The sun had set completely in the sky when Ashley felt her last breath leaving her.
No one had passed since the ambulance and she had only hung on up till now because she expected Nicolas to be here already.
"How come he is not here yet? He must be looking for me now. He must know where I am. He knows how often I come to this alley all alone just to sulk and watch the sunset" She thought within her.
But her only hope was nowhere to be seen.
"Nicolas, I don't want to die. Please come and save me" she mumbled faintly. Death flashed itself before her face and overshadowed the bright sunset on her amber skin successively
Just as she was about to cross over to the world beyond, she saw him appear in a distance, running with all of his might and without stopping to catch his breath, but she was fading away.
"Ash. Oh no, Ash" he winced, tearing up. There was great fear in his eyes. "You can't die, Ash. You know you can't. " He cried.
Ashley wanted to tell him that she wasn't dead, her eyes were even still open but he wasn't having it.
He touched the nape of her neck and screamed in pain.
Just then, strength returned into her bones but he got up, trying to get a grip of himself and trudged down the road, weeping, without taking her.
"Nicolas, I'm here!" Ashley got up swiftly, the pain in her leg extending to her knees.
"Look! I'm fine!" She yelled, even though she couldn't hear herself. She slumped on the ground after trying to no avail, and watched him leave without turning to look back.
Maybe he didn't hear her, or he heard but thought it was her ghost, she didn't know, but she let him go because she was too tired to try not to.
Ashley waited there until it was pitch dark and then she started to reminisce about the past few days in her life.
All the memories came back to her as she watched the full moon slowly appearing in the sky.
She had been escaping from something of course, or someone because she had been running with all of her strength and had not seen the van coming at full speed towards her, or maybe she thought it was still a few metres away and she could cross safely to the other side away from her favorite place.
Her favorite place was an old, abandoned farmhouse and that was where she documented her sorrows every evening.
She never found out who the owner of the farmhouse was, but deep down in her heart, she wished she could one day thank them for building this place , even though it no longer meant a thing to them- the place did mean something to her.
Merely sitting on the jagged rocks or smooth huge stones or the old rocking chair in the entrance and watching the sunset gave her so much peace.
It was like the sun chose to set right over the farmhouse, and it was so beautiful and big as Ashley's smiles stayed on her lips everytime she watched it.
She smiled and cried all at once.
She told her story to the sunset and to the wind in the evenings, and whenever she got better, she would jog home all alone into the warm hands of her super-supportive boyfriend, Nicolas.
Especially when home was very unsafe to go back to.
The place was her own personal world, her outlet.
She remembered how she had once left home to be there one late afternoon, and he had been looking for her. She had turned her phone off and so had not heard it ring. It was her ritual to do so all the time she was here.
She had been talking to the sunset and the wind for hours on end and had not realized that it was already very dark, too dark for a teenager to be out all alone.
When she finally jerked out of her daydream and turned on her phone, Nicolas' calls and texts rushed in.
It was her cue to go home immediately. Of course he had been mad at her for that, and she had been afraid to tell him where she had been.
She had told him, "I lost my way. You know I wasn't wearing my glasses". She didn't look at his expression to know if he believed her or not.
Everyone already thought she was crazy, including her own parents, it was going to be unbearable if she let her boyfriend think so too.
So, she hadn't told him.
However, he had found out somehow, about six months later, and he didn't blame her or think her crazy, instead he let her go everytime she wanted to, because he knew Ashley needed to unwind everytime and also do it on her own, but it was only on one condition- she had to be home in an hour. Latest was two.
That's how Ashley got to know that he'd come looking for her when she got the accident, because she had been out of the house for two and a half hours when it happened.
She remembered trying to cross to the other side from the farmhouse, because she was running late and didn't want to worry Nicolas again, but she had run into a van coming at full speed and without headlights.
She thought it was Nicolas because he had a van like that, but it had been a drunk driver at night.
She was rounding a bend in the dark alley but she never expected any vehicle to pass, or a vehicle with a drunk driver at the most. It had been very sudden.
"Hey, young lady" Ashley's thoughts were paused by someone's unfamiliar voice.
He was a tall black man, and his accent immediately revealed his South African identity. But for her raging thoughts, she would have caught his scent too.
He smelt like raspberries and strawberry and mint all at once. It made Ashley forget the pain in her leg momentarily.
"Young lady, do you need any help?" He asked. He was tall and handsome. He must be in his late thirties at the most.
"Yes, please. Please get me to an hospital" she pleaded, thankful that someone noticed her at last.
But instead, he helped her cross the road towards the farmhouse and sat her on a smooth stone.
"Do you like the full moon too?" He said dreamily making her look at the sky. Something about him was ominous or ghostly or both
Ashley stared at him like he was crazy. "I had an accident and I've lost too much blood. Please help me to an hospital or call my boyfriend" she searched her pockets frantically for her phone but could not find it.
"You can always watch the moon and sunset here together with your boyfriend." he said, walking away.
"Why won't you help me?" She cried
"You're better off here than there" he said and disappeared into the darkness