3

Ashleigh woke up and looked left then right. Damien wasn't there. She tried to sit up only to receive a sharp pain in her abdomen. She tried again, slower. Unfortunately she got the same result. 

She sighed. She lay on her side and threw her legs over the edge of the bed, this time sitting up from the side without much pain. She got on her feet and made her way downstairs. There, she heard music gently flowing out the speakers, filling the place with a soft tune. 

On the couch Damien lay asleep with his arm dangling down. She picked up the empty wine bottle and glass at the foot of the couch heading with them to the kitchen. As she entered the kitchen, she looked up and out the window to meet eyes with a pair of dark brown eyes.

Those eyes scared her. Those eyes scarred her. Those eyes belonged to a dangerous man. A man who hurt her mother. A man who hurt her. 

Paralyzed by fear she forgot she was holding the glass objects and dropped them. They both shattered on the floor. The smash woke Damien who was in the living room. 

He sat up and looked around. He got off the couch and went to the kitchen to check what the problem was. He looked up to see the man drag his thumb in the air across his neck, staring at Ashleigh with an evil smirk on his face. 

He and Damien then locked eyes for a moment before he quickly left. 

Damien was about to go after him when he took notice of Ashleigh. She stood trembling in fear. He stood in front of her and looked into her glossy eyes. 

"Hey, its ok. I'll protect you," he whispered in comfort.

"But who'll protect my mom?" she blurted out. Damien gave her a confused look so she started to explain, "Last night... I was on my way home then he jumped me, and threatened me saying... first he was going to kill me then he was going for my mother. He gave me that cut to send her a message. 

"Damien, I don't wanna die and I don't want my mom to die either! Dave is dangerous! You've seen what he's capable of! And I'm scared to be alone. Im scared of leaving my mom alone. Scared he'll find me and torture me and-"

"Hey... Ash, it's ok to be scared. If I'm being honest, I would be too, but Dave has his days numbered. If the cops don't find him, I will. I promise you that. No one messes with the people I love and gets away with it. No one."

He held her in a hug letting out a sigh. 

Truth be told, he was worried. Worried for the safety of Ashleigh and her mother. He knew he had to step up, maybe use his resources, example, money, to finally get Dave behind bars. Maybe even in a straight jacket. 

•••A while later•••

They were having breakfast when the front door opened followed by the sound of a strong breeze along with coughing. 

Ashleigh looked at Damien as he looked up. 

"Aunt Courtney?"

The woman sat at the dining table coughing into her handkerchief. Damien got up to attend to her when she raised her hand, "No... it's ok. I'm alright Damien," she croaked between coughs.

Damien ignored her. "Come on. You have to rest. You were just getting better. Unless you want me to take you to hospital."

"I was just there."

Damien stopped what he was doing. "What did they say?" he enquired.

"They said it's just a simple cold. I'll be fine. As long as I keep taking medication and resting. As well as keeping warm."

"You just came from the cold outdoors, you need to warm up."

"A bowl of hot soup would be nice," Courtney stated.

"I'll make you some hot soup, but first get to bed."

"Damien, you get started on the soup. I'll take her," Ashleigh offered. Damien gave her a grateful smile, along with a nod before heading to the kitchen.

Ashleigh helped Courtney to bed and sat talking to her for a while. 

"You're going to get better. I know you will," she stated.

"Truth be told dear, I'm just waiting to die. I've done everything I could do with my life. Now I want to rest."

"Damien would never allow you to speak that way."

"I know. But one day he will have to face it. I'm not immortal."

"That's true," Ashleigh sighed. 

Damien came in with the bowl of hot soup. He grabbed a chair and put it at her bedside before he sat down.

"I can eat myself Damien," Courtney stated as he stirred her soup leaning forward.

"I know, but you've always taken care of me, now it's my turn, ok?"

After feeding her, he left her to rest and went downstairs to where Ashleigh was doing the dishes. "Is she alright?" she enquired. 

"Shes asleep."

"I hope she gets better." 

"Me too."

A long while later when Ashleigh went home Damien called a meeting with her friends as well as Jonathan. 

"What the hell am I doing here?" Heather enquired sitting next to Bethany. 

"I called you all here because as you know, next week will be four years since Ash and I started dating-" Damien began.

"Only God knows why they haven't fucked yet," Bethany mumbled, causing Heather and Jonathan to crack into laughter. 

Unfortunately, she was heard by Damien. "What was that Bethany?"

"Nothing!"

"So what do you have in mind?" Heather enquired once her laughter ceased.

"I have something in mind, I just need you two to get her out of class early."

"And how the fuck do you expect us to do that genius?" 

•••A week later•••

Ashleigh was in class taking down important notes when her phone vibrated a few times. She looked at the screen, realising it was from Heather. 

>>>Ash you have to get out here (11:19)

She looked at the lecturer before she quickly typed out a message.

<<<I'm in the middle of class.... this is some really important stuff (11:20)

>>>Please Ash (11:20)

Ashleigh let out a sigh. 

>>>Its an emergency and Beth's involved (11:20)

She couldn't say no to that.

<<<Fine (11:21)

Ashleigh walked out of class and rushed out of campus to see her two best friends casually talking. She was slightly confused and didn't get what the big emergency actually was. She was considering turning back when her friends saw her.

"Ash!" Bethany called as she approached. 

"Whats the big emergency?" she enquired impatiently. 

"Come to the park with us," Heather grinned.

Ashleigh slapped her forehead. She then dragged her hand down her face as she sighed, "You two bitches, called me out of class while I was doing important shit, just to invite me to fucking park?!"

"Love you too honey," Heather smiled as she and Bethany each grabbed an arm.

"You'll thank us later," Bethany stated as they dragged Ashleigh off.

"Thank you later?! Do you think you're doing me a favour?! Do I look like I'm happy about this?!"

For the whole walk, Ashleigh went on ranting and raving at her friends for taking her out of class for no reason. 

"Ash, could you just shut up already?" Heather asked irritated. 

"Shut up?! Shut the fuck up?!"

"Yes!" her friends exclaimed at the same time.

"Well you should've thought of that before you-" She went silent and listened attentively. She pulled her arms out of her friends' grip and walked towards the sound of guitar.

She recognized it. Every guitar sounds different, in one way or another, but this one she could hear, sounded identical to one not so far down memory lane. The sound got louder and she saw a man seated on a bench. His face down and brows furrowed as he watched his fingers on the strings. 

She could recognize that ginger hair anywhere. 

She sat beside him as he played the last note. He looked at her and smiled before he began to play a song.

"We're like rivers in the night

I go left and you go right

We'll find out on the other side

Who we are, who we are

"Wish me luck and give me hope

Give me sunlight to my day

And turn it into gold

Carry on, carry on

"We'll take these broken souls

Make them as good as new

Bind it together into something we could never lose

"We're rivers in the night

I go left and you go right

We'll find out on the other side

Who we are, who we are

"We can make it

Into something beautiful, oh-oh

Yeah, we don't have to try

We can make it

Into something wonderful, oh-oh

We'll never say goodbye

"We can make it

Into something beautiful, oh-oh

Yeah, we don't have to try

We can make it

Into something wonderful, oh-oh

We'll never say goodbye

"Beautiful, oh-oh

Yeah, we don't have to try

Wonderful, oh-oh

We'll never say goodbye

"We're like rivers in the night

I go left and you go right

We'll find out on the other side

Who we are, who we are

"Wish me luck and give me hope

Give me sunlight to my day

Turn it into gold

Carry on, carry on

"We'll take these broken souls

Make them as good as new

Bind it together into something we could never loose

"We're rivers in the night

I go left and you go right

We'll find out on the other side

Who we are, who we are

"We can make it

Into something beautiful, oh-oh

Yeah, we don't have to try

We can make it

Into something wonderful, oh-oh

We'll never say goodbye

"We can make it

Into something beautiful, oh-oh

Yeah, we don't have to try

We can make it

Into something wonderful, oh-oh

We'll never say goodbye

"We can make it

Into something beautiful, oh-oh

Yeah, we don't have to try

We can make it,

Into something wonderful, oh-oh

We'll never say goodbye,

"Beautiful, oh-oh

Yeah, we don't have to try

Wonderful, oh-oh

We'll never say goodbye,

"We can make it

Into something beautiful, oh-oh

Yeah, we don't have to try

We can make it

Into something wonderful, oh-oh

We'll never say goodbye"

Ashleigh looked up and in front of her were her friends and Damien's each holding a board with one word on it to create a sentence.

'I love you more than life itself, Happy Anniversary Ashleigh'

Ashleigh threw herself into Damein's arms, giving him a tight hug. "Thank you Damien," she breathed out. "I love you."

"I love you too Ash."

People around in the park, clapped and cheered. Celebrating with the couple. They broke the hug as Damien stated, "We're going to the beach."

"When? Cause I need to start packing and-"

"Now. You're already all packed. All we have to do is get up and go."

"You serious?"

"Yeah, just for the rest of the week."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?"

"I knew you wouldn't say no."

After a while Ashleigh was in Damien's car and they began their road trip to Joey's Bay. Damien owned, well inherited, a cabin there, right on the beachfront. His parents often took him there as a boy for vacation when they needed to get away from the spotlight and have quality family time. 

Damien often took Ashleigh there to relax. She loved the ocean and the sound of its waves, it's coming and going. She often used to go to the beach with her parents. Her dad would surf while she and her mother built sand-castles and a mermaid tail. 

Her father promised to teach her to surf when she was older and fit swimmer as swimming against tides was much harder than swimming in a pool. But he didn't live to see the day. Ashleigh did later on in her life learn to surf but she didn't do it often.

What she liked now was just sitting at the shore, feeling grains of sand between her toes and hearing the small waves roll in and roll out as she watched the horizon. An infinite wall of blue. 

"So Mr Frost, how much did you pay Bethany and Heather to get me out of class?" Ashleigh enquired.

"I just paid for a movie for them. Plus the snacks," Damien simply replied. 

"Yeah, they are easily convinced."

"Nah, they just care about their friend. You have good friends."

Ashleigh looked at him. He had his eyes on the road and both hands on the steering wheel. "Thanks." She looked out her window just as Damien looked at her.

"Did you curl your hair?" he asked.

Ashleigh looked at him. Their eyes met. "Yeah."

"It looks good on you."

"Thank you."

"Makes you look wild."

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, the point was definitely to look like a savage beast."

"You might even cause a riot," Damien stated with a cheeky smile.

"Haha, it was so funny I forgot to laugh."

"What did I do wrong?" he askd with laughter in his voice.

"You know what you did."

"What?"

"Using a pun on my surname," Ashleigh muttered to herself. She then looked at at him as she exclaimed, "How dare you!"

"It's your surname though!"

She slapped his arm and for a moment he lost control of the car but quickly recovered.

"Shit..." Ashleigh breathed out as Damien chuckled nervously. 

"Sorry."

"I swear if I died I would've killed you!"

"How would you do that when you're dead?"

"I'll possess you and make you commit suicide." 

Damien gave her a look. "Thats dark woman."

"I love you too."