Chapter Text
The last thing I heard before I went unconscious was the slam of my head against the edge of the metal roof and Aiden screaming my name as the phantom dragged my limp body up higher and higher, pulling me further away from him. Aiden had been on the ground, digging his nails into his knees trying to distract himself from the agonizing pain in his slowly swelling ankle.
“ASHLYN!” I screamed as the phantom pulled her on top of the roof, banging her head on the edge in the process. I tried to chase after her but as soon as I stood up I stumbled back to the ground. With the state of my ankle there wasn’t much I could do but I needed to help Ashlyn. Think Aiden, think, I told myself. Ashlyn needs you. Then suddenly a lightbulb went off in my head and I grabbed the walkie talkie that Ash had dropped when the phantom grabbed her.
“TYLER” “TYLER” I said frantically into it
“Dude chill, what d’you need?” Tyler said, clearly pissed from what he’d assumed was a prank from Aiden
“A PHANTOM HAS ASHLYN THEY’RE ON THE ROOF AND I NEED YOUR HELP” Aiden replied, now gasping for air from talking so loudly and quickly.
“Wait what? How the hell di-” Aiden cut Tyler off before he could finish his parade of questions
“Look, please just hurry up” Aiden said. And for the first time since Tyler’s known him, the blond haired psychopath actually sounded scared. Maybe more concerned, but scared nonetheless. It was weird, Aiden was normally always cheery and full of jokes, but something about his tone was different this time. Nah it's probably nothing, he’d sound the same if anyone in the group was in danger. Tyler told himself, trying to ignore the obvious fact that Aiden felt something for Ashlyn. “Ok, I’ll be there in a sec”
After what seemed like an eternity but had actually probably been closer to only 2 minutes Tyler had showed up. “Ok so what’s the pla-”
“put me on your shoulders” Aiden instructed in an agitated tone of voice cutting Tyler off, clearly pissed that it had taken him so long to get there.
“Ok fine Mr. Durable” Tyler said, noticing the growing purple lump on Aidens ankle where he had hurt it earlier in the evening.
“Shut the fuck up and put me on your shoulders already half-wit” Aiden said, clearly done putting up with Tyler and his stupid remarks. This time Tyler listened, kneeling down and letting the psycho crawl on top of him, adjusting himself to be sitting on Tylers shoulders before the brunette stood up, getting Aiden off the ground just barely enough so that he could then pull himself the rest of the way onto the roof.
“You sure you can do this? You know, with your ankle and all?” Tyler questioned in what seemed like a genuinely concerned tone.
“Yeah I’ll be fine” Aiden grumbled as he flung himself onto the roof with a yelp, hitting his ankle on the edge before pulling himself up the rest of the way.
“Alright well I’m going back inside so if you need any help just holler”
Aiden didn’t respond, he was too busy limping across the roof to where the phantom had Ashlyn. Except, instead of their only being one phantom like before, there were now three on top of her, pulling her in every possible direction.
“What the fu-”
“WHAM” the phantom that was on top of her, presumably the one that had dragged her up here in the first place had slammed her head back into the shingles of the roof again. There were also two other phantoms now that were each pulling her legs in different directions, seemingly trying to rip her in half, shredding her soft, freckled skin with their long nails in the process. Ashlyn screamed, hoping, praying that someone would hear her. Because of the noise the phantom shoved her head back into the roof again, this time it knocked out her earplugs, another agonizing scream left her mouth. The pain from all the noise was too much to bear. Ashlyn glued her eyes shut. She wanted it to be over, all of it. She wanted to wake up then and now and never have to return to the phantom realm but considering this had been happening for at least a month now, every night at 12:00, the chances of it just stopping were close to none. Suddenly, a weight lifted off of her and she slowly opened her eyes to see that Aiden had shoved the phantom that was on top of her off, knocking off the other two phantoms with it as the first one dropped limp and near lifeless.
“AIDEN!” Ash screamed as she slowly slipped down from her place on the roof. Turns out that the phantom that was on top of Ash had been holding her in place, meaning that when Aiden had shoved it off of her she was no longer being held into place by anything and was now slowly slipping, inching towards the edge of the roof. Aiden quickly grabbed Ashlyn’s arm, pulling her up closer to him and capturing her in a one-armed hug while the other held onto a part of the roof. She was shaking, but then again so was he. Her earplugs had been missing and as soon as he realized he reached into his pocket and pulled out a new pair, gingerly placing them into her ears as she let out quiet sobs from being in so much pain.
“Ash?” Aiden said, his voice quiet and gentle, soothing the pain and the noise ringing in Ashlyn’s head. Those were not words often used to describe Aiden Clarke but for some reason they were right now. “You doin ok?”
“Ye-yeah…F-fine. I’m fine…” Ashlyn said as her voice trailed off, even though nothing was fine. Her ears were ringing and her head pounded while her legs burned from the deep cuts left by the phantoms. Aiden, clearly noticing the pain and hesitation in her voice, stayed calm and kept his voice low and quiet, just like it had been before “c’mon Ash, let's get down from here and get back to the others. I’m sure they’re all worried”
“N-no” Ash responded, this time slightly more firm when she spoke. Aiden looked at her with a confused expression. He was still smiling though, god his smile. Although Ashlyn would never admit it, she loved his smile. Actually, she loved everything about the blond haired boy “can we just stay here for a bit?… I need to catch my breath” Ashlyn said, trying to come up with an excuse to stay wrapped up in the blond's muscular arms for just a few minutes longer.
“Yeah” Aiden replied, his smile slowly growing on his face “let me just pull us up a little more so we don’t have to worry about slipping off the roof.”
Once Aiden had moved them higher up onto a little ledge on the roof he just sat there in silence, wrapping his other hand around Ashlyn and having it land on the nape of her neck as the other stayed firm on the small of her back. He was still shaking, not nearly as much as Ash was but the thought of losing Ash was terrifying to him. “I’m sorry” his voice started to trail off, “Ash I’m so so sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen and you got hurt because of my stupidity, I’m so sorry please don’t hate me.” He said, the smile that was normally plastered on his face was gone. In its place was an expression of sadness and worry.
Did he think this was his fault? Shit. He’s still rambling, and this time tears were running down his flushed cheeks. Ashlyn didn’t say anything, she didn’t know what to say; so instead she just hugged him tighter, her arms squeezing around his stomach and her face deeply pressed into the side of his neck. “It’s not your fault” Ashlyn whispered into his neck, unable to tell if he had heard what she just said or not. Whether he did or didn’t hear didn’t matter to Ashlyn, all that did was that he had hugged her back even tighter, his warmth soothing against her numbingly cold skin.