Ash’s Family (Natalie)

For a long while we just sit there in each other’s company, I look at the time and see that it’s all most 7pm. We’ve just been hanging in the car for more than 9 hours. My tummy grumbles and I realise I haven’t had any lunch let alone breakfast yet.

“Would you like to come back to my place and finish this chat?” He agrees, as we begin to drive back Ash asks

“Won’t it be weird with your family there?” I shake my head. Honestly my parents wouldn’t give a shit if I brought home a boy; they don’t even care about me to begin with. When we pull up at my house we see that the house is deserted, I simply pop the roller door and tell Ash to park on the far right because everyone in my family likes their own different spots and this one ended up being mine. As I give him the usual house tour he asks “Have you ever met someone you thought might be evil?”

“No.” I say “but I have always wondered if the monsters in my dreams were real.” That makes him laugh, I’m not entirely sure why but I start laughing as well. Really it sounds so stupid saying that monsters are real, what else am I meant to do. Suddenly we were up to my room and I’m unsure of how to let him in. I have never had a boy in my room, so it’s a totally foreign experience. I choose to just open the door and walk in saying “and this is my room, where I have lived my whole life.” Ash looks around nodding slowly, approving of my choice in colour and material. I sit down on my bed and wait for him to take a seat somewhere, in the end in he sits beside me on the bed. When were settled I ask,

“Do you want to start or do you want to know something about me first?” To think we had only just meet 9 hours ago, had a fight, both of us punching Nick and stuffing him into his own car. Then have a 8-hour conversation in the car without lunch; I believe we have taken this knowledge very well indeed. Ash looks at me curiously then decides to answer,

“I will start because, well, I already have started. Then you can tell me everything about you.”

“Okay.” I nod.

“I will start where I left off. On my 16th birthday my parents arranged a get together with my friends at a water park we lived near. At first I didn’t want to go, but I quickly changed my mind when I heard that my best friend from Elderwood would be coming. My parents dropped me off saying ‘if you need anything or when it was over just walk back home’ because it was only down the road. I nodded, because I was excited, I quickly said goodbye and see you later and entered the water park. When the party was over I started walking home wondering if they will have any presents for me when I get there. I’m about half way when I see the smoke, I start to run as fast as I can hoping that it’s not my house on fire and if it is that my family is outside. As I turn up in the driveway I see that the fire isn’t that bad, as I barge through the front door I can tell that something is wrong, no one is waiting for me. Swiftly I enter the hallway and creep along until I get to the kitchen and that is when I find the monster. The monster looks like one of the monsters from my nightmares. I look around for my family but I don’t find my mum or my sister but I find my dad, Luke, dead, lying on the floor in a pool of blood at the monsters feet. I freak out calling mum’s name ‘Jamie, Jamie’ hoping she was looking after my little sister, Chloe. I try to beat the monster to the lounge room but I’m too slow and it gets there first. I hear mum yell out ‘Not the baby.’ Because Chloe was only 9 months of age, before I hear a terrible tearing noise. I peer around from the kitchen door to see my mum in shreds on the ground and I look up just in time to see my baby sister get swallowed whole by this gigantic monster with its bright orange body that looks like its on fire. Slowly it turns around and stares me right in the eye, than it does something I will never forget. It talks! It rumbles something like ‘you are the first Ma vista that has been born this century. I have killed more people than you would like to know but this is your only warning. If you dare come looking for me or my fellow Ma vista master I will kill you before you even know what’s happening.’ Then he vanished into thin air, leaving me alone with my dead family and the house on fire. That was when I knew I had to leave, in case anyone else got hurt, so I grabbed whatever I wanted and grabbed the car. I had gotten my L’s that morning. I drove across the country side looking for a clue of where the evil Ma vista might be, never hoping that I would find the other Ma vista on the way.” As he finishes I’m speechless what a horrible thing to go through at such a young age. I don’t know what to say. I grab him and pull him down on bed, then I snuggle up to him.

“I’m so sorry, Ash.”

“It was horrible! I don’t think you and I are ready to take on some of those monsters, the one I saw that night was so strong and so powerful. I don’t think anything could have stopped it.” Just as he finishes that sentence, noise comes from outside making me jump, which causes Ash to crack up in a fit of laughter.

“Natalie, were back. When you want dinner come out and get it!” Mum yells from the kitchen. I glance up at Ash’s handsome face,

“Do you want to hear about my life now.”

“Yeah” He replies. So I begin my short, less sad story of my life.

“I was born here at the Frostvale hospital on the 19th of October 1997. I have lived in this house my whole life. The nightmares only started about 1 year ago and the only person who knows about them other than you is Alexandria.” I tell him “and that is pretty much my life in a nut shell. Though today I did punch my old crush in the nose and then stuffed him into a car.” I finish that exasperated, while Ash just starts laughing at me and my dramatic finished. I asked if he would like to get something to eat or drink but he just says he should be getting home. I drive him back to the petrol station where surprisingly, his red convertible Camaro is still parked. Lucky Frostvale isn’t known for robbery. As I drop him off and exchange numbers we say goodbye and drive towards our houses. On the way I think to myself, what Ash has been through must have been horrible and I hope that he is okay now that he shared his story with me. Then just as I turn onto my street there’s a massive explosion, my car rocks back from the force and for a while I can’t hear anything other than the ringing in my ears or see anything from the smoke.