demoniac//an evil dead story

chapter three

After picking Ash up from the hospital, they stopped by a local department store so he could pick out some clothes that weren't the gray sweats the hospital provided him. He picks out a pair of khakis and a blue button up shirt. Katherine points out that it's more or less the same outfit he'd been wearing when she picked him up, just not bloody and tattered. She does understand his attachment to the look though once he changes into the new clothes in the bathroom of the gas station. When he walks out, she can't help but feel flustered as she studies him. The khakis clinged to his long legs in a nice way and they accentuated his ass. The blue shirt looked nice against his tan skin. The overall look showed off his athletic physique. He doesn't say anything when she comments that blue is a good color for him. In fact aside from thanking her for the clean clothes, Ash wasn't as talkative as usual.

He looked out the window as they rode in silence. Katherine wasn't entirely sure what to do with him now, so she just drove down all the backroads she knew figuring he would have to say something eventually.

His thumb absently strokes the bandage where his right hand had once been. He's acutely aware of walking out of that cabin with less to offer than before. Eventually someone is going to have to answer for the disappearances of his friends, and he doubts anyone else would believe what really happened. Katherine believed him, and that felt nice. Although there was a tug of guilt for having interrupted her life so much. He knows it's not fair for him to be mad that she'd never mentioned a boyfriend before. He had seen her with Jonathan outside the hospital. They were friendly with one another. Ash can see the lingering bits of history between them. It makes him regret being so open with her. Seeing as he would likely carry the burden of being the sole person with experience in fighting deadites for the rest of his life, he figures there probably won't be much room for vulnerability or softness anymore. He thinks of when he hugged her in the hospital. How she smelled so sweet and felt so warm. The way she braced herself against him. After she left, he had toyed with the idea of this being the beginning of something else. Maybe another chance at having a normal life.

'That was stupid,' he reminds himself.

Now, she drives. Her eyes focused intently on the road, her dark curls falling down her shoulders. In spite of everything she hummed along to the radio and carries herself easily. She notices him picking at his bandaged wrist, and she reaches down to take his hand. He looks at her with confusion written all over his features, but she just smiles. He feels warm and soft and open again for a moment before snapping back into reality.

"How would your boyfriend feel about you riding around with a stranger and holding his hand?" he asks her.

"What boyfriend?"

"You know, the guy at the hospital."

She laughs, "That's not my boyfriend. There is no boyfriend."

He nods, deeply appreciating this news. With all previous ill feelings about her now forgotten, he gives her hand a squeeze. Maybe it's okay not to have a normal life. They have now, and she makes him feel good about himself. Perhaps now is all they really needed. Even if it was nothing more than light flirtation before they part ways, he wanted to soak in all the warmth he could.

Katherine likes being around Ash. He's easy to talk to, and there was simply no attached bullshit to the way he approached things. There was an uncertainty to the whole situation that should've scared her away but didn't. She had a feeling she could trust him.

'I'm just solving the mystery of a handsome stranger, like Nancy Drew meets Nora Roberts' she tells herself.

"So, what do we need to do?" she asks him.

"About what?"

"I don't know, proving your story?"

"I don't know how," he says honestly.