Ladies and gentlemen, this is the chapter you've been waiting/dreading. It's here. The heartbreaking chapter. Now, I may just be a baby but I cried a little writing this. So if you're as sensitive as me, I advice you get some tissues.

Please enjoy the chapter.

I do not own Night World.

Chapter 10

"Okay, Ms. Carter, Roy will be perfectly okay. He just has a fractured nose but no serious damage has been done." Dr. Gates said with a reassuring smile on his face. Mary-Lynette let out a relieved breath that she's been holding for quite a while. "Thank you so much, Dr. Gates." He smiled at her and took his leave out of the hospital room.
Mary-Lynette took a seat and put her head in her hands. Ash snorted and said, "Worried?" Mary snapped her head back up and looked at him through slotted eyes. "Of fucking course I care! You could've really hurt him Ash!"
"So what about me? Am I not as important as Roy?" His voice wavered and his eyes turned a deep, sorrowful blue. "What about me?" He said again in a lowered voice. Mary-Lynette's anger melted and turned to sympathy. She walked over to him and touched his face, but felt a very powerful shock. She retracted her hand but Ash caught it. He looked deep into her eyes and she did the same. Then he said once more, "What about me?"
Mary-Lynette's eyes burned and filled with hot tears. They fell down her face, leaving a trail of fire behind them. She felt so... guilty. She was about to open her mouth but the door flew open revealing Jeremy. He was breathing heavy and his eyes were shining. "Roy!" He ran over to the bed and stopped dead in his tracks. He turned to look at Mary-Lynette and Ash's face in her hands. "What are you doing here?" Mary was taken aback from the hatred that seeped in his voice, but she could notice the hurt in it too.
"I, uh," Mary-Lynette looked at Jeremy and then at Ash. "Um." Ash took her hands off of his face and gently set them to her sides. "There was a fight in the lunchroom with Roy's friend and some other kid. Roy tried to stop his friend but ended up getting punched in the nose. Mary-Lynette called me to go help bring him to the hospital." Mary couldn't hide her impressed reaction at how smoothly Ash had just lied to Jeremy's face. "So save the hatred for the kid that punched him, okay?"
Jeremy's eyes were filled with doubt but he didn't question it, for when Roy regains consciousness, he'll just ask him. "Fine. So if that truly is the case, thank you for helping him." He sat down in the seat near Roy's bed and laid his chin on his folded hands. Ash grabbed Mary's hand and said, "We'll just take our leave so you can have some time alone." He walked out of the room and down to the parking lot. Mary-Lynette felt his hand tremble from the moment he grabbed her hand. Ash's face was set in stone and he just kept walking without looking back until he got into his car. She got in the passenger seat and sunk in, looking at Ash's face for any reaction. His lips were set in a straight, tight line. Then suddenly his bottom lip trembled. "Ash?" He turned his head to the opposite direction of Mary-Lynette and it was then that she realized he was crying. Ash Redfern was... crying. "Ash, oh no, please don't cry." She reached over to him and hugged him tightly. "I'm so sorry... I really am. I-I didn't mean to hurt you," her voice trembled and a lump formed in her throat. He turned his head to her and said, "Then why did you do it? If you didn't mean to hurt me, why did you do it?"
Mary-Lynette couldn't blow her spot, but she couldn't bear to lie to him anymore. She's hurt him too much already but Bridgette was depending on her. She... couldn't do it and didn't want to. She opened her mouth just to close it once more. What could she say to him? 'Hey, I don't really love you and I'm just fucking with you for revenge for a friend'? No she'll sound like a complete jackass. "Ash, it's kind of really hard to explain." She looked away, trying to avoid his questioning eyes.
"How? Please Mary-Lynette," he touched her face and felt that shock again. He ignored it and kept trying to probe for the answer. "Please... just tell me, I'll understand, I swear." Mary-Lynette had started sobbing and tried gulping for air. "Ash, I can't. Please just understand that." His eyes lowered and then he nodded. He wrapped his arms around her to help her stop crying. People were walking by with sympathetic looks. To those people they looked like just another couple that received bad news from the doctor. Ash brushed her hair and then lightly pushed her off. She rubbed her eyes and buckled her seatbelt as Ash started the car. He drove out of the parking lot and onto the highway in silence. Mary-Lynette bit her lip and said, "Ash?" He replied with a 'hm' still staring straight ahead. "Can I make it up to you?" He quickly looked away from the road and gave her a questioning look. "Let me take you out to dinner. Tonight at 8?" Mary-Lynette was fidgeting with her fingers and tried to control her breathing. She begged to whoever was watching over her that he would say no. She hoped that he would leave and never talk to her again. She wished that he would just figure out what she was planning and run in the opposite direction. But none of that happened. He gave her a very happy 'yes'. She wanted to kick a wall in frustration. Why couldn't she had comforted Bridgette and never made this stupid plan? Why couldn't she just be with Jeremy and be happy like she was before? Why did she have to fall in love with Ash in the process? Why couldn't one thing go the way she wanted it? She smiled at him and mentally sulked in her troubles until he dropped her off at her house.

"Tonight's the big night!" Bridgette shouted happily as she zippered Mary-Lynette's dress. "That bastard won't even know what hit him." She giggled and started brushing Mary's curly hair. "Mary-Lynette, you don't know how much this means to me. I really appreciate that you would do something like this for me."
Mary plastered a smile on her face and just nodded. She was going to dinner with Ash to seal this plan. She was going to tell him the plan and that she never loved him and that he was nothing to her. He'd be crushed, devastated maybe. She didn't know how she was going to be able to do this without her resolve faltering. How was she going to look him dead in the eye and say 'I never loved you and you are nothing to me'?
"All done!" Bridgette stepped back and examined her work. "Wow, you look great!" She suddenly gave her a hug. "Mary-Lynette, thank you. I'll be able to move on after you do this. And then maybe even Jeremy will come back to you." Mary looked at her with sad eyes and Bridgette knew she pushed the wrong button. "Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
"It's fine." Mary said without looking at her. A honk interrupted her next sentence. "Oh, Ash is here. Drive there 2 minutes after I leave." Bridgette nodded and gave her a quick hug before letting her go. Mary walked down the stairs, her heart was hurting so badly but she was going to do it. She opened the door and walked into his car.
"Hey," she gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "You look beautiful." Ash said with a warm smile. She returned the smile and looked ahead as Ash drove. "Where did you say we were going again?"
"It's not a restaurant, but it's a surprise. Just keeping driving until the road turns into dirt." Ash had questions wandering through his mind, but he let it go. Mary-Lynette stared out the window, watching as houses turned to stores, stores turned to forest, and forest turned into plain field. Ash stopped driving as he saw the road change to dirt. "This is it right?" Mary-Lynette nodded, "Now follow me."
Ash walked behind her until he saw a beautiful lake surrounded by huge rocks and a picnic blanket, basket, and a bunch of food accompanied by unlit candles. "Wow, did you do all of this?" He went closer to the blanket and took a seat on the edge. "Yeah, I had to drive out here and do all this before you could pick me up," Mary lied while lighting the candles. "Didn't take long, don't worry."
He smiled and reached out his hand for hers. She took it and sat next to him. "Ash, I need to tell you something." He looked into her eyes and smiled, "I have to tell you something, too." She raised her eyebrows and gestured him to go first. "So remember when I bit you and we went into each other's minds?" She nodded. "So, I asked my parents about it and they explained to me that it's called the Soulmate Principle. The Soulmate Principle is when there's a person that is made for you and that is practically your other half. Once you meet them, you can't live without them, it'll hurt so badly." He gently grabbed her hands.

"Mary-Lynette, you're my soulmate."
Mary-Lynette was in so much shock. She couldn't even process a correct reaction and ended up saying, "Soulmate?" He nodded. "And if once you meet them, you can't live without them because it'll hurt too badly?" He nodded again and squeezed her hands lightly. "I know it's a lot to take in, but you'll come to see it, I promise. So, what did you want to say to me?"
Do it.
Her heart started beating fast.
Do it.
Her mouth ran dry.
Do it.
Her hands trembled.
Do it.
But most of all, her heart hurt.
DO IT NOW!

"Ash." She slowly released his hands. "I'm not your soulmate and I never will be." Her voice filled with ice and his face dropped. "What?" She slowly got up and looked straight in his eyes that were turning blue again. "How could you think I was going to be your soulmate? Ash, this was strictly just fooling around and I thought you out of all people would've understood that." Mary-Lynette looked away from Ash's heartbreaking face. Her eyes were burning and her heart hurt so much. She looked out in the distance and saw Bridgette's headlights. Time to finish this. She cruelly laughed, "Ash, I was just humoring you. I never loved you and you're nothing to me. I was just doing this for Bridgette, yeah that girl that you fucked and dumped." His face was so sorrowful and there were tears coming down his face. "Ash Redfern, you just got beat at your own game." She walked up to him and bent down to be face to face. He looked at her through watery eyes and said, "Why?" She looked in his eyes and she hoped that he could she how much pain she was in, that all this was a lie. "Because it was fun."
He was sobbing now and she gave him a kiss and walked off to the direction of the headlights. She could still hear his sobs, and she could feel his pain as she walked inside Bridgette's car.

"Mary-Lynette! Did you do it?" She nodded and looked down as Bridgette squealed. "Oh, thank you, thank you! You don't understand how much this mea-." Mary interrupted her with her sobs and gasped for air. "Mary-Lynette?"
"I-I c-can't do it! Bridgette, I-I-I... I'M IN LOVE WITH HIM."
"What? You…what? Oh gosh, I knew this was going to happen." Bridgette started the car and drove away as Mary-Lynette fought for air and Ash stayed stuck in his place.

Their hearts hurts.

I don't know if any of you are crying, but I know I did T_T.

Unfortunately, this was the chapter I've been dreading to write and this chapter is practically the climax of the story.

So there might be 2-3 chapters left. I may even put an epilogue if I'm feeling up to it.

But thanks for reading and sorry for getting you so excited for this chapter and then getting you down LOL.

Love you all!

-Nessa.