michael eyed her over the back seat and realise she wasn't numb the panic was definitely there simmering beneath the surface like water just below boiling point. He seemed so much closer now she was sat up, too close in fact, it made her feel sick to be within reach of him.

The dowdy lights at the Asylum hadn't done him justice; his skin looked smooth and cold like it was carved from ivory marble. His clear complexion paired with a chiselled bone structure made him terrifyingly handsome, disarmingly so, and it left Ashley soaked in sweaty nerves.

He gave her a snarky expression, a snarl, almost as if to say she wouldn't get away that easily. He'd obviously seen her look at the door and had read her mind. Michael was good at that, interpreting people, to the extent he'd made her and everyone at Dale-Creek look like fools. She wondered if he knew she wasn't brave enough to jump out of a moving car anyway. He clearly didn't fancy taking the chance.

He turned back around blocking her off with a set of broad shoulders.

It didn't go unnoticed by Ashley how Sam and Michael filled up the car with their sheer bulk; Sam was actually hunkered over the steering wheel with his seat pushed all the way back but still he seemed squashed in. It was terrifying, everything was terrifying. The boys were so much bigger in reality; she'd been with them in interviews; she'd sat in front of them for an entire year at the Asylum but that all seemed fake compared to how she saw them now. This proximity was on a whole other level, she could feel their heat and she could smell them. Right now they were realer than ever.

The strange numbness had worn off, her panic had reached boiling point and now her heart fluttered nonstop in her chest. Ashley felt faint and sick with worry of what was to come. She dragged her eyes away from the back of their heads and instead turned her gaze to the window. She needed to think and gather the facts no matter how painful they were.

Fact one: Melissa and anyone down in the basement of Dale Creek Hill Asylum were dead, they had been murdered.

Fact two: the culprits of those murders were sitting in the front two seats of this car. They were once her patients, now they were her kidnappers.

Fact three: her family and boyfriend were last seen at the Asylum, they were safe but most likely distraught about her absence.

Fact four: the second most painful fact was the three of them were still on the move, still driving, they were still free.

Fact five: the painful fact. Ashley was still with them, they hadn't ditched her as a hostage. She was still alive but for how long?

Ashley didn't have nearly long enough to think before they pulled over. She couldn't believe they were bold enough to stop let alone at a petrol station.

Ashley's eyes darted around her surroundings in an attempt to find something that could tell her how long she'd been asleep for or where they actually were but there was nothing. The place looked abandoned (Typical).

Michael stepped out of the car and casually walked towards the station's small shop. Ashley crawled over to the closest window and watched him go. She was left in the car with Sam and had already caught his deep mocha eyes look at her in the rear view mirror. A heat shot up the back of her neck like a nasty rash. She hastily turned back to observe Michael knowing Sam still watched her. The burn of his gaze heightened her awareness of the immense peril she was in.