A Shade Darker ✔️

{Chapter Forty}

This Means War

July 28th, 2017

Ashley

The leaves are crackling and crunching under me heels as I run, they're sticking to the bottom of my dress and my hair has fallen down from the bun at the top of my head. A few stray bobby pins lie here and there, most had fallen into the grass at my feet. Curls surrounded my face.

Mike is breathing heavily next to me with many questions I'm sure as I look around to see if we're being followed.

My hands are still tingling, my heart is beating out of my chest and my head is growing light.

"How...why...who...what....just happened? The lights...the glasses, they shattered. How did you do that?" Mike is stuttering, unable to produce more than a few words at a time.

I sit down on a dirty stump, all that's left of what once was a healthy tree. My skirt puffs up around me and I stare down at my hands in the mostly dark surroundings.

"I don't know...I don't know how I did it. But I know what I saw. She dropped something into our glasses, Mike. It had to be poison. It was in a necklace and it was clear. Billie was waiting by the door, I'm almost positive they were communicating" He places his hands on his hips, pacing back and forth.

"You're sure about this?" I nod slowly.

"Pretty sure" Bile was rising up my throat again, my nerves were jumbled and I felt sick.

"If people of the colony already want us dead, then how are we going to relay the news? If they knew I was pregnant then I'd be even more of a target...I never should've come back here. All I'm doing is causing problems, using powers I didn't know I had, and making everything into a mess" My lip is trembling and hot tears are streaming down my face.

All of this was my fault. Problems with Billie were raising ever since the beginning, and then I came back only to make thing worse. I was nothing but a god damn curse to the colony, tearing everyone apart and hurting them, including myself.

Warm hands cradle the side of my face, brush away salty tears and hold me still.

"Problems would've come anyways...this is where you belong, and you know that as well as I do. And whatever you did, whatever these powers are...they saved our lives potentially" His voice and reassurance should've made me feel better, but I only felt like collapsing and pulling away from his hold.

"It's a lie...problems wouldn't have come. Haven't you realized that the problems only occur when I'm here? And then I just created more. I was selfish, I let Billie out just to cause us both more danger" He shushes me, gathers himself between my knees and crouches to hold me.

He doesn't deny anything anymore, he just holds me tighter and I can feel his anger and heat radiating into the air around us. His shoulders were tight, tense and heavy.

"I'm going to find him, Ashley...I'm going to find him and I'm going to rip his heart out with my bare hands. I'm going to make him beg me to kill him..." His voice scares me and he stands, looking around.

"And then do what? Get flogged in the courtyard until you nearly die? Have you not forgotten from previous times what happened to you? Why would you put yourself in danger like that?" He steps towards me, filling the gap.

"Because I took vows to protect you, and it's the only vow I've broken because I can't fully protect you when he's alive, tormenting us. A vow means a promise, and right now I vow to kill him" I didn't know whether it was the nerves from his words that rang deeply, or from the natural sickness I had been experiencing.