Ashley's Asylum (3)

03| Ashleys Asylum

Her brain rebooted. They'd tied her to a bed!
Struggling up into a sitting position Ashley glared around the room in search of the culprits but they were nowhere in sight. She stared down at her wrist, it was tied to the bedframe with a tough looking knot. She pulled on it and the entire frame creaked forwards. She let it lurch back and scowled with puffy eyes, she looked wild with her hair all dishevelled.

Ashley turned on the room, it didn't take much to distinguish she was in a motel; her surroundings had that dingy, seedy feel and she could just about see vehicles parked up outside through the single window.

A heat prickled the back of her neck. She felt abandoned, it was wishful thinking though; they had to be around somewhere.

All Ashley remembered from last night was the incredible fright she'd felt and then without warning, exhaustion to the extent she fell asleep nestled into the side of a serial killer. To think she'd been in a deep enough sleep to be carried from car to bed. Ashley felt ashamed but also concerned she'd been asleep for too long. Who knew what had happened while she was out.

Ashley turned back to her tied wrist, twisting round, she placed two feet through the bars of the bed frame and began to yank. Pushing off of the wall she rocked the frame violently while she pulled. If she could just slip her hand out through the hole.

"Ashley!" Came a yell from the other side of the wall. "You better not be trying to escape!"

She stopped pulling instantly. Pipes clinked and water works creaked under the floor and behind the wall making the bed vibrate; a door on the same wall flew open moments later.

Sam stomped out with a hand towel against his face, steam rose from his skin in waves. It looked as though he'd bolted out of a shower; he was still naked.

Ashley screamed in horror and scrambled desperately to pull herself off the bed and hide her eyes at the same time.

"What are you doing!" He snapped fiercely. "I step in the shower for five minutes and it sounds like you're coming through the wall!"

She didn't reply, her face was buried deep into the bed quilt.

"Ashley!"

She glanced up at the warning in his tone. He was clutching the hand towel over his stuff now but it was too late; she had already seen and that kind of thing couldn't be unseen. His face looked stern and dangerous but Ashley couldn't focus on it.  She had never seen a guy fresh out of the shower before (which was a stupid thought to have but she couldn't help it); he was dripping water and condensation all over the floor; his chest and shoulders were broader than the horizon and; a few scars were wrapped around his chest and abdomen. He looked like some Herculean monument. To think the first man she'd ever see naked would look as magnificent as Sam and in a motel room while she was tied to the bed.

"What!"

Ashley stared at him stupidly at his demand, she couldn't control her roaming eyes. He glared at her in turn taking offence. If he knew the reason behind her staring she'd be in some intense trouble, he would be taking it all very differently.

He adjusted his stance and gestured at her as if to say 'what's the problem'. Ashley grasped for words to say but they all hung on the tip of her tongue like some garbled mess.

She felt a heat burning her cheeks and panicked, was she turning red?

"Where's Michael?" She finally blurted.

He should be there like a cold concrete wall between them.

Sam's stare intensified.

"Out" he practically barked. The room's temperature rose a little more. "Is that it?" He added.