Blood Town

[18]: Little Sister

Alyx felt her sanity beginning to crumble. Everything she knew about her life was starting to break down and turn to blood right in front of her. She wanted to scream and pull her hair out but was left frozen as she saw Hoody taking off his -no, her- hood. She pushed it back to reveal her long brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. 

Alyx felt sick to the stomach and the shock kept her legs waxed into place when she saw who it was. 

"Why didn't you try to reach Alyx? Tell her the truth?" Ashton asked her in a calm voice that told Alyx he was nothing but that. 

She shot the girl a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry. I had something that I needed to do-"

"You had to watch over Jason. You had to cover up for his murders, protect him from Zane. You, you let him kill all those women. All for what? So, he can experiment on a woman to get her back to life?" Anger was rising. 

"You don't understand-"

"Wait-" Zane shot out. "That night, you prevented me from getting to Jason. As I almost approached him you blocked my way."

"Then, I went back to find you and make sure you took him into custody," The woman in the cloak said. 

"Why the sudden change in mind?"

"At first, I needed to keep Jason safe from the Ketsueki Police."

"And then?"

"Then... Then, I needed to keep him safe from John."

Ashton smiled. "So, simply put: you saved Jason from a worse fate by giving him up to Zane."

She nodded. 

Zane groaned. All of this was starting to hurt him physically. But, most of all he wanted to begin crying. He wanted to lean on Alyx' shoulder and let the teardrops roll down his face. But, he couldn't. Not anymore.

Not after she and Ashton started dating. 

He glanced at Alyx who'd gone completely pale. Then, there was Ashton and Lisa: who looked just as normal as a kid finding out he had to attend school. The Hunters were much better than he expected. A small plant of respect sprouted in his heart.

"So," Ashton hissed, "why exactly do you want Laura to be brought back to life...Elena?"

~

"Drink?" Ashton placed the glass on the table and Alyx gratefully drank a sip from it.

Emily was fast asleep and Lisa was getting a break from watching Lucy  because, finally, Zane, Elena, and Jason were down in the basement, experimenting on Lucy and Laura. That left Alyx and her boyfriend all to themselves. 

"Wow, this really messes things up, yeah?" Ashton chuckled uneasily but she immediately shook her head. "With Elena being alive and all?"

"I admit that the only reason I decided to give up on Zane was because of Elena, but I'd already picked you. Just because she's alive doesn't mean that I'm going back to him. It's too late for that now." 

Ashton gazed into her for what seemed like an eternity. He thought he could see the stars behind her iris but he was pretty sure it was just his imagination. But maybe not. Maybe that was the whole point in being in love: to see the universe and stars behind someone's eyes.

"Thank you, Alyx." He leaned in closer and wrapped his arms around her. 

 She let him engulf her and felt his chin rest on her head. He smelled nice and she decided that when they were done with all this madness, she was going to spend a whole day with him- just the two of the hugging each other. She wanted to be busy with him doing nothing.