Chapter 2: Asher

It had been exactly 24 hours since he had found Autumn in the meadow they met in years ago. She was still so beautiful. She looked older and like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. He could tell by the bags under her eyes that she wasn’t sleeping much. Her body was much more frail than he remembered. But she was still perfect to him and all he ever wanted.

He left Autumn with her hands chained behind her back to the ground in a room in the underground bunker he’d spent building over the last two years. He put up a tent over the entry way to close off any suspicion of what may be below. He had food stored, plenty of water, a makeshift bathroom, two separate rooms made from wood and drywall; one containing a mattress, a plastic storage bin full of clothing, and a battery powered lamp, in the hallway between two rooms he kept food and water, and in the second room he had a bucket for bathroom use, a bucket for washing, and some bottles of pills. He was proud of his building skill.

He walked out into the hall and climbed up a ladder, lifted the wooden door and climbed out into the tent. He unzipped the entry and crawled out, hopped onto his motorcycle and started to make his way to his mothers for a confrontation.

He pulled up to a shoddy blue-grey house. Siding was missing. The paint of the door was chipped. The grass was torn up. But that had been his home. He stuck his key in the keyhole of the front door and unlocked it, jiggled the door handle a bit and pushed the front door open. Inside the door and to the left sat his very overweight mother; Deborah. She had a tv tray stand in front of her and on it sat a paper plate with a very large portion of pasta that she was inhaling. She had sauce around her mouth and down the front of a dingy white blouse. It was disgusting to look at.

“If you’re hungry son, there’s food on the stove” she stated with a mouthful.

“We need to chat Deb” he was trying to hold his composure but deep inside he wanted to flip her tv stand and send her food flying.

She knew it was something serious considering he didn’t call her ‘ma’. She put down her fork and swallowed the contents in her mouth. “What’s going on Ashe?” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

He grimaced at his mother’s manners. “We need to discuss Autumn Banks.”

Her face went white. Her once rosy cheeks were pale and her clear blue eyes were as big as saucers. She cleared her throat to mask the worry in her voice “why her?”

“Did you fail to tell me she actually did contact me? Were you intentionally keeping us apart? He hissed through gritted teeth.

“I….I… c’mon Ashe, that girl was no good for you. You come from different sides of the pond. She was going to take you away had I let her” she sounded so confident and he felt sick to his stomach.

He flipped her entire tray and food went flying.

“ASHER DEAN VALLEY!” She was screaming but he knew she would be unable to get up and follow him out the door.

He slammed the front door shut and got back on his motorcycle to head back to the area where he was keeping Autumn.

He parked off to the side of the tent, climbed his way in and opened the door to the bunker. He climbed the ladder and walked towards the room she was in. Her hands were chained to the ground, her legs crossed, and head hung forward with her hair covering her entire face as she slept.

He wanted to unchain her and lay her down on the mattress but he feared deeply that she would run. He wished strongly that she would still love him after he had captured her. He wondered if before he kidnapped her if she had any love for him at all left.

Her head started to rise and he assumed she was awake.

“Sleep well” he muttered.

“As well as any person chained to a ground can” she rolled her eyes.

He felt ever so slightly bad that he was keeping her hostage but he needed her to realize that she still loved him.

“How do you feel about me Autumn?” He stared into her soul.

She didn’t know how to respond or if she still had any feelings left for him at all “i hate you”. She regretted her choice of words instantly but didn’t want to admit how she really felt. Of course she had some feelings left. She felt as though she never really got closure. They agreed on staying together and doing a long distance until one or both of them had gotten a car to visit.

Taken back by her answer all he did was nod once and stand up.

“Asher wait…” she trailed off and he turned back around to face her.

“Go on” he insisted. “I don’t hate you. I was just so broken over thinking you moved on so quickly. But now I know the truth and I’m not sure how to feel” she looked into his piercing eyes.

He slid down the wall beside her into a seated position and put his hand over her knee. “What now?” He wanted desperately to know where they go from here. “What time of day is it?” She wanted to know just how long she’d been gone because surely her family were worried that she never returned home after class. He dug in his pocket for her phone and tossed it into her lap then unchained her left hand so that she could check her phone. “I want you to contact your mother and let her know you are safe and went away for the weekend.” He sounded demanding as if that was the only choice he was giving her.

She picked her phone up with her left hand and positioned it on her knees so she could dial her mother’s number. She had 13 missed calls from her, 7 from her dad, 29 from her brother, 2 from her grandparents, and well over 70 texts between all of them asking where she was and threatening to file a missing person report if they didn’t hear from her very soon. The last text that was sent was Sunday afternoon at 2pm, so close to four hours ago.

She hit redial on her mother’s contact and the call was answered after ringing once. “AUTUMN ROSE BANKS!!!!! DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHERE THE H E DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS YOU ARE?!” Her mother shouted into the phone. She could tell her mother had her on speaker and her father and brother were most likely listening in on the call. “Relax mama, I’m fine. I pinky promise. After class I decided to take a cab into Eden and get a room for the weekend. I went shopping yesterday so I’d have a couple outfits to hit the city in and do some site seeing. I haven’t had a nice night out to myself and wanted to treat myself with my birthday money.” She made sure she sounded incredibly confident in her answer. Her mother gritted her teeth and exhaled angrily but before her mother could start shouting at her again her father grabbed the phone “you couldn’t have told us about your getaway?! You had us worried sick that something terrible happened to you! This is the last time you have run out on this family. I want you to start looking for your own apartment” he sounded as though his decision was final and he could not be reasoned with. Tears were leaking from the corners of her eyes and sliding down her cheeks. She had a lump in her throat and realized that she had nodded okay instead of saying it aloud “o..kay..” she managed to choke out before hitting the end call button. Her heart was aching and felt like it was sinking into her chest. She had a burning in her throat and her heart was beating hard. She tossed her phone down beside her. If her father truly wanted her to leave then the family were probably disowning her. It wasn’t the first time that she had left without telling her parents or brother where she was going. She’s disappeared with no contact for up to a week at a time and her family was fed up. They assumed with her finishing school that she was finished with her nonsense.

Asher wiped a tear from her eye “you still have me Auti” he sounded hopeful.

She didn’t want to hear him. She was upset. This was all his fault. Had he not kidnapped her, she would be at home right now. Right then her stomach growled violently. “You’re hungry, here” he handed her a granola bar from his hoodie pocket. She bit off a piece “how long are you keeping me here?” There was defeat in her voice. “However long it takes you to fall in love with me” he wasn’t even joking. School was over for her. She had no home to go back to. Part of her wanted to give in. He was familiar. They had been together before and once loved each other very deeply but that was in the past and they were different people now. “What if I never fall back in love with you “ she questioned him. He didn’t like her response and decided to chain her left hand back to the ground. No was not an answer in his vocabulary. She would love him. They would get married and have two children two years apart and they would live as a happy family just as they always talked about.

He left her chained to the ground and sat up against the wall. He then got up and left after snatching her phone and sliding it down in his pocket.

……

He’d been away from his house on the other end of town for close to a week. He’d been waiting for the moment he would run into Autumn so they could rekindle. He hopped on his motorcycle and started heading home. He pulled up to a modern looking two story house. He had bought it a few years ago at a great price due to all the inside renovations it needed. He came into a lot of money when his grandfather on his father’s side, a very wealthy man, passed away five years ago. He was pretty set for life and would be able to live very comfortably. He still had some inheritance saved from his father’s passing but a portion his mother had used trying to give them a better life but her drinking and overeating got the best of her.

He got off his bike after parking in the driveway close to his house. He walked up the front steps and put his key in the locked door then entered his house.

He dropped the keys on the kitchen table and sat down in a dining chair. He retrieved Autumns phone from his pocket and entered passcode 727897 and her home screen appeared.

He scrolled through her recent calls and nothing caught his eye. He opened her messages and began scrolling and one particular contact who she seemed to have a bit of message history with, grabbed his attention.

The contact read ‘sweetest Brandon’. Who the f*** is Brandon and why is he so sweet? He clicked on their message history reading the last message first which had been sent by Brandon last night. “Is everything okay? I haven’t heard from you in a few days and that’s really not like you to not get back to me. I thought things were going good between us, please let me know if you are okay as soon as you’re able” was this her boyfriend? She hadn’t mentioned a boyfriend. Asher was pissed he instantly started putting his fingers to work and texted this Brandon guy back “hey brandon, I’m okay. Just needed some ‘me time’. I think we should move in different directions and start seeing other people”. Before he even hit send Brandon was typing a message “oh thank god you’re okay” and another text followed “did i do something? I understand if you’re still nervous about meeting in person but we can take things slower” they haven’t even met in person? Well that’s a good sign Asher thought to himself. He quickly responded “I reunited with an old lover and I need to see where it goes.” Exactly 1 minute after hitting send this Brandon guy replied “so Asher is back :(“ she told people about me? That thought gave him hope so he left Brandon on read and deleted his entire contact after. He didn’t feel bad about it or guilty. She was meant to be his.