Cai slammed into the wall with a crash as Ashley finished him off with a full-blown kick to the chest. He slid down onto the ground, and shook his head a little.Ashley smiled. Finally, she'd proven that she could beat him with a little bit of intelligence. She stood, leaning on her practice fighting staff casually as she watched him clamber to his feet a couple of metres from her.He rubbed the back of his head, making his blonde hair stick up in every different direction."You do know that I'm not really attacking you?"Ashley nodded. "Sure.""So you don't have to be so rough." He took his time to walk over to her, picking up his practicing staff from the floor in front of her.Ashley only shrugged. "Well otherwise you would've beaten me anyway and then I'd be where you are." She smiled a little. "And I'm not a loser, Cai." As she span her staff around in her hand, she noticed her sweatband around her wrist had slipped, starting to reveal the beginning of her nightmares to the world

Ashley lay on her back on the first floor living room's sofa in complete darkness. She'd been waiting for at least 2 or 3 hours; she hadn't really been paying attention to the clock, though it ticked and tocked every second to remind her that time was still crawling forwards, however slowly. She twirled a leaf she'd picked from Gina freshly bought flowers, delicately placed in the centre of the coffee table. The white lilies complimented the pale blues and aqua tones of the rest of the room in a way which made Ashley feel surprisingly peaceful. Unfortunately, this made it moderately hard to fight sleep.Getting fidgety, she sat up properly, and checked the clock. It was nearly midnight. He should be home by now. What if something's happened?Ashley had decided to wait up for Joseph that night. She hadn't properly seen him in over a week; the only confirmation she'd had that he had actually come home each night was the fact that the calendar on his desk was always flicked over to the n