Ashes of Him

The Ashvale connection

The silence that followed Ivy’s revelation wasn’t just awkward,it was alive.

Silence following Ivy's revelation hung in the air and felt weird rather than merely awkward. Ashvale sounded weirdly.“How far is it?” she asked, trying to keep her voice even.Ella couldn't shake a feeling that something deep inside responded with fear not recognition to that strange unsettling presence somehow.“Too close. “It’s here.” She tapped a faint gray smudge just beyond the state line. “Technically, it’s not even a town anymore. Mason responded curtly.

“I was there six years ago. It ostensibly doesn't exist. Ella leaned in unofficially with an air of secrecy surrounding her. Ivy nodded jerkily. It thrives quite vigorously underground sometimes.

“I think you were there,” Ivy said. “Maybe not by choice.”

“But I’ve never been there,” Ella said. “I grew up here. I was there a long time back roughly six ago tracking someone.Something felt off back then though I hadn't a clue what it actually was. Streets looked remarkably spotless beneath flickering streetlights and pedestrians strolled by with an air of quiet satisfaction.Few people were visible and they all sort of moved alike like they were programmed and spoke in half sentences often trailing off awkwardly into vague murmurs beneath barely audible whispers.“Oh God,” she whispered. “What if I have been there? Ella's hands shook violently.

“This was posted on the dark net two nights ago and scrubbed this morning. "You reckon I was among those folks?" Ella asked "I reckon you were there."Ivy said quietly from across the dimly lit room showing Ella a picture of her in an hospital gown in a white room with no windows.Mason turned towards Ella slowly" Maybe not by choice".He said. You claimed someone was lurking around watching you after attending that funeral. He uttered something remarkably cryptic beneath his breath. Ella swallowed really hard stating the man's statement again "It's not over Ella.“You’re next" Ivy nodded grimly and a faint shiver ran down her spine as she recalled the eerie words . “I don’t remember this,” she said, her voice a whisper. “I don’t remember any of this.”

Mason dropped into the chair beside her, his fists clenched. “You don’t forget a place like that unless someone wants you to.”

“The fire was the cover,” Ivy said. “They needed the world to believe Ashvale was gone but the facility never shut down,it just went underground.”

“And now it’s coming up again,” Mason muttered.

“No,” Ivy corrected. “She is.”

Ella looked up, afraid . “What do you mean?”

“You’re the key, Ella,” Ivy said, her tone now gentle. “Something about you is waking the past. Maybe you left something behind or maybe you took something without knowing but they’ve been watching you ever since then.

Ella’s breath became unstable “That photo—someone took that while I was there. Why send it now?”

“Because you came back to me and this town” Mason said quietly.That shook something loose.”

“Then we head to Ashvale,” Ella said, standing. I need answers. Even if I’m scared of the answers I might get"

“You don’t know what might happen to you there,” Mason said, rising too. “If we walk into that town, we might not come out.”

Ella’s voice trembled “I’m already not who I thought I was. What else can they take from me?”

Mason looked at her for a very long time andnodded. “Then we prepare.”

Ivy grabbed a notepad and started listing supplies that they would need. “It’s a three-hour drive if we take the back roads. Cell service drops about halfway. GPS won’t help. We move in before sunrise. We move calmly.”

Ella touched the photo one more time, her finger moving over her own blurred face.

“Whoever I was in that white room,I want her back” she muttered. Ivy met her gaze. “Just make sure you’re ready for whatever you find there.”

As the rain outside reduced and the night settled thick around them, Ella felt it—the turn in the story. The next page. The part of the book where the heroine stops surviving and starts fighting.

Ashvale wasn’t just a place

It was a reckoning.