Imagines and One-Shots (Book Three)

The Haunting (Ashton Irwin) - Part 2

no one asked for this

part 1 is around here somewhere lmao 

~

One year later

You and Ashton had been dating for about a year now. You weren't living together, but you did spend most of your nights over at his place and he spent a fair amount of time at the hotel – especially when a lot of paranormal things were happening.

It was one such night when you were staying at Ashton's that you were woken up at nearly 3am to Ashton whimpering softly. You yawned lightly, propping yourself up to turn on the lamp. When you turned back to Ashton, you could clearly hear him repeating the word 'no', as well as mumbling 'she's mine, you can't have her' and 'please give her back' in his sleep. You'd been with him long enough to know that he was having a nightmare, so you shook him gently.

"Ash," you said quietly, "Baby, wake up." He still wasn't opening his eyes, so you shook him harder. "Ash," you said more firmly, "Ashton, you need to wake up now."

After a couple more tries, Ashton's eyes finally shot open and he was gasping to catch his breath. He looked at you frantically and it was almost as if seeing you was what calmed him down. 

He immediately lunged forward, his arms wrapping around your waist. You lost your balance on your arm, falling back onto the bed with Ashton now lying halfway on top of you. You brought one of your hands up to run your fingers through his hair while the other was stroking his upper arm lightly. Your lips were pressed to his forehead, his face buried in your neck.

"You're okay," Ashton murmured, more to himself as a form of reassurance.

"Mhmm," you hummed into his skin, "You wanna talk about it?"

"No," he whispered, "Just wanna hold you." You remained silent, playing with his hair until you both fell back asleep.

And when you went out to a local diner for breakfast a few hours later before you had to go back to your hotel, you sat on the same side of the booth as your boyfriend, your legs draped over his. Ashton held your hand on your lap, squeezing every now and then to remind himself you were there and you were alright. He was always like this for a couple days after having a nightmare, so you didn't think too much of it – you simply just allowed him to cling to you all day.

~

Two weeks later

You woke up in the middle of the night one night to find a dark figure standing at the end of your bed. Normally, this wouldn't have bothered you – you were sleeping in your own room at the hotel and this sort of thing happened all the time; What wasn't normal, however, was that this figure had glowing red dots where its eyes would be. When it turned to look at you, you were quick to grab your phone, calling the only person you knew could help calm you down. The phone rang a few times and you watched with wide eyes as the figure approached you, disappearing the moment you heard Ashton's voice in your ear.

"Hello?" he yawned, clearly not having checked the caller ID.

"A-Ashton," you choked out, wiping your face.

"What's wrong?" his voice automatically sounding alert as he sat up.

"There was... There was a shadow at the end of my bed," you breathed out, "B-But it had bright red eyes and I don't... That's never happened before and I don't know what to do."

"Is Kara working tonight?" he asked you, referring to the girl who was stationed at the front desk for the night shift, and you heard him rustling around.