Ashton Grace is a bit rough around the edges, he'll admit it.
He's hard to talk to, he's often awkward and rough with his speech, his foreign accent often gets in the way of his cusses and words when he spews foul language during a conversation, and honestly, Ashton is better talking with his fist than his mouth, so he resides to just grunting or nodding his head unless the conversation really calls for words.
Who cares? Ashton doesn't give a crap, and if's on whoever if they think even looking his way is going to be a cake wall; it's not. If anything, just screw off.
"Hey Ash." One of his friends, Jake, points to Ashton's tan cheek, raising a thick eyebrow as his dark eyes follow to Ashton's face. "You've had blood on your face all day. The hell is that about?"
Ashton raises an eyebrow, reaching a hand to wipe his cheek. He looks at his now stained hand, confusedly eyeing his hand as he stares at the now red dying his skin another shade.
"Ion' know." Ashton curtly responds, eyeing his stained hand. "No idea. I came straight from my house, so..."
"Ah, thought you got into a fight or sum'..." It's Rodney, his other close friend that exhales a puff of smoke from his cigarette, leaning against the school rooftops flimsy railings as he peers down at Ashton with a small smirk on his face. "Speaking of fights, heard' that Heighton's boys' are gonna be looking for a fight with us soon."
"Those losers? Please." Ashton murmurs, wiping his stained hand off on his school uniform's pants. "They can come back for round' two. I'll still beat their asses."
"Great, I'm ready for a brawl." Jordan, his other friend, nudges Jake as he wiggles his eyebrows. "Plus the bell's about to ring', which means one thing--ya see there?"
Jordan nudges Rodney from next to him, who rolls his eyes and nudges him off, but follows Jordan's gaze, raising a thick eyebrow as he peers down below.
"Ah, shit, there at the gate." Rodney said, letting out a loud scoff. "Those fuckers must be ready to brawl."
It's Jake who sighs, rolling his eyes as he lightly punches Ashton's shoulder, his black eyes focused on Ashton's taller statue.
"Well than, happy birthday to you." Jake said, offering Ashton a toothy smile. "We'll take you out for cake after we beat their asses."
Ashton scoffs, but he lets lose a small smile.
Ashton, however, doesn't know this will be the last time he sees his friends alive.
...
Ashton hangs his head, blood runs down his forehead, slithers down his cheek, and drips down his chin. His vision is blurred, and he squints his pinkish-red eyes hard enough to attempt to fix his blurry vision. It only helps a bit.
Ashton tries to recall the moments before everything went so, so wrong. Right, after school a small group of delinquents from Heighton High stood at their school gates to lure the group of boys to a back alley. They all followed, ready for a rematch from their fight not long ago, and Ashton and his friends were kicking ass. That is, until the Heighton's gang surprisingly called reinforcements. By the time Ashton realized what was happening, it was too late, and one of the Heighton boys was able to sneak Ashton from behind and hit him hard as-fuck in the head with a metal bat. And that leads us to now--Ashton trying to stay conscious, fighting off a concussion as his friends are held back, trying to hold their own while fighting to reach Ashton's injured form.
There's a rough hand that reaches for his hair, pulled back and styled in a messy ponytail, and yanks the black pony tail holder enough that it rips, letting lose Ashton's long, spikey sandy-blonde hair. Ashton grips his teeth, his fang tooth poking his bottom lip enough to draw blood as his eyes draw back, peering up at one of Heighton's delinquents ring leader (Ken or something, his name was). His round pale eyes peer down at Ashton as a smirk grows on his face, like he's imagining every which way to ruin Ashton.
"You're on your knees, where you belong you fuck." Ken snears, pulling Ashton's head harder back, causing Ashton to grunt in pain, feeling his head throb even more. "You thought you could beat me and my gang like that? The fucking nerve."
"Please," Ashton said, sneering back at Ken. "Bringing backup because you can't handle us is weak, you piece of shit-!"
Ashton feels a heavy fist collide with his cheek--hard enough that Ashton spits out blood. Ken grits his teeth, yanking Ashton's head back again as he peers down at Ashton with as much hatred as he can muster.
"Ashton-!" It's Rodney who turns his head first, swinging his fist hard at a Heighton's member and staggering back, his wide brown eyes focused on trying to reach Ashton's bruised and battered form.
Ashton grimaced, letting out a soft grunt as he feels something cold and metal on his neck, poking his neck hard enough that Ashton feels blood dripping down his neck.
"Don't take this farther than you can handle." Ashton said, eyeing the switch blade that lands awfully close to his neck.
"Too fucking late, bitch." Ken said, grabbing Ashton's hair tighter as he readies to silt Ashton's throat.
Ashton flinches, closing his eyes, awaiting for blood to gush out his neck. He waits a moment, two, before Ashton opens his eyes, confusedly looking up, eyeing Ken's pale face as his round eyes focus on something ahead of him. Ken staggers, dropping his knife and letting out a loud screaming, loud enough that alarm bells ring in Ashton's head and he turns around.
Ashton freezes, his blood run cold, his tan face pales, and his fingers turn numb as his narrowed eyes land on the large, obscure, ugly, grotesque looking thing in front of the large group of boys. It's large, at least 8 feet in height with a round, plump body colored orange. It has holes all over its skin, four eyes on its belly, and its lips are colored a dark purple, wiggling and pursing at the boys at it looms into the alley way, it's eyes staring down at the boys with curiosity.
"What the fuck..." It's Jordan that mumbles, staggering back as his eyes land on the humongously tall thing. A boy from Heighton that holds Jordan's collar yelps, stepping away and dropping Jordan's collar as he shakily points to the large, ugly thing.
The thing grunts, coughs, and then twitches, before finally opening its mouth to reveal large black spikes beyond its plump purple lips. The thing croaks, quickly snapping its head down to the boy next to Jordan fast enough that the boy's head spilt from his body first, before their is a second until blood splatters across the dark alley--on the walls, on the ground, on the boy's uniform and on their faces and shoulders.
The boys stare at the monster in silence, before one boy yells, and the alley erupts in chaos.