Want a Kiss I'll Give You a Punch

Chapter 26: The Start- Part 2

A/N: As you may have noticed, I usually have a particular order of the POV's, but this chapter will be an exception. I absolutely hate breaking the order, trust me, but I feel it's necessary for the plot and what I'm trying to do overall. 

Anyway, I want to thank all of you who are supporting me, again. 

Honestly, I couldn't have asked for such an amazing group of people to read this story. Now, let's get back to the story cause that's why all of you are here haha.

Ashlyn

From the moment I saw both the gate and front door open with no one to greet me, the alarm bells in my head went off. I knew something was incredibly wrong but if I had to point out what I couldn't exactly say. 

Chills kept crawling up and down my spine and my mind kept nagging me for my feet to turn around and run back out when I had the chance. 

"Help!" A shrill scream pierced the eerily silent night, and the clatter and bang of heavy furniture falling onto the floor silenced the rest into a muddled mess.

My eyes shot wide open and without being prompted again my feet instinctively began to start shuffling backward towards the gate. Holy crap, the old woman was clearly in trouble, but I couldn't go barging in because some other less pleasant guest could be there before me.

There was no way that the hag could knock down all that furniture from one little trip by herself, but at the same time the sudden shot of adrenaline could have easily over dramatized the situation. Ever since the incident with Daniel, I've always assumed people were out to kill me, and clearly I let it get to my head here. I really had to get a grip of my myself before I completely lose it. 

The sack of skin probably fell down and couldn't get back up. 

"Help!"

Holding my breath in hopes of calming down some of my nerves, I dared to take a step forward and push through the door. 

"Mike's aunt?" I called out hesitantly, looking around expecting to find the place wrecked but instead discovering it to be fashioned neatly like it was decorated in the 30's. 

For a moment, there was silence which seemed to ease me up from all the previous ruckus but haunt me as I kept walking forward. All that could be heard were my footsteps echoing across the frigid, remote floors of the colossal mansion and my heart beat battering against my chest. 

I tried calming myself down enough to forget the nagging anxiety that consumed me before, but my previous doubts clung onto me and grew deeper and deeper. I knew I could have been completely exaggerating the situation, but there was something in me that told me not to say anything else so I followed my intuition. 

And as I walked further down into the house, I was glad I didn't utter another word. To the side in the hallway, another door was cracked open, and from what I could make out from the dim lighting was a set of stairs spiraling down into a basement. 

One dreadful omen after another should at least send me running back out into the car, but curiosity kept me walking forward. From outside, I heard at least several things at once crashing into the ground but the top floor was spotless and clear, which meant that all the noise had to come from down there. 

The whole floor must have crumbled and crashed everything with it if I heard all that from where I was standing outside.

Maybe something broke down, she got trapped underneath it, and needed some help escaping.

Repeating the excuse over and over in my head, I built enough guts to open the door and walk down the stairs- my hands shaking and dragging behind me on the railing. Each step I took the worse the feeling got, but there was nothing that I had to fear. All that was here was an old lady; there was nothing scary about that.