I'll Bring A War

We walk past many rooms, presumably where they sleep before entering the biggest room so far in the house. It is orderly and has a table surrounded by five chairs set up in the middle of it, giving off the impression of a meeting room. There are also many boxes piled upon each other, full of various books and notebooks. The haphazard yet orderly arrangement of the boxes makes me fall in love with the character of the building once more as Ashley starts rummaging through one of the boxes on top.
Eventually he pulls out a weathered and old looking notebook with faded parchment pages and neat calligraphy lining the pages. It is split into two sections, both listing page upon page of names. I get to the end of one half and see the names Izzy Matthews and Mandy Hawthrow listed and tears brim the edges of my eyes. At the end of the second section the name Ali Rendon is listed at the top of the final page and I have to stop reading there.

Closing the book and carefully placing it upon the table tears fall silently down my face. I feel the warmth of a person as Ashley wraps his arms around my shaking body and I cry into him. “The first half, that’s the dead right?” I ask through shaky breaths. Ashley nods gravely in reply. “And the second half, the ones who have been taken?”
“Missing.” He corrects me and I nod, more tears filling my eyes and falling angrily down my cheeks. I feel the absence of his warmth as he leaves and swiftly returns, thrusting another smaller and newer notebook into my wobbly hands. I open it, only one page is full and in a different chunkier handwriting five names are listed. Edgar Thomas, Eric Hanks, Thomas Hanks, Aaron Josephs, Kiera Rendon. The names of the people who made it to camp. The five people left over from out group which started at fourteen people strong.
“Saved.” Ashley whispers hopefully, smiling slightly at me.
“You made this one?” I ask. He nods in reply. I begin to cry all over again at the simple yet thoughtful gesture and Ashley puts his hand on my cheek, wiping away my tears with his thumb. “Hey, don’t cry,” he smiles at me. A big warm smile which makes me giggle. Slowly he leans in, cupping my face with his hands still and I find myself leaning in too. Gradually we get closer to one another and eventually our lips meet in an explosion of fireworks and butterflies awaken in my stomach and fly all around my body excitedly. When we pull away after a loving and tender kiss his chocolate eyes are full of care and happiness, I wrap my arms around his shoulders, feeling safe and happy against his body once again. “I’m so glad you came with us.” He says softly into my hair as I melt into his body.

Suddenly a fire awakens inside of me as my built up anger erupts, ruining the moment. “We have to save them Ashley! I can’t believe they’ve killed and taken that many. How could they do such a thing? Oh right, because they have such a large following of people behind my walls. Including my parents who, would they even care about the danger Ali is in right now? Of course not!” Once I start I can’t stop, “They could be doing such awful things to him in that Temple right now. I can’t believe I didn’t look out for him more. I never imagined being here without him. I can’t believe he’s gone. What if we can’t find him? What if he’s dead?” I start to get panicky as various images of Ali being tortured, beaten, starved and killed cycle through my head and I begin to feel sick. Before I know it I am running back past all of the rooms in the house and sprinting outside to vomit in the first space I can find. I feel Ashley’s hand on my back as he holds my hair out of my face. Once I’ve caught my breath back, we continue to walk through the camp for what seems like hours. Ashley's voice breaks the silence, “You’ve got this incredible fire inside of you and such passion towards finding and saving those we have lost to F.E.A.R. That’s what first intrigued me about you, I wanted to find out where all of that passion came from, I wanted to learn about your past and about what you hope from the future. And in finding that out and seeing that passion I've grown to like you more than anyone I’ve ever come across before.” I listen to him intently, despite the butterflies proving an irritating distraction. “I’ve always stayed away from the whole relationship thing because I never wanted to run the risk of losing the one I loved, like so many of us have. But you, Kiera, you fascinate me, you make me proud, you make me laugh in these dark days and I want to be with you. What do you think about that?” He’s smirking down at me and I feel myself nodding before my body is in his and our lips are joined once more.

Notes

Sorry I haven't updated in agessss! Red Phoenix I hope you enjoy this slightly sappy chapter. More exciting things to come I promise