Hi everyone,
I'm so sorry it's taken so long, but the next chapter is finally here!!
Thank you all so much for reading, despite my super long hiatus which seems to be becoming a regular thing.
Enjoy :D
Gemma x
________________________________________________________________________________
Ash ran as fast as she could back into her apartment building, slamming the front doors shut and bolting the lock. In a panic, she span around and sprinted up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She darted down the corridor, ignoring Davy's confused stare, instead rushing to find her keys in amongst her bag's content. As she tried to bring them to the keyhole, her hands were shaking so much that she dropped them.
The front doors bashed open downstairs. Ash looked up briefly to acknowledge the sound before she bent down, picked up the keys and slotted the correct one into her lock.
Once inside the apartment, she pushed the door shut and quickly pushed her armchair up against it. She ran into the kitchen and grabbed a butcher's knife from one of the drawers, just about catching the glint of her now flame coloured eyes in its reflection.
A knock on the door made Ash whimper unconsciously before she slapped her free hand over her mouth.
"Ashley?" a strange man shouted through the door. They knocked again, more aggressively this time.
Cautiously, she stepped up to the eyehole in the door to have a look at the men who were so suddenly determined to catch her. She could just about make out the glint of guns and knives in their belts in the image before her.
Ash swore, and darted away from the door instantly as a third knock came. She sprinted into the bedroom, efficiently and silently pushing her door closed before looking around in the little light emulating into the room.
She approached the window as her first thought: there might be a fire escape leading at least partially down to the ground. However, as she looked out, not immediately spotting any ladder, her flat door was kicked in, and voices started echoing from the living room. "Shit," she muttered under her breath, before darting under her large double bed, holding her breath as she listened.
"Find her," a deep voice said calmly.
"Make it quick before anyone else comes wandering up here" a second voice declared, ending the short conversation.
Footsteps walked tepidly across her wooden floors, the creaking of her bathroom door opening from next door to the bedroom. Quicker than she would've hoped, the bedroom door was pushed open, spilling light from the living room onto the carpet.
"Now then." A third voice spoke almost to himself as she watched the thick boot-covered feet walk around her bed, opening her wardrobe. "If I were a monster, where would I hide...?"
Another pair of feet arrived at the door, waiting for something.
"I think," the man said as the feet by the door moved to stand at the foot of the bed. "I'd listen to the stories."
"Got you."
Ash gasped. Her head whipped around towards the sound of the voice to find two wide smirking eyes staring at her. The man grabbed her ankles, dragging her out from under the bed. She screamed as she clawed at the floor, attempting to hold onto the wooden post of the bed with one hand whilst slashing the knife through the air with the other. Unfortunately, the men were quicker. One ripped the knife out of her hand after receiving only a surface scratch to the neck whilst another tore her away from the bed and flung her up effortlessly into his arms. Ash writhed in his tight grip of her, fighting with all her strength as he carried her squirming body into the living room.
As soon as a second pair of hands touched her, she lifted both feet off the floor, kicking into the man's chest and pushing him backwards violently. The man holding her loosened his grip as he was plummeted into the wall behind her, allowing Ash to scramble her way out of his arms. She crawled along the floor, scampering to her feet as she neared the door. She was almost there as well, when her chest hit the floor once more as her ankle caught on another tight hand.
Instantly the other two men had her on her feet again, pushing her front into the wall as one stood behind her, holding both of her arms in a position which at too strong a struggle would break both bones, whilst the second held her head against the wall as he took a hold of her wrists, tightening what felt like cable-tie around them and letting it bite into her already scarred-skin.
"We're already behind; let's get her out of here" the apparent boss of the other two commanded. She was roughly whipped around to face him as he came towards her with a syringe. She already knew what was in it as he placed his large hand over her mouth and chin. "Stay still now, darling. We'll wake you up in a few hours." His smirk was cold as the needle point brushed the skin on her neck.
All of a sudden, a knife flew into the side of the man's head. The syringe clattered onto the floor first, before his body crashed down alongside it unceremoniously. Ash stopped wriggling, her eyes shooting to the open door.
It took her a minute to comprehend what she was looking at. His once neat, straight chestnut hair was a rugged mess sticking up in all directions. The higher definition to his now-chiselled jawline and more prominent muscles rippling in his lean figure made it hard to look away as he held the men standing behind her at gunpoint. One thing certainly hadn't changed about him though: those vivid green eyes still took in everything in his surroundings with one swift glance, before his lips pulled into a half-smile.
"Ash," Will greeted her as if he had seen her yesterday. Another man similarly dressed to Ash's captors appeared behind him, only able to take in the shock of the scene before another of Will's knives shot out of his belt and into the man's forehead without him even turning around to acknowledge his presence.
The man not keeping a tight grip of her took out his gun, aiming poorly at Will before the bullet hit the wall by the doorframe. Not that it would've hit him anyway; Will had already moved, darting over the back of Ash's armchair and bowling into him with intense power.
Ash snapped her attention back to her situation. Sensing that the man holding her had become distracted, she smashed the back of her head into his nose, releasing her of his grip. She span around, knocking his nose with her forehead again and letting him fall to the ground moaning. A voice sounded at the door, two more men joining the commotion just as Will stabbed the man under him in the chest.
As Will sprang towards the new entrants, Ash turned her attention back to the man trying to pull himself up with a broken nose. Knowing she'd never be able to do anything with her hands behind her back, she jumped, pushing her wrists forwards and under her raised feet.
The man came towards her, and Ash felt all of her combat training come flooding back to her. She leaned down, picking the knife embedded in one of the dead men's head out, and began slashing at the man coming towards her. She cut him across the chest, letting him stagger backwards with the shock, before she landed on his chest, pushing him to the floor with a crash. Without thinking, she plunged the knife into his heart cavity. Blood spurted out of him instantly, soaking her clothes and floor.
The commotion in the rest of the room had died down surprisingly quickly, causing her to look around. Everyone was dead. Realising she was sat on the chest of a dead man, Ash pushed herself weakly to her feet and turned around. Will was busy checking through one of the men's pockets, pulling out knives, darts and other such items from every available crevice. At the sound of Ash's movement, he looked up at her before standing properly and facing her with a singular slice down his cheek.
There was silence for a minute or two as they stared at each other. Will was the one to break it. "You lost weight."
Ash blinked, unsure of how to respond. Instead, she settled for ignoring his comment. "How did you know I was here?"
Will shrugged, breaking his frozen stance and walking towards her casually. "I know a lot of things." He reached down carefully for her wrists, pulling a clean knife out of his belt. He deftly slid it in between her arms and tugged, cutting the cord neatly in half and setting her hands free. He held onto her wrist a second longer, scanning across the red and white slices in her tanned skin, before dropping it and turning away, picking up his bloody knives from around the room.
"We should get going. Their backup won't be far behind them, and I'm sure at least one person will have called the police after hearing gun shots."
Ash rubbed her red skin and looked up at him now standing in the doorway scanning the corridor. "Who are they?"
"I'll explain on the way."
"The way to where?"
Will glanced at her. "You'll see."
"No." At this, Will turned around fully. A look of impatience lingered on his face, making Ash frown minutely. It was odd to see him with even a glimpse of an expression on his features.
"Your apartment is filled with blood and dead bodies" he stated with a controlled level of boredom detectable in his tone.
Ash felt her anger start to overwhelm her. She could tell by the serious flicker across Will's features that her eyes had gone amber again, something they hadn't been used to for the past two years. "I came here to get away from this bullshit, from Eva and Chris and Georgea and you..." she spat maliciously. "For the past 2 years I have been trying over and over to forget about everything that happened, trying to convince myself that it was just a dream, but then I wake up and my duvet is blackened and there's fire in my palms and I remember that the nightmare was real. It did happen." She stared at him ferociously as he stood there and took it emotionlessly. "I am done with the lot of you and I never want to go back to that."
There was silence before an echo of footsteps came from the building's stairs. Will turned to acknowledge the noise, before glancing back at Ash. "Well it looks like the past wants you back whether you like it or not."
* * *
Eva sat on the edge of the bed with clenched fists. She had no idea how long she'd been sat staring at the wall, but she didn't care. She preferred it to shouting at someone.
Chris had basically dragged her out of their apartment. She didn't see why they had to leave - she could've just mended Micky and they could've dropped him off at the hospital and he would've been fine. He'd had so much trauma to his face that he probably wouldn't remember who punched him in the first place. Let alone spill what actually happened - he would never have admitted to trying to rape her.
But Chris was having none of it. He couldn't see another way out, so here they were sat in Georgea's house once again with nowhere else to run to.
"Are you going to say anything?"
Eva tried to sound normal as she spoke through gritted teeth. "What do you want me to say?"
Chris got up from the other side of the bed and stood just in her peripheral vision. "I don't see why you can't see that this is the best option. Do you want me to go to jail?"
"Obviously not" Eva spat.
"Then stop acting like this. Like you're annoyed at how I chose to deal with our situation. We'll think of something."
Eva stood up in a rage and faced him. "Like what?! Where are we going to go!? We can't just stay here forever and wait until they track you down. We just left him there like some kind of rubbish we couldn't be bothered to throw away. Don't you see that this is so much worse than trying to fix it straight away?"
"Eva stop."
The sudden calmness mixed with fear in his voice made Eva stand up straight immediately. Chris pointed behind her, to which she turned around to look. Instead of rock, the wall had turned into a writhing swarm of thorn-covered vines. Each vine had the head of a cobra at its end, surrounded by a mane of stunning red rose petals. They hissed and spat green liquid onto the floor, only stopping as Eva stared at each of them in pure shock. As for the window, a large tree had swollen in size and was seconds away from punching its huge fist-like branches through the glass and into the room.
"What the fuck is happening?" Eva whispered slowly.
"Eva, honey." Chris took her hands gently and she turned back around to look at him, intense disbelief still staining her features. "We're not safe here anymore. And the people around us aren't safe when we're here. It doesn't matter what caused this to happen - if it didn't happen now, it would've sooner or later. Our time in this town is up."
Georgea knocked on the door. "What on Earth are you two doing in there?"
Chris ignored her. "Please, Eva. Do you trust me?"
Eva glanced back at her snakes. Their orange eyes glowed warmly with child-like love for her as they returned her stare. She couldn't let the world see what she could do, what she could create.
"Yes," she whispered.
His hands moved to cup her face. "I love you. You know that, right?"
She nodded as tears fell from her eyes. The faint hissing of her vine snakes disappeared as Chris hugged her softly.
"Chris, answer me now. And open this door." Georgea's voice had become stern.
As they let go of each other, Eva turned to check that her powers would not be seen. The tree outside the window had lost its face and the branches now drooped as a normal tree should. The snakes had also disappeared and the wall had returned to its usual pale green colour. The only clue that anything had happened was the single rose petal lying on the floor where it had fallen off of one of her snakes.
Chris opened the door to an angry looking Georgea. She stormed in, slamming the door behind her. "What the hell do you two think you are doing?"
Eva dropped her head as Georgea's intense blue stare hit her.
"When I said you could stay here, I certainly did not mean 'tear up my garden with a moving tree and scare my children half to death'! You may not think anything of it, but my three year olds have just witnessed one of the scariest things they've seen in their lives because of you two."
"We're sorry Georgie. It just got out of hand."
Georgea's glare turned to Chris. "That's not good enough when it comes to something as serious as this. I don't care if you have magical powers or whatever you want to call it, but don't you dare use them around my children again or you'll both be out of here on your asses."
With that, Georgea strode back out of the room and down to the twins. Even though she couldn't before, Eva could now hear their crying even from the third floor.
"Damn it," she said when she was sure Georgea had gone.
"It's OK," Chris said as he closed the door. "Come sit with me." He sat back down on the bed and leaned against the headboard, gesturing for her to join him.
Eva reluctantly crawled onto the bed and rested her head on his chest. His arm wrapped around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head gently as he did so.
Eva's gaze fixated on the wall once more and tried to think about where else they could go. Where is there to go? Micky. We couldn't go to my mother's place. Micky. I don't even know where she lives anymore. Micky. Eva frowned and shut her eyes. She instantly regretted it as the image of Micky sat on top of her flashed in front of her eyes. Then pushing her up against the wall. Then ripping her jeans off of her.
Eva let out a cry she didn't realise she was holding. Chris immediately hugged her tighter, only for Eva to squirm out of his grip with fear covering her features.
"Eva."
She just about heard Chris's voice but her anxiety had already washed over her logical-thinking brain and was drowning her in her own thoughts.
"Honey, it's OK."
Eva felt her whole body shaking as she dived under the duvet covers and grabbed her head in her hands. She could feel Micky's body up against hers, feel his hands massaging her breasts and his tongue writhing in her mouth. She could feel his fingers searching around her pants for his target. For what seemed like the hundredth time in the last few hours, she found herself running out of the room and into the adjacent bathroom at speed, before she threw herself over the toilet and vomited the entire contents of her stomach into the bowl.
Once there was nothing left inside her, she leaned against the wall and sobbed. She couldn't make the feeling of his hands leave her skin. Every time her jumper brushed over her hairs, she felt as though he was still right behind her, breathing on her neck and waiting for the right moment to strike.
By the time Chris had knocked shyly on the door and entered, Eva had curled herself up into a sobbing ball on the bathroom floor. Upon seeing her, he immediately closed the door behind him and sat down opposite her.
She wanted to stop crying, but she couldn't. Instead, she hid her face in her hands and avoided his eye contact.
"Can I touch you?" he whispered. Eva shook her head and shuffled back towards the wall.
Thankfully, he stayed where he was and acknowledged her personal space.
"Did he..." Chris drifted off, but she could hear the anger in his voice as she picked ferociously at a loose thread on her jumper. He cleared his throat nervously and tried again in a softer tone. "Did he rape you, Eva?"
Eva sniffed unattractively, grabbing some toilet roll and wiping her nose on it. "No," she squeaked out amongst her tears. She dared to meet his gaze, and found her pain and sadness reflected in his eyes.
A moment's silence hung between them. "Please... Please can I hug you?" he begged.
Eva's breathing was still uneven and hard, but the intense feeling of someone touching her was beginning to fade. Reluctantly, she nodded. He wasn't taking any chances as he quickly laid down next to her on the bathroom floor and wrapped his arms tightly around her small frame.
His protection made Eva start to tear up again, wishing that he'd been there when Micky had turned up. She thought Micky had liked her. She thought he was her friend. But clearly life had taken its toll on him, and scarred him for the worse. Not that that was any excuse.
"Tell me what happened," Chris whispered quietly into her ear.
Eva pressed her face into his warm chest, and one of his hands began to gently stroke her wild hair. "I can't," she said, the knot returning to her throat as her voice broke and Micky's hungry gaze returned to the fore-front of her mind. "I can't yet." Her tears began to stain his t-shirt and he pulled her closer.
"OK, it's OK, it's OK. I'm sorry." As Evasobbed, she felt a single tear fall onto her hair. "I'm so sorry."