𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐘 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 ➤ 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐘

𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐘 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍

𝘪'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘢𝘺
𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯

"He said he's gonna be here as soon as he can," Elliot informed as he passed my phone back over to me.

I nodded slowly, tears still rolling down my face. Elliot had managed to carry me out of the alley way so we were waiting at the side of the road. He had offered to carry me back to my house but I declined. I didn't want to go anywhere until Ash got here.

"Who were those two?" Elliot questioned but I stayed silent, "Do you know who they were?"

I didn't respond again. Fortunately, Ashtray pulled up before Elliot could ask any more questions. Ash jumped out the car and darted straight over to me, pulling me into a tight embrace.

I yelped out as I felt a sharp pain in my ribs causing Ash to jump back with a concerned look, "Where does it hurt?"

"My ribs," I muttered, keeping my head low.

"Aight, I'm gon take you to urgent care but I need you to tell me who did this to you," Ash spoke softly as he caressed my tear-stained cheeks but I shook my head.

"Winnie, I'm not fucking around," his voice became more stern.

"She wouldn't tell me either. I saw them though, a guy and a girl but I didn't see their faces," Elliot spoke up.

I shot Eliot a glare as I let out a heavy sigh. From that description alone, Ash knew who it was. "Thanks man. I got her now though so you can leave."

"Oh, uh okay. See you later, Winnie," Elliot waved awkwardly before walking away. I didn't respond as I was still annoyed he had told Ashtray who had jumped me.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ash spoke lowly as he helped me into the car.

"Because I know what your first thought is," I mumbled to which he raised an eyebrow, gesturing for me to continue. "You want to hurt them back."

"Nah, I don't. I want to kill them," he spoke through gritted teeth, "I don't just want to. I'm going to."

"No you're not. Ash, I'm not letting you do that," I cried out, placing a hand on his thigh to get his attention but he continued to look at the road ahead.

"Winnie, they brought this on themselves. I've been nice enough to warn them both not to fuck witchu and now look where we are," he turned his head to me momentarily. I watched as his angered eyes softened at the sight of me before turning away.

"I don't care, Ash. You're not killing two fucking people over me!" I raised my voice slightly before wincing at the sharp pain in my chest.

"Why are you trying to protect them?" he yelled back causing me to shudder.

"I'm not, I'm trying to protect you! If you kill them all it's gonna do is cause more problems. What if you get caught? If you was to get taken away then I don't even know what-" my voice cracked as I broke out into tears again just thinking about the possibilities.

"Cmon, Winnie. Don't cry, I promise I ain't goin anywhere. I wouldn't get myself into anything that I can't handle," Ash cupped my face, "You understand why I gotta do this though, right?"

I let out a sigh as I nodded into his touch. Even though I was scared for Ash I knew there was nothing I could do to stop him. He had a lot of pride and he wasn't going to let them off. He also made a fair point, they brought this on themselves.

When we arrived at urgent care it was surprisingly not that busy, although Ash still lost his patience as he demanded I be seen sooner. It seemed to do the trick though as we only waited forty minutes before a doctor took us through to another room.

I reluctantly explained that I had been jumped and showed the doctor where the worst pain was. She performed a short physical examination, which felt like her just prodding at me til tears formed in my eyes, and then she did a X-ray on my chest.

"You've got two cracked ribs," the doctor said whilst pointing at the X-ray image.

I heard Ash curse from behind me but I took no notice of him. "Will I have to have surgery or something?"

"No, not at all. Cracked ribs actually heal themselves after around 3 weeks so ideally I should be able to just prescribe you some painkillers and send you home," she smiled.

After the short conversation of her instructing me of all the things I should do to heal quicker, she brought me some ibuprofen. "If these don't do the job then you might need something stronger but you'll have to be examined again before it's prescribed."

"Okay, thank you doctor," I replied with a sheepish grin.

The journey home was quiet. I stared over at Ashtray, watching as he was evidently deep in thought whilst driving. As soon as we got back to my place he came and opened the passenger door for me, helping me to get out of the car and into the house.

"I'm getting in the shower," I informed as we both went up to my room. Ash simply nodded as he sat on my bed whilst I went into my bathroom.

I hissed under my breath as the hot water hit my skin. The bruising across my body were already darkening and the small cuts stung from the water. I carefully washed over my body, avoiding putting too much pressure on my chest and ribs as best as I could.

Once I was done I turned the shower off and hopped out. Through the door I could hear a muffled crying sound that caused me to frown. I quickly changed into my clothes and ran out of the bathroom to see Ash in tears.

He looked up at me for a second before dropping his head back down, "This is all my fault."

"No it's not, Ash," I assured as I sat beside him and wrapped my arms around him.

"It is. I was the one who brought Sofia into your life and I was the one who beat Caleb up," he said in a hoarse voice.

"Ash, look at me," I tilted his chin so he was facing me, "This is not your fault."

"I should have been there though, to protect you," he uttered, "That's my one fucking job and I failed."

"You didn't fail anything. I said I would walk home, how could you know what was going to happen?" I asked rhetorically before pulling him in closer.

"I promise, nothing like this is every going to happen again, Winnie," he assured.

"As long as I don't lose you," I said hesitantly.

"You don't gotta worry bout that," he spoke quietly, placing a soft kiss on my temple.

I didn't know what Ash had planned but I would be lying if I said I didn't want some form of revenge on Sofia and Caleb. It only seemed fair, as long as nothing happened to Ash though.