Ashley felt the other body, the one that had become an extension of her own, tense up, struggling to pull away. “I’m leaving…”

The second the cool air touched her bare skin, when the warmness dissipated, Ashley immediately whipped the lighter across the room. “THERE! It’s gone! Don’t go!” she blindly reached out to meet nothingness. She’d grown accustomed to manoeuvring with, regardless of the darkness. Ashley despised the dark, but tolerated it, craved it because of ‘her’. Because ‘she’ wouldn’t have it, wouldn’t have Ashley any other way. And Ashley craved ‘her’, her warmth. Needed ’her’ far more than any drug.

Tonight, Ashley felt her physically, but she couldn’t feel her. Not completely, not wholly. She felt distant tonight. She held back. Ashley couldn’t feel all of her, couldn’t thoroughly possess her. Tonight was darker than usual. It was lonely, which made for desperate and sloppy sex. Restrained even. An inexplicable dread had washed over Ashley, a silent desperation embodied her while she explored the body she knew so well, pleadingly ravish with it, pushing it to its peak.The security was in jeopardy. And she needed to salvage it but couldn’t. It was unsalvageable. Inevitable. Ashley was frustrated.

Ashley opened her mouth to call a name, but no words would come. She knew of none. None to describe, to identify this bed mate of hers. The simplest thing, and yet-the one person who made her life bearable had no name. No face.“Where are you going?” Ashley asked, listening to the ruffling of clothes being hazardously pulled on, arms roughly punctuating through non-cooperative sleeves, the zipping of a zipper on jeans.

Not gauging any response, anger replaced her restlessness. It wasn’t fair. She clearly knew who Ashley was. At first it was alluring making love in the dark, never knowing the other person’s face, just knowing the other person, just being, feeling, mind, body, and soul. Now, now all it felt like was a power imbalance. An imbalance that left Ashley vulnerable. This girl held Ashley in her palm. She knew Ashley in all possible ways. “I could’ve lit that lighter anytime! I didn’t have to ask!” Ashley declared. Wasn’t that enough? Respect. As curious as Ashley was, she never forced anything onto the other girl. The room felt colder, she could tell by the lack of ruffling that she was already fully clothed now. “Listen to me when I’m talking to you!” Ashley stubbornly demanded. Most people hung onto her every word. Ashley Davies was not one to be ignored.