I’m unconscious. 

I can feel my body get tossed to the side. 

If only I could see what was going on.

I hear a grunt and Ash's familiar voice. There’s a smack, and something falls down. 

I regain consciousness and open my eyes slowly. I’m facing the action and not the wall, but that means I have to see the horrific scene of Ash getting beaten to a pulp. He’s on the ground and Randy won’t stop kicking him, punching him, laughing at him.

Because of me.

I can’t shake the flaming guilt from inside me. I can’t breathe, and suddenly black ink starts to seep through my vision. I blink. I blink a million times but it doesn’t change a thing. 

I can’t see.

I’m terrified, and I begin to shake. I shake like a student’s leg. I shake like an earthquake’s victim. I shake like the awfully dreadful, unhelpful, scared little girl that I really am.

That man is going to kill him.

a BANG runs through my skull. The ringing in my ears is so piercing it feels like somebody is jabbing and twisting daggers into my ears. I clap my hands over them and rock back and forth, trying to stop the noise. It goes on and on and I vaguely see a figure come up to my body and shake me.

Stop! I try to say. Stop, please!

And I think he’s won. I think I will die here and he has killed Ash and I’m all alone.