Quote of the day : For everything that happens there is a reason, so keep calm and let fate take its cause.

  
      Blinking furiously, her head was aching so much it felt as though it was been pounded on. Her nose itched her, something smelt awful in the air.  Ashley looked about but everything looked blurry to her. The floor underneath her felt hard and rough, and the fact that she was wearing a sleeveless clothe didn't help.  She felt pain shoot up from her left wrist, she tried to reach for it but felt restrained. Her hands were tied tightly at her back by the elbow, he must have taken her broken wrist into consideration.

   She was laid down on her right side. She tried sitting up but as you can already assume her legs were tied together by the ankle. She blinked again trying to make sense of her surroundings. By the time her head stopped spinning and she could see clearly, what she saw made her heart drop to the pit of her stomach.

    Lying opposite her was the priest, the dead priest. He was right in front of her, facing upward, his brown eyes was still wide open. The awful smell was now understandable to her. The blood on his white robe was dried up, and it was emitting some bad smell. She felt nauseated at the sight, and she also felt guilt ripping through her heart. She had once again been the cause of a person's misfortune.

   She glanced around the room she was in, it seemed like they were no longer at the church. The room was empty safe for a single bed that looked like it hadn't been in use for ages. She looked towards the tiny door that was right behind the dead priest. She could see a tiny window from her peripheral vision, but nothing else aside that.

   She wondered how long she would have to stay there, but even more, she wondered how long she had before her death. She knew death was around the corner for her, she could smell it in the air, she saw it looking and laughing at her through the glass of a two sided mirror.

   The pain from her wrist was getting worse, it felt like someone was ripping it apart. She tried as much as possible to endure the pain, it wouldn't be the first time she had had to endure so much pain. Thinking about this her thoughts went back to the incident that took place two years ago, it was all coming to an end now. The door cringed open drawing her attention towards it, she looked up and stared at the hazel eyed man that walked in. The man who had eyes so similar to hers.

      He was dressed in a black robe, he must have stolen it from the church. His brown hair was a lot more shorter than it had been when she saw him at Spain. He walked in with a stoic face which was greatly unusual, her father had always been a man that expressed exactly how he felt on his face, be it love or hatred that she was so used to.

    He crossed over the body lying on the floor, he glanced at it and continued walking towards her. Once he got to her front, he bent forward, "hello daughter, did you miss me?" Still with that poker face. 

   Ashley wanted to reply him but didn't, she knew better. Her father didn't like being interrupted when talking, so even though he asked a question, don't answer unless he asked you for an answer, complicated right.

     He forcefully raised her up by her left arm, it hurt a great deal. He sat her down legs stretched out in front of her, he raised her chin up with an index finger, his hand was rough against her skin. Fear crept up her body as thoughts of what he could possibly do to her crossed her mind, he was the only one capable of emitting such fear from her.

       "Well I missed you, for two years now there's being absolutely no one to rant to, no one wanted to seat and listen to whatever I had to say. You are the only one who listened to everything I say without judging me, both the bad and the good things I had done." He said, standing up from his kneeling position. She remembered it all, she had always been his trash can where he dumped every single one of his emotions.

   She had always felt sad for him but now all she felt was hatred, there was actually not a single moment where he had made her feel like a father would. At first she had felt nothing but pure hatred, but as time progressed and as she started listening to his tales, she started to feel sad for him, for the man who had done nothing but loved a single woman. Soon enough she had known better, she realized herself that he was nothing but a liar and a conniving psychopath, a psycho whose only form of livelihood was drinking and making the life of his daughter and the woman he claimed to love miserable.

      "Today is the day Slut," he said with a sly grin on his face. She wanted to rip the grin off his face, she could remember clearly the last time he had said this to her, she remembered what had happened after, and how he had left her all to herself. "We are going to have a tea party."

   She found herself laughing at what he just said, she laughed so hard but deep down it was fear she felt. It had always been about party.

        "Today is the day Slut. Get up, we are going for a masquerade party."

    She could recollect him saying this to her two years ago. He bent towards her and grabbed her by the throat cutting off her air and laughter, his eyes was glazed with anger, fear gripped her. She got more scared as his hand tightened around her the more, he had never for once hurt her physically, all the fear she felt for him before was from the way she had seen him hurt people.

      "There is nothing funny here bitch!" he said with a cold voice. He dipped his hand into his pocket to produce her purse, he took his hand off her throat giving her breathing space, she took in a big gulp of air. He opened her tiny purse and brought out her phone, turning it on. She knew Nora and the guys must be searching for her now, if her phone was still on then they could be able to track her down. "We are calling him."

     "What?" she asked with a croaky voice. He gave her a smile.

       "We are having a tea party my daughter, and there is no party without guest. And our first guest for today happens to be my son."

   Son could only mean one person, and that was Greg Marshall. "No!" She took her stance. She was not going to call Greg over there, nothing would make her do so.

       "We can do this two ways slut, call my son here, or I go get him myself along with everybody else I find," he said with an angry glare. "I really don't care about the outcome of today, I only came here for my revenge and my son, and I'm going to get both."

    "He is not your son!" Ashley yelled into his face. She had had enough, he was full of gibberish. Greg wasn't his son, for goodness sake Cassandra already had him before they even met.

     "He would have been if your slut of a mother hadn't disrupted my life!  Now call him!" he commanded. "Chloe happens to be at work now, and I happen to remember that I have this grudge against that sharp mouthed friend of yours."

  Her face went pale as she heard him say this, Chloe was her weak point, but still she wouldn't get Greg here, she and her father had done enough damage to his family.

    "I see you are proving to be stubborn," he said quietly. He swiped her phone up, she at that moment wished she had put a passcode on it, after some seconds he shoved the phone in her face. Her eyes went wide when she saw that he had dialed Greg's number, and he had also put the call on speaker.

    She prayed fervently that he should be way too busy to pick up, but Greg picked up on the third ring. "Hey Ashley," his voice sent a warm feeling through her.

    "Hey," she said, and mustered her voice not to sound too scared. She was scared, she didn't know what she would say.

      "Is anything the matter?" he asked gently, but she was too scared to answer. She saw her father giving her a daring look. "Ashley, is everything okay? Where are you?"

     She didn't answer him, her father pressed his free hand over her broken wrist, she suppressed the painful sound from coming out of her throat, she didn't want Greg to panic. She looked at her father who mouthed 'church' to her. She was surprised, she would never have guessed that they were still at the church.

    "Ashley, are you okay? Where are you?" Greg asked with impatience. She knew he must be pulling at his tie by now.

      "Church," she said calmly, Which contrasted with what she actually felt.

    "Church? What are you doing in a church?"

     "Praying," she said plainly. She was indeed praying, praying that Greg wouldn't come for her.

      "Okay, can you give the phone to Cade or Gage."

    "They went to use the restroom," she lied. She needed him to believe she was safe, she knew her father would never do something as stupid as speaking himself, he must be aware that Greg would not be foolish enough to come there alone if he sensed that she was in danger. And she knew her father wanted Greg to come there  alone.

     "Both of them, at the same time?" Greg asked not believing her. It Was then she realized how stupid her lie was.

        "No, Cade went to use the restroom and Gage..."

      "Which church are you Ashley?" he asked, cutting her off.

     "You don't need to be here Greg..."

    "Which church?" he asked again.

    She sealed her lip tight, her father pressed hard on her left wrist again, she groaned. "St. Mathews church." Once she said this tears started streaming out of her eyes. She knew there was no stopping Greg, she just prayed he would come with someone, at least his driver.

      "Stay right there Ashley, I'm coming," he said and the line went dead.

  Her father took her phone away from her face, a fulfilled smile was plastered on his face. "Finally, I would get to meet him, my son." He pushed her down roughly as he stood up, she yelped with pain as her left hand grazed the floor ever so slightly. "Let me go and welcome our guest." he said and left.

  She looked about her quickly, thinking of what she could do.

____________________

   Greg stood up with anger from his chair, he pulled his tie with frustration running out of his office with haste. He couldn't believe the two idiots he hired would be dumb enough to leave Ashley to herself. Moreover he thought she had gone shopping with Nora, so why was she in a church, alone. She had also sounded weird over the phone, he had a feeling that something was off.

   He dismissed his driver when he got to the garage, he didn't need someone slowing him down, he needed to be with Ashley and soon. Once he was seated in his car his phone rang in his pocket, he brought it out thinking it was Ashley again but ignored it when he saw that it was Davis.

   He drove fast, finding his way to the church, he used to go to that Church with his mother and Nora whenever they were at New York, and he hadn't been there ever since his mother's death. The church brought back memories, memories he would like to ignore.

      He parked his car outside the church and came down, he looked at the sight before him, he began to wonder what Ashley was doing there, if she was there to pray then he would pray with her.

    He noticed that the place was awfully quiet, but it was understandable, the convent was at the back of the church, so he knew that part would be quite busy. He walked into the church.

    He was a little surprise to find it empty, Ashley was nowhere to be found, or maybe she was talking about a different church. He was about dipping his hand into his pocket to fish out his phone when he saw the priest. The priest was different from the one that had been there before, and there was something so familiar about the priest.  

     The priest came closer to him with a smile on his face, his hazel eyes twinkled as he did so, a very familiar twinkle. "Peace unto you young man," he said.

      "Peace father," he said calmly. "I'm looking for a young lady..."

      "Auburn haired?" the priest  asked shocking him, "she is the only one who has been here today for the confession." He wondered why Ashley would come for confession, he never pegged her as the religious type. "She is currently at the convent, she got fascinated by the children and she had been watching them. Follow me."

     He followed the priest cautiously, but he felt something was off, the priest looked so familiar, like he had seen him before. Yes, what made him familiar was his eyes,  his hazel eyes was so similar to that of Ashley, and he finally placed his face and recollected that he was the man that had Ashley so scared at Spain... This could only mean one thing. He stopped in his tracks and stared in horror at the man before.

      He skillfully dipped his hands into his pocket but before he could bring his phone out the priest was at his front, his hand went over his face and he fell deep into a pit of darkness.

    Chapter forty.
Mary Aden.