Age of Demons

Chapter 30 - Ashlyn

Detroit Safe House

I couldn't sleep.

Which wasn't exactly unusual. Sleep was always a struggle for me. Scenes from the day constantly replayed through my mind. Squirming thoughts of what ifs and if I had done this snaked inside when it was just me and my mind in the quiet dark.

This time, Des and the girl haunted my night. Questions of who is she, was she an asylum patient (which would kind of made sense once I thought over it some more), and was she the reason Des wanted to come here? I recalled how adamant he was about skipping my former safe house, and I wished we had all listened to him then. Before I could let the murky emotions engulf me, where I'd sink and drown under for the rest of the night, I threw the blankets off of me and snuck out of the room.

The hallway lights were motion-censored, so they flickered on the minute I stepped out of my room. I blinked a couple times, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness.

After a minute of trying to orient myself, I strode to the stairs. I didn't really have a plan or a sense of how I could distract myself from my own mind, but a part of my already knew where I was going, and warmth spread up my neck to my cheeks.

Would I embarrass myself? What if he thought it was weird I was visiting him in the middle of the night?

I shook my head to clear the taunting thoughts. Just him and I had gone through a lot together; visiting him wasn't unusual.

But it's the middle of the night.

"Ugh," I groaned to myself. Sometimes making a physical noise distracted the games my mind played on me.

I descended into the tunnels. Traveling beneath the ground during the day was one thing, but creeping through it at night was a whole other ballpark.

I drew in a sharp breath and let out a shaky exhale as I took the first tentative steps through the darkness. The burning orange lights gave a limited amount of sight, but just enough that I wasn't submerged in blind darkness. Come on Ash, you've faced off demons—things that want to kill you. But a non-threatening tunnel has you second guessing?

There was something about the darkness and the unknown that offered so much to panic over. In the daylight, the monsters weren't any less bloodthirsty than at night, but for some reason, that obscurity when night fell mutated that fear into a kind of irrational one. I wondered if it was a human trait to be afraid of the dark, or if it was somehow instilled in us by the leaders, by our mentors.

I dragged my fingers across the rocky surface of the tunnels as the exit hatch neared. So, a human trait then.

I emerged from the tunnels and headed straight for the stairs, the artificial yellow light like looking into the sun after being guided by gentle the orange glow. Soon enough, I was standing in front of door 133.

I raised my hand to knock, but then hesitated, dropping it. What if they're asleep? What if I wake up Des instead? After following Des around earlier, I wasn't too inclined on seeing him again.

I gritted my teeth and softly knocked before I could second guess myself and slink away.

I waited with bated breath, straining to hear if someone was coming. After a couple long, tense seconds, I heard feet thumping closer and closer to the door until finally it swung open.

Jace blinked down at me, his head slightly cocked to the side as I looked me over. "Ash?" His voice sounded clear, as if I hadn't just woken him like I thought I would. I tried peering behind him to see if Des was there, too, but the room was too dark.