Ashes of Affection (Rough Draft)

Chapter Six

“Where are they!?” A man shouted, throwing me into the wall.
“Don’t kill her now. We still need her alive.” A lady stated. She was leaning against the door.
I got to my feet, spitting out blood. A smile crept on to my face, I couldn’t stop it nor did I care to try hiding it. “I’ll never tell you.”
“You-!” The man ran at me, slamming his elbow into my stomach which made me fall over. “Tell us already!”
Every breath I took burned my lungs. Despite the pain, I got up again.
“Even if I told you, you’d never find them. You’re too blind to even see two feet ahead of you.”
“You will learn to watch your tongue!” He tightly grabbed my throat, lifting me off the ground.
I wrapped my fingers around his forearm, struggling to get free. My heart pounded heavily in my chest as my panic got worse. I was finally able to twist his skin, forcing him to release me. He let out a shout and threw me into the chair.
My vision was blurry as I scrambled back against the wall on the opposite side of the room. The man stormed towards me but something shifted just before he could reach me.
“Hello Ace. So nice of you to join us.” The lady said, causing the man to stop in his tracks.
“Perfect timing! Why don’t you help us beat some sense into this idiotic girl.” He smirked.
“As much as I would love to, Thea and I were ordered to keep her alive and well enough until the scouts return so I’ll take over from here.” Ace’s voice was calm but dark.
The duo huffed a breath.
“Way to ruin the fun.” The man hissed but they left the room.
Ace took a few steps toward me but paused when I covered my face as if he would hit me.
“Amara, I won’t hurt you.” I just shook my head, tears in my eyes. He gave in and just walked over to the chair, picking it up. He sat in it and made no attempts to approach me. After a moment, the fear and stress faded enough that I no longer felt fear towards Ace. I moved on to the bed and he scanned a wound I had gained. A sharp piece of wood had cut into my arm. It was surprisingly deep which made it worse. “Close your eyes and breathe.” I did so but the moment I took a deep breath, he quickly removed the wood piece. I cried out in pain as the wound began bleeding. “I told you not to act so stubborn.”
“Normally people would enjoy that ‘I told you so’ moment.” I stated as he grabbed some cleaning alcohol.
“Normally people ‘I told you so’ moments don’t involve a risk of death. If you keep this up, they just might kill you.”
I was shocked at his anger.
“You’re…You’re mad?” He ignored the question, cleaning and stitching the wound. “Ace, what’s on your mind?”
He sighed and sat down.
“I’ve lost Sage twice, if you die on my watch, they’ll never forgive me.”
“They wouldn’t blame you.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“They’ll blame themselves before you even cross their mind.” I paused for a few moments. “I need you to do something.” He looked up at me, confused and curious. “If I die, please be there for Sage, no matter how much they argue against it.”
His gaze fell to the ground.
“You won’t die on my watch. None of you will.”
“Ace, please just promise me.”
I knew he didn’t want to but he gave in. “I promise.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded. I jumped when the door opened and Ace stood up.
“Angel!” Thea called, panicked.
“Oh my god.” I breathed and stood up.
The whole forest was on fire.
“Thea! What happened?” He asked, rushing to her.
Thea had gotten burned badly. Smoke flooded into the building, causing Thea and I to begin coughing badly.
“They-They were practicing and started a huge fire.”
He shut the door and brought Thea to the table and sat her down. My heart dropped when, moments later, she began to cough worse till she coughed blood. Ace didn’t know what to do and I knew I’d have to handle this.
“Ace, do you know where a breathing mask is?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Good. Go get one.”
He left the cabin into the smoke.
“Amara…I’m scared.” Thea whimpered, tears collapsing from her eyes.
“It’s okay little bird. We won’t let anything happen to you.” I uttered and gently wiped a tear from her eyes. “I need you to lie down.” She did as I said and I slightly pressed on her stomach.
“Ow!” She yelped.
“I’m sorry little one.”
“I want to go home.”
“I know, I do too and we’ll get out of here soon enough.”
I knew she wasn’t part of the cult. Ace had likely taken her in and the cult let it happen as long as she wasn’t useless to them.
“Is she okay?” Ace asked before the door could even shut.
“She will be, but I worry she has damaged lungs and a damaged rib. Has anyone hurt her or anything?”
“No one is allowed to lay a finger on her.”
I turned my attention back to Thea and put the mask over her mouth and nose. Slowly, she relaxed and passed out. Ace was leaning against the wall, tense.
“She’ll be alright, she just needs to rest.”
I laid on the ground, looking at the roof.
“What’re you looking at?” He asked and came over to me.
“Sage always talks about the stars and how when they feel lost and alone, something tells them to look up to the sky and that someone important is looking there as well.” He smiled slightly and laid beside me. “You’re the reason they think that, aren’t you?”
“I did in fact tell them that if they look up at the stars and I’ll always be looking back but I might not be the reason they do this.”
I glanced at him before I looked back up to the ceiling.
“How do you handle the pain of knowing they can’t remember you? Weren’t they important to you?”
We were in a moment of silence before he responded. “At first it felt impossible. Being away from them for so long made me feel like a part of me was being torn out, so I kept an eye on them from afar. I still don’t understand how or why they do things we did together but I knew they would never remember me so I kept my distance. The pain never really faded but I had no choice but to live with it.”
I sat up. “Are you in physical pain when it happens?”
He sighed and sat up as well. “When I’m away from them for a long period of time, I start feeling sick till…” his gaze fell and concern filled my mind, “until I start throwing up blood.”
My heart dropped.
“Has it happened yet since they sent you away?”
He shook his head. “It generally takes about five days of not being with them.” He could see my concern. “I’ll be alright, it’s their choice to see me so I have to respect it.”
I got to my feet. “Ace, you’re literally risking your life just because they got mad at you. How insane are you? If you just explain it-”
He got up, tense. “You know very well we can’t tell Sage. It risks their life.”
“You’re risking your life!”
“My death will not affect them.”
“You have no idea how much it would affect them. You weren’t the one who was by their side on the nights that felt endless when they were crying over a man they didn’t even know existed. You didn’t force them through life, careful with every step because you wouldn’t know what could possibly trigger them. You have no idea how it affected them when you vanished.” His gaze fell, saddening. I just wanted him to see that Sage loved him even though they didn’t remember. “I can’t… let you die. I refuse to put them through that pain again. Let them scream at you, let them throw crap. Let them be mad but don’t let them lose you. Even though it seems they’ll never forgive you, they’d rather you be by their side than dead.”
“How could you possibly know they’ll forgive me?”
I smiled slightly. “Because you didn’t see their eyes when we met you at the party.” I could see the pain in his eyes so I just hugged him. “Don’t give up on them yet.”
“Fine.” His voice was no longer firm but quiet and more relaxed.
“Ace-” Thea’s coughs brought us back to reality and we rushed to her side.
“Thea! I’m here.” He held her hand.
I checked her pulse, it was still weak but it was getting stronger.
“You’re going to be okay little bird.” I said.
Ace smiled slightly before he hugged his sister. She was shivering and his warmth helped her relax. I turned my gaze to the room. It was completely empty but I wanted to try something. I walked over to the wall and ran my hands along the cold stone. Usually these places were wood but that would’ve been flammable so I guess they knew better.
After a bit of scanning, I found a crack in the east wall. It was small but it worked. I grabbed the chair, catching Ace’s attention.
“What are you doing?” He asked, getting ready to cover Thea’s ears.
“Do you trust me?” I responded.
I didn’t give him a chance to answer me before I slammed the chair into the crack. A light filled the room, throwing me into the opposite wall. My ears began ringing as I tried to move. The coldness flooded through my body, followed by pain.
“Amara!” Ace’s voice rang out through my ears. He sounded so far despite him being feet away from me. He ran to my side, helping me sit up.
He was speaking but I couldn’t hear him. I raised my hand to my head then ear and when I looked at it, I realized my head and ears were bleeding. I was struggling to breath as I tried to scan the room.
My vision was blurry and my head hurt endlessly. I could hear crying so I tried to look for Thea but I couldn’t see her.
“Ace-” I was beginning to panic as my vision began to fade. I felt around, terrified that he left. I jumped when I felt a hand cover my eyes and I grabbed his forearm. When I realized it was him, I relaxed slightly. “It’s foggy and cold.” It hurt to breathe let alone talk.
He got up but I panicked and grabbed his hand. He squeezed my hand, reassuring me before he walked away. I feared he wouldn’t return but moments later he sat beside me. He wrapped bandages around my head, covering my eyes. He then did his best to clean the blood from my ears.
A smaller hand held mine and my heart dropped when I realized Thea was still there. I slightly squeezed her hand and when Ace was done tending to my head, she laid beside me. I held her close, worried she got hurt.
He vanished for what felt like forever but was probably just a minute or two. The ground was cold but it helped some of the pain. The ringing in my ears didn’t stop.
If only I could vanish, would it stop the pain? I would’ve loved to try it but it would’ve made things a lot harder. I could’ve hurt Thea and Ace because of my idiotic choice.
After a few minutes, the ringing got to be too much so I got to my feet and made my way to a wall. Before Ace could stop me, I punched the stone surprisingly hard. The sound of the bone breaking cut through the incessant ringing.
Ace rushed to me and stopped me from hitting the wall again. I was persistent though which left him with few choices. Finally, he had enough of trying to restrain me and just hit me on the back of my head, knocking me out.