When my time comes, forget the wrong that I’ve done, help me leave behind some reasons to be missed. Don’t resent me when you’re feeling empty, keep me in your memory, leave out all the rest... Leave out all the rest.”
Leave Out All The Rest - Linkin Park


I sit in silence in the passenger’s seat, staring straight ahead out the windshield while occaisionally stealing glances at Andy.

He doesn’t speak or elaborate at all on the events that have taken place... He’s so calm about what happened at the prom, as though it didn’t even phase him. I’m trying to figure out if he’s just in shock or something through my brief glances his way.

I look over at him, and in the dim light from the dashboard I can make out the small blood splatters dappling his white shirt. CC had noticed it and jokingly made a comment about it which Andy and him laughed off... I just feel really uneasy about it.

Something had happened to Reece in that bathroom and I fear the worst. Either he went in there and really beat the shit out of him or... He killed him. Either way, he left the bathroom in a state of shock where he almost acted like he didn’t know what was going on. He stole me away from Eliza and we left.

He never said anything else about what had gone down inside, and when prompted, he only shrugged a bit and said it was nothing to get upset about.

How the Hell does he expect me to not be upset about any of this?! What the Hell is wrong with him? Why is he...

My blood turns cold.

I peek over at him through my hair, praying that he doesn’t notice me. His eyes are locked on the road... Cold and at ease, not a single emotion to be found hidden in his features.

“Andy?...” I say but it comes out as a fearful whisper.

“Yes?”

I swallow hard, trying my hardest to sound calm and confident. “Red lilac.” I tell him, the safe word leaving my lips feeling more like a razor.

He looks over at me and meets my eyes for a moment, then his brow scrunches up in confusion. “What?”

Please be joking.

“Red lilac?”

“What the Hell are you talking about Ash? What red lilac?” He chuckles.

“Nothing...” I murmur to myself, leaning back in my seat, feeling my hair standing on end and my stomach churning nervously.

Fuck fuck fuck.... Where the hell is Andy and Ashley? How the Hell did the shapeshifter lure me into this?

“Everything okay?” He asks, looking over at me, his face kind and endearing as usual but this time there’s a sort of forced nature to it like the creature doesn’t know how to be comfortable in Andy’s body.

Do I confront him now or do I wait?...

“What really happened in the bathroom?” I ask nonchalantly, redirecting my gaze out the window, pretending to be looking up at the moon but it’s really to hide the fear in my eyes.

“It’s dealt with.” He replies, Andy’s usually low and soft voice now gravelly with a unhinged undertone.

“What does that mean? Did you kick the shit out of Reece?”

I smile at him, forcing the enthusiasm into my eyes to play it up, to make him think that this is what I’d really want him to do. He smirks a bit, looking back to the road.

“You keep asking that,” He laughs, “Why?”

“Tell me again,” I swoon, trying to come off as proud of his actions. “Tell me how you taught him a fucking lesson that fucking douche...”

His fingers tighten around the wheel, white knuckled around the rubber, straining the skin and ink over his bones.

“He won’t be bothering you again.” He tells me with a dark, defensive tone. His eyes flicker over at me again. “It’s my job to protect you. And that’s what I did.”

“I appreciate it.” I tell him sweetly even though my voice threatens to crack and shake in fear. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

The words sound so unnatural and unauthentic. I smile at him anyway, praying silently that it doesn’t look stressed.

“So where are we going now?” I ask cheerfully, my heart sinking as he drives over the detour bridge that leads to the larger side of Pendant. I look out my window at the black water below, flickers of light from the moon dancing across its surface.

“Ash,” He addresses me in a bland tone. “Be honest.”

“What do you mean?”

He smiles, but it’s not in amusement or happiness. It’s the smile of a shark closing in on its prey.

“We both know the truth. I know that you know...”

“What do I know?” I chuckle nervously, mentally scolding myself for slipping up. “I’m a dumb bitch remember? I’m surprised I’m not blonde-”

“Cut the crap. You know what I am.”

I look at him, clutching my hands tightly in the fabric of my skirt to keep them from trembling. I can’t speak, only stare at him as he slowly turns his head toward me, still smiling that cold grin. He’s not even looking at the road, but he never swerves or deviates from the center line of the lane.

“I’ve spent far too much time in your presence to believe that you’re stupid. You’re brilliant, figuring out things no one else could... Seeing things no one else wanted to.”

My breath hitches in my throat and I feel as though my blood as completely stopped moving and my heart is still.

“You saw the truth. Your beloved wanted to sugar coat it and pretend it was just PTSD from the suicide but...” He pauses, that wicked smile turning more genuine with amusement as he continues. “Even he, deep down inside... Knew what it really was.”

“What was it?” I breathe, my voice too strangled to go any louder.

“You almost caught him so many times... Why am I talking in third person? You already know. Me. You almost caught me so many times. I was worried that my plans would be ruined but then the unexpected happened and I was so glad that I’d chosen to dress up as his dearly departed best friend.” He cocks his head slightly before turning back to face the road.

“He protected me. He listened to me over you, the one person in this world he was ordered to protect and he chose me. Knowing full well, that by making that decision to protect me from your accusations, that he’d be hurting you in one way or another.”

“He tries to see the good in everyone.” I mutter reluctantly.

“Yes,” He agrees in a satisfactory tone mirroring Andy’s. “Which made this all much easier. Had I been anyone else, I would not have gained entry to your home, nor would I have been allowed to stay so close to you both on all your outings and adventures. I learned a lot these last few weeks... And it’s that humans are really ignorant creatures when they have the false illusion of safety over them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you ever notice how I never went into a room with a cross hanging in it? I didn’t go into your church on Sunday, I only entered your room when your cross was down, and I never touched you because you are always protected by that damn necklace... But tonight it just didn’t match the drapes, did it?”

He nods toward my dress and the absence of my cross necklace. I reache up to touch my collarbone where my amulet of protection usually hung. The skin is bare and it leaves me with a prickly feeling of unease.

“I also couldn’t enter your living room... That is until the wood cross above the fireplace fell down and your Dad took it to the garage to fix it. Your Mother was sure a fun one to impersonate... Someone so close and precious to you.”

It’s so strange.... His voice isn’t mocking or taunting... He speaks as though he is simply running an idea by me for a second opinion.

“So I think we should go ahead and skip the theatrics and drama and address a couple topics. First, let’s clear the air, who am I?”

I look him in the eyes, fear seizing up my chest, keeping me from breathing. The name sounds like a curse word now, one that I cannot will myself to say.

“No? Do I need to jog your memory? For fucks sake, Ash, I said I wanted to skip the theatrics.”

The change is so quick I don’t notice it until I realize his icy blue eyes have been traded for dark brown, almost black ones. His hair is long and dark, and his face is more smooth and less angular. He smiles at me now in his new form.

“Come on, out with it.”

He pulls off of the main road onto a winding dirt path into the woods and I recognize immediately where we are going.

“Who. Am. I?”

“Ashley.” I breathe in disappointment and fear, unable to grip the awful reality that there had been a fox in the hen-house for over two weeks and neither I nor Andy realized who the real threat was all along.

“Oh, and so it’s out there, I never even finished making that fucking jar. I threw that shit out, because all it would do is ban me from the house. Why would I want that? And anyway, it’s not actually protecting anyone since Ashley doesn’t actually exist and I’m merely... What’s the term these days? I’m cosplaying as him. Roleplaying in his place, and it worked well.”

The trees scrape at the windows as he drives down the winding path into the blackness ahead with the headlights off.

“Then who are you really?” I murmur, my voice trembling. I cannot will myself to look at him again because I no longer see the man I felt such deep sympathy for and a longing to befriend. I see the wolf in sheep’s clothing now coming unmasked.

“Wait, you didn’t figure that part out yet?”

I shake my head.

“Huh... Well I shouldn’t spoil the surprise. That’d be unkind of me.”

He pulls into a little dirt and gravel clearing overlooking Talia Lake. Across the shore is the area open to guests. From here I can see their small glowing bonfires on the beach as they enjoy their evening, oblivious to the horrific things happening just across the lake.

He parks the car and turns it off, letting us sit in uncomfortable silence.

“Tell you what... I’ll let you ask three questions, any three you want except about my true identity. After that, you’ll help me with what we actually came out here for.”

“What? No I’m not playing your game. Where is Andy?”

“He’s busy.” He replies coldly, annoyed that I am so eager to get out of his presence. “Your three questions?”

I sit in silence, arms crossed, my heart pounding while I try to come up with a plan of escape... There is none.

“Okay so, I love playing with my prey and all but seriously, you’re wasting my time here and that’s just going to piss me off. Ask your three questions or so God help me, I will drag you out of this car by your hair and drown your ass in that lake, do you understand me?”

I look him in the eyes, his dark... Void-like eyes. I nod once.

“Proceed.” He gestures toward me, fixing his eyes on the lake ahead glimmering in the pale moonlight overhead while silence falls between us and I scour my brain for three good and worthy questions that might help me later.

“Each passing second of silence is only growing my appetite to drown you.” He reminds me impatiently.

“How long have you been following me?” I choke out.

He thinks about it for a moment, taking time to crease his brow in confusion even though he already knows the answer by heart. “The day you and him entered the woods and came to the Dead Zone, but you already knew that. You fascinated me, so I followed you... All the way to California where I could stage the long-lost best friend plot. It went surprisingly well. Next.”

“There were... Inaccuracies to your character that even Andy noticed. How did you mess them up?”

“The gloves?” He asks, holding up his gloved hands and usual. “A camoflauge tactic I used to make up for the fact that I didn’t know what his hand tattoos looked like therefor I could not manifest them. You knew I didn’t have them, too... That day you came to my room, yelling and chucking books at me?”

A cold anger settles in my stomach. I could have stopped all of this a long time ago if I had really just opened my eyes and seen the truth right in front of me. Instead I wasted so much time looking in all these places where there was no darkness to be found.

“Your eyes. I know you have a strange ability that makes people forget things.” I say outloud. I’d never even brought this up to Andy in fear that the shapeshifter would somehow know that I knew.

“True... Very good. How did you know?”

“You used it on Jake, Jinxx, and CC to make them forget about your fight that night at the bar. Andy was looking away so it didn’t work on him.”

“I also used it tonight to put Elizabeth’s mind at ease.” He says confidently. “She won’t remember anything about the paranormal, now.”

“How much did you erase?” I demand. “What did you do to her?”

“You already asked your three questions!” He snaps, jabbing a gloved finger in my direction. “Now get out. We’ve got work to do.”

I undo my seatbelt and shove open the door, stepping out into the soft sand that seems to swallow up my heels.

He goes around to the trunk, leaving the driver’s door wide open, the interior lights illuminate a small area around the car. He pops the trunk and lets out a low whistle to call me over. I take a deep breath in an effort to calm my nerves before hesitantly making my way toward him, navigating the sandy terrain carefully in my unsuitable footwear.

“Now I know this will be hard for you...” He says in a concerned voice. “So allow me to make it a bit easier on you and give you a face you actually want to see.”

Within seconds, he’s the flawless version of Andy again in his prom get-up, smiling at me like he had when he’d come to my house to pick me up. I pray silently in my head as I hobble toward the trunk that he’d somehow find me and save me from this insane fucker.

I get to the trunk, but it’s too dark to see what is inside.

“Allow me,” he says, pulling my cellphone out of his coat pocket and turning on the flashlight, allowing the bright beam to fall across the contents of the trunk.

At first I am confused... The light reflects off the plastic of a couple white garbage bags. After a moment I am able to make out the big red blotches on the otherside of the plastic. The smears of what I can only assume is blood.

“Now don’t get upset,” He says in a chastising tone. “you wanted this. Remember that.”

I can’t speak... Not a single word comes to mind as I watch him peel back the makeshift tarp protecting the interior of CC’s trunk from the obscenities inside.

He pulls off the sheet and drags it out, a few droplets of dangerously bright crimson fall on the edge of the trunk in the process and all I can do is stare at it.

I... Can’t. I can’t look away.

The pale white light illuminates what remains of Reece Holland. In my silent panic, I watch his chest for the rise and fall of a weak breath and his closed eyelids for the slightest twitch to indicate that this is all a horrible prank. There is nothing...

I keep trying to convince myself in denial that it isn’t real. I can’t deny that the multiple blunt head wounds that decorate his right temple are the cause of death. The purple and black finger shaped bruises adorning his throat pull a morbid twist of color to the grisely scene.

“Well?” He pushes, voice excited and seeking approval.

My hands are shaking and my stomach is full of butterflies. I can’t tear my eyes away from his ghostly face, completely still and wrong... No cocky smile or mocking comments. I can’t even imagine him in this way. Quiet, cold, and alone in the trunk of a car.

I feel the nausea in my stomach and the urge to whirl away and puke intensifies. I clamp a sweaty palm over my mouth, strangled breaths of surprise, shock, and panic muffled behind it.

“Don’t you like it?” He asks in a disappointed tone, his excited brows lowering to brood over his eyes.

My fear and shock is quickly sapped by anger. I turn toward the Andy clone and look him in the eyes. He looks back at me with a satisfied smile on his face. There is a strange pride lighting up his stolen blue eyes. I clench my teeth and swing my hand out, the open palm of my right hand connects with his right cheek, the harsh slap of skin on skin echoing.

“He’s just a kid!” I cry out, tears stinging in my eyes, my lung aching from the pressure they contain while I struggle to express my fury. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

I drop my stinging hand back to my side and glare at him, breathing heavily in an effort to control my anger. No matter what, he is still much stronger than me. His head is twisted to the left. He blinks once slowly, then again and slowly turns back to face me, his smile gone and his face completely void of any emotion.

He stares back at me with a cold look for a few moments, his silence and stillness striking fear deep into my bones. He whips out his hand and backhands me hard. I stumble back, feeling the world around me spinning and I am seeing stars, blinking rapidly to clear my head of the blow.

“Don’t be so fucking stupid, you love me, remember?” He growls taunting me, reminding me of all the times it was really him I was confessing my love to and I never knew it. Like a sick fucking joke... His voice is angry, all his former amusement gone. “No more fuck ups. I’m not babying you anymore. Get your ass up here, we’ve got work to do.”

I curl my fingers into the dirt, trying to find a stone or blunt object to defend myself with. All I have is the gritty sand and clumps of grass that would not do much to aid me even if I threw them in his face and ran. This damned dress would be making sure that I would not be getting very far very quickly.

“Get up here or I will cut out your fucking tongue and ship it to your parents, do you understand me?”

I take a deep breath and find the will deep inside of myself to climb back to my feet, my cheek and jaw burning from his angry touch.

“I’m tired of the theatrics,” he says in an exhausted voice, “I’ve been keeping it up for weeks and I’m just ready to get to the important stuff. The important stuff being how are you going handle what I am going to ask you to do. This is a weakness test that will dictate what happens in your life from this point forward and who around you gets to live so a bit of advice from me to you? Answer honestly, and oh, don’t be a little bitch. You’re not going to be having fun.”

“Where is Andy?” I croak, my voice breaking and trembling. I feel the tears of fear welling up in my eyes, the light breeze is blowing my loose hair against my wounded cheek. “What did you do with him?”

“You’re not running this show.” He reminds me in a voice so casual he could be just giving directions to a coffee shop. He pulls a heavy-duty rope from the trunk and begins to lift out some cinder blocks. I watch the trunk raise a bit after it has been relieved of the extra weight.

“Where is he?” I growl, forcing more intensity into voice even though I know I am in danger. I know that despite how intimidating I am trying to be, I must look like a pathetic, broken wretch with tears running down her face.

He gives me an exasperated look. “Your pet is safe. I just needed his nosy ass out of the way for a while and that was easy enough. He has a much bigger role to play in all of this so obviously I can't kill him.” He gestures toward Reece’s body.

“As for this one?... He was pissing me off and his time was running out. He would have died tonight anyway. Car accident... Alcohol would have been involved, and your bestest friend Eliza would have died, too. Don’t look at me like I’m the monster, there’s tough decisions to be made and I spared her life. You can thank me for that later.”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s not important.” He shrugs, “Do what I ask and I’ll tell you everything... Well, most everything.”

I grind my teeth to keep them from chattering. I watch him carefully while he assembles his equipment, concentrating hard at the task at hand. My eyes wander to the tree line around me, searching for a way out.

“There are so many other ways you could have averted their deaths without killing him.” I reply in a low voice not to betray my fear. Still, it shakes with uncertainty. My gaze goes back to Reece’s crushed face and I wince, my heart squeezing in fear and anguish.

“When you’ve had to do this shit for as long as I have, the save them all hero mentality dies out pretty quick. And anyway, that little fucker was pissing me off. He kept getting in the way of my plans.”

“What are your plans?” I whisper, watching him carefully.

“I want to live again. I’ll do anything for that.”

“So what then? What do I have to do with any of this?” I shake my head, unable ot make sense of what part I play.

“You’re the perfect disguise.” He says in a chilling, breathy voice. “I could be reincarnated as anyone I want in this town, but you’re perfect. The sweet, quiet church girl who’s moving to a new city... A planned departure that all your friends and family are aware of. Once in California, changes to your mood and attitude would be natural to your parents because they’d assume you were under stress and I could quietly go back to living my life until I could disappear from your life entirely and leave. I could finally go back to my old life.”

My chest tightens at his words. I get a mental image of watching myself walking along a busy street, hood up, an ominous look in my eyes... Except they’re not my eyes, they’re occupied by some other being.

“So you just want my body?” I whisper, all the words Andy had said about how much it hurts to be seperated from your body come rushing back to mind.

“Yes, that and some other odds and ends that I have not sorted out yet.” He says with a shrug. “How’s that jaw?”

“Peachy.” I reply in a flat tone, instinctively reaching up to touch the stinging patch of skin. It’s bound to bruise.

“Where did you send Andy? He’d never willingly leave my side. Especially not with things how they are.”

“I just had to send him on a little goose hunt.”

“Andy would never leave my side.” I repeat, mostly only for reinforcing my own beliefs, only breathing the words, unable to muster the strength to say it louder and stronger. I feel uneasy.

“And in his version of events, he didn’t,” He replies in an reassuring tone. “You did.”

“What does that mean?” I mumble while wiping my eyes and smearing my eyeliner.

“I just had to play you for a bit... That brief moment when you left to speak Elizabeth, I told him as you that I was not having fun, I need to leave, and for him to leave me alone... I as you, ran out those doors and into the streets... Of course he followed, but he couldn’t keep up. He’s somewhere out there now, looking for you on the streets. He won’t find you. He’ll search until the first light of morning, and then I am out of time.”

“Time for what?”

“Time with you. He’ll come looking here eventually.” He winces as he pulls the rope in a tight knot through the hole in one of the cinder blocks.

“But enough questions for now. Now comes the fun part. Are you ready?”

He smiles at me, his teeth glimmering dangerously in the low moonlight. He gestures toward the trunk.

“So how does this end?” I wonder, speaking through clenched teeth. “All of this taunting and playing with me and you’re just going to do what? Kill me tonight?”

“It’s not your time.” He replies with a shake of his head and a concerned look on his face. “Not tonight.”

“But eventually, right? None of my efforts will matter because you’ll take my soul and body anyway.”

Those words feel so strange to say.

“All good things must end,” He reminds me quietly, his smile growing sad. “A lesson I had to learn and one you need to learn. Life has been endlessly good to you while people like I, Andy, and Ashley had to learn to thrive on the streets at a young age. We learned that happiness comes in the form of violence and bottles.”

“Is all of this just out of jealousy, then?” I ask harshly, daring to test him further. “Because I had the ideal perfect life I’m the enemy?”

“No...” He frowns, shaking his head, looking less and less like he even has a clue what is going on. “Hurt and pain can trigger some of the most fantastically grotesque animalistic instincts in us. Caught your lover cheating? That pain can be twisted into something much more... That’s what it became for me when I was alive. My anger toward those around me became the insatible thrist for blood. I was fascinated by it.”

I look him in the eyes, a light goes off in my head.

“You killed people.” It’s not a question... It’s a statement. He locks eyes with me, neither nodding nor speaking in response. “You were at the dead zone... You have ties to Ashley and his ghost stories, you...”

I stop, my words getting caught in my throat. My eyes widen in fear and shock and he sees every thought running through my head in my eyes. I feel more sticky tears making their way down my cheeks.

“You...”

“Are we on the same page now?” He sighs, “I all but spelled it out for you. Out of everything thusfar, this is the one thing I expected you to figure out right away.”

“No fucking way...” I whisper, narrowing my eyes at him, trying to see the infamous man I’d heard so much about hidden in the features of my dearly departed lover.

“Come on, I don’t have all night, remember? Either say it out loud or don’t, I don’t care... I already know that you know. It took you long enough.”

He walks away, packing his handmade anchor down to the shoreline. He must have confidence that I would not be able to cover much ground before he could catch up to me again.

I stare after him, feeling a chill run over my skin as I put together all the little fragments and clues. This man who had been pretending to be Ashley for weeks was actually someone else all along... Everything points in one direction... At one man... Who once upon a time called the Apture house his home.

Notes

All has been revealed dun dun dun... Okay to recap and clarify: the Ashley Purdy we all know and love was never actually in this story. The shapeshifter used him as a disguise to get closer to Andy and Ash to analyze them. There was never an Ashley, ever since the day they went into the woods before going to California, it was always this creature.

Hopefully this is all living up to the hype lol I've been writing and reworking this chapter for two weeks trying to make sure that it's hitting all the notes I want it to.

Here's the soundtrack/inspiration tracks:

Leave Out all the Rest - Linkin Park
"Letting Go" music mix
Ambient creepy music