Sam shunted Michael off of him, hollering for him to stop.
"Wait a minute! WAIT!"
Michael did after one last push, his nose and eyebrow bloody from the fight. Sam wiped at his mouth, removing some of the blood and saliva that clung to his chin. They stood breathing heavily for a moment before Sam managed to pant out a question.
"Where's Ashley?"
Michael looked around and clocked the front door open. Still trying to catch his breath he listened for tell tale signs of her. There were none.
"She's gone" he murmured whilst rubbing sweat off of his forehead.
They both stopped moving at that and turned to gaze at one another in the now deathly silence.
Running, stumbling, panting but never stopping.
Ashley didn't have her shoes on, so grit and broken splinters of glass had pierced her socks and the soles of her feet. She kept running, though, down the stairs of the desolate apartment block and then onto the streets. Torrential rain poured down, soaking her within seconds. It was like an apocalypse film set, everything was disused, overgrown and broken without a person in sight.
Finally, tears flooded her eyes, burning and blurring her vision as she forced herself to go on. Every turn brought up more blocks or dead ends. All she wanted to see was people. Her heart raged in her chest, aching for relief, but she was so desperate for safety. She had never been so desperate for something that it was like needing air before surfacing from the sea.
Recognising the graffiti on one building Ashley's heart soured. She was near the road they used to get in, beyond that were main roads. It was a straight stretch, a 200-metre sprint. With salvation so close she pushed herself harder even though her throat burned and every breath felt like a stab in the chest.
She was so close.
A group of teenagers were jogging in from the street probably looking for quick shelter. They laughed in the down pour until one spotted her, a girl, and pointed.
"Please help me!" Ashley cried out.
She could see they were surprised, but as she drew closer they began to back away, spooked by her appearance. She clenched her teeth. She needed their help, they couldn't back away. They couldn't be scared of her, they had no idea what real fear was.
"ASH!"
The teens were looking past her now, they saw something that had them terrified. The girls in the group ran away but one of the boys seemed to struggle to decide if running was the right thing to do or not.
Ashley glanced over her shoulder and dread filled her. Sam was behind her and he was running like an Olympic gold medalist. He looked soaked to the skin, bloodied and brutal. Really brutal. She looked back to see the kids had gone.
"No!" She screamed, anger and despair rifling through her veins. She reached the end, turned the corner onto the main road but it wasn't the main road. It looked like a back road in down town or a road that skirted around the main town. Pier waste littered the street and a few old shops stood unloved. A home less woman sat wrapped up in a doorway but Ashley didn't notice her through the rain.
She could hear the patter of the teenagers' feet hitting pavement and splashing puddles but it echoed. It sounded like they were laughing. They were faraway. They were safe.
A few cars and a lorry sped down the road and Ashley waved her arms frantically. "Stop! Please stop!" They didn't though. She saw the heads of a few passengers turn to ogle at her, but they didn't stop. The lorry dipped into a puddle and it splashed up, soaking her even more.
Ashley broke down, her chest heaving with sobs as she watched the vehicles disappear. No one was going to help her. She hadn't eaten in what felt like forever and now that she'd paused she felt weak and ill. How could no one help her?
She could hear Sam's footsteps smashing into the pavement, gaining on her. She forced herself to run again, down the pavement alongside the abandoned buildings. The buildings fell away, revealing tall grass banks and a stony beach below. Ashley scrambled up the bank and ran down the other side. The grass was hard to run on and whipped at her legs. The ground sloped down to the beach and Ashley had to duck under metal railings before she made it there.
The sea had been closer than she realised. She ran breathlessly along it but the stones were hard and slippery and she was slowing down. There were figures in the distance, packing up beach gear and the faint outline of a pier beyond them.
Ashley called out to them breathlessly, waving her arms but they didn't appear able to hear her or see her through the rain. Stones crunched behind her and she saw a large figure out of the corner of her eye.
"No!" She screamed again. "Leave me alone!"
It was a desperate and pointless last bid for freedom, but she ran to the sea, splashing into its rough and freezing embrace. She was thigh high when a hand grabbed the back of her top but it tore off thanks to the massive cut in the front.
She made it up to her neck, flailing about, clawing madly at the water in an attempt to swim but her progress had all but stopped. She was exhausted and the sea was stormy and dangerous. She could barely keep her head above water.
Ashley would have gladly drowned but Sam was right behind her. A wave lapped over her head forcing her under but it also pushed her back towards the beach straight into his reach. Even the sea was against her.
He struggled to get a good grip on her but when he did, Sam hauled her up tucking her into his side. It seemed to take a lot of effort but he staggered out of the sea and let her down so that he could collapse. They both fell to the ground panting and coughing.
Ashley retched up half the sea, choking and fighting for a proper breath. She couldn't see and her throat seared but she still tried to roll away, to gain some distance again.
Sam snatched ahold of her arm, though, dragging her back across the stones. He pushed her on her back and climbed on all fours over her. Ashley tried to push him away but he swatted her feeble attempts like cobwebs. He pushed the hair clinging to her skin out of her face.
"Look at me." Sam tapped her cheek with his hand. It stung.
She couldn't, her eyes burnt every time she opened them. The salt in the sea stung so badly. She couldn't even hear properly, the water had blocked one ear. Everything ached now. Everything hurt. She began to cry tired, desperate tears.
"I could-" he gave up, still trying to catch his breath.
He could do anything he wanted. He'd caught her. She had deliberately run away and he'd caught her. She didn't understand why he'd bothered. Didn't they want her dead or gone, wouldn't it have been easier to just move on without her.
Ashley opened her eyes, the tears and rain having cleared them a little. Sam had fresh blood dripping from his lip onto his chin and his cheek was starting to swell. The rain battered his body, bouncing off of him and spraying onto her. She looked at his face, he looked wild, unhinged by the hunt-like pursuit. Ashley had never lain eyes on anyone like him. In the back of her mind, she wondered if Michael was dead.
A pair of pale hands came into view shunting Sam off of her. The rain assaulted her once again before a new body blocked it. Michael lent over her his features too close for her to focus. He touched her face gently, he was scolding hot.
"She's shivering, I can't believe you let her go in the sea." He murmured, sparing an annoyed glance in Sam's direction.
"What took you so long" Sam snapped.
"Had to get the car ready."
Ashley glared at him. Two murderers, yet they couldn't even kill each other. She was disappointed to see they both came to retrieve her, but putting that aside she was shivering just as Michael had pointed out. The weather was taking a turn for the worse and the rain and wind were as cold as they were unforgiving.
Michael's eyes roamed her body checking for damage and when he realised there was nothing fatal to be concerned with his expression became a formidable one. "I told you, you were never going home" he murmured lowly.
Sam piped up from the side. "You know for a second, it looked like she thought she could actually out run me."
Ashley inhaled a shaky breath and refused to look at either of them. "Go to hell" she croaked.
Michael fed an arm under her shoulders and pulled her up. He came almost nose to nose with her, his grey eyes digging themselves into hers, amused by her anger and hungry for more.
"Not without you Ashley. We're not going anywhere without you."