DISCLAIMER: yeah i disclaim everything, i'm writing for fun mostly all the characters and all are L.J Smiths

Ash and Mary-Lynnette

Chapter 10: A Haunted Past

"Oh my God Ash, I'm gonna be sick" and I stumbled into to him. "W-w-what happened?" I stuttered into his chest.

"Ash" said James, "I'm gonna go make a quick roundabout of the area."

"Fine."

"Jamie I'm coming with you" said Poppy holding on to his arm.

"Okay let's go" and like that they seemed to disappear into the darkness.

Even though I was looking away, the gruesome image kept replaying in my mind, blood, gore, and more blood. They were beheaded, beaten, and cut. Her long black hair was matted in blood and sticking to not just her face but his as well, their arms and legs had deep slashes and blood was still flowing out. And his leg, his leg it... it was twisted in a way that was not normal and not possible. I started crying into Ash's chest, my hands balled up into fists. How could someone do that? It-it was so-so horrible and the worst part was that I knew them, Coach Martinez and... and Jenna.

Mary-Lynnette said Ash soothingly in my mind; we have to go tell one of your teachers.

Oh my God Ash, who would do this?

I don't know, and he held me tighter.

Ash and I went to find one of the teachers as soon as we came in, we happened to see Miss. Davenport and we ran to her, Ash spoke telling her the story. I did know something was wrong before although I didn't think it would be so horrible.

"Mary-Lynnette" said Ash stoking my cheek, "come on let's go."

"Mare! Mare!" we turned to see Lauren frantically running towards us.

"Lauren what? What's wrong?" I asked, what could possibly be wrong now.

"It's Stella... she's having a vision" she whispered.

"What!? Lauren are you serious!?" I asked shocked, okay Stella hasn't had a vision in a while now so I was pretty surprised.

"Where is she?"

"Austin took her to the science lab, no one's there now and Tyler's keeping watch outside."

"Okay let's go" I said already running.

Mare Stella has visions?

What? Uh, yeah she does, they're very detailed and sometimes they can be bad, real bad. I quickly looked at Ash and he seemed to be processing this information peculiarly.

As I rounded the corner to the science lab we heard a petrifying screech, I rushed towards the door and Tyler stepped aside letting us in. The room was dark with all the blinds shut except the window at the end that let the moonlight in.

I saw Stella at one of the desk, her hands were balled up in tight fist, her eyes were shut tight and she was sweating tremendously.

"Austin?" I called out.

He's in the backroom getting cold water and a towel.

Oh okay, Ash I have a bad feeling about this.

Well does she remember most of what she sees?

Everything, every little speck of detail, she never forgets as long as you get it out of her right away, otherwise it might fade a little.

"NO!" she screeched, and it brought our attention back to her, she opened her eyes and looked around the room vexed.

What a freaky little witch.

I blinked as I realized I picked up on Ash's thought that I knew he hadn't intended on me hearing, although I kicked him in his right shin.

"Oww" said Ash narrowing his eyes at me.

"Inconsiderate much?" I said narrowing my eyes right back at him.

"Stella" said Austin soothingly, "Shhh, it's fine you just had a vision baby."

"Stella" I said quietly walking over to her, "what happened? You need to tell us everything, now."

She put her face in her hands, "it was so-so awful Mare, there was so much blood and-and you, you" she looked up at me petrified, "they wanted you" she whispered.

I froze shaken by the unexpected words that she spoke. Ash stepped slightly in front of me and put his arm around my waist pulling me closer despite what just happened, "what did you see?" he said in an icy tone. I wanted to ask her too what she saw, and what happened, however I couldn't, my throat was too tight, I couldn't get myself to speak.

She put the cold towel to her forehead, leaning her head back on Austin who stood behind her. "There was a girl she had long red hair that flowed in loose waves down her back and green eyes. And a boy but I couldn't see his face; he was always facing away from me. The girl killed, and liked it, it brought her pleasure. She used a sword, it was so long and razor sharp, the way she murdered her victims, it-it was so slow and excruciatingly agonizing. Those people who she murdered their faces are burned into my memory, they were horrified and scared. Oh. My. God." Stella stopped talking and her hand flew up to her mouth, her eyes were full of fear and despair. "It-it was J-Jenna and C-Coach Martinez."

"Your vision already happened" said Ash.

"What do you mean? Like she saw the past instead of the future?" asked Lauren.

"Probably" replied Ash.

"How do you know?" said Austin, shaking a little with fear.

"Because we saw their bodies" I whispered.

"Oh Mare, you saw it?" Asked Stella.

"Yeah"

"Then you two know how bad they were" stated Stella, "Although I can't believe I saw the past it would be a first."

"I-I don't think you did" I said holding on to Ash.

Ash looked down at me, "what do you mean?"

Ash it most likely just happened, like now.

That is a possibility

It is probably what happened, because Stella doesn't see into the past.

"Mare? I don't understand" said Lauren.

"Think about it, Stella has never seen into the past right?" they nodded, "so isn't it most likely that it just happened, I mean when did you have the vision?"

"Like as soon as you left" she replied.

"Exactly, by the time we got there, the murderer would have already finished the job."

"Your right, she's fast but slow altogether" said Stella shuddering at the thought.

"Fine it happened now, what does Mary-Lynnette have to do with it?" Ash seemed to be getting restlessly agitated over that fact. So I put my hand in his and he rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb.

Stella looked as if to be seeing something far away when she spoke, "it was late and Mare you were looking at the stars alone, you looked so mesmerized; your gaze was so fascinated. I remember how irritated you were when the wind howled and your hair blew in your face." Her voice held a small smile. "You were wearing your dark blue jeans with the purposely put rip and your red shirt with the black design under your wind breaker, and that heart necklace. You decided to lie down, but you stopped when you heard someone running through the forest that was nearby. You were worried and hesitant on what to do so you just waited frozen in place. You couldn't see what it was, but I did, it was a red petite little fox, she was a shapeshifter. She appeared out of the forest still in that fox form, and you looked relieved and said something like 'you again'."

I would have fallen if it wasn't for Ash holding on to me. I knew he could feel the fear and realization that was running through my mind and then he saw everything as my mind back tracked through the scene with the little fox that appeared when I was at my car.

He literally growled, and he barred his teeth, I could see the fangs coming in. "Is that what the foxed looked like?" he said through clenched teeth.

"Y-yeah" I stuttered getting scared at his reaction I could tell he was struggling to keep his cool, "why?"

"Her names Kendra, Stella did the fox have a black star right below her right ear, like a tattoo?"

Stella stopped to think for a moment, "yes she did, how did you know that?"

Ash tightened his grip on me, "because I know her, but continue first with your visio-"

Ash was interrupted by James and Poppy coming in, "there's nothing Ash" said James.

"Okay, now shut up and listen, continue uh, Stella" he said saying her name as if he didn't know if it was right or not.

"Okay so Mare-Lynnette said 'you again' and as the fox approached you, you got up and backed away. Then she shifted into uh, Kendra... and you were stunned with her transformation. So she then drew out her blade and moved towards you and that's when you started to run, but she was fast real fast and she caught you by the neck, she uh," Stella hesitated.

"Continue" I said in a tight voice.

"Well she hurt you bad" said Stella flinching at the memory, "she twisted your arm and then your leg in an abnormal way, and you screamed Ash's name, and before long Ash appeared, it couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes since she appeared and then before Ash could stop her she drew her blade across your throat..."

"I'm going to die" Was all I could say. I was going to die, a painful, ghastly death.

"No you are not" said Ash, and then took a couple of calming breaths.

"Ash what the hell is this girl talking about?" said James glaring coolly at Stella.

"The girl has visions, very accurate visions" said Ash.

"Wait who's here?" said Poppy.

"Kendra" said Ash, "little red headed, vile Kendra."

James looked slightly surprised, "really."

"Believe it cousin."

"What are we going to do?" asked James.

"Kill her, I swear James I will. She's going to" he swallowed, "kill Mary-Lynnette if I don't get her first."

"Fine we can take her" said James coldly.

"Yeah, well I want a part in this fun" said Lauren.

"What are you?" asked Poppy curiously.

"A lion" said Lauren proudly.

"Nice" said Poppy.

"Well I'm in too" said Stella firmly.

"Greeeeeat" said Ash dragging out the word sarcastically, "we're gonna get Kendra, this should be easy fun."

"Yeah sure cousin" said James sarcastically back.

We all turned to see the door open, "I think we should get going, there's a lot of commotion going on outside" said Tyler.

"Yeah okay" said Lauren and walked out of the room.

We all walked out to see students and parents crowded everywhere, there were numerous amounts of police and police cars all around. We walked around to where we knew the incident happened and found an ambulance with paramedics covering the bodies with black bags.

"There really isn't any point waiting around here James, she's probably far gone" said Ash.

"You're right let's go back to your place and figure this out then."

"Mary-Lynnette" Ash said, "you coming over?"

"Yeah, no problem" I turned to look at my friends, "are you guys coming?"

"Can't" said Stella, "I should go home otherwise my parents will be worried."

"Same and actually I think it might be a good idea if I told Taylor" said Lauren.

I looked at the guys, "hey, we won't really be any help so..." said Tyler.

"Yeah, okay I'll call you guys tomorrow, kay?"

"Yeah okay" said Stella, "later and Mare?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful, promise me you'll be very, very careful."

I took in her face and saw how dead serious she was being, "don't worry I'll be fine" and I gave her a small reassuring smile.

"Okay, bye Mare" she said then walked away.

"Ash, I'll go in my car and I'll meet you there" I said looking at him.

"Or I'll just go with you and James and Poppy can take the other car" he replied.

"Fine with me."

We were in the Redfern's living room, when Kestrel walked in; her sunglasses on her blonde head and a million shopping bags in hand. Seriously it looked like she just bought everything in our very little Briar Creek mall.

"Okay you should have seen the sales they were having today, amazingly crazy."

"Kestrel why don't you put the bags down and come take a seat" said Rowan sitting on the black leather recliner.

"Why? What's the deal?" she said dropping her bags on the floor and sitting on the one seat couch letting her legs hangover one of the armrest.

I drew further away from Ash as we sat on the loveseat.

Mary-Lynnette I'm sorry about this it's my fault you're in danger.

I sighed I didn't really know what to say, Ash did have a dark and nasty past, I knew that and I had accepted that over all that time we spent away from each other. But it disappointed me still knowing the person he used to be.

"Hello what happened? Anybody wanna tell me or what?" said Kestrel impatiently waving her hands in front of us.

I looked over to James who I thought at first would have told Kestrel the story but he was on the floor by the fireplace with Poppy whispering. So I nudged Ash, "maybe you should explain, it is your story."

He looked down at me with regretful eyes, "yeah okay."

"Well first off Kendra's in town" said Ash.

"Kendra?" said Kestrel.

"Yeah" he replied, "you met her once before you came to Briar Creek."

"Oh, okay continue then."

"Well I don't know if you knew she had a twin or not, but she did and they had an exceptionally close bond. His name was Keith and well he was pretty annoying and kept getting in my way every time I uh, fed off humans-" he stopped mid-sentence as I got up and sat on the floor by the end of the couch and stared into the burning red fire of the fireplace.

He sighed and I could feel the anguish he was feeling but nevertheless he continued with his story. "He had a human soulmate which I thought was pretty funny back then and well I thought the soulmate crap was nonsense. So one day when he really pissed me off I drained his soulmate dry" he bowed his head in shame and I pulled my legs up to my chest wishing that Ash hadn't been such a heartless being.

"Keith was unbelievably pissed and shattered and I guess my laughing and mockery didn't help the situation. The way he looked as if he died and the look of death in his eyes amused me. He then began to fight me, and all the more this amused me so I toyed around with him until finally I killed him. Kendra came a couple of seconds after I was through with him; I guessed they had a mental connection."

"Ash I cannot believe you did that" said Kestrel with shocked eyes and a gawking mouth. "What did Kendra do?"

"The first thing she did was give a glass shattering scream and then she came at me numerous times determined to kill me. I really didn't care about anyone I mean she was a fun friend to hang out with but there were tons of fun people in my life then. Furthermore she was no match for me, she was strong but I mean I was still stronger. So after I began to get tired of the little game she was playing I hit her in a couple of vital places that would leave her paralyzed for a while but not dead. I left then and haven't seen her since, although she appears to be back" he said finishing.

"Yeah and she's no joke" said James, "I met her a while after the incident with Ash and she was strong I can tell you that, probably as strong as Ash and I are."

Ash burst out laughing and I cut my eyes at him was he seriously laughing?

"You think you're as strong as me Jamie boy?" said Ash between laughs.

James rolled his eyes ignoring Ash while he said, "Anyways the point now is that Kendra is out to hurt Ash the way Ash hurt her, and that's by taking Mary-Lynnette's life."

That shut Ash up as I felt his gaze on me and I knew how bad he wanted to hold me, keep me safe in his arms. I have to admit I wanted to be there in his embrace as much as he wanted me there but I just couldn't right now I mean how could he have done that? Just the thought of somebody taking away Ash's life enraged me; however Ash did take away someone's soulmate. Then the next thing that came to mind was someone killing Mark, and once again Ash took Kendra's brother's life.

"But obviously that's not gonna happen 'cause we're gonna keep Mare safe and sound" said Kestrel grinning at me.

I tried smiling at her but now the thought off the little fox killing me was making my flesh crawl. I was sorry for her but I didn't want to die and Ash had changed, if only she knew.

"Jamie and I checked the area and there's no trace of anybody, although we weren't looking for foxes so..." said Poppy leaving her sentence open ended.

"So she's probably out there" sighed Rowan.

"And apparently Kendra already made her first little visit to Mary-Lynnette earlier today" said Ash.

"What?" said Rowan shocked.

"Yeah I know" said Ash.

"So what do you plan on doing Ash?" asked Kestrel.

"Kill her" said Ash simply which made me flinch slightly.

"How do you plan on finding her?" Asked Rowan this time.

"She'll come to us I guarantee you that, she's not quite a very patient person" Ash said as a matter of fact.

"We'll if all we have to do now is wait, I'll be making my way out" said Kestrel getting up, "I have places to go and people to see."

Soon enough Rowan left the room followed by James and Poppy.

"Ash" said Poppy on the way out. He looked up at her as he was still seated on the couch.

"People change as you did, just remember we can only change the future not the past. Every day you get another chance to change your life" said Poppy caringly.

"Yeah" was all he said and they left the room.

I sat silently still looking at the fire from the floor the sparks jumping around. Until I finally rose and sat halfway on the loveseat next to Ash. He looked at me for a few seconds then turned his head ashamed to face me.

"I'm so sorry Mare, I didn't know this would happen if I could change this I would and I-"

"Ash" I said interrupting his apology and taking his chin in my hand forcing him to look at me, "yes the past can hurt but the way I see it is you can either run from it or learn from it."

He closed his eyes and I moved to snuggle up with him, I felt his arm come around me and he kissed the top of my head. "You're my angel, y'know I don't know how you can bare to be with me" he said softly and sorrowfully.

I tilted my head to look up at him, "I'm your soulmate and I love you Ash, never forget that." I think it was the first time I actually told him verbally that I loved him since he came back and I could feel the love radiating off him.

"It would be impossible to forget. I love you Mary-Lynnette" and at first he kissed me softly, until the kiss became more intense with his need to be with me and his fear of losing me.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: first off sorry it took me kind of long to get this out but december is such a busy month for me like no lie. There's my cousin's birthday, my mom's birthday, my dad's birthday, christmas, new year's eve and not to mention school, friends and my life.

Anywho this chapter isn't all that long but still please comment and give me reviews it means so much to me : )

Oh and merry christmas even though it has passed and have a happy new year : )

oh and all the best for all the other things some of you may celebrate like hanukkah or what not sorry i'm not really sure about the other celebrations '-.- i know i'm pathetic.

i hope to get the next chapter out soon : )

COMMENT AND REVIEW : )