I Told the Stars about You

Chapter 27: As long as you want

Ash's POV

"Where the fuck is she?"
It's so hot here. I feel like I'm a bomb waiting to go off, a timer ticking down. And my voice takes on a tone I haven't heard before. Unwavering. Clear.

I emphasize each word by stepping closer to Jason.

All of this started when I woke up, reaching for Rose only to find her gone. And I ringed, non stop at 2am without a reply until I was pacing in her bedroom, going insane with this panic I've never experienced. I kept looking for anything that would give me a clue of where she was. But I found nothing. All she had taken was the dress she was wearing the night before- that I had discarded in the corner of the room in a haste to feel her skin- and her phone. I recall her mentioning that her parents were away for a week to carry out an important surgery, so I hadn't been able to ask them anything either.

The house felt too empty.

I didn't have their contacts and, if anything happened to Rose, nobody would think to tell me. Because to anyone else, we didn't even know each other's names. We were strangers, with the sole connection of Cassiopeia.
In that moment, I really wished I could speak to her to get her advice on this, on what to do, on who to ask and where Rose would go and what she'd be thinking. She loved her like I did, at the end of the day.
But I couldn't ask her anything, so I thought of what she would do if she were me.

After pondering for a while, I called Aiden, who, in a very muffled, sleepy voice told me if this wasn't important he'd murder me with his bare hands because he needed, and I quote, his 'beauty sleep'. After informing him of what happened, he said the only person that had a reason to break us apart, or hurt Rose, was Jason.

That asshole Jason.

That was when I made a plan, and if it was to work, I couldn't break into his house or climb in though his window. I had to do this the legal way. I had to have clean hands at the end of this.

I spent the next 4 hours looking through all of Rose's things. Her cupboard. Her schoolbag. Her clothes and bedside table. Eventually, I found a key, hidden inside a basket full of shells on her bookshelf. I knew it was Jason's from the keychain-a single red rose.

Aiden and I were in his house, in his bedroom, an hour later.

And we found Jason alone, his parents most likely having gone away for business.
Because he didn't seem to hear me the first time, I repeat myself.

"Where. Is. Rose."

"I have no clue" He says now, grinning like a fool.

Wrong move.

I grab him by the throat with a single arm and push him against the wall, making a painting fall onto the ground, the glass frame breaking into thousands of little pieces and scattering along the marble tiles.

"You're going to tell me where she is." I speak calmly, as if speaking to a child, while Jason claws at his neck to get a breath in. "You're going to tell me how the hell you've got her phone and why you're bleeding. Because, so help me God, if you've touched one hair on her head I will fucking kill you"

He looks to Aiden, who's behind me, as if he may intervene. I turn around, my hand still wrapped around Jason's throat. But Aiden is grinning, as if he's waited for this for a while now, specially since Jason threw him out of town for some days as a messenger.

"Oh don't look at him, he won't help you" I say, watching his skin redden around where I'm holding his neck.

I then catch the fear in his eyes, when he realises I won't let go of his neck if he doesn't tell me what I want to know. When he realises I'm serious, that I'm so full of rage I'd kill him in a hearbeat and regret my decision later.