Sons of Night

Andy’s POV
That night I had dreams. Not nightmares like most of the time, actual dreams. Not even that really, it was like my brain was giving me old memories for some reason. I dreamed about seeing the trees swaying above me as the sky turned dark while Ashley carried me in his arms. I remembered the pain that I had been in, and the fact that I was still scared out my mind and mostly dead. I dreamed about the moment I’d realized who Ashley was. The moment I remembered that I’d seen him on TV, he was wanted for some sort of crime. It took me a while to remember the details. He was wanted for murdering a man, for stabbing him to death. I dreamed about being afraid of him, and wondering if I was next. I remembered being sure that I was dying as the world around me faded to black as night was upon us. After it got dark and he still silently walked, carrying me someplace I didn’t know, it started to get darker. I was fading. The world became fuzzy and my head throbbed as I blacked out.
I dreamed about waking up in the cabin with searing pain shooting through my middle. I’d looked through tear filled eyes to see hands picking glass out of my stomach. I was nearly delusional and I couldn't comprehend that the hands pulling the clear pieces out of my stomach where trying to help me. All I could think of was that the hands were hurting me, so I tried to grab them and push them away, but they held me down. Another pair of hands came from the darkness around the edges of my vision and pinned my hands above me while the other hands went back to picking glass out of me. I screamed until I blacked out again, but the whole time I was screaming I could hear a voice next to my ear trying to soothe me. I refused to be soothed.
Again I dreamed of waking up. This time in the dream I woke up to an arm underneath my shoulders holding me up. While another fed me some sort of broth. My stomach was thickly wrapped in some sort of medical tape. Eventually I managed to focus my eyes and look up at the person feeding me. I later learned that it was Jake, but at the time he was just another unfamiliar face. I wanted to push him away, but I was far too weak. When he noticed I was awake he smiled at me. I remembered him speaking to me, but I wouldn’t listen. Let alone answer him. I tried to sit up in his arms, tried to get him away and prove that I was strong, but I was not strong, and as soon as I tried I fell back into his arms with the world spinning. He hushed me and gave me the last few bites of the broth and pushed me back into the pillows. As soon as I fell asleep in the dream, I woke up in real life.
Mayden’s POV
I woke up the next morning to light streaming in through the window of Andy’s room. I ran my hand through my greasy hair, I was beginning to wonder how these guys kept clean. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I didn’t want to have to face them. I really didn’t want to see Ashley. After laying in bed until I became restless after trying to sleep I forced myself up. I was stiff from walking and my stomach growled. I came to the conclusion that due to the previous night’s incident I had never gotten dinner or even lunch. To top it off I was still in the same clothes that I had been wearing when I left school. I felt disgusting. I hoped that they had a shower or something for me to get a little bit clean.
I made my way across the cool floor and slowly pulled open the door, praying that there wouldn’t be anyone there. At the time though, God was busy with other things and my prayers were not answered. As I tried to become invisible and make my way down the stairs I looked up to see the one person I was hoping not to see. Ashley was coming out of a room just down the hall, to make it even better he was topless, with a shirt in his hand, and I couldn’t help but be distracted by his nicely shaped body. He saw me just a moment after I noticed him. He stopped a few feet away and looked at the ground with a little sound of surprise. I was just going to just let him walk by me when he actually spoke.
“I, um. I’m actually really sorry about last night,” He said shifting from foot to foot. I was too shocked to say anything.
“I know it’s not really gonna make up for it, but I didn’t mean for what I said to you to come off as so obnoxious. I was just kind of spewing words at you without thinking of the meaning of what I was saying and I kinda deserved to get beat up. So… sorry,” He said looking up from the ground and biting is lip. His eyes were the kind that were usually unreadable, so dark brown that they were almost black. For that moment though, I could see the sincerity that swam behind the dark.
“It’s okay,” I heard myself say.
“I feel like we got off on the wrong foot and I want to reintroduce myself and put last night behind us. So, hi I’m Ashley,” He said sticking out his hand for me to shake. I hesitated for a moment before I took his firm grasp and shook his hand.
“I’m Mayden,” I introduced even though I knew him from the night before. He smiled a little.
“After you,” He said gesturing down the stairs. I almost didn’t want to go in front of him so he didn’t have a chance to look at my butt or something. I didn’t say anything though, I didn’t want him to know that I didn’t trust him. So off I went down the dim and creaking staircase. I heard his footsteps a few feet behind me.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs I turned into the living room to see Andy folding up blankets from the couch and shoving them in his backpack. I remembered that he was going to take me home that day and I felt an odd mix of feelings that I was surprised that I was feeling. One of those feelings was happiness, I was going home and I could tell my family that I was safe and sound and they could relax. Another feeling was anxiety, what was I supposed to tell my family about where I’d been? Also, probably the least expected feeling was the aching sadness the clenched my chest. I didn’t know why I was sad about leaving. No one here had been particularly nice to me, other than Andy who may have just been nice to try and get some. I think it was something about the adventure. The breaking of my normal routine, seeing the world and new people, even though my understanding told me that the people I’d met were all wanted criminals. I was oddly content with the excitement. Andy noticed me as I walked in and gave me a little half smile, then he saw Ashley behind me and his look turned into a suspicious squint.
“I apologized,” Ashley said, with the same casual tone that came across like he was trying to stir up trouble. Andy raised his eyebrows at me.
“He did, and he’s forgiven,” I said, Andy nodded and went back to his packing. I’d never seen someone who could communicate so much through just facial expression. I walked up to him and stood silently waiting for him to notice me.
“What’s up?” He said looking at me.
“I really need a shower,” I said, blushing a bit. He smiled, and pointed a finger towards a door under the stairs that I hadn’t noticed before.
“There’s a bathroom in there, yes we have running water, don’t ask me how Jake and Jinxx figured out how to engineer that, but we do, and it’s hot too. Towels and everything are in there, use whatever soaps you want. Also I think I may have a change of clothes for you,” He said. He got up and ran up the stairs. I watched him go in disbelief. They had managed to get themselves hot, running water. They were smarter than I had originally judged. I didn’t think that Andy really had any clothes that fit me, then a moment later he came bounding down the stairs with some clothes in his hands. He handed the folded pile to me and I opened them up. Black skinny jeans and an old KISS t-shirt. They were small, small enough to fit me. I held them up to myself and saw that they did in fact seem to be the right size.
“You can wear those just while we wash the ones you’ve got on and then you can change back, now go get clean, I’ll tell them all to stay out of there for you and we’ll save some breakfast for you,” He said.
“Wait, why do you have these clothes,” I asked.
“I was a kid once too, and out here you learn never to throw anything away in case you need it. Now go,” He said pointing to the door. I went. It hadn’t hit me that he’d been out here for ten years. He had to have been in his early teens when he got here, so he would have still been growing. That hit me hard, he’d been away from home for that long, no wonder he was missing his parents.
I opened the bathroom door and was greeted by a stone tub with a store bought faucet. Everything was stone or wooden, and everything was clean. I was blown away. So I took a bath in the weirdest situation I’d ever been in. It was not relaxing though, I rushed for fear that someone would come busting in on me at any moment. Soon I was pulling myself out of the steaming water and drying off. I pulled on Andy’s old clothes and went back out into the main room, carrying my own clothes with me. I could smell food coming from an open door, the one farthest from the front door and my stomach rumbled. I found my way in there to see the rest of the group milling around a somewhat medieval looking kitchen. Jinxx and Jake were sitting at a wooden table eating, Ashley was stirring a pot, and Andy leaned on the countertop eating something as well. I wondered why he wasn’t sitting with everyone else. He looked tired.
Light streamed in through a massive bay window that took up most of one of the walls. It allowed one to look out at a simply breath taking view. Snow covered mountains rolled along the landscape and they glistened with whiteness. I stared at that view for a long time before someone noticed me standing there.
“Awww, it looks like we got little Andy back,” Jake called from his seat. Jinxx and Ashley laughed and I heard Andy snort from across the room. I smiled at the ground.
“You look adorable,” Jinxx said.
“Thanks,” I said, I slid into the table in front of him. Half a second later I nearly jumped out of my skin when a plate landed in front of me.
“Sorry, I thought you saw me coming,” Ashley said.
“It’s okay,” I said, he came to me again and filled my plate with eggs, bacon, and hash browns.
“The only thing she’s gonna see coming is Andy,” I heard Jake say. Jinxx started to laugh.
“Oh, shut up man, that’s not she’s here for,” Andy said, walking up and smacking Jake lightly on the back of the head. Jake was laughing at his own joke. I was turning red again.
“I know, I just couldn’t resist it was perfect. I’m just kidding,” Jake said between giggles.
“On a serious note though, what is she here for other than adding kidnapping to our histories,” Jinxx said.
“Well gentlemen, and lady, we have a situation,” Andy began sitting next to me at the table. So began a long speech. He told them all about me, and where I’d come from and what I could know. He told them about CC and the fact that he needed a doctor and the fact that I needed to go home and that we were leaving in two hours.
“So you’re saying that we’re going to take her home and go try and find your parents who may or may not know who we are so your mom can maybe try to help CC, if they even live here anymore. To top it off I have two hours to pack for a trip and get all the information I can out of her before we go,” Jinxx said. To which he received a nod as reply.

Notes

Okay I have a lot to say so please stick with me here. First of all it was just my birthday and I went to Warped Tour. I met SayWeCanFly and New Year's Day, both of whom I highly recommend if you haven't tried them out. I also saw BVB and they put on a very good show. On a note regarding this story, my band season starts tomorrow. If any of you read my last story you will know that this means my chapters are going to get shorter and I may miss a week or two every now and again, I'll make sure to leave a note to let you know what's up if I miss a chapter. Also, I was thinking about writing a companion piece to this one. Something that tells about the past with the guys before Mayden shows up. So what each of them did to be wanted, how they all found each other, and what happened to Andy when he arrived and such. There will be bits of that stuff throughout this story, but if you want the full thing I can write it up in another story. Let me know if you want that.