Escape

Chapter 7

Fire. All around me. Parker in the corner. Someone yelling my name.

I gasped as I woke up and found Luke yelling my name trying to get me to wake up. "Oh my God. Ash, what happened? Are you okay?"

I pulled him to me and sobbed into his shoulder. "Luke, I can't do this anymore."

"Ashley, what happened?"

"I had a dream. About that night. About the fire. Luke, I saw Parker." 

Luke looked at me for a second. "Okay, look. You just had a nightmare. And your brain made up something. Parker would never do that to you. He wouldn't hurt you like that and you know he wouldn't."

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess it was just my imagination. I- I'm just going to go back to sleep."

Luke got back in the bed and put his arm around me. We layed there for about an hour but I still didn't fall asleep so we just turned on the TV. We watched a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy and then my mom called us down for lunch.

"Here, let me help you down the stairs." Luke said and he came over to help me off the bed.

"Luke, I got it. You don't live here. At some point you're going to have to go back to your house and I'll have to be able to get around without help. I'm fine. It doesn't even hurt that much right now."

He sighed. "Okay."

I pulled myself off of the bed and got my crutches. I nodded to Luke and walked out of my room and towards the stairs. I slowly but surely got myself down the stairs. I walked into the kitchen and sat down where my mom had set out our food. I said the blessing and started eating my food.

"So, how does your leg feel?" My mom asked.

"I mean it got burned, mom. It doesn't feel great, but I'm okay." 

"Okay. Well how did you sleep?" She asked.

"How do you think I slept?" I set y fork down. "I was locked in a burning cabin. I woke up having a nightmare about it thinking that the person who did this was my best friend's boyfriend. What? I'm crazy now, too? How do you think I slept?" I looked up at my mom who looked like I had just slapped her across the face. "I'm sorry, mom. This isn't your fault. I shouldn't have said that."

"No. No, I get it. You're scared. You're hurt. You're angry. I get it. It's okay."

"But I shouldn't be making you feel like crap about it. It's not your fault. There's nothing you could have done about it." I looked over at Luke. "And I'm sorry I snapped at you. You were just trying to help me. And I was rude. I shouldn't have snapped. I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "It's okay. You've been through a lot the past few days. It's okay."

"Okay, I get it, you guys. I'm damaged. Everyone knows it. Everyone 'gets it.' You don't have to try to make me feel better about being a horrible person. Thanks, mom, for lunch. But I think I'm done." I pulled myself out of the chair and made my way up the stairs and into my bathroom. I locked the bathroom door and sat on the edge of the bath tub. I looked across the room at the painkillers the hospital gave me. Then at the sleeping pills beside them. "All it takes is one handful, right? Then this will all be over," I said to myself. I walked over to the pills and shook a few of each into my hand. "It'll all be over." 

"Ashley, let me in please!" I heard Luke yelling at the door.

"I can't do this anymore, Luke. I can't deal with this."

"Please, Ashley. Please."

I closed my eyes. "What am I thinking? Why am I doing this." I poured the pills back into their bottles.