Unnatural// 5SOS & 1D

Fleeting// part eight

a.i: The man Behind the Monster

Ashton was in bad shape. Each night, he came back looking worse and worse. Deep lacerations and cuts on his arm, chest and back. Somehow by morning, most of his wounds would be healed but not completely. Small things like bruises  would be gone by morning but deep cuts on his chest would stay until well into the night before he went back out there to prevent the Dark Man from hurting me or my family.

Since our first kiss, we had only kissed once or twice after that. I could tell he was holding back and I was too, a bit. I hated seeing him hurt so badly when he came back to my room. I wanted to make him feel better and since he was already dead, there wasn't much else I could do besides kiss him and tell him how important he was and how he didn't have to do this for us.

"Until your parents catch on that something dangerous is in this house, I'll keep doing this." I sighed and shook my head as I patched up his arm.

"I need to find more information on the ghosts here and the Dark Man." I sighed. "It would be so much easier if my parents could just see what my brother and I see." Ashton winced.

"Yeah but they can't. You have to convince them to get out of here. Move somewhere else." I sighed, nodding my head. He was right, but my parents would never listen to me. My dad was still angry about the writing on the wall. He was convinced I had written it even though I had been upstairs when it appeared and we had to move the TV stand out of the way to get to the writing. How could I have done that on my own? It was heavy. My dad was also convinced though that Ashton was not only, not dead, but my boyfriend I would sneak into the house late at night.

"Dad, I have barely left this house. I don't even have friends let alone a boyfriend! When would I have met Ashton?" He was positive though that he was just some boy down the street. Only Adrian was on my side about Ashton being a ghost.

"He's nice daddy. You'd like him. He protects our family at night. Shay always patches him up. He gets hurt pretty badly." I don't really know how Adrian knew that. I figured Ashton would go talk to him sometimes but I wasn't sure. If he did, I was glad. The Dark Man seemed to really scare my brother. 

"Ashton." I said softly, pushing his hair out of his face. He was sweating, something that was weird to me but had happened before, especially if he was seriously injured.

"Yeah?" He whispered. I licked my lips and sighed.

"I need to talk to the other ghosts. I need their help to figure out who this guy is." I murmured touching the sides of his face lightly.

"They're not as open as I am." Ashton said with a small smile. I smiled back.

"I know but I need you to convince them to help us. I need to know who he is and they can help." Ashton nodded his head slowly. "That man died after them. They probably know who he is and what he was doing here."

"You're right.. Yeah of course." He groaned as he sat up a little straighter.

"Okay, you might want to start with the boy in the backyard. Your brother already talks to him." I nodded my head slowly. "And then, the couple in the kitchen. They're friendly." He paused. "Usually. Sometimes they hide your guys pots and pans."

"Really? My mom keep blaming us for that." I grumbled. Ashton chuckled

"Yeah, sorry." He ran a hand though his hair, thinking. "The girl in your brothers room is pretty nice too. She tries to protect him but the Dark Man scares her."

"He hasn't hurt my brother has he?" I asked scared. Adrian hadn't mentioned a ghost trying to protect him. I knew she must be there but I thought she hadn't revealed herself to him. Adrian also hadn't said if he had been hurt or not by the Dark Man.