In The Last Days

Dad.

Two shots rang in the air.
"Daddy!" She screamed as her father sank down, a gaping wound in his chest. The robbers quickly ran out the door. She ran to her father. She quickly dialed the police.

"Dad! Daddy! H-Hold on. The police are coming okay? They're bringing the ambulance with t-them and y-youre gonna be okay." Her voice broke but she realized that he probably couldn't hear her. She watched helplessly as blood ran down his chin.

"A-angel. Angel, you be strong okay?" He said barely above a whisper, choking on his own blood. Her mother ran into the shop and she sank down to her knees.

"Frank! Oh God, what happened?!" Her mother was hysterical.

Everything blurred after that and she'd hardly noticed the paramedics that came in three minutes later.

Rose had seen as the light slowly went out from her father's eyes and they'd hunted her ever since. All she could remember as one of them spoke with her, with a fresh towel around her, was the cold unseeing eyes of her father.

******************

Rose gasped awake, her breathing heavy. She lifted her hands to see, they were shaking, the same hands that had been covered in her father's blood. It's been a while since she had a nightmare.

She looked around her. She was back in her room. She groaned sitting up. She could hardly remember what happened.

She remembered there being a storm and Asher asking her to stay. She also remembered her ankle being sprained.

Her leg jerked forward in reflex and she hissed gripping her ankle.

There was a knock on her door. Thinking it was her mum, she slumped back on the bed groaning again. She had a lot of explaining to do.

"You can come in." The door opened and it wasn't the auburn-haired woman she'd expected.

Instead, she was met with the expressionless brown eyes of Asher.

"Asher." She called surprised. His eyes held a silence that made her feel awful.

"What were you thinking?" He asked in his usual calmness.

He was acting cold again and the thought that she was the reason left her feeling hollow.

"You could have gotten extremely hurt or even worse, you could have died Rose." She'd never heard him speak that way before.

"I'm sorry." She whispered meekly but he wasn't done. She wasn't getting off the hook so easily.

"The devil knows your weaknesses and he'll always try to use them against you. You should have known that, if you did, you wouldn't have run so blindly into danger."

All he wanted was for her to be safe but she'd carelessly placed her life in danger.

She winced slightly at his rebuke. She knew he was right.

"I said I was sorry. What more do you want me to say?" Asher raised his voice, which was so unlike him.

"That you'll be more careful, that you won't be so reckless and so stubborn!" Her eyes widened before she tore her eyes away from his.

She'd clearly upset him. He sighed.

"I'm sorry. You're my friend and I care about you." He said in a much calmer tone.

"And it's not because of how important you are." He closed his eyes briefly before exhaling.

"If something had happened to you Rose, I-" He sighed.