14. TAPE TWO | ASHER DEVON

ACT THREE

''I MET EVIL WHEN I

WAS ONLY A CHILD."

ACT THREE SCENE ONE

TAPE TWO / ASHER DEVON

third person

PERSPECTIVE

"The both of you are too loud, can't you tell I'm trying to sleep here?"

THE SOUND OF LUCA'S sharp voice causes Asher to stiffen in his position, meanwhile, Sahar who was beside him looked at Luca with a perplexed expression: confused as to why the boy seemed to be cold and frightening.

Asher hands the ice pack over to Sahar, slightly alarmed by Luca's frustrated state: the tall platinum blonde takes a step away from the brunette haired girl with a blank expression on his elysian face. However his actions go unnoticed by Sahar who was too busy staring at Luca.

"Alright I'm sorry, but did you really have to take the extra effort and make your anger come across as dramatic and stupid?" Sahar exclaims, not noticing Asher flinch at the word stupid, he felt his head pounding from the word; he despised it with a passion.

"The only thing that is stupid is you helping him when he can clearly tend to his own wounds." Luca remarks, once again utilising the word stupid, making Asher clench his fists tightly.

"You're being stupid now, do you have short term memory loss? I helped you when you passed out in the hallway!"

Asher gulped, the word was becoming repetitive. His heart was in flames, his mind filled with ashes of his uncomfortable childhood.

"I didn't ask you to help me, your words lack meaning, you're sounding so stupid right now." Luca snaps.

Asher turns around, leaving the pair to argue. His heart clenching with childhood trauma, the word stupid was something he couldn't get out of his mind. It polluted his mind, it damaged his mind; breaking it into shards filled with painful memories.

A tear slides down his beguiling face, his soul drained and his mind shattered.

"Asher, where are you going?" the sound of Sahar's voice causes the boy to halt, he wipes his tears and turns around to face her.

"I have class." he murmurs, leaving without another word: leaving Sahar and Luca to watch him with a dazed expression. They both knew that Asher wasn't the type to go to class willingly.

Sahar turns to glare at Luca.

"Was that really necessary? If you told us nicely then I wouldn't have minded but now look what you did! You made the poor guy leave out of discomfort."

"I see, placing the blame on me when you could've left without a word." Luca's words cause Sahar to pause, in a way he was right. If only she didn't respond sharply then nothing would've happened, she would've been in class right now.

Luca sighs.

"I guess I got too angry." he admits, not looking at Sahar. His pride wasn't allowing him to do so.

"But why? Why did you get angry Luca? Don't tell me you're still holding those stupid feelings for me?" her words cause Luca to gulp, he wasn't sure whether he harboured any feelings for Sahar. He too was confused, he wasn't sure how to approach his feelings.

"I don't like you, it's just..." It's just that you're the cure was what Luca wanted to say but he prevented himself from saying so and that was only because he feared Sahar would treat him like a monster. He was afraid that she'd start viewing him differently.

"It's just that you disturbed my sleep, I haven't been sleeping well lately and the fact you woke me up irritated me." Luca lies, finally meeting Sahar's deep gaze, he slyly places a palm on his heart. He feels the pace, it was beating faster than usual; was it a heart problem? Or was it because he was lying?

Or was it because his heart rate increased because of the beautiful girl in front of him?

"I'm sorry, I forgot you had a high fever, it was inconsiderate of me to speak carelessly with Asher when I knew the other bed was occupied." Sahar says, her apology was sincere. She didn't want bad blood with the billionaire bad boys club member. He seemed genuine and she couldn't help but feel apologetic towards the ethereal boy.

"You're speaking formally with me now?" Luca questions, watching Sahar with an amused expression on his face.

"My mother always told me to apologise sincerely, that's what I'm doing for you, take my apology or leave it," Sahar states, crossing her arms. "I'm not forcing you, do as you please."

Luca found himself intrigued by her attitude.

"I suppose just this once I'll accept your apology."

"What about you?" Sahar questions.

"What about me?"

"I think you owe me an apology."

"An apology and me? You're being a pretty good joker today, but there's always a limit to jokes." Luca says, chuckling at Sahar's statement.

But he stops after noticing the serious expression on her face.

"You're being serious?"

Sahar nods her head.

"I can't."

Sahar simply raises one eyebrow.

"You can't?"

Luca leans on the pillow, facing away from Sahar.

"I would apologise but there's one thing stopping me."

Sahar looks at him with a confused expression.

"What stops you?"

"I don't know how to apologise to someone because it's usually people apologising to me." Luca closes his eyes, not wanting to see the look of pure amusement on Sahar's face.

But Sahar doesn't laugh at him. For some reason she felt pity for the boy. Her next actions take her by surprise as well as Luca, she pulls him up, leading him to open his eyes abruptly. Sahar felt her cheeks warming at the direct eye contact with Luca.

"You look a person in their eyes, like this," she whispers, staring at his euphoric eyes, suddenly feeling slight tension with the ethereal boy in front of her. "And say sorry, with sincerity from your heart and pure intentions not with deceit but with a pure mind

"I'm sorry Sahar, I'm truly sorry." the words come out with ease. His eyes were staring intently at hers, his words were sincere and pure. He felt light headed, he felt as if Sahar was the cause of his euphoria.

But.

Luca felt his heart melting, her gaze was enough to twist and turn his dark emotions and morph them into pure and delicate ones, emotions that would shatter at her mere command. The loud pounding of his heart causes Luca to abruptly move away, he couldn't, he couldn't do this.

Sahar gulps, mentally cursing herself for demanding for an apology for her own pathetic satisfaction. Instead of feeling satisfied, she felt slightly confused. Confused as to why the caramel haired boy made her feel tense. I'm sick, I'm most likely sick. Sahar thought to herself, forcing herself to believe that she was feeling sick, she was feeling hot and flustered because her body's immune system is weak.

"I have to attend my evening class." Sahar states quickly, not giving Luca the chance to respond to her.

"There she goes, speaking formally to me once again." he mumbles, placing his palm next to his heart. It was no longer beating rapidly, perhaps for some inhumane reason Sahar made his heart go wild. Luca didn't want to admit that it was her: that it was her that made his heart feel numb.

sahar glacé

PERSPECTIVE

I walk alone. Class had ended a few minutes ago and I was wondering around school like a hopeless fool searching for Asher. Although he told Luca and I that he had to go to class, he never ended up going to that class he presumably had to go to. Now I'm waiting for him, wondering why he left in such a hurry.

It seems rather dumb of me to be waiting around for someone who is probably scheming behind my back, but I couldn't help but wonder where he could be. I only cared because he is the only way for Normani to return to Devon Academy. I could care less about Asher Devon, after his status allows my friend back, our friendship or what he likes to call it 'companionship' will be over in the matter of seconds.

Call it ruthless but that's how I am. It's strictly business. The only reason why I accepted this crude deal of being his so called companion was to bring back my friend. After having my friend back, there's no need to continue his little companionship. It's not like he cares about me anyways, the boy is known for his vile games.

I don't want to be a part of his sick games for amusement. I'm not a joke nor am I a jokester.

If he wants entertainment he should look in the mirror, after all, the image staring back at him would be a clown.

He shouldn't mistake my false kindness for innocence, nobody should. Everyone should know by now that the world is cruel.

But sometimes I wonder if what I'm thinking is right. Sometimes I do wonder if some of Asher's acts are genuine, most of the time I regard his actions as pretentious and a part of his silly tricks to make me adore him. After witnessing him feel so shocked today made me hit a dead end to my thoughts. It was the first time he cared about someone other than himself, even I couldn't believe it myself. Perhaps he does care about people, he's just afraid to show it. I'm not special, I'm just someone he likes to use to discover certain aspects of friendship.

Or what he likes to call it.

Companionship.

"Sahar, what are you doing here?" the sound of Solar's soft voice pulls me out of my deadly thoughts. "Let's go, we have to hear the next tape!" she states loudly, attracting attention from a couple of teachers walking by.

"Tapes are so amazing, like I love the idea of hearing old music." I feign excitement, gesturing Solar to copy my act so that the teachers wouldn't find us suspicious and report back to the principle of Devon Academy of suspicious activities.

Solar laughs but her laughter is at a high pitch, clearly showing her very obvious bad acting skills. "Let's go quick, we wouldn't want our ears to miss out on this musical session for intellects like us!" her words cause me to glare at her, the teachers were gone and laughing at our odd conversation.

"Musical sessions? What are we? Four year olds dying to listen to classic nursery rhymes." I mutter incoherently, walking ahead of Solar.

"Nursery rhymes are good, who hurt you?" Solar says, catching up to my pace.

"Life. I've been hurt an inconsiderate amount of times just by existing."

"Well perhaps today is your day because we're going to find out about this boy you've been hanging around with a lot lately." Solar's words attract my undivided attention.

"Asher." his name falls out of my mouth with ease.

"Who else? He's the only billionaire bad boys club member you talk to."

"Right."

"I'm so interested to know what his story is, I can't help but wonder what this boy has done to end up with a tape." Solar says, her hands in the air, she was bursting with excitement.

"I wonder too."

"Are you sure you're ready?" I ask Solar one last time, waiting for her approval. The confident aura she had in the hallway was no longer there, she was now hesitant with the tape in her grip stating Asher's name boldly. I watch as she fidgets with the black tape, pondering whether or not to go ahead with the process of listening to the tape.

Solar sighs. "There's no going back now." she says more to herself than to me, placing the tape inside the device. We both watch as the laptop states do you want to trust this device? I nod my head at Solar, she gulps as she clicks yes.

She presses play.

"Asher Devon, son of Jace Devon, the founder of Devon Academy," the sound of Normani's voice runs shivers down my spine, she seemed so serious which is nothing like her normal self. "He has a very evident flaw and that flaw is his narcissism, the boy is pretty much obsessed with himself." so Normani is aware of Asher's pure love for himself and himself only.

"But there's something about this pretty boy that you should know, out of spite he took the life of his newborn sister two years back." her words cause both me and Solar to still. I widen my eyes, this couldn't be true. Perhaps this time Normani is over doing it, maybe Asher didn't do it the way she's explaining it.

Solar presses the pause button.

"He killed a baby, a freaking baby." she exclaims.

"Look it may seem like that on tape but what if there's a bigger picture waiting to be painted? We shouldn't base our opinion on someone else's opinion." I say, calming Solar down by soothingly patting her back. She obeys my words and relaxes, pressing the play button once more.

"Here's a voice recording of this pretty boy admitting to this dirty secret of his." Normani says in the tape, after a few moments, the sound of Asher's deep voice fills the room.

"Just pretend she doesn't exist, she doesn't deserve to be spoken about, nobody will remember a baby anyways." the sound of his voice causes me to clench my fists, no, there must be more to this. I can't believe this, Asher couldn't have hurt a baby.

ASHER PLACES HIS head down in shame, gripping tightly on to his bottle of water. His mother stood in front of him, her eyes midnight black and mind polluted by dark thoughts emerged from her anger. They were at the hospital, the hospital his little sister laid in lifelessly.

"Are you stupid? How stupid could you possibly be? This is the worst I've seen you, how dumb can a teenager be!" her voice slices through the atmosphere, her voice echoed throughout the room: causing Asher to flinch.

"You're a stupid, pathetic child who doesn't know how to do anything! A spoilt brat that makes stupid decisions with his stupid head with the stupid money his father endlessly provides!" the word stupid was cyclical, occurring again and again: mentally digging into Asher's head, scarring his mind and shattering his soul.

"I-I just wanted to give her water." he whispers, tears filling his eyes, he didn't mean it. He felt like drowning in his own despair, he felt like being in the hospital bed instead of his newborn sister.

"Doesn't your school even teach you basic lessons, new born babies are not allowed water, tsk, how stupid can a teenager be? Why did I even bother raising a stupid kid like you?" she pulls Asher closer towards her, grabbing him by the chin roughly.

Asher clenches his fists, holding in the pain for his little sister. He deserves it, he gave her water when he wasn't supposed to. It's all his fault, it's all his fault that she's laying on a hospital bed lifelessly. But a small hope remained in Asher.

A small hope remained in his broken heart.

His sister has a small chance of making it out alive.

"I won't do it again, I'll treasure her with all my heart, I've always wanted her safe but she seemed thirsty so I thought it would be okay if I gave her some water—" his mothers palm connects with his face, causing Asher's skin to sting due to the harsh impact.

"Shut up. Just don't talk, your stupid words are enough to make me feel stupid myself," his mother says coldly, pushing Asher on to the ground, he hits the floor harshly. "Your father's stupid genes got passed down on to you, no wonder why you lack so much, no wonder why you placed your sister in such a horrible position." his mother whispers harshly, tears streaming down her face.

"Mother I-"

"I'm not your mother." his mother states coldly, glancing at him with a deadly gaze.

"W-What." Asher whispers, tears cascading down his ethereal face.

"I don't have to say it twice, you seem to lack so much knowledge, what a stupid child!"

"But you gave birth to me, you're my mother, if you're not my mother then who could be?" Asher sobs, still on the cold floor, his heart shattering further.

"Your father had an affair with someone else, we are not related by blood at all, you're just baggage: meanwhile my blood related daughter is suffering due to your stupid acts!" the lady yells, grabbing Asher by his throat. Nobody was able to see this, nobody was there to see Asher struggle under her tight grip due to it being a private hospital room.

"A-Affair." Asher chokes out, struggling to breathe.

"Your father is a cheating pig, I only put up with him because of the money." she grumbles, tightening her grip on Asher's throat.

Asher felt himself getting dizzy, he could see spots of black everywhere. But suddenly someone pushes the lady he called mother for years away, holding Asher tightly. Asher's so called mother looks at his saviour with slits in her eyes.

It was his father.

"Lay a hand on him one more time and I'll show you what I'm capable of." his father holds Asher. But the teenage boy pushes him away, his jaw clenched as he looked at the lady he called mother for many years.

"So everything was fake... the birthday parties and you taking care of me as if you loved me." Asher whispers, his eyes filled with tears as the woman looks at him blankly, not moved by Asher's words at all.

"Every single thing was fake, I could never consider a stupid child like you as my son." she says coldly, her words causing Asher's father to clench his fists tightly.

"And you father? You had an affair with someone else and made me believe this ugly woman was my mother, how could you?" Asher questions, looking at his father with a disappointed look. He was very disappointed.

"Your real mother died and in hopes of finding someone to take care of you I married her, clearly I was wrong to do so." his father says sadly, staring at the engagement ring on his finger. It was from Asher's real mother, she gave it to him before she died giving birth to Asher.

Asher looks at his father wordlessly, he had nothing to say. He was stupid, the lady was correct. Everything about Asher is stupid, he's a stupid individual with no knowledge about anything. Maybe it should've been him in the hospital bed, maybe it should've been him holding on to the strings of life loosely.

His existence is stupid.

Suddenly a doctor walks out of the private room, his expression blank and body movements slow. Asher's 'mother' pushes past him and towards the doctor with a pleading expression, in hopes her baby survived so she could still utilise Asher's father's money for her own well being.

But dreams are worthless, reality is a harsh judgement.

"The levels of water given to the baby exceeded the normal intake, it's toxic for a baby to even have more than one to three ounces of water," the doctor says, looking at the lady with a disappointed gaze. "Hence your child couldn't have made it, the water interfered with the child's ability to absorb nutrients."

The moment those words left the doctors mouth, Asher felt his whole world crashing down on him. As if a huge storm drowned him, intoxicating his body with a terrible nightmare that could never stop haunting him. The sound of his 'mothers' wailing causes Asher to flinch, it was all his fault. If he wasn't so stupid he wouldn't have given his sister water that exceeded the usual amount.

"This is all your fault, you stupid child! How could you kill your own sister!" the lady exclaims, shaking Asher for an answer but he doesn't answer. Instead he answers with his own tears, his tears revealed his pure misery, his tears revealed his incurable pain.

Asher felt an arm wrap around his body, pulling him into a warm hug. He looks up gingerly to meet the eyes of his father: who was protectively holding him, guarding him away from the 'grieving' lady.

"It's not your fault Ash, you didn't know and as people we are bound to make mistakes." his father says, his soothing words causing Asher to cry even more. He couldn't stop crying, he couldn't help but wonder if his father was right. He couldn't help but think that he killed his own sister.

"Why are you protecting him? Our child just died and you're telling the killer that it's okay, you're truly pathetic." the lady exclaims, tears running down her face. Asher's father simply hugs Asher tighter, ignoring the crude remarks by his soon to be ex wife.

"Tomorrow you'll receive divorce papers, kindly sign those for me and we won't ever cross paths again." the sound of Jace Devon's aloof voice causes the lady to stiffen, she was still angry; how could he divorce her over a stupid teenager?

"You think divorcing me will stop this?"

"Indeed. You'll also be provided with a large house and 6 million dollars every month, feel free to do anything with your wealth but there's one thing you should know," Jace Devon says, meeting his cold eyes with the lady in front of him. "Never insult my son, if you do so, I'll ruin you."

The lady keeps silent. She couldn't help but be happy, she was rich now, she didn't even care about her daughter that just died. She only had that baby so she could remain with Asher's father for the money.

Now that she has a lot of money to her name, she'll no longer have to worry about the troubles of her life. She simply scoffs, leaving both Asher and his father alone. The lady was never going to come back, not even to see her dead daughter laying lifelessly on the hospital bed.

"Do you want to see her?" Asher's father asks, gesturing towards the door that lead to the hospital bed that Asher's dead sister laid on. Asher nods his head, wiping the tears away from his eyes - he has to say his last words to his little sister, that's the last thing he could do as an older brother.

Asher steps inside of the room alone.

He notices the incubator his dead sister laid in.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. The word kept repeating in his head, cursing himself mentally, telling him that he's a horrible person. If it wasn't for his mistake then his little sister would've grown up with him, they would've done so many things together. He could've had someone to protect but now that she's gone.

He failed his mission as a brother.

He couldn't protect the most important person in the world.

His little sister.

"You didn't even get a name..." he whispers, placing his hand on top on the incubator. "But I'll name you."

"What should I name you?" Asher questions, warm tears sliding down his prepossessing face.

"Azure." Asher suddenly says, a small smile appearing on his fragile face. "Although it means the bright blue colour of the sky, it suits the way you're leaving me: to have fun with the celestial beings or whatever there is up there."

Asher looks at his little sister, his eyes scan her fragile body. "Azure, I didn't mean to give you water, maybe your mother is right... I'm stupid, so stupid for doing this to you," he whispers, tears threatening to fall. "Father probably thinks the same, he's pretending that I'm not stupid, he's pretending that I'm not a killer - he's only doing this because he doesn't want me to see how disappointed he is in me."

"You had so much to live for, it should've been me in your place, you deserve to experience time here and learn and grow to become the best person you could've been," Asher says. "Because I'm clearly not doing a good job, people are afraid of me at school, they all think I'm not to be messed with since our father owns it."

"Nobody understands how lonely I feel, I don't even have proper friends, people become my friend for the status and all the parties..." Asher murmurs, wondering about his social life. "If you grew older, it would've been nice to know you were by my side as blood doesn't deceive."

"Maybe it's better like that, maybe people should fear me, that way I wouldn't feel belittled."

"Maybe I wouldn't be called s-stupid." he stammers.

"And that would allow me to move on... from your death, loving myself is my only option, there's nobody I can trust here."

"Don't worry Azure, your older brother will become smart, he'll be so confident, so powerful that nobody will ever drag him down."

With one last glance, Asher looks at Azure.

"I promise you Azure, I won't ever hear the word s-stupid ever again, I won't ever allow someone to call me that word like your mother did today."

"In the recording he reveals how he doesn't like his little sister, calling her a baby not even calling her a name! He even goes further to say nobody will remember a baby anyways; what type of person says that?" Normani exclaims, her words making Asher seem like a cruel person.

"Nobody deserves to be hated like that, not even a baby, Asher Devon is a billionaire bad boys club member who doesn't care about anyone but himself, he's such a self centred stupid individual." Normani states bitterly, her words making me feel goosebumps

And then the tape ended.

Solar looks at me with wide eyes. "Don't talk to him anymore Sahar, he's not a human being, he doesn't care about killing a baby: who knows what extremes he'll go to when he realises that you're only using him."

I look at her with a frown. There's evidence that shows Asher's dislike towards his sister but I still wasn't sure. Why would Asher hate a baby? What would bring Asher to kill an innocent child? That too a newborn that hasn't even developed properly. The logic Normani is utilising is dangerous, there was no way to understand if what she was saying was nothing but the harsh truth.

Sure Asher was self absorbed. Sure he didn't like the word stupid and sure he behaves like he hates women. That doesn't mean he'll take extreme measures to kill an innocent being. He's not that selfish, he's only selfish when it came towards himself and how his reputation is. But with family? Asher didn't seem like he'd be selfish with such a thing.

But my main question is... why does he dislike the word stupid so much? Is it a childhood thing? Suddenly my eyes widen, no... He was in the room with Luca and I, he was listening to our conversation quietly.

And the word stupid was utilised countless amounts of times.

I stand up immediately, attracting Solar's attention.

"Where are you going?"

"To apologise to someone, someone I unknowingly hurt." I tell her, leaving her alone to wonder about the tape Normani made.

you all are probably regretting your decisions on hating asher, he has his reasons like helius too. the word stupid triggers him because of that lady he called mother. additionally you all are able to see the truth but sahar and solar aren't, this is called dramatic irony. anyways, what are your ships?

thank you for 41,000 reads, we're so close to half of 100,000 reads. i'm glad you all enjoy this story as it means a lot to mean. also i'm going to bring an old classic back, if you know my old book good boy gone bad it is going to make a return later on this week!