All The Good Things

Chapter 6 - "Look at me, Ash!"

Ash's eyes shot open and instead of being greeted by a dark tunnel leading to a shining door, the forest greeted her. She could feel a heavy silence around her as she watched the pine branches sway in the breeze. There was something hypnotic about their gentle movement and Ash thought that she would be happy here in the afterlife.

But as the seconds ticked by, the peaceful silence started to recede. Her senses came back to her as her brain began to pick out a voice behind her and the pain throughout her whole body returned. Then there were hands around her arms, pulling her to her feet. She was turned around and came face to face with Zach.

Zach? She stared at him blankly as her brain fought through the last five minutes to try to cobble together what was going on.

"Zach," she whispered, her hands reaching out to touch his face then shoulders.

He was real. She watched his lips move but she could barely hear him over the ringing in her ears.

Her eyes moved past him into the cabin and a dark room and she started to remember. Zach and she had been kidnapped. He said he worked for the CIA. There had been a hulking man. Ash felt the details coming back, amazed at how almost dying had buried them under her final thoughts.

'I almost died!' she thought again.

Clarity swept through her mind. She had been kidnapped! She had had a gun to her head. The man? Where was he? She started to look around when Zach grabbed her face gently with his two hands, fixing her eyes on him.

"Ash," he said. "Can you hear me?" The ringing in her ears had lessened and she nodded at the sound of his voice. "Good," he nodded reassuringly. "Do you think you can walk?"

She lifted one leg, then the next. Pain shot up and down both with each movement but it wasn't enough that she couldn't walk. She nodded.

"Good," he said again, never once taking his eyes off of hers. "Can you take a few deep breaths?"

She did as he asked and as the air passed in and out of her lungs she felt another level of clarity as her brain received more oxygen than it had been getting.

"Alright," Zach said. "I need to look for a phone. Don't move and keep breathing."

She nodded as she took another deep breath. Zach disappeared back into the house and she continued to breathe deeply. Even though there was pain all over her body, she could feel her muscles starting to loosen.

She gently moved her head from side to side as she slowly moved her legs. She moved her head up and down and froze when she discovered the body at her feet. Her eyes darted to the face. It was the man who had almost killed her.

Or was it? She quickly took in the details of his face. It had the same scars and hair but something was missing.

She looked at the man's eyes, expecting the anger and cruelty she had seen before but there was nothing. There was nothing in the man's eyes because there was nothing left of this man. He was dead.

Suddenly it felt like she couldn't breathe. Her hands went to her throat as it felt like all the air was pushed from her body. She couldn't stop looking at the man's eyes now they were just blank glassy orbs.

Then everything inside of her began to fight to come out. She ran to the deck railing and threw up. Her whole body heaved violently as it emptied her stomach onto the dirt below. Even after her stomach was empty she kept retching, unable to control the tremors in her body as tears and snot ran down her face.

"It's okay," Zach said, appearing by her side, his hand coming to rest on her shoulder. "Breathe, breathe."

"I can't read his face," she gasped in between convulsions. "I can't...there's no...the man...he's gone."