Asher's Story

A golden orb sets on a small town in surburban Iowa, a tiny town, little more than a mile wide, who's geographical big brother happens to be one of the major manufacturing areas in the state: Cedar Rapids. Right smack dab in the middle of that town was a cul de sac, on that cul de sac was a small white house with a well kept yard and a white Lexus Sequoya in the front, and in the basement of that house, well, everything important in the life of a single fifteen-year old girl happened. Her first kiss, the first role-playing game, her first time making o-... a lot of stuff. On a thursday night in the middle of July however, the air was not filled with the romance-induced hormones of a normal teenager, but with tears and quiet snoring.
The sound came from a young girl who, despite her mature appearance, was merely a girl with a trauma-induced family life, had chosen that couch for a bed. The Role Playing game she'd been invited over for had ended a mere fifteen minutes earlier. Her mother wasn't supposed to show up for another half hour, and seeing as the owner of the couch and house, whose son happened to be her boyfriend, had some chores for her son to do, Asher Tyler had chosen this moment to catch up on some long-awaited sleep. Despite its worn appearance, the couch was pillowlike compared to the solid bed she'd inherited from her grandmother, and even softer than the futon on her parents floor where she'd sack out in the night when she couldn't sleep. This couch, the "Human-eating-uuber-green-couch-of-doom", was what Asher considered to be heaven.
On this couch, any laying or sitting position would be comfy and perfect for sleeping, as this girl had found out. Asher laid with her head on the left armrest, her body curled up in a fetal position. Long silky- smooth strands of blonde-highlighted brunette hair (that she'd always considered having dyed black to look like her favorite singer) had fallen loosely over the armrest and a good portion of her face, covering the closed hazel eyes with the large bags beneith them. Despite the slightly faded green colour of the couch, Asher managed to blend in rather nicely in her blue jeans, tattered from years of wear, and a camoflauge t-shirt that read "HA! NOW YOU CAN'T SEE ME." One of her favorites.
Almost twenty minutes after his girlfriend fell aleep, Brian Andrews walked down the steps into his basement with a bowl of popcorn, the words "Hey Ash! Wanna watch a movie?" on his lips. His mountain-dew conceived hyperness faded to a shocked expression as he saw her laying there, sleeping soundly, but soon changed to a softer, more caring emotion. Smiling some, he set the bowl down on a table near the staircase and sat down on the couch next to Asher. Being careful not to wake her, Brian gently picked her up, moving her so that her head rested on his lap and her body was stretched out comftrobly. His long fingers ran gently through her hair as he looked down at her.
All was perfect in the world for the pair. An identical smile played across both pairs of lips as Brian gently twirled a more brown than blonde strand of hair around his finger. With Asher being able to finally sleep and Brian being able to watch over her, all seemed to be fine and dandy... until all hell broke loose.
"Asher Marie Tyler!!" A voice boomed upstairs, waking Asher from a rather pleasant dream. Brian looked up at the stairs, clenching his teeth slightly. Coughing, Asher straightened herself into a sitting position with the help of Brian and got to her feet just in time to see a frazzled looking woman, slightly shorter and much thinner than Asher with long strands of graying brown hair, standing in the stairway. Rumors had been going around the school for years that Asher wasn't her daughter, that she was adopted and that her mother was anorexic. Yeah, right. Asher always thought. And I crashed down in a corn field in an alien space pod. Fortunately, neither were true, but it did look like they were.
"I've been waiting outside for an entire fucking hour! What took you?!" Her voice ended in a shriek. A shudder ran over the two, showing how annoyed and startled they were. Asher always believed that her mother was a bit of a drama queen, but this took the cake.

"Mom, we talked about this. You weren't supposed to pick me up until six." The little clock on the wall displayed in red letters: 5:45 PM. "Look, I'm sorry that I didn't come out earlier. I really didn't hear you..."

"You didn't hear me? HA!" Asher winced at her mothers tone. "We both know that's impossible! That damned car needs a muffler and who has to pay for it?! WHO?!"

"I know, I know. You do. But look ... Mom, can we talk about this somewhere else?" Brian could recognize this tone. Asher had only used it when she was emotionally strapped, or on the brink of tears. This was a combination of both. Still looking very agitated, the black-haired monster nodded and glared at them. "Okay. Now how about you go warm up the car while I get my stuff packed up. I'll drive you home."
"Fine." Even Brian winced at the tone she took. Ashers mother had a way of being a real bitch sometimes, and this was one of those times. They stood motionless for a moment as they listened to the heavy thudding, her mother pounding up the stairs and out of the house.
The two teenagers stood there for a moment, Brian looking at Asher, Ashely looking at the place where her mother once stood, and all at once, she broke down. Brian managed to catch her as her knees buckled beneith her, sobs racking her body. Tears of embarassment, of anger, of rage, of complete and total hopelessness flooded her cheeks. All of the stressful things she'd felt over the last two months suddently forced themselves through her, out of her. For once, she found herself able to cry without embarassment with Brian standing behind her.
"I-I ju-just don-dunno wh-what I ca- can d-d-do any- anymore." Asher sobbed into the arms of her boyfriend, the tears dampening his grey t-shirt and making it turn darker. This had happened before, they knew it would happen again, and every time that she broke down, it got just a little bit worse.
Asher laid there for about five minutes, letting all of her emotions go while in the arms of the only person she trusted. Brian whispered her name and gently stroked her back, pangs of guilt stabbing him in the stomach. He had been there when she'd heard the report at the hospital. He knew what was wrong. He knew why Asher had changed from the happy, free, insane young girl that she once was to a more mature, less emotional, and more fragile teenager.

All of the Tyler Family (as well as Brian. Asher refused to go to the hospital without him), met in the emergency area and prepared to listen to a report about her father, Andew Tyler, who had gone into the hospital a day before. He'd gone in feeling really sick, throwing up, not being able to see or move his right side, Asher had to spend at least a half hour trying to calm her little brother sammy down and convince him that their father was merely having a severe migrane, but still they had to go to the emergency room, and Asher had to drive. No one is quite sure where her mother, Megan,was when her husband went into the hospital, but as far as Asher was concerned, she was off at a club or some shit like that. Either way everyone showed up at the hospital to find out what would happen to their father, her husband, his stepfather maybe one day. And the diagnosis wasn't good.
"May I please speak to Mis- I mean Mrs. Tyler?"
Everyone winced. That was never a good sign. Brian's hand tightened on Ashers as she watched the doctor in horror.
The doctor was rather stereotypical looking. Tall, grey hair, white trenchcoat, stethoscope around his neck, and the doom-fortelling clipboard in his hands. Ashely bit her tongue as her brother paced back and forth around them. A loud cry pierced the semi-silence of the emergency waiting room, with Megan as the cause of it. The doctor merely nodded and spoke to her in a hushed tone. After another mintute of talking, (Probably going over the funeral options. Ashely thought), Megan came back to the children and wiped a tear from her red cheeks.
"They say..." her voice cracked. "that your father has..." she sniffled, clearing her throat. "had a heart attack. "

A stunned silence filled the room. Three mouths hung open in complete horror.

"I'm afraid it isn't good. They're letting us see him, but only for a minute." Not a single person in the group had dry eyes. Asher turned and buried her face in Brian's shoulder, his tears falling down his semi-pale face and getting caught in the still-growing goat-tee that he had. Sammy sobbed on the floor.

Andrew Tyler died that night, at the semi-old age of 67. Since that day Megan Tyler has had to hold multiple jobs at the seediest places in Iowa merely to support herself, and Asher had a job of her own: working at the Cedar Rapids Hy-Vee. Every day she'd put on a cheerful smile as she'd deal with complaining customers, preps who knew her from school and insisted on torturing her, and the occasional kid who'd try to shoplift a candy bar, and every night she'd come home and cry herself to sleep. For Asher Tyler, life had ended that day, March 23rd, 2004. All that was left was a superficial meaningless existance, filled with working for an old man and making minumum wage to support her brother, and the occasional happiness that she got whenever her boyfriend of two years would stop in and see her. Unfortunately, most of the times that he'd come over, he'd see Asher crying over a pot of mac n' cheese, clenching a wooden spoon in her hand. They'd stand there together, holding each other while they got their wits together. It took longer for Asher then Brian though, after all. His life was wonderful. His life was...

"BEEP!" The mechanic sound of the cars horn filled the darknening sky as Megan pounded the wheel, signaling impatiently that it was time to go. Still shaking slightly, Ashely took a step forward on unsteady legs to go where she was summoned. A strong yet soft hand rested on her shoulder, gently turning her around to face Brian. Swallowing the sob that threatened to voice itself, Asher looked aside, avoiding the eyes of the one she loved. Embarassment flooded her cheeks. He'd seen her cry too many times to count, and now was no different than the other. She liked her masquerade, being seen as a hyperactive teenager, and hated her true nature, a girl who even has problems takign care of herself.
Brians gentle finger guided her chin up to look at him, a sincerly apologetic smile on his lips. She brushed his lips with hers at first, merely meaning for it to be a normal 'goodbye' kiss, but as Brian tilted her head to the side slightly, her arms slipped around his waist, and it became more than that. The kiss bloomed until Brian had to pull himself away from her, out of breath with a smile on his lips.
The happiness lasted between them for a full minute until Ashers mother screamed at her to get her ass out there. With a sigh, she walked with Brian at her side up the stairs and to the doorway of his house. They shared one more kiss and a promise for him to call her, Asher stepped out into the night, bracing herself for the hell that would come with daybreak.
The next night, while working the graveyard shift at Hy Vee, a booming voice came over the intercom, drowning out the annoying hip-hop in the background.
*Thank Goddess..* Asher didn't consider it that big of a deal, hell, the damn thing went off every fifteen mintes, yet the momentary break from the explicit song was welcomed. Ignoring the intercom, she merely kept bagging the various liquors and snack food that a woman who looked no younger than 85 had decided to purchase.
"Have a nice day." Asher said for the fifty billionth time that night. The woman sneered at her and wheeled the cart out of the store. "Bitch." She muttered beneith her breath once she was sure the old lady couldn't hear her. A group of more fresh faces appeared around her, one of them holding her coat and purse in one hand.
"Shifts up. Go home Ash, you look beat." The male voice said. It belonged to a boy three years younger than her called Ted. Smiling slightly, Asher took her stuff and walked out the sliding doors, ready for the short drive home.
Once she did finally get home, she wasn't surprised to find that the lot in front of the white and red house she inherited was empty. Her mother wasn't home yet. Sur-fuckin-prise. Yawning, she threw her coat and bag on the floor and headed straight for her room at the end of the hall, only to find her little brother Sammy sleeping on her bed. With an annoyed sigh she walked into her parents room and crawled into bed, not bothering to change out of her work clothes, only to take off the long sleeve shirt and black jeans.
Even when she was this tired, her dreams were still plauged with nightmares. One that stood out was of her mother being hit by a train, and Asher being the driver. There were a couple more pleasent ones, dreams foretelling her future with Brian, school, etc. She'd had these dreams before, but never with this much detail. In the morning she'd just shrug it off, saying that she was really tired, nothing major. Then the phone rang.
Looking to the little red clock on her fathers side of the bed, Asher picked up her cell phone and answered with a sleepy "'Lo?"
"Miss Asher Tyler?" An unfamiliar voice asked.
"Um, this is she. Might I ask who's calling?"
"This is officer Kyle Mcgrath, we need you and your little brother to come to the station immediately."
"Huh? Why? Oh god, what did my mom do this time?"
"Its not what she did, but what the other driver did."

*Oh fuck.*

After a minute more on the phone, a teary eyed Asher burst into her room, picked her brother up, put him in the backseat, and drove as fast as she could to the Police Station in Downtown Cedar Rapids. *Heh, wouldn't it be ironic if I get a ticket on the way...* Ash thought. Fortunaetly, seeing as it was three in the morning, most of the officers were either lienient or asleep.

That all happened three days ago.

"I guess Hell did come with daybreak." Asher muttered, kneeling in the snowy grass in front of her parents tombstones as the funeral attendees walked by, giving their "I'm Sorry"'s, their blessings, their "They're in a better place now."'s. All of it was enough to make her sick. Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks as she saw the new stone, the one for her mother, next to her father's. To the normal passerby, it would look like the two were madly in love and had died together. Fuck, as if. Asher knew that her mother had practically poisoned her father, giving him fatty foods 24/7. It made her sick seeing the two so close together. In fact, Asher planned to go home, eat something, then get sick. *Who knows. Maybe I'll die of a heart attack on the way home. Maybe I'll have a fucking stroke. Or maybe the Semi driver who killed my mom will come back for me!* Asher thought spitefully, her clenched fists causing thin ribbons of blood to run over her palm, filling the thin crescent wounds her nails caused.
The last three years had been hellish. Asher had to work day and night to keep her brother in school and happy while her mother was "working" at her new job at the sleeze nightclubs she'd always heard on T.V. Occasionally she'd come home with a new boyfriend and expect Asher to simply accept them, to let them sleep together in her fathers bed. Every time, Asher and Megan would fight; over bills, work, her brother, everything possible, and every night Megan would stop out the door, slamming it shut with so much power that it caused the glass to rattle in the windows. Asher was eighteen then, and her brother Sammy was fifteen and had a sweet girlfriend that everyone liked.
"You left me in a lot of shit mom." Asher muttered under her breath, standing up and walking away from the grave, not returning for another year. Megan Marie Tyler had died three days ago in a car accident with a semi. The driver of the semi was uninjured, but had taken Megans life by turning into her lane without looking.
A couple of cars had skid on the ice this December day, causing the drive home from the cemetary was long and depressing, the traffic jam giving Ash time to think. Her parents were gone, her brother was a teenager now, and her boyfriend was in Georgia. Her hands trembled on the steering wheel. In an act of desparation, trying to rid herself of the thoughts, she turned on the radio.

Of all of the times for "My Immortal" to play.

*"Mom? Daddy? Whats going on? What are you doing with all of my stuff? Are we moving? Please tell me we're not moving..."*
*Dont leave me here! Mom! Wait, who are you?!What are you doing?! Get away from me!
*How dare you let them do that to me and just expect me to love you again! Get the hell away from me!!*
*Daddy? Why did you let her do that? Why? You never would have let her do that to Sammy... Dont tell me I should be mature. I am mature. I'm only twelve! This is how mature I'm SUPPOSED to be! Stop! Please!*
Bitter snippets of memories flashed through her mind, memories she'd tried so hard to lock away. The first time she'd seen her mother drunk, the first time they fought, and the time that her mother almost sold her into slavery for a bottle of whisky. If her father hadn't been there...
"If dad wouldn't have been there, I would have been raped. I know. Shut up."
*I'm just saying. You need to remember these things, you need to forgiv-*
"If you tell me to forgive and forget one more time I'm going to jump out of this car right now and kill myself." The spedometer read 55, and the mental voice inside her head was silent.

The sweet voice of Amy Lee ran from the radio, the lyrics forming in Ash's mind. "I tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone, but though you're still with me, I've been alone all along..." The self control she'd work so hard to muster broke as she sung these lyrics, crying until the chorus, which she sang to her full potential. "When you'd cry I'd wipe away all of your tears...."
The metallic sound of her cell phone's version of "Fur Elise" broke through the emotions that the song had caused. Swearing beneith her breath and turning of the radio, Asher picked up her cell phone and looked at the number. It was long distance...
Asher immediately pressed the answer key, letting out a shakey "Hello?"
"Hello Clarice." A dark voice said through the phone, causing Asher to laugh. She quickly flipped the radio's power switch to the off position.

"Brian!" Asher excaimed, her eyes brightening. There was laughter on the other side of the phone. "How are you?"
"I'm doin' alright, classes are kind of slow now so I figured you'd like a call. And how is my little Ash?" It was obvious that he was smiling. Laughter echoed on both ends of the line, until Asher realized she had to answer.
"..." Silence met his words.
"Asher?" Brian asked, his tone edged with panic. They both knew that when Asher, the normally loud and hyper teen they both knew was silent, something terrible had happened.
"It was my mother this time." Asher swallowed, bracing herself. "Just three days ago."
"God Asher, I'm sorry."
"I'm fine." She said softly, shaking her head. "So, do you think you'll be able to get down here for christmas and your birthday?" It was semi-ironic, Brian was born two days after Christmas. Many puns relating him to leftowvers had passed amoungst the entire group.
Brian sighed, and Asher could feel her heart sink.
"Ash, I'm really sorry... but my mom wont let me travel so I have to stay here."
They could hear the willpower burning on both ends, along with the sound of silent tears falling.
"I see. Well... okay then. Have a good time."
"Ash..."
"Its alright Brian." Asher said defiantly, knowing that what she said was a lie. They both knew it, but she couldn't do anything else.
"I'd better let you go. Sounds like the traffic down there is getting bad."
"Yeah." A pause. "I'll see you later."
"Okay."
"And Brian?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you." She could hear him smile.
"I love you to Ash. Merry Christmas."
"You too." They blew each other kisses at the same time, hanging up the phone. The caged tears exploded, running down her cheeks and making it more difficult to see. They subsided after a moment.

The traffic chose that second to clear up, letting Asher have an easy fifteen minute drive home. When she finally pulled up the street, she saw a black van in front of her house. *Great. Its the fucking mafia. Dont tell me my mom slept with one of them too...* Asher thought, pulling into the driveway and easing herself out of the car, taking off the black lace veil she had over her face. Her thick, black high heels clunked against the sidewalk as she walked up to the door, hesitating as she saw the door she'd left locked, was open.

"Hello?" Asher asked. The door had been locked when she left, and Sammy should have still been with his friend Nick The house should have been empty. When she stepped into the kitchen, she saw a black shadow in the corner. Before she could scream, the shadow jumped at her, knocking her to the ground and pinning her there gently. Once her eyes cleared, she stared straight into a familiar face she'd missed for the last two years. There, pinning her to the ground, was Brian, his cheeks wet with happy tears and his arms gently pressing her to the ground. Much to Ashers surprise, he looked almost exactly the way he did when he got on the plane to go to Savanna. The same curly brown hair, the same gentle blue/brown/green eyes, the same caring smile... he looked different on some level though. More mature? More...
Oh.
"B-" The single sillable was cut off by something she'd missed more than anything else. A kiss similar to the first time they'd decided that they would try to spend their lives together.

Unless fate decided to butt in again... which being the bitch she was... did.