Ashley is on a one-way road trip, down the longest highway known to mankind and with the worst passengers imaginable.
Deaf, dumb and blind to the ordinary emotions of a human being they sat silently in the front seat and only the radio made a sound, even that was quiet. There was no baggage for the journey, she was the only luggage they brought along. Ashley's drowsiness was wearing off from the concussion they gave her but clarity only brought her greater misery. There was nothing for her to cling to for hope or support.
When Ashley woke up properly she would remember, she had been kidnapped by the most notorious serial killers of all time and soon she would be dead.
The car was stuffy and hot but to Ashley the world had gone ice cold. In fact, the world didn't matter anymore; it could stop spinning for all she cared. Nothing mattered anymore. Deep inside she knew terrible things had happened and there was no way of fixing them.
As Ashley laid in silence things began to seep back; flash backs of something horrific and so graphic she rushed to try and stop the memories from resurfacing. Ashley fought to smother the truth and the overwhelming pain that came with it but the memories were fresh and raw. Her heart ached. Things had gone terribly wrong; the world had turned topsy turvy.
Ashley dragged her knees up into her chest. Her stomach was cramping and her chest burnt like she'd been running in the cold for miles.
A pair of enigmatic eyes peered into the back seat. She made eye contact with Michael, his face blurred thanks to the tears bunching up in her eyes: they streamed out from the corners until she could make out the frown on his face. He looked conflicted but Ashley knew better.
He glanced furtively in Sam's direction before slowly reaching his hand into the back toward her. Panic hit her in the chest like an arrow at the sight of his reaching hand.
A dark growl rumbled from the driver's seat.
"Michael," it warned.
Michael's expression switched to a look of innocence. His outstretched hand hesitated before it slithered back where it came from. Sam shot him a loaded look before he glimpsed at her himself. He looked surprised to see her awake.
Sparing a glance from the road he gave her a full once-over with his eyes.
"Well, well look whose awake."
Ashley stared back at him with a grey-faced glare, behind the glare her mind reeled. She didn't know what to do or say after all what could she do? She was stuck in a car doing at least 70 mph. There was nothing she could do other than sit back and allow the reality of the situation to sink in.
Ashley sat up slowly until she was propped up in the middle seat and looked around warily; she had the advantage of being able to see both Michael, Sam and the road clearly from her position. She gazed ahead bleakly; there was nothing but trees and a straight road ahead; it might as well have been a straight road across the entire world from the way it stretched on.
Ashley felt her arms where tiny hairs were raised on end. A numbness had embraced her, maybe it was from the forced sleep she was put under or maybe it was due to the surreal situation she found herself in. People were dead; people who were alive before her leaving party were now dead; People like Melissa. She couldn't bring herself to think of it but the flashbacks came readily, from bloodied hands to the empty expression death had left on her colleagues face.
Ashley rubbed the skin on her arms until it burnt slightly.
She couldn't believe how calm she was. Was it normal to be so subdued when she should be throwing herself out of the car door to escape?
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.
Ashley wasn't about to kid herself, they were going to kill her. It was a horrible thought, the kind that could swallow a person and so she tried her best to avoid it. When the moment came she'd face it but until then she had to focus on more sudden threats like the dark, lustful beast lurking within Samuel Hanz. Ashley still held the vicious memoirs of Sam's attack; the feel of his fingers on her jaw had never left her.
She cleared her throat, it was stone dry and now she'd noticed it was close to unbearable.
"I need to go to the toilet" she murmured huskily.
It was the first words she'd said since she had woken and her voice sounded raspy but it didn't break.
Ashley dared to glance back over at Sam in the front seat. She expected him to say no or suggest something indecent, instead he nodded and got out of the car. She eyed the car keys hanging in the ignition greedily as he opened the back door for her to climb out.
She got out and paused as she came up against Sam, there was a strong car door in between them but to Ashley it might as well not be there at all. He was gigantic in fact, Ashley feared he had grown. He was breath-taking really, a worthy monument to the male physique and all the more dangerous for it.
He gestured over to a small door to the side of the shop and waited for her to walk. Ashley did, two steps at a time, never having known walking to be so hard in her life. Her first steps as a baby were probably easier.
She paused again once she'd reached the toilet door and glanced over her shoulder. Sam stood a few feet back with his big arms folded over his chest, his stance not imposing but certainly not casual. A few thoughts about how large he was floated though Ashley's mind once again before she stepped into the toilets. Her main thought was that she couldn't escape him.
The bathroom was compact, grimy and severely neglected; there were two cubicles and a small window too high to reach and too small to fit through. There was little point in looking to escape considering they were in the middle of nowhere. No doubt Michael had planned to come there before he and Sam were even arrested in the first place. She glared and went forth to do what she'd gone there to do.
While washing her hands she looked at herself in a dirt covered mirror. Smearing a wet hand across the glass she watched the dirt trickle away and caught a streaked reflection of herself. She looked tired; her hair was knotted and wild while her face was grey and frightened. It was strange to look in a mirror and see the face you pulled when you were sincerely frightened; she looked young and big eyed.
After wiping her hands on her dress she tried to mentally prepare herself before she walked back out. She didn't dare take any longer, the last thing she wanted was Sam coming in to get her.
Stepping out with her fists clenched Ashley came to a quick halt outside. They were both waiting for her, casually she might add, with a similar impatience to two older brothers waiting for their young sister who wasn't old enough to go in alone but couldn't be accompanied in either.
The three of them stood in silence.
When they had both looked at her as she appeared their casual expressions had altered. Suddenly they looked desperate to touch her after months of holding back, months of waiting patiently behind bars watching her. Sam's ginormous arm muscles twitched beneath his dark skin. Michael's jaw tensed several times like he was clenching his teeth. They were straining, both of them wanted her for themselves, it was visible enough for her to tell.
Ashley could feel the tension in the air like a vibration, their intense desire practically shook the atmosphere. It frightened her. No that was an understatement, spiders frightened her, being alone in the dark frightened her but this petrified her. This strange tension absolutely scared her witless.
Whether to hold or to hurt, they both wanted her. The need she could detect in their eyes was so unnatural it was uncomfortable to see, it was unbearable in fact.
She swallowed and gestured towards the car hoping to break the moment, hoping to shatter it into millions of tiny pieces so that a moment like it never happened again.
Michael shared a strange look with Sam, it lasted a mere moment but it felt like a small stand off. Ashley wasn't sure, all they'd done since she'd been awake was share meaningful looks. Michael was the first to break away and start towards the car. Sam stood for a moment longer before gesturing Ashley get a move on.
She hurried after Michael towards the car, at least in a vehicle there were seats and objects in the way, out in the open there was nothing to stop either of them from grabbing hold of her. Her stomach filled with dread as she approached the car.
She was alone out here with them, truly alone, and it was only so long before one of them made a move on her. It was only so long before the trouble started and the deaths began again; the only question was whether she'd be their first new victim.