Children of Dawn

Ashley’s POV
I stared at the boy pinned under me. He had just tried to shoot himself in front of me. Then he was crying quietly again, tears rolled down his cheeks as he looked up at me. He wasn’t fighting back like I’d expected him to he just let me hold him down. I was crying too, just because I was scared.
“I’m going to get off you, and I’m going to go get the gun, and we’re gonna figure this out, okay?” I said. He didn’t say anything, or even register that he’d heard me. I took my hands off his wrists and sat in the dirt next to him. He curled up on his side, covered his face with his hands and kept crying. I’d never seen such a miserable person before. I decided not to judge him too harshly, I had no idea what he’d been through. I sniffed, wiped my nose with the back of my hand and stood up. I saw the glint of the gun laying in a puddle of mud next to the river. I picked it up, it looked like it would still work. I turned the safety on and put it in the waistband of my jeans. The other boy was sitting up, watching me, but he didn’t try to make a move to stop me. The bag of money was a few feet behind him. I thought about pointing the gun in his face and just taking all the money from him, but that wasn’t right. I wasn’t a criminal. I walked back toward him and he watched me silently. I sat on the ground next to him and we sat in silence watching the sun as it creeped lower in the sky. I caught him looking at me several times, but whenever I looked at him he looked away quickly. He wasn’t crying anymore.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. He shrugged.
“You take the money and leave me the gun. We both go our separate ways and forget about each other he suggested.
“No,” I said.
“Why?” He asked finally looking me in the face.
“Because you’ll just kill yourself as soon as I’m too far away to stop you,” I said.
“Why do you care?” He asked, furrowing his brow.
“Because it’s not right, I can’t just leave you knowing that you’re going to perform suicide the second I walk away,” I said. He looked away, back out over the river and rested his chin on his knees.
“What’s your master plan then?” He asked with a bite of sarcasm.
“I could take some of the money, and the gun and go buy us some food and maybe like a tent or something so we could sleep the night out here. I mean we’re both in trouble, so why not stick together,” I suggested. He shrugged.
“You’ve got the gun, and the money’s right here. So go ahead. Do what you want,” He said, still staring into the sunset, “walk with the river for about thirty minutes and there’s a little town. I passed it earlier. You can go there if you want,” I stared at him for a second.
“You’re gonna be gone when I get back aren’t you?”
“Maybe, why don’t you go and see?” he said. I sighed. He wasn’t very good conversation. I sighed again and stood up. I took a step past him and scooped up the bag of money. As I shouldered it I noticed that he was watching me closely over his shoulder, like he was memorizing how I moved.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Jinxx,” He said.
“Come on, that’s not your real name,”
“It’s common courtesy to reply with your name when someone tells you there's,” Jinxx said.
“My name’s Ashley,” I said ignoring his bratty remark. He squinted at me and looked me up and down.
“Come on, that’s not your real name,” He said in a high pitched voice, mocking me. I rolled my eyes and started to walk away, then I turned back.
“Maybe you should go wash off or something, you know so when someone walks up on you they don’t immediately think you’re a murderer,” I said, turning back to look at him. He didn’t move so I just turned around and trudged off in the direction he’d said. At that point I was considering not coming back, I was pretty sure he’d be gone or dead when I got back. I was pretty sure there was about fourteen different ways to kill oneself in a hundred square feet around him if he got creative enough to figure them out. I shouldered the bag and kept walking. I had done my best. If he was gone when I got back there was nothing I could do about it.
There was a rough path next to the river that didn’t look like it had been walked on for years, either that or there was just a line where plants hadn’t grown as thickly for some reason. I walked there, making sure to keep the river within earshot. I blew my hair out of my face and shivered as I walked. It was going to be a cold night. The sun was beginning to sink more quickly and I was certain that I wouldn’t be able to make it back to Jinxx by the time it got dark. Luckily I came across a bridge in no more than fifteen minutes. I climbed up to look and there was a paved road leading into a small town. I could see a convenience store just a block away. As I walked I took the gun out of my waistband and dropped it in the bag. I nearly fell over when I saw what was in the bag. Stacks of hundred dollar bills. Tons of them. The bag was filled three quarters of the way with stacks of hundred dollar bills. Jinxx wasn’t kidding when he said he had a ton of money. I caught my breath, zipped up the bag and kept going.
By the time I entered the store the sun was touching the horizon. I thought about Jinxx and then suddenly the idea of him being alone in the woods at night made me very sad. I made the decision then that I wasn’t going to leave him alone. I walked into the store and I knew I’d come to the right place. The back wall was lined with sleeping bags and fishing rods. The front of the store had a ton of camping gear and food that was easy to take with you. It was all cheap too. I walked into the store and started buying everything I thought we could need as fast as I could. Food, sleeping bags, an extra backpack, blankets, headlamps,batteries, fire starting equipment, and more, every single thing that I could fit into the two bags. There was no way I was going to be able to carry a tent along with it all, so I didn’t. As I plunked all my things up onto the counter the ringing me out gave me a strange look.
“Going camping, Girl?” He asked squinting at me.
“Uhm, boy, and yeah I’m just getting supplies for me and my friend, he’s already out in the woods setting up,” I said. He squinted at me even harder and looked at my body, then he shrugged.
“Whatever,” He rung me out and I payed with a hundred dollar bill. Then I was off. Walking as fast as I could I disappeared into the woods as the sun got lower. I trudged back along the path, my back aching under the weight of all the things I was carrying. I kept slipping on the ground and nearly falling as I made my way around back to Jinxx. Finally I came back to the bank where I’d originally found Jinxx. My heart sunk as I saw that he wasn’t there. I had bought all this stuff for him, only for him to up and leave. I trudged angrily through the pebbly sand until the loose dirt and the weight got the better of me. My ankle twisted painfully as I fell hard onto my stomach, scraping my chin on the rocks. Suddenly it was hard to breathe. The weight of the bags on my back crushed me into the sand and I started to panic as I struggle to inhale. I only wallowed around for a moment before I felt some of the weight lift off of me. I pushed myself onto my side and looked up. Jinxx was standing over me, looking concerned with one of the backpacks in his hand. I sighed in relief, he was there, and it looked like he had washed off. His clothes were soaked and the blood was gone. I could tell he was shivering as he looked at me.
“Are you okay?” He asked. Pain throbbed through my right ankle.
“I think my ankle is broken,” I whimpered.
“Come on, I made a little shelter for us in case you didn’t get the tent, I see you didn’t. Let me take you there and I’ll take care of you,” He said throwing the bag over his shoulder. I suddenly realized that I was no longer the stronger of the two of us. If he wanted to overpower me and do anything he wanted to me, he could. I didn’t know what he’d done to get that blood all over him. I looked up at him nervously.
“It’s okay, come on,” he said. I got to my knees and he offered me a hand. I took it and he pulled me to my feet. I balance on my left foot. Not letting the right touch the ground. He came around to the right side and put my arm around his shoulders, taking my weight. Together we hobbled over to a big rock, on the opposite side I was shocked to see that he had built a shelter out of sticks, leaves and mud. It was more than big enough for the two of us to lay in and not be awkwardly close to each other. It was open and looking out over the river on one side. I was taken aback.
“Uh, dude you built this thing?” I asked.
“Yes,” He replied softly.
“How? I was barely gone for an hour,” I said, growing increasingly nervous. I felt him shrug as he sat me down against the rock.
“I was just getting ready to light the fire when I heard you fall,” He said. I watched him as he went to a pile of sticks, pulled out a lighter and lit a fire that caught quickly and burned brightly. There was a pile of sticks next to it that would keep it going all night. Suddenly I was feeling incompetent. He held his trembling hands up to the fire to warm them.
“There’s some extra clothes in that bag if you want to get your wet ones off,” I said. He opened the bag and pulled out sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I closed my eyes as he changed. I opened them suddenly as I felt him starting to take my boot off. I jerked away from him.
“Do you want me to help you or not?” He asked looking at me with his penetrating blue eyes. I nodded and gave my foot back to him. He looked very different in a hooded sweatshirt rather than a dress shirt. He pulled off my boot and I hissed in pain. He shushed me. He rolled up my pant leg and looked at it. I flinched again as he trailed his fingers down the side of my ankle.
“Stop it,” He snapped.
“Dude it hurts!” I said.
“Don’t be such a drama queen. You barely even sprained it,” he said shaking his head. “You’ll be able to walk on it again within the next thirty six hours,”
“How do you know?” I scoffed. His blue eyes flicked up and met mine for the first time.
“I know, don’t doubt me,” He said. He held my gaze for an an extra second and then broke away. I was becoming more and more scared of him the longer I was close to him. While he wasn’t intimidating physically it was clear that he was probably smart enough to bend spoons with his mind. He crawled up closer to me and tilted up my head. I decided it was better not to fight him. He was looking at the scrapes on my chin. He tutted like an angry hen, then he picked up my hands and looked at the scrapes where I’d caught myself. He shook his head and looked frustrated.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I wish I had something to clean those with, because if they get infected it’s going to be me you come crying to,” He said shaking his head. As he brushed the visible dirt out of my scrapes. I flinched and he glared at me. Then Jinxx scooted away and from the bag he pulled out some of the blankets and the sleeping bags. He threw a few of them at me.
“Sleep,” He demanded. I looked at him unmoving for a minute.
“What do you want me to come over there and tuck you in, princess?” He said with a fake softness.
“No offense but I don’t exactly trust you,” I said. He rolled his eyes.
“I promise I won’t gut you while you sleep, I just spent time making sure you were okay, so it doesn’t make sense to kill you now,” He said dripping with sarcasm. He mumbled something under his breath as he turned away. I ignored it and slowly started laying out blankets for me to sleep on. He did the same and we didn’t say another word. I made sure the bag with the gun was nestled right next to me so couldn’t get it. I laid there and watched him arrange his blankets and lay down as far from me as he could. He propped himself up on one elbow as he laid down and watched me just like I was watching him.
Then it was a staring contest. Clearly we didn’t trust each other. As we looked at each other I knew that it was a contest to see who could stay awake longest. I wasn’t tired, and my ankle hurt anyway. As I watched him he slowly relaxed farther onto the ground. After a while he started to nod off then he relaxed and after a while of him not moving I was sure that he was asleep. Then I let a yawn break my jaw and I laid back into the blankets and fell asleep.

Notes

Hey! I'm back and ready to party everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for school! I also hope you enjoyed this chapter, I enjoyed writing it. Leave me a comment to let me know what you think!