DREADED PAIN

She was shocked and at the same time overjoyed to see Aria behind her and she looked unharmed. She suddenly threw a hug on her stiff body.

"Aria I'm so happy you're okay" she hugged her even tighter. "Did they hurt you?"

Ashley was surprised at Aria's straight face; she looked totally fine like nothing happened. She also looked like she was filled with rage.

"You are such a fool…you believe everything you're told so far it is told with emotion," Aria said with a dangerous smile.

It was now, Ashley understood what was happening, Aria was not really in trouble it was all an act to bring her here. Now she was regretting ever listening to her, she should have just avoided the whole situation by listening to Cole in the first place.

"So, you brought me here to waste my time?" She asked in anger. "This is why Cole will never love you, you are just filled with deceit. Who knows you may have just been the one to kill your best friend." She busted those words without even thinking.

Her words shook Aria to the core, she didn't expect her to say such a thing. She was shocked at how she accused her of killing her best friend.

"You know what? I'm done here," she said before walking out.

Suddenly, she felt a strong and heavy bang on her skull which soon got her laying helplessly on the dead leaves. She was so confused and unaware of what was happening all she knew was that there was a throbbing pain in her head. She instinctively placed her hands there where she felt hot liquid gushing.

Slowly bringing her stained hands before her eyes she wished it was not what she thought. Right in front of her eyes, her palm was stained with fresh, hot, and deep red blood.

Her confusion suddenly became painful as her brain switched into panic mode. She turned over to see Aria panting in nothing but pure anger. There was a huge stone in her palm, so huge that she wondered why she was not dead yet.

She was confused and surprised. She saw Aria as anything but a killer, even when she said it she didn't mean it.

"A-aria, w-what have you done?" she stammered in shock and disbelief.

"I'm about to finish what I started" she replied.

Aria approached her closer and closer with the rock in her hands while Ashley helplessly crawled away from her but towards the cliff.

"You're making it easier for me to end your life," she said looking more like a lunatic than a person.

"A-ria p-please s-stop" Ashley said as she crawled further away from the heartless being before her.

It was obvious that Aria enjoyed her helplessness as she decided to play the scare game a little bit. She wanted her to beg for mercy.

Strange scenarios began to pop up in Ashley's head, with strange flashbacks, memories, and traumas. She could remember once crawling helplessly away from Aria just as she did now.

"Do you remember how you cried and begged me for mercy just like you're doing now?" she reminded.

Ashley was confused as she got weaker and weaker from the blood loss.

The next scene made her gasp in fear and panic, she was about to have heart failure but her survival instinct kept her stronger than a person in her situation would be; Aria got out a sharp, pointy dagger from somewhere around her waist.

"Don't move!" she commanded. "Well… if you don't wish for a more painful death do not move."

She cleaned the knife's blades on Ashley's arms, ensuring she didn't forget to leave a cut on her pale skin.

"*Hiss*" Ashley cried in pain.

"That's the sound I want to hear, the sound of my so-called best friend getting out of my life forever."

********************

"Sir permit me to say this, but from what was said by the doctor, I feel Miss Aria tried to hurt Miss Ayla"

"What do you mean?" Cole asked hoping to get a reasonable explanation"

"Sir I got evidence which proves that Miss Ashley was not truly from the West family" he started.

"It's a diary, Mrs. West's diary" he started. "She planned to hand it over to Miss Ashley once she turned eighteen but the strange thing was that it was found in Miss Aria's room" He continued.

Cole was starting to get the message he portrayed, WAS SHE TRULY AYLA'S KILLER? He snatched the diary out of Kim's hands and read it.

"My dear Ashley, I wanted to let you know about something really important, you know when I said I was your biological mother? Well I lied, I couldn't think of a better way to tell you this except by writing it down. I had a daughter who looked just like you, her name was Ashley. On a day I could never forget, she drowned in the river and left us. That same day, we saw your body lifelessly floating on the river, you looked abused and your face was burnt beyond recognition but it was a miracle that you were not dead. The truth is, we didn't know your real face. So since we had just lost our daughter we decided to save a life by giving you a face transplant with our dead daughter's face. To avoid questions, we lied to everyone that you were our Ashley and we trained you just like we did to our daughter. To date, I still wonder who did that to you but I am more than certain you will never stop being MY ASHLEY"

"Lastly to end this case, this video footage proves that Miss Aria is responsible for the death of Miss Ayla" Kim handed over a flash to Cole.

They insert it into a laptop and click the play button.