From Ashes

“Finding someone who will take care of what you won’t,” he sneered, and his eyes narrowed on me. “What do you expect? For me to just wait for you forever? I can’t believe I wasted all that time on you, waiting for you to be ready. I should have just taken it from you.”

“Ty!”

“I have needs that you aren’t filling, Cassidy. Either give me what I want or get out.”

“What? Ty—I—I don’t—”

“Save it, Cass.” He grabbed my hand and led me toward the front door. “I’m so damn tired of being your crutch, find someone else for that.” He shoved me out the door before shutting and locking it.

“Tyler!” I pounded on the door for what must have been five minutes straight and he still never came out.

My teeth were clattering and my body was shaking. It’d been in the low thirties yesterday while I was out grocery shopping, and the sun had been out then. Now the wind was blowing hard and it was pitch-black outside. I couldn’t even begin to fathom what the temperature was. But here I was with wet hair, in socks, thin fla

G AGE

I STOPPED ON the way to my room and turned slowly to look around. I don’t know what I heard but when I didn’t hear it again, I continued on in and shut the door before turning on the TV. Thank God Cassidy had gotten groceries before I’d come back. Even though I’d finished di

“Cass?” I asked even before I swung the door open to reveal her little body curled up in a ball at the base of the door. “Shit. Cassidy!” I put my Sig on a table near the door and went back to her.

“G-G-G-Gage?” she stuttered, and looked up at me as I scooped her into my arms.

She was fucking freezing. Her hair had literally frozen and even in the soft light from above my door I could see her face was blue. Why wasn’t she wearing a damn jacket or shoes?! Where the fuck was Tyler? I ran back to my bathroom with her in my arms and turned the hot water on as I sat her on the counter. Flipping the light on, I got my first good look at her and a string of expletives left my mouth. Her lips and the surrounding area were blue, as were the tips of her fingers. The rest of her was bright red and shaking uncontrollably. Her eyes fluttered as she tried to keep them open before she gave up, letting them close. Her lashes, eyebrows, and hair were all frozen and her damn socks were stuck to her feet. I tried to lift her shirt off her but it was stuck as well, causing her to cry out and start sobbing again.

I wanted to scream at her, ask her why she would go outside dressed like this when it was sleeting and at most twenty degrees outside, ask her where her damn boyfriend was and why she hadn’t called me. But I was so scared all I could do was whisper that she would be okay as I hugged her and tried to transfer some of my body heat. The shower was warmed up so I took off my sleep pants, leaving on my boxer-briefs, and took us both into the shower. She cried out again and I knew it must have been burning her, but she needed to heat up—like half an hour ago. I kept my arms around her and rubbed them vigorously up and down her body, and as her clothes loosened on her, I took those off and threw them onto the bathroom floor. She brought her hands up to my body and I flinched as the contrast between the hot water and her frozen fingers hit me. We were in a burning-hot shower, and she was making me freaking cold. My stomach dropped when her head fell hard to my chest and her body gave out.

“No, no, no. Wake up, Cassidy! Wake up!” I shouted, and sank down into the tub, glad I’d put the plug down so it would fill up while the shower ran. “Cassidy!” I grabbed her chin and brought her face up, cringing when I saw how blue her mouth and the surrounding area still were. “Wake up, darlin’!” I pressed my mouth to hers as if I were doing mouth-to-mouth and blew hot air onto her frozen face.

“G-G-G-Gage?”

“That’s right, Cass, wake up. Keep talking to me.” Her eyelids fluttered shut and I shook her body. “No, Cassidy! You can’t sleep right now. Stay awake, talk to me. Why were you outside?” I grabbed her fingers and blew more hot air on them before shoving them into the collecting water, turning the shower up even hotter, and grabbing her chin again.

“T-T-Ty.”

“Where was Ty, Cass?”

“K-k-kicked-d m-m-me out-t.”

My body stilled. “Dressed like this?”

She nodded even though I still gripped her chin.

“Why didn’t you call me, Cassidy?!” I shouted at her, and tried to calm myself when she recoiled from the sound.

“H-h-he locked-d m-me out. N-no ce-ce-ce—”

“Locked you out without your phone?”

She nodded again and I squeezed her body tighter to mine. “Jesus, Cassidy. I’ll kill him. I’ll fucking kill him.” I looked down to see her jaw slack and her eyes closed again. “No! Wake up, baby. You gotta stay awake. Come on, Cass.” I shook her again. “I need you to stay awake!”

“S-so c-cold.”

“I know, Cass. I know. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

“G-Gage?”

“Yeah, darlin’?”

“I’m t-tired.”

“I know.” I sighed in relief when I looked down to see only red on her beautiful face instead of blue. “You can’t go to sleep yet though.”

Cupping water in the hand that wasn’t holding her upper body, I let the water fall down her hair a few times before ru

“Cassidy, I need you to sit up and stay awake. I’m going to start a fire. I know you’re tired, but if you can stay up for another half hour, I’ll let you go to sleep then, okay?”

She nodded and sat up, wrapping her arms around herself in my baggy clothes.

“I’ll be right back, stay awake.”

I grabbed my phone and changed into clean boxers, jeans, and a hoodie before ru

“Adam. Hey, man, I’m sorry if I woke you, but can you do me a huge favor?”

“Uh, yeah.” He whispered to someone that it was me and asked, “What’s up?”

“Are you with Dana?”

“We were just watching a movie, what’s wrong?”

“I need someone to come watch Cassidy while I go beat the shit out of Tyler. But if you’re with Dana, I’ll call someone else.”

“No!” He sounded alarmed. “No, no, it’s fine. What happened to her?”

“I haven’t gotten the whole story, but he kicked her out of their place, locked her out in nothing but a tiny shirt and pants, without her phone or anything. I guess she walked all the way over here; she was blue and frozen when I opened my door.” The firewood had caught and I waited for it to stay burning before turning off the gas.