Goodnight

6

Ash comes back into the room, followed by his parents. His mother looking less than pleased, his father content.

"Zev, can you come with me and Berryalise please?" I follow Ash's mother, not sure of how safe I feel being alone with her and his sister. We walk into the guest room, Berry drags me to sit on the bed with her while her mother stands.

"Now, we must decide what dress you are going to wear dear. Something...lacy, perhaps but with long sleeves, so as to cover the marks."

"Marks?" I look at my arms, sure that they were not marked yesterday but they are smooth still.

"I-" Ash's mother grabs at my arms forcefully, inspecting them for herself, Berry looks over as well. A look of anger comes over his mothers face, before she storms out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

"Oh, crap on a cracker..." Berry looks almost sympathetically at me, before following her mother out of the room, also closing he door behind her. I sit, trying to decipher the muffled shouts from downstairs, but I can't get much, only recognize the voices of Ash's parents as the shouters and Ash trying to reason with them. All is silent for a while, until Ash bursts through the door, slamming it against the wall.

"What's happening?" I almost don't ask, he looks exhausted, beaten down as he paces, running his fingers through his hair.

"Nothing, my mother is just...she gets the impression that everything has to be perfect when something big is happening." I'm not convinced, if he was telling the truth he would not look like he has just committed mass murder.

"ASHER! Get back down here NOW!" Ash flinches at his mothers harsh tone. Then huffs and rolls his eyes, before grabbing hold of my hand and pulling me towards the door.

"Where are we going? I don't want to go down there, have you heard your parents?" I pull against him but he turns to face me holding both hands as he looks into my eyes.

"Its not you they're mad at, its me. You'll be fine, we're not staying." With that he turns and leads me down the stairs. His parents wait at the bottom.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ash ignores his mother and pushes between his parents, continuing towards the door. "Asher, you will look at us when we speak to you!" He stops, turning slowly, pushing me behind him.

"Oh? Must I? As I recall the last time you said that to me I left for a decade but being as this is my house, I think it best if you are the one to leave." I only have time to glimpse at the shocked faces of his parents and proud sister before Ash is slamming the door and we are walking through the rapidly darkening forest.

"Ash?" Whether he ignores me or doesn't hear, 

I don't know but he continues to stomp through the forest, with me trailing behind.

"Ash!...ASH!"

"WHAT!" He turns roaring the word into my face, anger filling his features, his hand gripping mine so tight that I am sure my bones will be crushed. He then sees the terror in my eyes and softens, looking shocked, appalled at himself. His eyes drop as he lets go of me and steps back, rubbing his face.

"I'm sorry...I didn't mean to" His voice is a whisper, speaking more to himself than to me. He slumps down against a tree, his face covered by his hands. I'm not sure what to do, he doesn't speak, just sits but I have questions and the answers can't wait.

"You said that you left for a decade. How? Its not possible" I stay stood, it helps me to feel in control, feel braver than I am.

"It is. I'm not...we're not exactly normal." His eyes plead with, beg for me not to freak out, but at what? What he has explained so far is less than helpful. I cross my arms, waiting for Ash to continue. "Me, my family, we don't age like you do...We grow normally up until the mid-teen years and then it all slows. We can, live forever. You stop aging completely when you look about fifty." Ash looks guilty, like he shouldn't be telling me this, like every little thing in the forest can hear him and is judging him.

"How old are you?" My voice is flat, I don't want to give anything away, not when I am so close to finding out everything.

"Technically, sixteen, I am sixteen but I have been alive for thirty years." My legs buckle and I find myself sat on the ground where I once stood. Thirty, he is thirty, twice my age. It's sick, just sick.

"Thirty..." Just a murmur to myself but he hears and the look of horror on his face is genuine.

"No, no. Sixteen" He moves to sit in front of me, cross-legged and takes my hands from being wrapped around my knees, holding them. "Sixteen. My mind is sixteen, my body is, my face is. It is only my date of birth that says otherwise" I pull my hands away from him, curling them back around my knees.

"What did your mother mean by marks?" Ash's face drops when I ask him this. He swallows.

"I am supposed to put scratches into your arms, patterns, to show that you are mine. If I don't it's like starving myself, I wont be able to do what we do and I die, because, to survive...we have to eat fresh, raw meat and if your twin spirit isn't the same as us, like you, I have to have a drop of your blood at least every three days" Again he looks guilty but I ignore this, instead, running through this new information. He needs me, Ash needs me to survive, so why didn't he pick someone else? Someone...normal, human. It would be so much more simple for him, she would be weak, complacent and even if she weren't, after years of living with him her feeble little mind would give up, convince itself that she loves him.

I hold my arm out to him, half dreading what is in store for me. "Do it."

"What?" Confusion clouds him.

"Do it. Whatever this scratching thing is, do it." I thrust my arm a little closer to him.

"Zev! No, I wont do that to you. I'm not like my family, I wont cause pain to save myself." He pushes away from me, disgusted.

"It's not saving yourself, it's surviving."

"No. I-" I cut him off, eager to get it over and done with.

"Will die. Ash you will die and as much as I want to go home, I wouldn't kill a person to be able to, so do it." He begins to shake his head, eyes pleading with me to change my mind. I move closer to him, grabbing his hand and wrapping it around my wrist. Ash holds my wrist tight, his nails growing longer, into claws. He takes one last look at me before dropping his eyes and slowly carving a neat spiral into the flesh of my forearm. I bite my tongue, determined not to wriggle or flinch away. When Ash is done, blood drips from a ten pence sized mess carved into me. He wipes the blood with his thumb, licking his thumb after each wipe until the mess is just a painful wound. Ash doesn't look at me when he releases my wrist, the claws shortening back to fingernails, but I know he feels guilty, knows exactly how painful that was. I cover the spiral with my hand not wanting to get dirt into it.

"We'd better go back." Ash helps me up and we begin the walk back towards his family. I wince at the stinging pain in my arm.

"You went deep" I cant recall ever having a cut this deep on me, I don't think most people would.

"The first one has to stay there forever."