Asher awoke from nightmares of beasts slaughtering all the people he has ever loved. Tears were already streaming down his face when he opened his eyes. It took a few moments for the confusion to clear enough for him to understand that he must have passed out at some point, once his head began to clear, he pushed the tears away as best he could.

  His emotions were still in chaos, his fear, anger, and grief all wrestled for time under the light of his attention. His brother was gone, stolen away by actual monsters, monsters whose intentions he couldn't even begin to understand. Even ignoring what might happen to Ben in the future, Asher was already seriously worried for his brother's health. Asher knew from experience how terrifyingly powerful the Goblin’s were, and he had seen Ben take a strike to the head from one of them. If it hadn't been holding back in its strike Ben might have been dead already. Asher still saw the image of Ben’s head whipping back and forth every time he closed his eyes.

  Blinking back fresh tears, Asher looked around the room he had awoken in. It looked familiar but he was having trouble placing it. It was clearly a bedroom but other than that he wasn't sure who it belonged to. There was a slight sweet floral scent on the pillows below Asher so he guessed it was probably a room belonging to a girl.

  Asher was suddenly struck by an intense bout of coughing. The tension caused by the coughs lit the fuse of his pain. His body exploded in pain, his back and ribs were the worst of it. The combination of the intense pain in his mid section and uncontrollable coughing was pure agony, it must have only lasted a few seconds but it felt like an eternity to Asher. Even after the bout Asher still struggled to catch his breath, his lungs were struggling to keep up after he inhaled a city’s worth of smoke last night.

  “Asher! You’re awake! Oh thank the gods!” a familiar voice rang out.

  Looking up, still trying to hold back both tears and coughs, Asher saw that his mother was standing in the room's doorway, staring at him with wide eyes.

  Asher’s eyes stung, his body screamed, and his lungs seized up. Silent tears began rolling down his face once again.

  “I’m sorry Ma, I couldn't save him.” Asher sobbed as he spoke, still choking on his breaths. The words felt unreal to him, as though telling his mother that he lost his brother, and her son, was something too bizarre and too tragic to be real.

  Anna crossed the room and pulled Asher into a sitting hug. They cried in silence together for a long time. Asher did not know for how long as he was lost in the warm embrace of his Ma.

  “I know what happened son, there was nothing else you could do.” Anna said softly, still crying as she spoke.

  “You know what happened?” He asked, pulling himself away and wiping his face on his sleeves.

  “One of the city guards saw you. David was stationed on the roof of one of the market buildings nearby monitoring the goblin’s movements. He said he watched you follow Ben for a while and then charge into the horde. He saw what happened after too, but it’s hard for me to talk about.” Her voice was wavering as she spoke, holding back tears was taking its toll. “He said after the monsters left he was able to go check on you, he thought you were dead but when he found you still breathing he gathered you up and brought you out into the residential district. We found you this morning being checked on by a doctor, he was there with you still then.”

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  Asher blinked, he knew that realistically he was lucky to even be alive, the strike from that club could have pulverised him had it hit just slightly harder. He was surprised, now that he thought about it, that he hadn't been crushed under the feet of the crowd as they left. He guessed they didn't want to dirty their feet more than necessary. No matter how he tried, he couldn't bring himself to feel relief at being alive, all he could think about was how he failed his family by losing Ben.

  “I’m going to bring him back.” Asher said with all the resolve he could muster. “I’m going in after him.”

  Silence filled the space between Asher and his mother. He could see a war of emotions being played across her face. Eventually, after a painful wait, she spoke.

  “You can’t” Her voice was a whisper.

  “I need to. I’m sorry. It isn't a question of if, it is just something I must do. I can't leave him.” Asher’s voice cracked, revealing the lie of his confidence, as he mentioned Ben.

  Looking at his mother now, as things were, She seemed so different. Yesterday she had been his Ma, his caregiver and guide. More importantly, he was her child. Today, after last night, he stood here as a grown man, he was still her son but he was also an adult. He needed to make his own decisions. She seemed smaller, in need of protection.

  Asher and his mother stared at each other and remained in strained silence. Before either of them spoke Hazel walked into the room.

  “Haze! What are you doing here?” Asher was completely caught off guard by her appearance.

  “What am I doing here? In my bedroom?” She asked in response, a smirk plastered on her face.

  It all clicked into place at that moment. He had woken up in a girls bedroom and his mother was here, obviously they were in Hazel’s family home.

  “Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t realise this was your place.” He stammered out awkwardly. “Thank you, sincerely, for looking after my mother. And me...” He added belatedly, remembering why he was here in the first place.

  “Yeah, yeah, very dramatic and polite of you. How are you? Are you feeling okay? Your injuries looked pretty intense.” Hazel wasn’t interested in wasting time with manners when it came to Asher, she just wanted to know he was going to be okay.

  Asher smiled, he should have known she’d react that way. “I wont pretend that im in peak condition, but I’m pretty sure I’ll survive.” Cringes of pain pulling at his face told the true story of how he felt.

  “He said he’s going to go after Ben.” Anna said, regaining the attention of the room.

  “Well aside from that being crazy, it’s also impossible.” Hazel looked at Asher as if he were a fool.

  “I don’t care if you think it's impossible, I am going after him. If the Tower is going to take him it’ll need to take me too.” Asher was in no mood to be told no again.

  “You don’t understand Ash, you really can't follow him. The Tower has been shut down by the king after the attack last night. They have it surrounded by patrols of guards and they are already planning ways to fortify the interior of the castle ring if the Tower allows monsters through again.” Hazel replied, laying out the reality of the situation.

  In his shock Asher collapsed back down to the bed. His goal taken away, the determination dragging him forward evaporated, as it did Asher fell apart.

  “It can’t end like this.” Asher squeaked out between the sobs wracking his body. “It can’t.”

  He was back in his mothers arms now, Hazel walked over and crouched down with the other two. “I’m sorry.” she said, looking asher in the eye as best she could through his tears.

  The three sat in silence for the better part of an hour while they waited for time to ease some of the pain.