Being Human: *under major editing*

Chapter 5

Alison felt like she was floating. She felt wind blowing at her. Then she realised how cold the wind was. Then the wind stopped. She felt arms around her and noticed that she was being carried. Suddenly Alison felt scared. Who is this? Where are they taking me?

Alison noticed when the person stopped walking, and screamed the loudest she ever had. Alison's scream was cut short by what she thought was a hand on her mouth.

Just as she was about to bite the hand she heard, "don't even think about biting." She sighed in relief.

It was Ashton. He placed her down gently.

Then she was worried. She turned to him and asked, "where are we, why were you carrying me, why is my back so stiff, what time is it, and where are we?!"

Alison thought Ashton looked amused. "We are at a motel, you were asleep, you slept weird in the car, it's five thirty in the morning and I answered that already." Ashton chuckled.

Alison then felt bad. "Oh, you must be tired then. You sleep now too!" she told him.

"I can't," he said back.

Alison chuckled, "Why not? Of course you can, don't be ridicules! Don't worry I won't run away and I'll slap you awake when someone comes."

"No!" he said, "you don't understand, we angels can't sleep. We physically cannot sleep."

"Oh, but don't you get tired then?"

"No, but truthfully, I miss my human days." he said sounding sad.

"How long has it been?" she asked, "Since you, umm... died, I mean."

"It’s been almost 23 human years. Okay so since you’re not tired anymore, can we continue driving, or do you want to stay?”

“No, let’s go, I’m okay now.” Alison said with a slight smile on her face.

Alison watched as Ashton walked up to a man behind the desk and gave back the key to the room. It looked to Alison like he had some explaining to do. Then Ashton walked up to Alison and wrapped his arm around her waist whispering, “He thinks your my wife,” into her ear. For some unknown reason, Alison felt good when he said that. They walked to the car and got in.

"Okay, so tell me about your family. Where were you from?" she asked after driving for half an hour in silence.

Alison looked up to see that he had paused. She felt bad for butting into his business, "I don't mean to be intrusive, I'm sorry!"

After a long moment of silence Ashton sighed, "My family… I lived with my parents, my younger brother and younger sister down south in LA. I died when I was 17, two days before my 18th birthday. My parents were 35 at the time. My brother was 16 and my sister was 12. My brother and I loved my sister to bits. She was my favorite person in the whole world. My mom was a good mother, well, most of the time. I liked a girl back then. Penelope, she was 16; big brown eyes, dark, silky brown hair."

When Ashton mentioned Penelope, Alison felt something strange. She didn’t know what the feeling was called, but she didn’t like it. "Do you know how they are now?" Alison questioned softly.

"Well, my sister, Samantha, is 35 now and has two kids; Janelle, 8, and Ashton, 5," Alison heard him chuckle quietly at that.

He continued, "My brother, Parker, is turned 39 today, and married to Penelope. He has 3 children; Liam, 14, Zack, 11, and Angel, 7.

My mother actually lives with Liam, she's old now. I'll probably go visit and see what's up when I'm done this assignment, even though they can't see me."

Alison told him, "Why not? Just show yourself."

"Everyone can see me except my family. All of us Angels are like that. Our families can only see us if we are assigned to be their guardian angel. How much I wish I could tell them that I love them one more time,” his voice turned into a whisper at the end.

Alison felt terrible for Ashton. At least she could call her family, but Ashton cannot even do that. "What if I tell them for you?" she suggested.

Ashton looked shocked. “You would do that?” he asked.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I?” she asked back.

“Well, maybe because they would think you’re crazy if you told them you can hear and see a dead person!” he answered sarcastically.

“I don’t care! I would tell them anyway. I would do it for you any day-” she froze when she realised what she had said.

“Well, we are headed right that way. The last place they would look for me is near my own family,” Ashton told her. Alison sighed in relief when she realised that he didn’t notice what she said.

“Why?” she asked him.

“Well, it’s the safest place to be. Who would think that I would take you to live with my own family, putting them in danger? Plus the fact that they cannot see me but my friends can, and they might notice,” he questioned.

“Good point! So, how much longer do we have to drive?” Alison asked him.

“Um… only about eight hours,” he told her.

“EIGHT HOURS! Gosh that’s long.”

“Don’t worry! We’ll stop every two or three hours if you want. There’s a really good restaurant only 20 minutes from here, so we can stop for breakfast there.” Ashton told her.