Monster

"....Ash...Ash...Ash...!!! What are you doing!? Stop it..!"

"... Mother...why are you crying? I'm able to protect you right? "

"Don't come any close...do you even know what are you doing to protect me?!...You're committing a crime Ash. Look at what you've done, take a look around you..."

"Blood...blood? Where did it come from...?"

"Do you even know how scary you're right now? Don't come near me from now on... you're not my Ash... you're not her..."

"Mother...!!! Where are you going?! Please don't go!!! Don't cry !! Please don't cry...don't go...."

*thud*

•••••••••••••••••••••

"NO!!!"

Ash woke up realising that just after coming back here she again dreamt of a nightmare. But this one was the worst because her mother ran away from her in that one.

She realised that she has been crying this whole time as she touched her wet cheeks.

"This one was the worst....*sigh*...."

she mumbled to herself. She took some time to think what was her mother talking about by saying 'how she looked' but not long after she took her phone to check the time. But something else caught her eyes. It was Linda's message which came just before she woke up.

"Linda...she messaged me this late? my number....oh right. I gave her my number today."

••••••••••••••••••

LINDA: "Yo! Ash! you up there? it's so boring..."

ASHLEY: "Care to look at the time? it's around 2:30 a.m. Though what's it?"

LINDA: "Phew...there you are. I can't sleep wbu?"

ASHLEY: "I was sleeping some times ago but now I can't."

LINDA: "Yes!!! Wanna hang out now? You know this is the best time to hangout in the lonely street. Though I have a great place to take you to..! Wanna come? If yes then where are you? In your house?"

ASHLEY: "In the college dorm...."

•••••••••••••••••••

"You can jump from there?" Linda asked from the outside of the dorm gate as Ash was about to climb up.

"Yes...it's a piece of cake."

"Well then take your time." Linda looked down at her phone and after a second she heard a noise of thud.

She looked up just to see Ash was standing in front of her , pulling her black hood up.

"Whoa...that's amazing! So..shall we go now?"

Ashley nodded.

"Well...where are we going though in this dark..?"

"Hehe...you'll see when we get there."

Soon enough they stopped in front of a factory, which seemed kind of abandoned.

"So....this was the great place you were talking about?"

Linda's chuckle could be heard from behind.

"Nah man...this is just the entrance."

Ash followed Linda through the way but as they got closer to the end of the factory some noises could be heard. Finally when they reached the exit gate through the hallway across the main gate, the loud noises were getting blocked by that gate.

"Well...we are here Ashley. Welcome to the 'RANKING GATE'."

Linda said as she pushed the gate and it opened slightly with a creak sound just to get face with a biking track.

They slid down through the open gate but there's something that hit Ashley. That's not the main entrance because in front of her there was a bushes of sideways. And beside that was the biking track.

"Come. It's about to cross the track in any moment." Linda whispered to Ash as she sat behind the bush. Ash followed her.

"What's going to pass?" She whispered back.

"I'll tell you after it pass."

Not long after as she fixed her eyes at the track, a bike passed through first but that was too fast to catch any glimpse. But that's enough to make the loud cheering noise of the people watching at both side.

"That's Ryan. He's known as the king of 'RANKING GATE' and ...girls....they go crazy over him. You got to see him closely?"

"No."

"Well...this is to be expected. Can you see the end?" Her eyes followed the path where it went and she could see the end where Ryan was standing beside his bike, surrounded by girls and many more.

"Yes. I can see it."

"Ok. let's move forward by your side. And keep your head down. We got here illegally. Hehe" After saying that Linda suddenly whispered boldly,

"Ash stop! Bend down!"

"What's it?" Ash was confused.

"Don't say anything. I saw a guard passing. Well I guess you can see Ryan from here. Take a close look."

Ash looked at her side. Ryan seemed like a flower surrounding with bees at that moment.

"Yes. I can see a bee nothing more." She smirked.

"Well, I hoped for this attitude. He's about 190 cm. you're about 183 right? well I guess so though. And most importantly we're in the same major."

"Nah I'm 185. Still 5 cm difference what's so great about comparing to a cheapskate. Most importantly if we're in the same major, then why didn't I see him today ?"

Ash talked just to find silence. There was no reply from Linda.

"Linda?" She looked behind just to find her completely frozen in her place due to facing a guard.

"What are you staring at?" Ash said.

To Linda, nothing seemed more cold than Ash's this tone of voice. Both of them looked at her. Her gaze was breath taking. Not to mention even the guard was frozen.

"Come with me." The guard commanded.

"Where?"

"You got here illegally. You have to challenge the champion to get out of here. Though it'll only happen if you can beat him, which is impossible." He smirked.

"Well let's see." Ash got up as she jerked the dust of her hands.

"You know what sweetie you look hot today."

"Ah, Ryan you're such a smooth talker."

"um.. sorry to say ladies if you excuse Ryan for a bit."

"you're middl...."

Ryan moved forward as he pushed the girl's crowd.

"What's it?"

"I caught someone being here illegally. so I wanted to say....-"

"I want to race with you." Ashley move forward , she passed through everyone and stood in front of Ryan.

"That's what he was trying to say."

Ashley finished her words as she removed her hood from her head. And as soon she did ,murmur could be heard.

"But first you're?" Ryan never saw this girl before so he was confused like hell.

"I'm Ashley. I came here with Linda."

"What!? Linda?! Where is that bastard?!" He raised one of his eyebrows.

"Ryan, you know you're making such a ruckus here." Linda moved forward as she said.

"Ok ok! But I've never seen her before..."

"That's not the main point . We are challenged...no I mean she's challenged to race with ya."

"Oh come on. No one is able to beat me."

"Well Mr. let me correct you. Well.. someone is able to though. But why don't we try Ash too?" Ash looked at Linda as she spoke.

"HEY EVERYONE!! GET OUT OF HERE!! THIS IS THE TIME!! I REPEAT IT'S TIME!! THE GATES ARE CLOSING."

"Ah shoot. We need to go right now! Ash come with me!"

Linda grabbed her hand as both of them started to run through darkness caused by thick shed of trees.

"Linda I can follow you from behind! Let go of my hand. Both of us are going to trip."

"If we do so you'll lost the way. So just...."

*thud*

Both of them stopped just to meet with complete silence.

"Linda you heard that?" Linda let go of her hand as Ashley started to look around.

"Lin...da...?" Ash found herself standing there alone when she turned to where Linda was.

She started to look around her furiously.

*rustle*

"Ash...?"

Ash looked behind her.

"Bella? What are you doing here?"

"I also wanted ask the same question to you. what are you doing here 'LIL ASH'...?"

Ash backed away as she was used to hear that name from her mother.

Ash was confused. Because of darkness she felt that Bella's face turned into someone else...like her mother...

"W-who are you...?"

"What are you talking about? You don't know? I'm...your mother Ash..."

"H-how this could..."

"Ash you know what you're a monster. You're not someone worth as human. You're not Ash ....you're someone else hidden inside Ash. I know that...you're not...you're not..."

Ash started to feel dizzy by confusion. she wasn't even sure whatever she was seeing that time whether that was real or not. She wobbled.

In a moment before she got to know anything everything around her became more darker than those darkness of trees. But before everything went dark she could hear something or someone was approaching her by crunching the dry leaves with their foot. "....Ashley..." That's all she heard before her alarm started to ring with beeping sounds.

*beep beep beep beep*

"agh...."

Ash groaned as she turned off the annoying alarm clock.

"....hn...wh...what am l doing here..?" She looked around her as she found herself in her dorm room with her shots which she wore yesterday.

"...what time it is...oh! it's 8.00 am already. I should get ready. Oh...the text massage..."

She rushed to look through her phone. But when she grabbed it she found Linda's massage from 2:10 am and after that there's only another massage of Linda greeting her morning around 7 am. She became more confused.

"Was I dreaming this whole time...?" *sigh* "....Fuck...I should've never came again here..." She mumbled to herself as she went to wash up.

*beep beep*

✉️ (YOU'VE A MESSAGE FROM BELLA)

To be continued...