The hospital bed creaked as Ash helped him out of what was left of his work shirt. It wouldnât be the first time heâd dealt with a stubborn patientâand it took no small effort to coax him through those doors in the first placeâbut after the first ten times Schmidt insisted that a bandage slapped on at home would be more than enough, he was starting to wonder whether he wanted to be here at all.
Not that it made any difference, since he was doing all the first aid anywayâwhere the hell were the nurses?
âNo,â he said, avoiding his eyes, âIâm sorry this happened to you.â
âItâs not your fault. You know that,â the officer grunted, too quiet to have any bark to it. His fingers dug into the mattress until his knuckles pressed white against the skin. Even the light here was sick, picking out the sweat on his forehead, running down the lines of his face. The crevasses filled in black under his eyes.
âI know I cast a long shadow, Mr. Schmidt.â
And the people he cared about were always caught in it, sooner or later.
âAnd I know I told you to knock that off. Last names are for people who donât let hostages stay at their house.â
OkayâAsh let him have that one, and a thin smile to go with it. âYessir.â
Ugly bruises, black and blue and purple, mottled SchmidtâMichaelâs ribcage where the fabric peeled away. He couldnât ignore the hiss of breath through the injured manâs teeth. And there, like forgotten words carved under the bloom of spreading ink, the criss-cross of gleaming scars. Too many to count, too fine to be battle marks. Precise in their pain and their ruin.
Someone placed them there deliberately. Someone cut him.
âWho did this to you?â They were rough under his fingers, a raised alphabet that spelled out their stories to him. A racing heartbeat as he was pressed onto steel by hard, gloved hands. Whimpers of fear and ecstasy alike, pain and pleasure, ruthlessly stolen from him. Screams as the scalpel pricked lower and lowerâ
He snatched back his fingers, heart pounding in his throat. Hot, angry bile rose to join it, scorching his lips even as he bit it down. Still the images remained, burned into his vision. âMichael, who is this man?
âItâs-itâs nothing,â he said, too quickly, too brightly, as he pulled out of his reach. A poor lie; Ash could see the clench of his jaw beneath salt and pepper stubble. He could smell the fear, like the antiseptic that burned in the air.
âNothingâ came with the click and creak of a door, the swoosh of a coat as shoes tapped on the linoleum. âNothingâ wore a predatory smile that didnât warm the steel of his eyes. Just like him. âAh, Michael, more fighting? Tsk, tsk.â The voice was cold, smooth, a blade fresh from the freezer. False charm dripped from his lips like anaesthesia for the ears. âYou should know better by now.â
The officer stiffened at Ashâs side, a lab rat in a cage. He didnât move, didnât breathe, as smiling dread reached out for him with gloved hands and softly crooned words. He couldnât escape his shadow.
âNothing to say to explain yourself? How strange, you always were one to talk when youââ
Ash blinked and the doctorâs chest blocked his field of vision, far, far too close for comfort. He didnât remember standing. He didnât remember moving to block his way, pushing him back with a hand that looked so small against his ugly sweater. His name badge glinted as the light began to hum and flickerâChad.
âYou,â he growled, his words smoke and embers, hatred the flint on which they struck, âyou did this.â
âReally, Michael? Another urchin?â The doctorâcould he really be called that?âlooked at him as though he were something disgusting that crawled in on the heel of his shoe, but his words were syrupy sweet and spoken down to him. âNo, dear, of course not. Iâm a doctor, I help people.â The curl of his lips said otherwise, amused by their own game.
But this time he would lose. Ash had seen that same glittering smile in the face of another, seen those eyes. He knew his kindâthey were all the same. They all fed their bloated egos on the pain and misery of others, so assured of their victory that they couldnât possibly imagine that their arrogance would be their downfall.
His hand went to the phone in his pocket. He had to record this. And Tara, sheâd be able to help, do something. âYouâre a liar.â
The man surveyed him with those empty eyes, glinting from hard, cruel lines. Mechanical pieces clicked and turned behind his gaze. Ash didnât want to know what awful thoughts he assembled there. âThese injuries have to be treated,â he said at last, pursing his lips as he tapped impatiently at his clipboard with a pen. He wanted him gone. He wanted Michael all to himself. âThatâs why heâs here. Do you want him to suffer for your own petty grievances? How selfish.â
Selfish? Was it selfish to be made this way? To see the scars on others and know by whose hand they were made? The man was a monster, but it took one to know one. A warm hand touched his elbow as his lips drew back into a grimace.
The words were only tinder for the fire. It raged within and roared out for more, more, setting the blood alight in his veins, sparking at his fingertips. And it called out to him, called for him to let it consume himâto become the fuel for its inferno. He fought, but its voice was soothing, and his anger hot and fierce.
You are his arbiter, and you have already judged him guilty.
The shadows it cast painted the walls black. Above, the fluorescent tubes crackled and whined as the light, the life, was strangled from them. If Chad noticed, he didnât acknowledge it. His smile broadened, taking his silence for defeat. Another imagined victory chalked up on the board. âThatâs right,â he crooned, âI know whatâs best for him. Now Iâm afraid youâre going to have to leave, I canât treat him with you clinging on like some bedraggled orphan.â And he pushed him aside with a slap of the clipboardâon his rear.
But that wasnât what struck the match. No, it was seeing Michael jerk reflexively away from him, seeing those gloved hands seize him and pull him back, probing at wounds under the pretence of examining them, but only to cause pain. The smile as he pressed in close, too close, to breathe in the sweat and fear. In that moment, Ash hated him. Hated him more than anything else.
In that moment⊠he burned.
The windows, the lights, the tiles beneath his feetâshattered glass flashed like a storm of knives. He didnât remember picking up the nightstand either, weightless in his hands, but it didnât matter any more. He knew what he had to do.
âShit! SHIT!â Michael leapt out of the way, but the doctor wasnât so lucky.
One of the legs caught him by the shoulder and dragged him down in a heap of metal, plastic and squirming limbs. His hands cut on broken tiles as he struggled to free himself, and he raised one in an appeasing gesture at Aschereâs approach, as if his blood alone was enough to douse him.
It would never be enough.
The doctorâs clothes smoked where he lifted him with one hand from the floor. He, too, weighed nothing, and he would look him in the eye and know. Know that Aschere was the end. The end of him, of all things.
He blinked. Did someone call out to himâwas that even his name? Where⊠was he? Frightened eyes stared back at him, and there he saw the answer.
The hospital. The doctor. He stared down at his trembling hands and saw it, his skin, fused into glass and cracking away. As he watched, a shard broke loose and shattered on the floor, revealing a flash of metal underneath. His stomach heaved. No, no no, oh godâ
He let him go, let him slump to the floor, gasping for air, and backed away, back into something warm.
He promised that he would never become this monster again. Hot, guilty tears welled up, hissing on his cheeks, quenching the last of the flames. The warmth went to wrap an arm around him and he jerked away. âIâm⊠Iâm so sorry.â
âItâs okay.â The voice took shape, into one he knew, and he came to recognise the strength of the arms that pulled him away. âItâs okay, Ash. Just⊠stop. Please.â
Michael. Looking up at him, he couldnât ignore the way he flinched, the way he shied away from his gaze, even as he went to hold him close. Sobbing, Ash pushed him away and fled, flashing through the wall and out into the night.
As the officer snatched up his jacket and rushed from the room on unsteady feet, there was no one left to notice the figure uncurling from his defensive ball amid the ash and the rubble. No one left to notice him reach with trembling fingers for the photo, fallen from a coat or wallet, in the blackened circle left behind.
A youthful man with a cheeky smile, the one who stole away Chadâs favourite plaything, and a small, bubbly boy held proudly in his arms. Both pairs of eyes looking back at him from the paper were startling white-blue.
Perhaps demons were real after all.