15 : Ghost of Him
When they were all done with their work, it was 6 pm. They still had an hour left to the time before which Ashley had told her mother that she would return. "Are you sure you don't want to have dinner or even stay a bit longer?" Ana asked.
"Don't tell me you're going to miss me!" Ashley sang out to her, trying to hide her smile.
"Of course not!" Ana shouted, laughing. They started climbing down the stairs together. Suddenly, Ashley heard a scream from the room there. Ana held her hand, her eyes saying it all for her. It was her grand-dad. He'd woken up. They were about to hurry when Ashley stopped. He was screaming weird things. "The day comes! He's gone. It won't be long now..."
Ashley looked at Ana in confusion. "He's gone?"
What did he mean by that?!
Ana shook her head, frowning. She whispered to her, "Stay here. I'll come back in a minute." Then she pushed open the door and went in. Ashley could hear her friend trying to console him. But he kept muttering, "He's gone. He's gone."
Who the hell was this 'he'?!
Ashley decided to peek in, too. The old man lay on his bed, his white long hair sprawled all over the cushion, as he kept whispering, "He's gone." His eyes were unfocused, and he was taking short breaths, as if out of oxygen.
"Who's' gone?" Ashley asked. He looked at her, his blue eyes piercing. Everything became silent. Ana was motioning for her to leave. Ashley ignored her. She could not get rid of the strange feeling that kept creeping up on her. Ashley noticed the same plant with the black flowers – Hibisdona kept beside his bed. Didn't it require air or light at all?!
"Ashley Turner-" he began, but before he could say anything, Ana pulled her out of the room. They ran downstairs as fast as possible.
"What were you thinking, Ashley, going in there like that? You know he is crazy and his words are not worth wasting time over!" Ana huffed.
"Yeah, I know that," Ashley said, frowning. Now that she came to think about it, she really shouldn't have considered his screams to be true. Ashley herself knew well that he was twisted in the mind, and hallucinated! She felt embarrassed at her foolishness.
"It's okay. So you sure you'll go?" she asked.
"Desperate to get rid of me, huh?" Ashley asked, attempting to be light-hearted. Ana gave her a mocking look. "Of course I am!"
They laughed at that, but neither of them really felt that laugh.
Ashley went out of Ana's house and started walking towards hers. The sun hadn't set yet and it still emitted a light orange glow, which looked lovely against the white snow and the floating, scattered white clouds in the sky. Before long, she was passing her favourite destination. Ashley didn't plan on entering it, but after she saw the dark silhouette of a person near the frozen lake, she stopped. She had easily recognized the tall, well-built body, with its messy black hair, wearing a dark cloak whose lower parts whipped around in the wind. It was the prince. Even though Ashley didn't see his face, she knew...she just knew, it had to be him. It was him!
What was he doing there? Ashley thought. It looked, however, that he was doing nothing but staring off at a distance, standing as still as a statue.
"Looking after Harkenland indeed!" Ashley thought sarcastically. She approached him. She wasn't really scared of him, because if he wanted to kill her, wouldn't he have done it yesterday itself? It was a wonder how she was meeting him so constantly!
At that time, Ashley did not believe in fate at all...
Ashley started loudly with a smirk in her face, "Oh hello, Mr. Your-Highness-And-Nothing-Else. Fancy meeting you here! Weren't you supposed to look after Harkenland?"
He stiffly turned and looked at her. His face was blank. There was no sarcasm, or even a trace of hatred on his face. The smirk wiped off hers. She could sense that something was terribly wrong with him. His face was sunken, the handsome features were still there, but they couldn't really be called handsome anymore. There was a haunted as well as deadly look on his face.
"What's wrong?" she asked in shock. For some reason, she was worried for him. Thoughts of him being The Dark Prince went out of her head. At that moment, he was merely a man, who looked distraught.
He continued looking at her for a few seconds without uttering a single word. Then, he ran off. He literally ran! And within the blink of an eye, he had vanished.
It was as if she had not seen the prince but a mere ghost of him! Ashley was terribly confused. For some reason, there was a huge snow-storm that night.