Through Time and Space: A Love Story

Chapter Six: The Nightmare On Christmas

   "You are absolutely ridiculous, Ash, you know that?" Helen said giggling.
   "Well, it's true!" Ash replied trying to keep a straight face.  "Imani thought it was a smart idea for me to help her train one of the young dragons and instantly regretted that decision. How was I supposed to know he'd blow up the payload cart?"
   "Dragons breathe fire, you idiot," Helen teased. "You can't teach a baby dragon how to protect a giant bomb and expect it to not blow up."
   "That's true, but in my defense, she said she was training him not to spew fire out of excitement," Ash said.  She was grateful for the time she got to spend catching up with Helen. When they broke up four years ago, they had become distant from each other. Ash had wanted to remain friends, but that didn't work out as well as she had hoped. When Helen decided to join the Imperial Guard, it gave Ash a chance to see her more, but everything was kept strictly professional and it was torture. It seemed kind of unfair that it took Helen getting injured for her to finally have a casual conversation with Ash, but she was willing to take the opportunity while she had it.
   "You know, Ash," Helen said after she finally calmed down. "It's great being able to hear all these stories from the past, but I wanna hear what's new in your life now." The first thing that came to Ash's mind was Maeve. Ash felt guilty not knowing where Maeve was or what she was up to. She probably missed her terribly and was wanting to spend Christmas with her.
   "Recently, Maeve and I started talking," Ash admitted. "I was surprised to find that she had feelings for me. I was over at her house to comfort her. Next thing I knew, we were having sex."
   "So I'm guessing you two are official now?" Helen asked. Ash considered the question for a moment.
   "I don't know what we are yet," Ash replied.
   "So then..." Helen began fidgeting. "Would now be a bad time to admit that I still have feelings for you myself?" Ash was stunned momentarily.
   "What do you mean?" she asked.
   "I've been avoiding you all these years because I felt bad," she confessed. "I didn't want the relationship to end, but I wasn't going to stop you from doing what you thought was best." That made Ash realize how selfish she had been this whole time. She never once stopped to consider how Helen might have felt about breaking up.
   "And I take full responsibility for that," Ash told her. "I'm sorry I was so selfish and didn't bother asking how you felt about it."
   "Well..." Helen reached out to place her hand on Ash's. "You can make it up to me by giving us another chance. You know, since you're still technically single."
   "I guess I could," Ash said hesitantly. "But before I give you a definite answer, I at least wanna talk to Maeve about it. I feel like she deserves to know what's going on."
   "Do whatever you think is right," Helen assured her.
   "Yeah, and look where that got us last time," Ash reminded her. Just then, there was a knock on the door. It opened and one of Lian's messengers came in.
   "I apologize for the interruption," he said with a bow. "Mistress Lian has requested that I notify you they're having breakfast in the throne room." Breakfast in the throne room? That sounded bizarre, even for Lian. Something has her in an unusually good mood today.
   "We'll be there soon," she told him. With another bow, he left the room. Ash turned to Helen. "You wanna go get something to eat?"
   "That'd be nice," she replied. Pip came up with a wheelchair and helped Ash get Helen into it. The three of them made their way to the throne room and were amazed by the massive buffet that was laid out. Ash was too anxious to eat herself, the anticipation of her upcoming conversation with Maeve ruining her appetite. On their way up, Imani came to greet them.
   "Merry Christmas!" she said hugging them.
  "Merry Christmas," Ash and Helen replied. Every Champion was present, along with the Magistrate's staff. They passed Jenos on their way to the line and Ash could have sworn he was glaring at her. What was his deal, anyways? She had never done anything wrong to him, yet he seemed to hate her, even after the war was over.
   "Hey Ash!" Maeve called out. Ash looked over in her direction. "Come sit with me!" Maeve was waving her over. She looked so happy to see her. If only she knew what was to come. She turned back to Helen.
   "I'm gonna go talk to Maeve now," she said. "Pip can you take care of her?"
   "Sure thing," he said. Ash took a deep breath and made her way to Maeve's table. She pulled out a chair and sat next to her.
   "Hi Maeve..." she said sadly.
   "What's wrong, Ash?" Maeve asked. "Is everything alright?" Ash took another shaky breath, a tear rolling down her cheek.
   "Listen, I need to tell you something," she finally began. "Helen and I....we got to talking last night. We had a lot of time together since I was stuck watching her anyways, but that's besides the point. The point is, she and I decided we wanted to try a relationship again. I figured I would tell you first before we made anything official." Maeve went dead silent. It scared Ash when she didn't say anything. She had to explain things quickly before things got too awkward.
   "I understand that this upsets you," Ash continued. "I'm really sorry about-" Maeve cut her off by holding one of her knives to Ash's throat.
   "I've heard enough," she growled. "I don't want your fake apology. It's bullshit for you to say you're sorry and you know it." Ash had never seen Maeve get this angry before, and it terrified her. The beautiful turquoise eyes Ash had grown so fond of no longer glowed with love. Instead, they only burned with pure hatred. She immediately regretted her decision. She shouldn't have agreed to give Helen another chance. But it was too late now.
   Out of nowhere, Maeve threw her plate of half eaten food in Ash's face and took off running. That had been well deserved. She was too stunned to even try calling out to Maeve. She just sat there silently. But it wasn't just her; the whole room was quiet. All eyes were on Ash. Lian stormed up to Ash, her red eyes also filled with anger. She grabbed Ash by her shirt collar.
   "What the fuck did you just do to her?" Lian growled. Ash still couldn't speak. Tears began flowing in streams down her face. Lian threw her to the floor.
   "You should be ashamed of yourself, breaking her heart like that," she snapped. "You of all people know what's going on with her. That was uncalled for and you know it."
   "Actually, this is all my fault..." Helen spoke up. Lian spun around to face her. Ash was terrified of what Lian might do to her.
   "Is that so?" Lian said. "Fernando! Khan! Escort this little bitch to solitary. Fifty lashes." Ash winced at Lian's order. Helen was going to get whipped and it was her fault. Khan and Fernando both walked up to Helen and led her out of the room.
   "And as for you," Lian said turning back to Ash. "You had better pray to the gods that Maeve finds it in her heart to forgive you. I think this is punishment enough for you." Without a word, Ash got up and left the room. She passed Maeve's dorm on the way to her own. She wanted so desperately to just break down the door and apologize. But she couldn't. She kept walking until she came up to her own dorm.
   She took off her clothes and tossed them aimlessly. Then she made her way into her adjoining bathroom and took a hot shower. She sat in there long after she was clean, letting the hot water pound on her skin. How could she have done something so stupid? What the fuck was she thinking? She didn't deserve Maeve. Not after this.
   The water eventually grew cold, so she turned it off and stepped out to dry herself before putting on a pair of pajamas. She laid in bed wondering what she was gonna do in hopes of winning Maeve back when she heard the sound of hysterical laughter. It sounded like it was coming from Maeve's room. In a state of sudden panic, Ash jumped out of bed and ran over to Maeve's room. She broke down the door and found Maeve in a pool of her own blood.
   "SOMEBODY HELP!!!" she screamed. Furia had been coming down the hall to check on Maeve when Ash cried for help. She bolted down the hall and saw what was going.
   "We've got an emergency on the first floor of the dorm building!" Furia shouted into her radio. "I need all trained medical personnel to room 115!" No more than two minutes later, Pip, Pepper, Jenos, and Seris came flying down the hall with a stretcher. By then, Ash and Furia had already bandaged Maeve's arm to slow down the bleeding. They got her onto the stretcher and took off towards the hospital wing.
   Not really having the heart to go with them, Ash strayed behind in Maeve's room. She picked up the knife Maeve had used to hurt herself. Ash could still see her reflection in the blood-stained blade. For the first time in her life, Ash didn't see herself as a person. All she could see was the monster that broke her best friend's heart. The temptation began to build up for her as well. She pushed Maeve to the point of suicide. She couldn't live with herself knowing that. Before she could even try, she was cracked in the back of her head by a rifle.
   "Don't even think about it," Kinessa snapped. "What you did to Maeve was wrong, but that's no reason to follow her reckless actions just to punish yourself."
   "Why would it matter if I killed myself?" Ash sobbed. "I'm the one who deserves to die, not her."
   "She may be angry with you now, but taking your own life would only upset her more," she said crouching down.
   "And what makes you so sure of that?" Ash asked between sobs. Kinessa was silent for a moment, considering her answer.
   "She's hurting right now," she finally said. "She may be angry with you, but I don't think she'd want you dead. Maeve doesn't wish death on someone she loves." Kinessa stood back up. "I have to go. Furia's call for help caused quite the panic and there's a mess to be cleaned. Don't make anymore attempts to do something stupid." She grabbed the knife from Ash and walked out of the room.
   Ash stayed on the floor in Maeve's room for what felt like hours. When she found the strength to get up, she grabbed a jacket Maeve had left sitting on her bed. It smelled just like her. Ash kept it with her when she went back to her dorm. She then tossed the jacket to her bed and picked up a box that rested at the foot of her bed. It was her Christmas gift to Maeve. She had forgotten all about it. Since there was no point in trying to give it to her anymore, she opened it up and pulled the stuffed bear out. The bear had a locket around its neck with pictures of Ash and Maeve inside of it. Underneath the bear was a card Ash had picked out. She opened it up and read the words she wrote in it: Here's to the start of a lifetime of happiness! Merry Christmas, kitten! I love you! Ash collapsed onto her bed, Maeve's jacket and the teddy bear in her hands. Overcome with guilt and remorse, Ash cried herself to sleep.