My day of freedom ends up being used to stay in bed all day and that night, Ash sleeps in my bed again. This morning when we woke up, we got out of bed straight away because today is “learn to defend yourself and kill your enemy” day. I am extremely nervous about this training thing but it needs to be done. When I am getting dressed I go through a drawer of cloths and pick out a black long sleeve shirt and black tights, then I grab a pair of Alex’s shoes and a pair of socks. When I finish getting dressed I head to the bathroom and wash my face then I pull my hair up into a tight ponytail so it won’t get in the way. When I am finished I meet Ash out the front with the cars. We choose to take his car because it’s better for long distance travel. It takes us two hours to get to this place, which is in the woods and hardly has anyone there so at least we won’t be embarrassed. There seems to be a couple of workers moving about outside the front of the camp. A couple of them introduce the
Walking into the little cafeteria, lunch smells amazing and my grumbling tummy agrees. Ash and I both get servings of salad, potato bake, pasta salad and some meat, which include chicken, sausages and ham. I eat lunch at a leisurely pace not wanting the time to end, but it does and we are moving quickly back to the training compound. Riley said we would be doing more of the basic hand-to-hand combat but he never said we would be using boxing bags. My knuckles are going to be raw after today. He demonstrates how to punch the bag because it movies when you hit it. Finally we are allowed to hit the bags, and they are heavier than they look. While Riley is talking to Ash I try to kick it but I completely miss I steal a glance at them to see if they notice but I don’t think they did. When Riley starts to watch me I see a sense of approval in his facial expressions. I must be doing something right, so I decide to test my luck and try to kick it again but my foot doesn’t want to kick the b
When I wake up in the morning, Ash must have come into my room and just joined me during the night because he’s lying on his back with his arm around me, while my head rest against his chest, my body curled up against his body. He must feel my body tense because when I go to move he says “Good morning Nat is your body sore from yesterday?” “I don’t know Ash, because you won’t let me move.” Slowly he lifts his arm and lets me escape but as soon as I move my legs I cry out in pain, oh the agony. It shots up through my legs and down my spine, my arms are also sore. And my knuckles are bloody from the punching bag. I’m in agony; I collapse to the group and lay there in a ball until the pain starts to pass. Then as I go to move and get myself a paracetamol Ash appears at my side with it and a glass of water. Through the rest of the morning I slowly walk around getting ready, for another horrible day of exercise. When we get to Riley, he says we will be doing knife throwing. We follow
As we unpacked the car, I can’t help but notice that while we have been unpacking, Ash has been putting in other things such as an extra tyre and petrol tins, jump starter cables and stuff like that. What is he planning; I’m sure he will tell me later when we settle down. Finally we are inside, when Ash drops a bomb. “I’m not sure if you have noticed but we are going to the mountains to start looking for these monsters. It would be better for us to eliminate some of the monster population, so there is less to worry about later.” “Why didn’t you tell me that in the car?” I ask sounding pissed off. I could tell he is keeping a secret, does he not realise that that hurts more. “Because I thought you would prefer to hear the bad news here, instead of in the car where we could get distracted.” He replies in a matter of fact kind of way. “Well at least you’re thinking of road safety.” I retort back. “I’m sorry okay; I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” “Yeah right.’ I say angrily.
I remain numb as it sit on the couch starting at the picture of the family. We looked so happy. I’m pretty sure I’m in denial about the whole situation. Ash turns the TV off, “Do you think we can win this war?” I ask sadly “Yes, I do believe we can win this war because if we don’t the monsters will destroy the planet.” He says with a hint of anger in his voice. “I’m sorry about your family, sometimes I wish we weren’t Ma Vista’s because we would have a good life, imagine a life where you and I meet and we fell in love, because we liked each other, not because of the connection. Do you think that’s possible to fall in love, like if I fell in love with you, not because of the connection but because I thought you were amazing and beautiful and everything.” He says the last bit with a hopeful voice. “Yes, I think it’s possible otherwise the website would have said “Ma Vista’s can’t fall in love with anyone except the opposite Ma Vista.” If it said that then we would be in troubl
The next day Ash and I have a practice session with the weapons that we got for Riley, and then we have showers. When I finish my shower I walk out and realise that I forgot to grab my dress and underwear, which means I have to walk down the hallway with my towel wrapped around me. So that’s what I do, well what I try to do, it doesn’t work every well because as soon as I open the door I see Ash waiting for the shower. That is when I realise that the towel only just covers my butt and my chest and it doesn’t leave much for the imagination. I try to walk out with my head up but it doesn’t stay that way for long. As soon as I put my head down I run straight into Ash, I look up startled and he looks just as startled. Then he takes in my predicament and laughs; he then puts a hand over his eyes and walks around me to the bathroom. I half walk, half run into my bedroom. I quickly put my bra and undies on then take my time doing my makeup and hair. My makeup is only soft and hardly notic
By the time we got home I was a complete mess, tears were streaming down my face, my eyes were puffy and my nose was snotty. I didn’t want to get out of the car as it meant that I was one step closer to accepting we were about to risk our lives to fight these monsters. Ash eventually made his way around the side of the car and pulled me out. Lifting me up bridal style I could help the rush of butterflies in my stomach even though I was a complete mess. Step by step he gets us inside and lays me down on the sofa. While I lay on the sofa crying Ash starts to pack the car. That night I can’t sleep, every noise I hear makes me jump out of my skin. Every now and then there’s a crunching sound like shoes stepping on crunchy autumn leaves or a snapping of a twig. Sometimes there’s even a loud bang of a closing car door or someone maybe taking the garbage bins out for the garbage truck that will come in the morning. Finally I can’t take it anymore and I give in to the temptation. I cree
We’re about an hour into our trip when I say “When your family died and well, you know, you took all that stuff and the car. How did you pay for everything? Like the petrol and the hotels and the houses you rented?” “When I was grabbing stuff, I found my mums and dad’s wallets, my dad was rich, some people would say he was loaded, so that money helped with everything. Plus all the assets became mine when I turned 18. My grandfather was in charge of it till I became of age. Then it was handed over to me.” “Wow, I wonder if my family had anything like that organised. Not that they would have had much, especially with the house burning down.” “I guess we will probably find out when you turn 18 or maybe 21. Sometimes it’s a bit later so you’ve hopefully matured and are not going to waste the money.” “I think that makes sense, no good getting money and then spending it all on holidays and stuff like that when you could use it to get a house or a car if you haven’t got one of those y
It’s not long until I find both of them standing in a corner out of sight from the street in case any monsters decided to attack them. I race towards Ash happy that he isn’t injured yet. “It’s so good to know that you are okay. Have you heard of any losses yet?” “I saw one of Riley’s group go down, but that’s all I know of. How are you going?” “I’m okay, that’s not good, have you seen Cooper or Lyrica or Alex?” “No as soon as the battle started I lost sight of them.” “Okay, well I came to find you so we could stick together and watch each others backs.” “Yeah, that’s a great idea. By the way have you seen the large black monster that appeared in our last nightmare?” “No, but when I do I’m taking him down.” “And I will be right beside you.” “Okay we should probably head back out, remember we are looking for the master, I have tried to get into his head but he seems to be blocking me and I have a feeling that some of the monsters are helping with that.” “How do y
By the time we have everyone up and in the lounge room we have lost half an hour. Everyone looks panicked and unfocused. “Alright guys, the time has come for us to band together to beat this evil that has descended upon us.” With that I grab Ash’s hand and walk towards the front door, they quickly fall into step behind me. We walk onto the street and then onto the main high way that runs through Frostvale. I make sure that everyone still has all their weapons as well as their sand bags and then we stand in a line, restricting any of the monsters to penetrate further into the town. We stand for close to maybe an hour, waiting, just waiting for any sign of movement or panic. Just when I am about to give the signal to dismiss and go back to the house, we hear screams in the distance. Then sure enough I see the monsters and my brain nearly explodes. There must be hundreds of them, maybe even nearly a thousand. They are all walking along the road and in the hands of some of them, are th
While Ash and I are collecting the last weapons from the garage to hand out among the fighters, I am struck by a message, and it doesn’t take me long to realise that I am not meant to hear it. A small voice in the back of my head calling me “Come now monsters join the battle, I need you here now. It’s been a long time since we have had the chance to destroy the Ma Vista’s and that time has come.” The voice stops. I look at Ash; he must see the horror in my face, because he immediately drops the weapons that are in his hands and runs over to me. I look into his brown eyes and see the question he doesn’t want to ask. I nod my head; he grabs my hand in an iron tight grip and grabs the weapons he dropped earlier. We race out the door and head toward where the rest of the group are waiting. As we arrive, everyone that has agreed to fight against the invisible monsters walk into Ash’s lounge room. “Everyone the time has come. We need to take arms, fight together and work togethe
We lay tangled in each other’s arms for what feels like ages before I finally decide that I should have a shower, and I disentangle myself from him. Then suddenly a thought of a Blue monster flicks through my mind. Oh, shit we forgot about Blue, we left him at the front door. “Ash?” “Yes, Nat?” “We completely forgot about Blue.” “Shit, okay you go have your shower and I will go check up on him and make sure that everything is going okay.” “Okay that sounds good.” I walk over to him and claim his lips one more time before I leave the room. As I walk down the hall I run into Lyrica. “Natalie oh my gosh, you’re back.” “Yeah it’s so good to see you Lyrica.” She seems to take in my appearance and smirks. “And it seems as though you have been quite busy since you got back.” I feel my cheeks redden with a slight blush as I drop my head to look at the floor. “Don’t feel ashamed honey, at least no one walk in on you.” I look at her in confusion before the answer hits me.
“I am so happy that you are back.” “Not as much as I am, I was so sick of being stuck in a cage, the master visited me like every day. And most of all I just missed you.” “All I could remember was, what happened before the shower and how it was my fault that you were taken because I went to have a shower and left you unprotected.” “Ash, don’t be ridiculous, it was not your fault I should have had my bow with me.” We make it to the door and stop walking, Ash looks at me and I see longing in his eyes. “Nat, I have so much to tell you, so much happened and I don’t know when I will get the time to tell you about it.” “Tonight, after we have seen everyone, I am really tired and would love to have a proper bed to lay on.” “Hahaha, so true, well lets go in then.” We walk through the door and I see people everywhere. “Who are all these people?” I ask with wonder. “All of them are willing to lay down there life in order to save the world against the monsters.” He points
The escape from the house was easier then expected, as we race across the yard there are no monster insight. Blue had chosen the right moment for my escape, and now I owe him. Once we are outside the houses boundaries Blue pulls up and stops running, which causes me to dive to the side to prevent running into the ginormous monster, and even though he is young he is still quite big. “This is where we must disappear.” I look at him, and nod, “Okay.” He grabs me under the shoulders and under my knees then lifts me up before we disappear. Disappearing is so weird; it’s so hard to explain. I feel wind pushing against my face; it pushes me back against Blue. I can’t see anything, it’s just black all around and yet I can’t actually tell if my eyes are open or closed. All I can hear is Blue’s breathing, there is no wind blowing and yet I can feel it against my face. There is no smell; actually I don’t think I am breathing. We seem to be in the void for what feels like hours, but turns out
Quickly I dial Riley’s number and wait for him to pick up. “Hello, who is it?” “Hey Riley, it’s Ash.” “Yep, what’s happening?” “I need you and your friends to come back to my house, are you nearly finished with all the sand?” “Yeah, we are about to leave.” “Great I have sent Lyrica to get bags to put the sand in, and I have also got one of Natalie’s friends out collecting people that are willing to fight for our cause.” “That’s great, okay well I will meet you at your house in about 10.” “Okay that sounds great, so where did you get the sand from?” “I know this person that works at the zoo, and he said I could take some sand from the enclosures.” “Perfect, okay see you soon.” “Yep, bye.” “Bye.” As soon as he hangs up I walk into the kitchen and sit down. This would be so much easier with Natalie here; I hope she is okay and that the master and the monsters haven’t hurt her. I can’t wait until I can have her in my arms again, and this time I don’t plan on letting go. The
As I climb into the car and slowly pull away from the curb I am struck with a sadness that I have never felt before. Did Alex actually mean what she was saying, how does she know that. Anyway I have to think of other things there is too much to do and too little time to worry about all that now. I will worry about that later, after the war is done and I can have Natalie all to myself. I pull into the driveway of my house and notice that Natalie’s Suzuki is parked in front of the garage, which means Lyrica and Cooper are here. I walk through the door and see that Lyrica and Cooper have placed all the weapons in the garage. “Lyrica?” I call out. I hear a rustling noise coming from one of the bedrooms then I hear Lyrica mumble. “In here Ash.” Quickly I walk into Natalie’s old bedroom and see that Cooper and Lyrica must have been having a nap, I also notice that some clothing has been thrown onto the floor, from what I don’t even want to think about. I glance at Lyrica and notice how
After returning home with Riley, I set to work talking to all of Natalie’s friends. I go to Alexandria first because I know that she will agree to this, she will be the first one that would stand beside Natalie. As I knock on the door, I hear footsteps rushing towards the door, Alex pulls the door open and looks at me and then glances past me as if searching for Natalie. Once she realises that Natalie is not there, her face goes from an expression of happiness to one of panic, her eyes seem to search my face and as she looks in my eyes she knows something is wrong. “What is it Ash, what has happened?” I realise that I am going to have to explain everything that has happened. So I ask if I can come in and offer that we take a seat on the lounge. “Ash, you still haven’t said anything about Natalie?” “I know, I’m sorry Alex but the other day we were attacked and after we thought we had won a Blue monster broke into the house and stole Natalie right from under my watch.” “But how