The Deep Dark Web | lrh

Five

"Ashley, I'm freaking out," I whisper over the phone.

"What? Why?" she asks, voice muffled. It sounds like she's eating something that takes up the entirety of her mouth; probably popcorn, as there's a movie playing in the background.

"I'm doing the laundry-" I begin, taking slow steps back from the basket. "And I just... I just found some of Luke's clothes,"

"Yikes. Do they have cum stains?"

"It's not that," I sigh, choosing to ignore her rather crude statement. "It's a... oh, god. I don't know what to do,"

"What? What did you find?"

"There's blood on his shirt, Ash," I murmur, peering at the open door across the hall from me. Inside of the room behind it, Luke is sleeping; and I know for a fact that he's a light sleeper. "Not just a small dot, like the ones you get after your nose bleeds. There's a pool of it right on the chest,"

"Maybe it's just paint, Soph."

"It's not paint," I mutter, a little annoyed at how she's not taking me seriously. "I can tell the difference between paint and blood."

"Well, have you washed his shirts before?"

"No, I haven't washed anything he owns. He doesn't let me," I say. "And now I know why."

"Hey, don't be so quick to jump to conclusions, alright? You don't know how it got there,"

"What if he got seriously hurt, Ash? And he never told me?" I ask. "What if he gets into all these fights at night and never comes home because he doesn't want me to see how hurt he gets-"

"Oh, my dear. You're babbling," she says. "Chill, will you? Come on, just throw it in the machine and call it a day. Like I said, you have no idea how it actually got there."

I stay quiet for a while. She has a point, though there's a nagging feeling at the back of my mind.

"You're right," I say quietly, admitting defeat as I see a shadow begin to loom in the light of the doorway. "I don't."