Heavenly Virtues

Part 57

Ashley didn't know how long she had been here. Hours, days. She wasn't sure. What she was sure of was that she was alone, terrified, and giving over to the feeling of letting go with each passing minute.

The beatings started early on, from the moment papa Joe came into the tiny brick room. By now, her eyes were almost swollen shut, her vision blurry, the only saving grace was the beatings had been concentrated around her face. Her baby should still be okay.

They wanted information, information she didn't have. She could tell them bits, who the saints were, where they worked, where they had been last, but she wouldn't. Even though they didn't want her anymore she still loved them both dearly and would never betray them. So she took the beatings, not letting an ounce of information slip from her mouth.

She was starting to doze when the door creaked open again, this time it wasn't Papa Joe, it was one of the men from her parents house, the man who shot her ma. She glared at him through her swollen eyes as he rounded her to undo her hands.

The beatings must have affected her more then she thought because as her hands where untied, she dropped. With nothing holding her to that chair her body gave out. She groaned as she hit the ground, her head spinning, only made worse when the man dragged her to the corner of the room, farthest from the door and left her there.

She curled up, desperately trying to protect the tiny life inside of her. She stayed like that a while, the images of her parents dying, being murdered just feet from her and the helplessness she continued to feel as another life was on the line because of her. Her child.

She cursed herself for going home, leading these people to her parents door step, being the reason they were both still probably laying on the floor of the house they had bought together as love struck newly weds.

The greif she felt had no where to go, even if she could scream the last thing she wanted to do was draw attention to herself here, and her eyes had dried up, forbidding her from sheding another tear. Instead she gave over to the lightheadedness and as she rested her cheek on the cold cement floor she drifted to sleep.

*****

Ashley layed in her hospital bed, sweaty and tired, but happy. Today she had given birth to a red haired, brown eyed little girl. She could stare at her little face all day and never get tired of it. A knock on the door pulled her attention from her little girl and she saw them enter the room. Her boys, smiley and in awe of their girls.

"Ye did it lass." "Aye love this was all you." Ashley looked back to her daughter, although, this time something was off. Ashley couldn't pin point what it was but her daughter's face looked deformed, or distorted. A wave of panic came over Ashley and she could feel the prickly sweat spread over her skin. "What, wh– why?" Ashley's questioned before turning back to her boys.

Ashley audibly gasped as her eyes landed on them, bloody and angry looking. Fresh blood dripped off their bodies from cuts, and bullet wounds. It's as if they were staring right through her, they must be, right? They would never look at her with such disdain. "You did this Ashley." Connor stated. "Wha-?" Ashley tried to question before Murphy spoke, cutting her off. "Aye Ashley this is all on you."

Panicked, Ashley turned back to her child, once in her arms, now gone. Ashley could feel the anxiety in her chest suffocating her as she frantically searched the bed for her daughter, but came up empty. Crying from the foot of the bed got her attention and Ashley's head snap in that direction. Ashley's breath caught in her throat at the sight of her parents both bloodied, with matching bullet holes in their heads. Ashley watched on in horror as her mother admired the crying baby in her arms.

When Ashley finally found her voice she spoke "M–Ma?" Ashley's ma looked at her with glossed over eyes and a blank expression. "We should've never sent ye ta Boston." "Ma?" Ashley's da looked at her next. "We would still be alive if it weren't for you." Ashley could feel the crushing weight on her chest at her parents statements, knowing full well that they were right.