• The floor stung her feet as she placed them firmly on the ground. It was almost like dry ice, but more like a winter’s bite that turns your cracked lips blue and a running nose bright red. With new aches and pains, she took one steep at a time slowly so not to cause any more pain. One steep, two, three, and five more to go. Ashlee stood between her bed and her escape when new thoughts popped up into her head. What if there was someone by the door? Where would she go once she was outside the room? How big was the place? All these questions had her paralyzed with in touching distance of the door. With a deep breath, she pushed her dark hair over her shoulders and began moving at a slightly faster pace then before. One hand on the wall and one on the door handle, she opened the door.
    A black shadow of a figure blocked her exit. Light from the room’s floating candles gave his body a light glow, and there was something about his face that hit Ashlee hard. His high cheek bones and full lips, his almond shaped eyes even his nose was familiar to her on a way she couldn’t wrap her head around. He held a whit flower in left hand; it stood out against his dark attire. “Ashlee,” he whispered. Tossing the flower away he moved into the room, and for his steeps forward she steeped back. Who was he? What was her head and heart trying to remind her of? Ashlee didn’t have the answers. The boy looked to be about her age, seventeen, but could have been a little older. He had fair skin and brilliant black hair. He knew her, but she couldn’t remember him.
    As she tried to find the answers he got closer to her. She had put herself up against a wall. Memories raced through her, but nothing was complete. She saw her seventeenth birthday party and her blue car. She tried dying her hair red once, but it looked horrible. She had no siblings, and she went to a private school so she rarely saw her parents. All this she could remember but not the boy standing a foot from her or how or why she had woken up in that small room.
    Suddenly two arms were pulling her into him. She didn’t struggle. He was strong, but he wasn’t being over powering. He held her close like she was a frail doll, and Ashlee realized it was a hug. He whispered words she couldn’t hear and stoked her hair. Finally she fell into the comfort of it all. She let him hold up all her weight and wrapped her arms around his neck. Words turned to humming and blackness took her again.