Chapter 9 Ashton
ASHTON
Iwatch her crumble as her friend delivers the devastating news. I wait for the pin to drop.
Ah, there it is.
News travelled fast, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from a small town like this.
I twist the knife in my hands as I watch her curl her body and silently sob. She looked so pretty when she cried. She was broken, a shell of her former self, but she just wasn’t broken enough.
After everything she had been through today and everything she had learned, she was still going to come tonight.
My little bird was getting brave.
I’d thought I’d broken her, but she didn’t look broken. What would it take to break her and mould her as mine? She was tougher than I gave her credit for. Not once did I think she wouldn’t want to hide?
I wanted her to fucking hide, so I could hunt her down and see the fear glazed in her eyes as I broke down every fucking wall she had, but she wasn’t playing the game the way she was supposed to.
My thoughts are consumed by my little bird. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t fucking concentrate on anything other than the girl who drives me crazy.
Suppose I could stop watching her, but then—no, I didn’t even want to think it.
A rapping at the door rouses me from my manic thoughts that she seems to have invaded.
Flinging the door open, I’m met with silence and two red balloons bob in front of my face. The rustling of leaves as the wind picks up pace is the only sound I hear.
I look around but there is no evidence of anyone ever been here but then: who placed these balloons on my doorstep?
The chill in the air and the rustling of leaves creates a sense of foreboding doom, not to mention the bloody balloons tied to my fucking door.
I take my knife from my pocket and cut the blood red string. The balloons bob in front of my face until I watch them float away.
“Well, that wasn’t very nice, was it?” The girlish voice mocks me. “They were a gift.”
There she stands with the leaves swirling around her body in a white dress, splatters of red that could be blood painting the dress that falls into a tutu skirt resting on her slim thighs.
Knee high white boots with red, blue and black triangles. My eyes roam over her face. She’s painted like a clown, but you could see from her features that she’s probably pretty.
Her hair is half blonde and half red that tied up into pigtails and, as I look into her eyes, they are as blue as the ocean. But if you look deeper, there is something menacing about the way she gazes back.
There is something oddly familiar about this girl as she walks towards me. There’s no fear when she approaches me, just a menacingly, confident stride.
“Well, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten all about me, Ash.” She mocks.
That name she calls me hits me in the face. There was only one person that refused to call me by my name, but it couldn’t be the same person.
“Lilith?” I ask half a question and half like I’m in disbelief.
“The one and only.” She smirks. “Well, aren’t you going to let me in?” She asks sweetly.
“No.”
“We could have some fun.” She winks.
“Go home.”
“I am home.” She laughs maniacally.
“You can’t be here, the people here—.”
“Are boring, yes, but there is somewhere that does appease to my baser instincts.” I cock a brow. “Did you know the asylum is still here?” I don’t answer her, but she speaks like I have. “Oh yes, imagine my surprise when I accidentally stumbled upon it.”
“Accidentally.” I cock a brow.
“And it hasn’t changed a bit.”
“Lilith, go home.”
“We can’t. We’ve set up and you know we don’t leave until the next season.”
“We?” she giggles.
“The circus has come to town.” She whispers. “See you around.” She giggles as she skips back down the steps and disappears into the woods.
Great, this was all I needed. Lilith and her band of merry psychopaths were here.
I never did quite get her obsession with that asylum. The way they had treated their patients were nothing short of horrific, but it had always fascinated her. She always came back to it like there was something waiting for her inside.
I groan. Great, this was all I needed.
All I wanted to do was catch a little bird and make it mine. I had come here to be alone and now I would have to be careful. If she knew that something had caught my eye, she’d want to play with it.
And Lilith didn’t play nice.
Walking back into the estate, my mind isn’t consumed by my little bird, but what Lilith had planned, she never settled anywhere unless there was something keeping her here.
I pour myself a whiskey because coffee just wasn’t going to cut it. She had spoiled my peace and all my plans that I had concocted—she was a problem, but I couldn’t get rid of her the way I usually would.
She was family after all and I couldn’t bring myself to hurt a hair on her psychotic head.
Thinking back to the day I took her under my wing and promised to protect her forever, she was the sister I never had.
The children’s home was a dank place to live in, it was dark and filled with the screams of children that didn’t belong there.
There was nobody coming to save you. It wasn’t that type of home, no loving people ready to welcome you into their childless home. There was just this—a desolate, grimy place where not even the rats wanted to reside.
Nobody cared about you here, you fended for yourself. We would have been better trying to survive on the streets than being stuck in here.
The wardens couldn’t control the children, but they had other methods to keep you in line, methods that would horrify an adult, let alone a child.
The weak ones never survived and the ones what did, well, they were like me, sadistic in nature. They said we were soulless, completely void of any human attributes, but you’d have to be to still be alive in here.
I had a family—once, not that I remembered them. The only family I had were the other soulless children that were stuck in the pits of this hellhole.
The only thing I had was a name.
A name that brought terror to anyone who heard it.
Ashton Riley.
Lilith had no family, either. You didn’t get put here if you had a family. I thought she was just a sweet little girl who needed taking care of—how wrong I was.
She was fifteen years old when she joined our little slice of hell; she looked timid and shy, they’d eat her up, so I took charge of her, it could have been that innocent look she had given me that made my cock throb or it could be that I just felt something—and I hadn’t felt anything for a long time.
I was seventeen when she arrived. I only had one more year before I could leave this shit hole but as I looked at her, I knew I wouldn’t be leaving without her.
She followed me around like a little lost puppy. Nobody dare look at her. She didn’t go anywhere without me. Shit, she even slept in my bed.
I remember waking up one evening; the lights were low and everyone was sleeping; I was always a light sleeper, didn’t need much sleep.
Her body was pressed against mine, but she wasn’t in her usual shorts and vest that she chose to wear for bed.
As my hands shifted, I felt something small and hard; it was dark; I wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt soft against my skin, so I brushed my fingers against it once more and she moaned, a moan I’d never heard before but a moan that caused my body to rock with desire.
I pull my hand away and try to move my body away from hers, but it was almost impossible squashed together in a single bed.
“Don’t stop.” She pleads with me. Grabbing my hand and moving it back to where I had rested it moments ago.
“Why are you naked?” I grit through clenched teeth.
“I want to play.” She smiles in the dark.
“Then, play by yourself.” That was the wrong thing to say.
She flings the covers from our bodies and spreads her legs.
I watch as her hands crawl down her body and her fingers enter her pussy, “oh, it feels so good, touch me Ash.” She was taunting me, begging for me to commit every dark sin I’d imagined since I set my eyes on her.
I told myself it was okay because she wanted it, but deep down I knew it was wrong—maybe that’s why I wanted to do it.
I slide my hands down her body, but she stops me.
“No, I want you to touch me with your mouth, not your hands, she guided me between her legs and I sat there just looking at her pussy, I’d never seen one before, it was glistening with wet juice, my finger traced the line of juice and I sucked on my finger, fuck, it tasted like heaven, then I was gone.
I often fucked Lilith, but it became a chore, there was no excitement, she wasn’t scared, she didn’t fear me and I needed to see fear on her face, every time she tried to pretend to be scared she’d laugh because that crazy bitch feared nothing.
I knew that the day I watched the new boy grab her by the arm and pull her into a corner, he grabbed her by the throat and the crazy bitch smiled, she stroked his cock and got him hard before she tied a rope around his neck and sliced parts of his body with a rusty pipe, blood oozed from his chest and his stomach, he screamed but nobody came.
She discarded her clothes and stood over his bleeding body and climbed on his cock, shit, I was shocked he was still hard, his fingers grabbed at her breasts smearing her with his blood, I watched as she bounced on his cock, moaning and screaming about how good his cock felt deep inside of her, it wasn’t until she sliced his throat and his body shuddered that she screamed with desire, still rocking against him while he was dead beneath her, she came over and over again, I finally had enough of watching her twisted sex act and right then and there I knew we would have to part ways.
Of course, I stuck to my word. When it was time to leave, I took her with me. We went in search of people just like us and in our search, we found the circus.
They were just like us and in the outside world, we found a place we could finally call home.
If she found out about Dove, she would destroy her. I was just grateful that whatever was in that asylum was occupying her mind because if it came between her and Dove, I’d fucking destroy Lilith—even though it would pain me.
Nobody would hurt my little bird. That’s why I needed to keep her my little secret. I needed to stop the game nights with the townspeople, but I just needed one more night.
One risky night.
And she was mine.