Ashley Cooper's Arc

Chapter 35 of 37

The floor looked clean, but Ashley couldn't sleep beside it. Three nights had passed since they buried her mother. Miko slept easy. Ashley lay awake, still hiding inside the name Becca, still holding back the last thing she hadn't said. Miko knew she had a bone arm. Miko knew a woman had come to kill her. But Miko didn't know why. She didn't know the fires, the bodies, or the girl Ashley had been before this town. On the fourth morning, Ashley sat across from Miko at the small table and decided to stop hiding. "My name isn't Becca," she said. "It's Ashley Cooper." Miko set down her tea. She pulled her fox robe tighter and waited. She didn't reach for a blade or a phone. She just listened. So Ashley told her everything. She told her about the boy who punched a man to death in a hotel. She told her about running, about lying to her own father, about the aunt who kissed her only to be cruel. Her voice shook when she reached the mansion. "I burned it down," Ashley said. "With the old woman still inside. I wanted her to hurt like she hurt me. Then I set the match." She stared at her hands. "That woman on the floor was my mother. I helped hold her while you cut her. I've killed. I've hurt people who trusted me. That's what I am." She made herself look up, waiting for Miko to flinch, to step back, to see the monster. Miko didn't move away. She reached across the table and took Ashley's bone hand in both of hers. Her thumb traced the smooth white knuckles. "You think this scares me," Miko said. "I killed for money once. I killed strangers who never wronged me. You killed to survive." A small smile crossed her face. "You're not soft, Ashley. You burn things down. You don't run when it's time to fight." She leaned closer. "I like that. It's why I wanted you the first night you walked in. Not the arm. The fire behind it." Ashley's throat tightened. For two years she had feared a boy touching her sleeve. Now she had shown a woman the very worst of her, and the woman held on tighter. "You're not disgusted," Ashley whispered. "I'm drawn to it." Miko pressed Ashley's bone knuckles to her lips. "We're the same, you and me. Two women who did terrible things and kept living." Ashley let out a breath she'd held for weeks. The name Becca was gone. Miko knew all of it now, and she was still here, still touching her, still choosing her. But as Ashley leaned into her, a cold thought crept in. Miko wasn't drawn to the girl who felt sorry. She was drawn to the girl who burned and buried. Ashley had finally been seen whole. She wasn't sure the whole of her was someone she wanted to keep being.