Jack’s POV

It was supposed to be a normal band practice. I drove over with Alex to Rian’s place so we could do our normal routine. However, that’s where things already started to go wrong. Alex was out of it the entire time. He couldn’t hit a single note, and would notice when we would talk to him. It was like he was busy with something else completely, and it seemed like it was something pretty big. Stuff like this only happened very rarely.

So, that was why we were taking a break. Noticing that Alex wasn’t going to get into it soon, we just decided to have a breather and just take some time to ourselves. Normally, Rian didn’t like us hanging around after band practice, but it was exactly that; it wasn’t after yet. I was doing my normal thing, looking through twitter to see if there was anything I was missing out on, or just to have a good laugh, when I got a text message from Ash. Why was she texting me?

I tapped the notification to see her whole message, but was only left more confused. There was an address from the opposite side of town, in an area that was pretty remote, and a room number. But what got me was the small cry of help at the end, begging for me to to come as soon as possible. I didn’t know what she was doing, nor did I know why she was there, but something seemed alarming about it.

“Hey, Alex,” I spoke up, slowly getting up from my place on the dirty couch in the basement, inspecting the text to see if there was anything that I was missing, anything that could help me figure this out. “Can I borrow your car?”

This seemed to get Alex’s attention slightly, but not fully. He was still just simply staring at the wall, however he did at least hear what I said, so it was some improvement. Just minutes ago, he couldn’t even hear Rian counting, or just simply when the rest of us started playing. “Why?”

“Well, I just got a text from Ash saying--”

“What! You got what!” he leaped up like he was scrambling to get something, causing the two other boys to jump at the sudden noise from the guy that had been quiet for most of the day. Before I could answer, Alex had ripped my phone from my hands and read the text. He looked at me frantically and struggled to grab both our school bags before rushing to the stairs. “Shit! I should have know! I should have done something! Fucking hell!”

I rushed after him, not risking letting him get a panic attack now. He was so distressed, that it wouldn’t make me surprised if he suddenly started having trouble breathing again. I grabbed his arm before he reached the top of the stairs, “dude, calm down! What is going on?”

“I saw-- I saw--” he was already starting to have troubles, and I could only figure out that this was also the reason why he hadn’t exactly been here with his mind the entire time. The way he was reacting only scared me. He made it seem like there was something terrible going on with Ash, and like we had to be there asap.

“What did you see? What did you see happen to Ash?” Zack had joined us with Rian not for behind. They had also already seemed to make a connection between the two things going on, but Zack was already a step ahead of us. This was exactly the reason why he was the person to figure out what was wrong with just seeing us.

Alex took a deep breath and swallowed before opening his mouth to tell us the story, “I was sitting in class, when Luke came into pick up Ash. I-- I-- I saw him smash Ash’s head against-- against his car. But nobody else saw it and I don’t know if I was just seeing things or some shit, and now I’m afraid he might have beaten her up completely. I should have gone out there immediately and helped her!”

We all gave him bewildered looks, all staying quiet as we were taking in the shaky information we were given. It was possible that Alex might have imagined the whole thing, especially if nobody else in the entire school saw it, but the text was telling me otherwise. This whole thing could have been true. No, it was for sure that this was real.

“Ok, we’re going,” I pulled Alex along with me, dragging him out of the front door and towards his car. Telling Zack and Rian to stay here, and that we would keep them updated if something happened, I got Alex to sit in the diver’s seat while I clambered into the passenger’s seat. We started driving while I got my phone to turn on the GPS and send us to the location. In no time we were actually on our way.

We ended up at a motel. The walls were a cream pink and the whole place generally looked deserted. Alex pulled up on the parking lot, and I looked around to see if I could spot anything. Luke’s car was was nowhere to be seen, meaning that he had either left already or taken another vehicle. Alex was still gripping the steering wheel tightly, but he no longer seemed sad, no did he seem angry… he seemed defeated… He was probably blaming it all on himself, wishing he could go back into the past and change what he had done.

But there was no time for that now.

“I’ll go in, since she texted me. Stay here in case we have to make a run for it,” I had never thought I would have ever said that in real life, but it was happening now. It a line that was only said in action movies, yet here I was, saying it to my own best friend in a serious situation.

Alex only nodded while I got out of the car and started looking at all the signs, trying to find where the room Ash told me to go to. An arrow pointing to the right and up brought me to some stairs. There was a possibility of this all being a trap, that Luke was actually waiting up there for me to see if I still had contact with Ash. But I wasn’t going to risk it. If Ash was actually in trouble, I needed to be there. And with what Alex had told us, I knew almost for sure that the latter was the case.

I knocked lightly on the door of room 104, waiting for an answer as I impatiently tapped my foot against the floor. However, I nobody ever showed up. I tried again, but this time a bit louder and actually calling the girls name. When I still didn’t hear any signs of life, I started to panic. Instead of just knocking, this time I tried to door handle, knowing that these doors probably weren’t ones that locked themselves. Everything about this place looked a bit flimsy and old. The paint was a disgusting color, the curtains hanging in front of the windows had old patterns and were probably dirty, and the doors were like cardboard painted a tan white. Everything was just a bit too shabby for my liking.

The door opened easily, and I was met with a messy bed, ripped fabric strewn across the blue carpeted floor, and a crying coming from the corner to my left. I looked to see Ash hugging her knees to her chest, bawling her eyes out. But that wasn’t what shocked me. Her entire figure was naked and bruised, blood seeping out of cuts while she shivered with sobs. What used to be smooth straight hair was now knotted and sticking to her skin in weird angles. Everything about it was so wrong.

I made a wrong move and immediately rushed over to her, kneeling down beside her. She scurried away, further into the corner, trying to hide her body even more. That was the last piece of confirmation I needed. I knew exactly what had happened here.

“Stay the fuck away from me!” She screamed with tears running down her face, as she pulled her arms in front of her body, trying to keep me away as far as possible. But I wasn’t making any attempts to get closer to her. I was going to have to be careful with every movement I made while also trying to comfort her… which was going to be a nearly impossible task for me, but I was determined.

“Ash,” I said as calmly as possible, backing up a bit to give her more space, and not making any sudden movements anymore, “it’s me, Jack. I’m not here to hurt you.”

Suddenly the sobs stopped, but I knew it wasn’t because she was happy that I was here. It wasn’t that easy, nothing was. She was too ashamed to cry around me. I could hear that she was trying her best to hold them back, and it broke my heart. I had never intended her to be afraid to let her tears fall while I was present.

“Ash, it’s ok to cry. I understand. You don’t have to hold it back. I know I’ve made your cry before and acted like it didn’t faze me, but I know what I did was wrong. I’m not going to force you into doing something, but if have to, just let it all out. Don’t let me be the reason holding you back,” I wanted so badly to say that everything was ok, but I knew it just wasn’t. Of course it fucking wasn’t! Anybody with eyes would be able to see what happened here. I would have been lying if I told her that it was all fine. This was not a situation to lie in.

Luckily, my small words of encouragement, which I felt like were shit, got Ash to stop trying to choke back her tears. I didn’t know what to do while she was whimpering. She wasn’t in state to let anybody get close to her… if she would ever be able to let that happen again… But just standing there like the awkward person I was, also wasn’t doing any good. So, instead, I decided to look around the room in hopes to find anything for her to wear.
However, that didn’t happen to any avail. I couldn’t even recognize the shirt she had been wearing, her underwear had been clearly ripped off her body, and her jeans were cut into pieces. No wonder she was just sitting there naked. She had nothing to cover herself up with, even if she had the energy and willpower to do so. I couldn’t lead her out of the room like this, though. With no other option, I took off my zipup hoodie and slowly crouched down beside her again.

“How about we get you dressed so we can leave this place?” I asked Ash, handing her the clothing I had just been wearing seconds before. She was jittery and unsteady while putting her arms in it and pulling up the zipper all the way to the top, trying her best to cover up everything. I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for this girl. She didn’t deserve anything like this; nobody as innocent and beautiful as her deserved it.

I decided to rummage through her school bag, which surprisingly seemed intact, to see if I could find any clothes in it. Maybe she had extra things to change into just in case, or she coincidentally had her gym stuff in it. Worst case scenario, there was nothing, I was going to have to take off my boxers and let her wear them. It might sound disgusting and gross in normal circumstances, but it was a lot better than nothing. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it, and I didn’t think she would mind either. The only bad thing about that plan was that it actually required me to take off my pants and boxers, which didn’t seem like the right thing to do now. However, after reaching the bottom of her bag, it was what was going to happen. There was nothing to use in there, and I was actually willing to give make myself go commando for Ash. I was just very happy I actually decided to wear clean underwear that morning.

I quietly whispered to Ash that I was quickly going to slip into the bathroom, but that I was going to stay here, keep the door open, and keep an eye on her. I had to reassure her that I wasn’t going to leave her alone, but I also didn’t think telling her my plan was a good idea. Maybe she wouldn’t mind, but it might also cause her to get even worse. It was my mission to not make it go in the wrong direction. In no time, I had managed to take off my purple boxers and gotten myself to wear my now uncomfortable skinny jeans.

Ash didn’t question it when I gave the still warm fabric to her for her to wear. Her tears had dried up, no longer having any to let fall. The sounds also quested down, but i could still hear her shivering and her breathing being very uneven. For now this was going to have to do. I was more worried about getting away from this motel, than freaking out about how she felt. I was going to take care of that part later.

I closed her backpack and swung it onto my shoulder, my nerves telling me to get away from this place. The events that happened in here gave the entire room a haunted feeling, like the screams were still strung throughout the air; the dominance was creating a heavy pressure; the mixture of emotions making me feel sick to the stomach.

“Alex is waiting for us downstairs,” I told Ash, thinking she would be happy to see him as well. They had grown pretty close, and I knew how heartbroken Alex was about the entire situation. There had to be some feelings reciprocated. But I was completely wrong.

She started freaking out, her breathing becoming more rapid, and her eyes shooting up to me for the first time since I came her -- her head had been down the entire time, but now I could see all the dark splotches on her face as well. “D- don’t tell Alex! Please, don’t tell Alex! He can’t know!”

“Ok,” I soothed, surprised by how messed up her face was as well. Luke had really done all the work he could on ruining Ash. “We won’t tell him.” But at the same time I also knew that lying to him wasn’t going to work either. Bending the truth, though, was.

I reached out my hand for Ash, just incase she wanted to use it as support, for me to show that I really was trying to help her, but she flinched back even by the slowest and slightest movement of my hand. “Do you think you can stand up?”

Her blubbering started again, when I got another reaction I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t know how to handle to situation, and Ash seemed to be set off very quickly. “It hurts too much, Jack! It hurts so much!” She screamed the words at me right through the tears escaping her eyes at an alarming rate.

I still didn’t know what to do, but I knew I had to do something, so I warned her, “Ash, I’m going to put an arm underneath your knees and behind your back so I can carry you, ok? I’m not going to try to hurt you, I just want to get you out of this place. You don’t need to be here and longer than you already have been.”

It seemed like the right thing to do, tell Ash what movement I was going to do near her before actually commencing it. And it actually helped. When my first hand touched her at her legs, she only flinched slightly, it more being from the pain than from being afraid of me. The same reaction happened when I touched her back, telling her I was going to slip my hands down more to her waist to that I could make sure she wouldn’t fall over (I almost used the wrong words by saying grip, but there was no way that was a good word to use. In no time I had picked her up, still telling her exactly what I was doing, slowly making my way to the car. Fortunately there was nobody around to call me out on carrying a girl that obviously was hurt both physically and mentally. No wonder Luke chose this place out of everywhere he could have gone.

Alex was still waiting exactly where I told him to. He was looking around (whether it were to keep an eye out of Luke or from me and Ash, I don’t know), but when he made eye contact with me a small sigh of relief washed over him. He wasn’t stupid enough to think everything was ok, though. There was still a significant amount of worry in his eyes.

I put Ash in the backseat before getting in myself, letting her rest into my lap and chest. It didn’t seemed like she wanted me to break the contact, so I wasn’t going to. Her back was resting between my feet and her hand had moved to clutch my shirt.

Before Alex could inquire what had happened and interrogated us both, I decided to tell him my little white lie, the one I was going to make him tell Zack and Rian as well, “They were going to go on a small trip for the weekend, but Ash decided to break it off with him when they were already at the motel. Luke flipped out and beat her up before rushing away.”

He nodded, accepting my lie. It didn’t even seem like he was doubting it. However, guilt did cloud his eyes. It might not have been to right lie to tell him to make him feel better, but it was the only thing that would be believable that wasn’t too close to the truth.

“By the way, Alex, we’re going to go to my place,” I added, staring him right into the eyes through the rearview mirror.

I knew He wanted to question it, but I shook my head at him. It was the right thing to do to bring her back to mine. I wasn’t going to risk Ash getting worse from things Alex would do wrong without even knowing.

Notes

I haven't finished writing the next chapter yet, but I thought it might have been better if I posted this now. I feel cruel if I make you wait any longer. Just don't expect this to be updated soon after, I barely have any time to write anymore :(

Anyway, tell me what you think!