The Colors of Ash-Chapter Forty

Ash

I return to my penthouse in the city and unlock the door. Already, I’m feeling things I don’t understand. Cinder has agreed to move in with me…but not just yet. She said she had…conditions. The fact that I agreed, frightens me. That’s what this girl has done to me—I must test the waters.

Stepping inside, something feels…off. A cold chill runs up my spine. She’s here. I can smell her, taste her…breathe her.

“Go away,” I hiss.

“Oh, Ashie. You know that’s not what you want.”

I cover my ears, repeating the words. “She’s not here.”

“Yes, I am. And you are the one who keeps me around,” she says with that laugh.

I uncover my ears, doing my best to ignore her. A cold brush of air passes by me. I continue to walk to my bedroom and remove my clothes. I need a shower. A cold shower. I need Cinder.

“You don’t need anyone but me, Ashie.”

“Stop it! You’re not real?”

“Then why are you talking to me, hmm? Are you going to take a shower, and think of me? Touch yourself—call out my name?”

I ignore her and step into the shower. The icy water hits me, and my breath hitches with shock. It’s good. It’s distracting. It’s not her.

Stop it! Stop thinking of her.

I grab the soap, lathering up as fast as I can. I stand under the cold spray until I’m in a hazy, numb fog. Turning off the water, I reach for a towel, dry off, and wrap it around my waist.

My skin may be numb, but my insides are burning with desire. My sick desire. I can’t keep her away. A warm hand runs down my chest, and I look into the mirror. She’s naked. I close my eyes, forcing her to disappear.

“Do you really think, you can be happy with that little mouse?” she whispers in my ear and then licks inside.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because…she’s not you.”

Suddenly, the room feels…different. There’s a calming sense in the air. It’s warm, like the sun on your face.

She’s gone.

I look around the room and then search the dark corners of my mind. I see only one thing. Cinder. I see me holding her. I see her smile and the way her eyes light up when she looks at me.  A smile I don’t deserve. I see something else. It’s pulling me deeper, and deeper into the unknown. Farther away from…her.

I’m not sure what it is. But I do know one thing. It has a light at the end of its tunnel. I gaze heavily at that light and see…Cinder.

Watch and listen to Ash Sinclair

Not The End…But Happy for Now

Saving Ash coming REAL SOON

***

The Colors of Ash © 2024 Gina A. Jones rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.