26. Gone

Alex's POV

He walked away with his mom, leaving me to stand outside stupidly. I crept up to the tent ever so slowly and listened for a second. Everything was muffled, but I heard the word congratulations from someone. It could have been either Ash or his father, don't ask me. I took a moment to envision his warm smile, the exact one I didn't deserve. The way his hair moved on a windy day, almost like it wasn't real. Like we lived in a movie, where they would blow a fan at just the right angle for the actor to look hot. One thing was for sure. While Ash may have been small, he carried himself in a way that would intimidate even the largest bodybuilder. Whenever he would get angry or upset, his eyes would give him away. They gave away all of his emotions, happy and sad. It was like he was trained to keep a stone face, but he wasn't used to holding away all of his emotion completely. It was sad though, the way he still thought he couldn't open up to me. I knew I could trust him, I would tell him anything, so it still hurt me every time he suppressed something from me. It hurt me that he thought I was too fragile to carry some of his weight; killed me, that he wouldn't talk to me about one little issue.

I walked through the woods until I reached a small, bubbling stream. The crystal clear, clean water that ran through it made this area the most beautiful place I had ever seen. The fading trees stood around me, silent as ever, with their leaves shivering in the breeze before falling softly to the ground. Nothing made a sound. Suddenly, I realized my mistake. The birds are never completely silent unless something was hunting them. I know I'm not causing any harm, so what I-

Ash's POV

A sharp pain coursed through my head suddenly and I felt the world around me begin to do loopy loops around me. Darkness pressed around my vision until I felt tears prickle my eyes from the pain. I could just barely hear my parents shouting my name over the loud roaring in my ears. A soft hissing appeared in my ears, getting louder as the pain increased. It didn't even cross my mind that the noise was me until I was slipping away into a different world...

I felt the world around me stop spinning and looked around. I didn't recognize where I was. All around me was a solid field of grass, which was sickly green. A shimmering image appeared in front of me, its happy smile shocking me. I would know whose it was anywhere. I reached out to touch it, but it produced a ripple effect and disappeared. His smile... It was gone. My heart pulsed in my ears. My worst nightmare was coming to life... He's gone.

I collapsed to the plush, sickly green grass and sobs began to wrack my chest. My fingers wrapped into the shoots on the ground, and I tried to uproot them to no avail. That must be why it was so green. Memories swirled through my mind. Today, when we just lied in each other's presence. The day he helped me get away from the reign of Alice, and what happened that night... The day we first met, when he wasn't scared off by my rude attitude. It was strange, I had never thought about that before.

I closed my eyes and I could feel his presence, any time any where. He had always been close, even when we were far. I couldn't feel him now, and it was frightening. He's either passed out or... or... No! He can't be. He has to be alive somewhere! I have to believe or... I'll go insane. I never realized how much I need him until he was gone. Until he was not within my reach anymore...

"Wake Up!" a voice penetrated my slumber. I couldn't.

"Ashton Quinn, you open your eyes this instant," a different voice, female this time, boomed.

My eyes popped open violently. My mother and father were stood beside me, their eyes showing concern. "Son..." my father began, but stopped himself before he could continue.

"OhmygoshIwassoworried," my mother shouted, slurring her words with speed.

"Uh, one more time in English?" I requested, but she ignored my statement by hugging me super tightly. "What happened?"

"Well, we were just hugging, you know, having a family moment and you suddenly collapsed holding your head as if it were in pain. I figured it was just a migraine --we get them all the time if we're away from our mate for awhile--, but then you passed out and it was scary."

My father held her close to his chest while she cried. "You weren't responding to us for a good 30 minutes. I have to admit, even I was quite frightened after fifteen."

They probably said other things, but I wasn't listening. My mind was caught up in the loss of Alex. One thing was for sure, whoever did this... Was going to pay for it from me personally.

Alex's POV

Darkness. I'd never felt it before, true darkness. Absence of sound, absence of mind, absence of my wolf. It was like I was floating on a dark cloud, so dark that it completely got rid of every ray of light. It was taking me, trying to steal me away from the real world. I tried to move it, fight to the top to find light, yet it got thicker, heavier. Suddenly it felt like the darkness was creeping down my throat, stuffing it with its thickness. Just when I felt I would die, my mind drove me out into the real world. The first thing I saw was an overly bright light hanging directly above the table I was cuffed to that seriously impaired my ability to survey the rest of the room. My fingertips brushed the table below me. Metal, like an operating table... Where am I?

A person wearing all black suddenly stepped into my field of vision. The only thing I could see was his eyes, a dark red... just like a vampire's. They were cold and calculating, almost as if this person was figuring the best way to slaughter me.

"I see you've woken up," he murmured leaving me with that unsettling feeling, his deep voice mysterious especially since I couldn't see any of him. "You're probably wondering why you are here."

I tried to speak to answer yes, but it still felt like there was a huge wad of cardboard clamped into my jaw. I simply settled for nodding instead, sensing that it was a bad idea to piss this guy off.

"It's quite simple, actually. I... borrowed... you from the forest because it's what I was instructed to do by my leader... Mr. Jackson."