It's been almost theee hours since the "discovery" of Mindy's body. Ashly and Lucas are standing near the middle of the community circle. "Like I said, I was looking around, and there's where I found her. I saw a finger and I decided to start digging just in case." Ashly said, ever since they found Mindy's body they questioned Ashly. They all suspected it was her as this was all to obvious, but they had no solid proof.
"Listen, I was with Ashly most of the time. Sure the splitting plan was a bit odd but that wasn't enough time for her to do these things." Lucas says as he shows them the map. "Even after these hours with almost three people, you haven't retrieved Mindy's body yet."
"Yes we are aware of that, but this all is happening when you both arrived. We are sorry but we can't let Ashly leave nor be left unsupervised." Eder says as he stares at Ashly.
"Sure I may not be a good person, but that doesn't make me evil. I act certain a way because it allowed me to see the next day, and I turned it into a habit." Ashly says as she points her middle finger at Ederz "I'm smart enough to understand the consequences of my actions. You honestly think with how obvious this all lead to me, I'll do it? Even if I did why would I stay here, and risk getting caught? Think more before you go accusing me."
Lucas walks up and attempts to sit Ashly down. "Ashly come on, lashing out like this doesn't help your case." Ashly pushes Lucas away, and he falls down. "Don't stir up problems Ashly, they already suspect you, and you are making yourself look guilty."
"No she isn't." Silas says which makes everyone turn their attention to him. "She has good points there, besides she could of easily ignored the body. She said Lucas saw her, and she asked for his help, and as far as everyone thinks of Ashly. She would of killed him to hide the evidence and run away, but she didn't. Sure she trust him, but how far does that trust really go?"
"This could be a tactic she is using, trying to make herself look innocent." Agnes says, "That boy was her friend for years so it makes sense for him to not believe it a first. That girl is full of evil thought, and she must be stopped before she goes further. It was our mistake for ignoring all the warning, and it cost the life's of Mindy and presumably Easton."
"That's right, we are sorry Lucas, but we are to detain Ashly." Eder says, "Take her to a cell and we will think this all out, there is a chance she is innocent but that's unlikely."
Lucas stands up and is about to walk in front of Ashly, but she stops him. "Go ahead and arrest me. That won't prove anything, but the fact that you all fear me. There is zero evidence other than coincidences, and I'm sure you will all be stupid when you find out I'm not the murderer." The men grab her and begin to walk away with her. "Sure I may have killed people before, but they were all for good reasons."
"This is…it's not fair." Lucas says as he watches Ashly be taken away. "We have to be logical everyone." He then feels a hand on his shoulder, and it's of Silas who frowns at him. "Silas, Ashly isn't an evil person I know she isn't."
"Lucas you're loyalty to Ashly is fascinating, you're trust in her is of foolishness." Eder says as he stands up and grabs Lucas arm. "Sometimes, people aren't who we think they are. This world is full of surprises, and the ones that hurt the most, are the ones that we believed were true. Don't let it stop you from making the right choice, don't become blind to what's happening around you Lucas. That woman is nothing, but trouble for someone with your kindness." Eder then begins to walk away from Lucas.
Lucas is standing there, his fist are clenching and he looks at Ashly. Silas pats his back and Lucas closes his eyes, she is innocent in Lucas eyes, but maybe Eder is right. He doesn't completely know Ashly, and most of what he thinks he know is him filling in the missing pieces from his own perspective.
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Ashly has been put in a place she presumes it's a cell. "So am I going to rot here for the rest of my life, am I going to be given time to prove my innocences or what?" She asks the man who put her in the cell, but he remains silent and walks away. "What a dick." she says as she was ignored. "Lucas is going to save me no matter what."
Lucas walks up to Ashly, and he looks at her with sad eyes. "Ashly please tell me the truth if you haven't yet. I'm your friend and I want what's the best for you and these people. Ashly when you kill bad people you have good reasons right? Tell me, have you ever killed an innocent person before and if you have, what was the reason." He waits for her response with a bit of hope.
"Well Lucas to answer your question, I don't know. I never killed an innocent person before so I can't answer you. An for the fact, I didn't kill that girl." She says with confidence.
"Ashly I don't know what to think of this, you didn't give me a direct answer to my question." Lucas says.
"Alright then Lucas, if I was to kill an innocent person. It would be because they would try to get me into any form of trouble I guess." She says looking at Lucas who seems to be trying to think about what to say. At that moment Ashly had a thought in her head, if Lucas can't prove to be anymore useful to her. Then maybe she should just kill him as he will be a liability, but she knows this is stupid so she doesn't think about it anymore. Lucas gets closer, and puts his hand near Ashly's and grabs it. She is ready to pulls away but doesn't.
Lucas can't looks at Ashly, and turns around to leave. "Lucas grab ours stuff and get the horse, its best for you to leave now. These people won't listen to you as they already made their decision when I punched that girl. I made a big mistake, and you shouldn't be dragged into it." Lucas doesn't look at Ashly and leaves. Ashly turns and sees the man still watching her. "Pervert."
Lucas is outside and he sees Silas standing alone, he approaches Silas. "I can understand your feeling at this moment Lucas, don't get me wrong but Eder made the decision. He is our leader, and his priorities is our safety. I don't agree with this, but there's nothing you can do about this alone."
"There is, her innocence is what I have to prove." Lucas walks past Silas. "I'll go to her place, take her stuff, and I'm leaving. Silas, has Eder always been right with his decisions? Has he ever made any that made you never question them?"
"There were some mistakes, but they were minor and mostly excusable. He is getting old and that has affected his thinking, experience does that to people. Sure there is a chance that what that man did not so long ago influenced this decision. I won't blame him at all for it, he's scared and so are we. If Ashly ends up innocent then he would own up to his mistake, he will try to make things right."
"Thanks Silas but I'll be leaving soon, I know you will make the right decision." Lucas has already left Silas, Silas takes a deep breath and walks away from the area.
Lucas has entered Ashly's room, and looks around. As he suspected, he found nothing new nor anything that was useful as evidence. "To think she chose the area where Mindy's body was found, can't really blame them for thinking this way. Ashly you never had good luck, you would always complain about it." Lucas is grabbing the things Ashly owned, and begins to pack them up. As he grabs everything he notices that her knife is on her bed, it seemed untouched.
He puts her stuff away and leaves the cabin, he then walks to his to pack up. As he opens the door. "Lucas I want you to listen to us, I don't want you to hate me or anyone." Lucas turns to look at Eder. "Don't mix your feelings with reality, that will only lead to hatred. We have her locked up because of our fears and we have proof to back it up."
"I fully understand what your saying, I was being to emotional back there. You're right, now that I had time to calm myself it all makes sense. I just need to think more clearly about this, give me some time as I'm leaving soon. I have to as I have business to take care of, and I can't wait." Lucas says.
"I understand then, this must be hard on you and I wont bother you anymore." Eder then leaves.
———
Ashly is sitting down, she is bored and uncomfortably calm. Ashly hears footsteps and its Silas, he is standing by her. "Ashly I can tell you are thinking of something. Don't, none of us trust you at all. They want you to pay for your crimes, we found Easton's body near Mindy's." Ashly doesn't seem surprised at all, she just sits there staring at him with a blank face. "We also found him dead, there are wounds were it would be impossible for them to be from accidents. We found a knife that belong to Mindy, and it was underneath her. The knife seemed to fit perfectly with a wound she had."
"So? That doesn't prove me being guilty. Why would I hide the weapon with the body, that's way to amateurish. I was taught to do better, to never get caught yet I did. I could of easily gotten away from this mess with ease but since I didn't do it, I was framed."
"Ashly, I want you to understand that they made their decision. You are going to stay here for the rest of your life." Silas got closer and sat down inches from the bars. He stuck his hand inside which one of the men guarding yelled at him to stop. "As you can see, we are merely inches from each other. You can easily attack me right now if you wanted to, the fact I'm doing this is proof that I believe that you're innocent. I talked to Lucas and I want to prove you right, wait here a bit longer, and I promise you that I will free you." Silas stood up and then left.
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It's much later in the night. "Agnes I promise you that none of this makes any form of sense. I looked more into it and it seems more likely that there was someone else in this forest. Lucas did his best with monitoring her, and she couldn't have buried their bodies in such a short amount of time. She was acting the exact same, and wanted to prove her innocence."
"Silas please be quiet, I can see these points but we can't risk anything. I will go see her with Eder tomorrow, we have gathered everything we know of. We checked Mindy's place, and it didn't seem different."
"Miss Agnes, we have terrible news. Ashly she has disappeared from her cell. It was wide open as if she broke out herself, we have to find her." A man said.
"You don't have to, I'm right here." Ashly said with a smooth voice which made Agnes jump a bit. "It's true that my cell was left wide open, but I don't know who freed me. I only left my cell because I believed I would find my savior but I didn't."
"Don't you dare move or run away you monster." Agnes says.
"Please, if I wanted to I would of attacked you all. I have no weapon on me, this could of been done easily. I didn't because I know I'm innocent, innocent people don't run away from crimes they never committed. Besides I'm here to try to clear this all out, I don't kill innocent people. It's true that I'm not a great person, but that doesn't make me animalistic. I'm reasonable when it counts, and you know it to," Ashly points at Agnes. "I'm all vulnerable right now, I won't resist if you attempt to arrest me." Ashly raises her hands up closing her eyes.
"Well this may be one of your tricks Ashly, you're cunning and that's dangerous. I don't know what you're planning, but they will be here."
"I know that, that's why I'm here. I'm not trying to run away as that will make me more guilty than what you all think of me. I know I will be put back which is why I want to talk to you now. Mindy was acting crazy, and like I heard from a few people, you all don't know how to handle her correctly. I believe she killed herself and that man because I didn't want to hang out with her. I can guess this because I knew a few crazy fucks. They would do anything to have it their way and more often than not, they would resort to getting them in trouble."
"Well I don't trust you at all, you're going back to jail, and you're going to face your consequences." Agnes says which Ashly sighs.
"I wanted to go easy on you, but I guess I was being soft. You are unreasonable and I don't like that."
In the meanwhile Lucas has packed up everything, and he found the horse. He has placed everything away, he has slept in the morning so he could leave at night. "Lucas, I thought you weren't leaving soon. That's not like you at all." Lucas looks up at Ashly who seems tired. "Someone freed me, and I had a chat with Agnes and she let me go. It seems that actually being calm does help prove your innocence." Ashly smiles.
"Wow to think you got out so easily, did the map help you find me quicker or did you loose it?" Lucas asked "I mean if you're telling the truth then we have to go now, Silas must of free you I presume."
"Yeah sort of, he gave me the key when he reached his arm inside my cell. He did believe me and I proved him right, I believed he told her as she was quickly convinced by me." Ashly says, "I have no weapon on me, and I'm not mad about it."
"Well I do have your kn-" Ashly grabs the knife and throws it away. "Oh so it seems you're trying to prove your innocence to me as well."
"Yeah I am, like you said I have to change for this to work. I don't need a weapon if I want to live with everyone." Ashly makes a smile that seems a bit too forced to be sincere.