Children of Dawn

June 30th
Ashley’s POV
“And why exactly do you think that you should be the leader?” Jinxx asked with a snort looking at me.
“Well no one else has volunteered to be it,” I said with a shrug.
“So we now accept leadership roles on a first come first served basis,” Jake said, smiling at CC, CC laughed. I was trying not to get irked but it was becoming harder and harder. They never took me seriously.
“Why do we even need a leader, dude?” CC asked, shaking his head and grinning.
“I was just thinking that if we’re going to be trying to find criminals we need someone to be organizing us,” I replied.
“Wait a minute… you were thinking?” Jinxx exclaimed. Jake and CC burst into fits of laughter. I felt my fists curl, nearly breaking the water bottle in my hand. They were always trying to make me the laughing stock of the group, and I hated it.
“And what was that name you came up with for us? The Sons of Night?” CC gasped out between bouts of laughter. I felt my jaw, tighten I’d never wanted to punch CC in the face before.
“Why don’t you leave the thinking for the rest of us, okay princess?” Jake laughed. I could feel my pulse in my ears and it took everything in me not to punch something. I turned and walked out of the house, so mad that I could hardly see, and started stomping aimlessly through the woods. I think that I may have heard one of them calling after me, trying to stop me, but I acted like I didn’t hear them. I trudged back up the steep hill, unsure where I was going or if I was ever going to come back. I just walked in one direction, stewing angrily in my own thoughts. I hated the fact that they thought I was stupid. Useless. I ground my teeth and clenched my fists as I walked, stomping unnecessarily on branches as I went. The feeling of them breaking under my feet made me feel powerful. I almost threw the water bottle that I’d been carrying with me, but had enough sense to decide against it.
Suddenly heard a noise, the undergrowth was rustling a few feet away from me. My first thought was that I had stumbled upon an injured animal, but then I heard a sob that sounded oddly human. I lost all regard for my own safety and I lept into the bushes towards the source of the noise. When I saw the boy laying on the ground I nearly threw up. He was on his back staring into the sky blankly. There was blood everywhere. All over him and the ground where he’d clearly been dragging himself. For a moment I thought he was dead, it would have made sense with the garish gashes that dragged from his ribs to his hip bones. The cuts were deep. I knelt down next to him and his eyes shifted over to me, he was somehow still conscious. I decided to take happy and calm approach to the situation. I was sure that he was going to die, the least I could do was be nice to him.
“Well you’re not looking so good,” I said, “What are you doing out here?” He shook his head.
“I didn’t mean to kill him,” The boy muttered, that sounded oddly familiar, a tear rolled down his cheek. At that moment it hit me that he could still be saved. I started saying a bunch of things, that did make a lot of sense, like he was going to be okay and I was going to take him to help. I gave him some water, which seemed to perk him up just a bit.
“Can you stand?” I asked. He shook his head. It was stupid of me to ask, but I worried about my leg and shoulder being able to take the extra weight of carrying the kid. I picked him up anyway, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and under his knees. Luckily for me he weighed next to nothing. He was tiny, skinny and short, no older than fifteen I guessed.
“Who are you? Where are you taking me?” He asked. Maybe it was out of spite, but I blabbered some bullshit about being the leader of a crime fighting group called the Sons of Night. I was more focused on finding my way back to the house in the steadily darkening forest. I was basically running as fast as I could back in the direction of the house. My lungs burned and my leg ached, but every time I looked down at the boy who was still somehow clinging to life in my arms I reminded myself that my pain was temporary, but if I couldn’t get him to help in time, his death was permanent.
Thankfully I soon saw smoke drifting up through the trees and I knew where I was. I looked down at the boy and his eyes were closed. I was almost positive that he was dead, but I kept going anyway. There was still a chance. By the time I stumbled into camp I was shouting.
“Jinxx! I need help!” I yelled as I ran across the grassy knoll that was basically our front yard.. Jinxx had already proven himself to have some experience medically, but I didn’t know if he was good enough to handle this. Jinxx came out of the house. The house was still only one floor, but the first floor was almost totally finished. A warm glow came from the house, from the fire that was inside and Jinxx’s shadow stretched out onto the grass. When he saw me coming he ran out, yelling for the others. Jinxx ran up to me and looked over the boy with concern.
“What did you do to him?” Jinxx yelled.
“I didn’t do anything to him! I found him,” I shouted back. Jinxx reached for the boy’s neck and must have found a pulse.
“My god, how is he still alive?” Jinxx whispered to himself. There was a moment of silence, Jinxx bit his lip.
“Bring him inside, I don’t know if I can save him, though,” Jinxx said. I carried the boy in the door. Jake and CC made sounds of disgust or maybe it was shock as I walked by.
“CC can we put him in your bedroom? It’s the only one that really has a bed right now?” Jinxx asked.
“Yeah,” CC said. I pushed into the first bedroom and laid the boy on the bed. It was probably a good thing that he was unconscious, the amount of pain that he would have been in would have been unimaginable. Jinxx pulled up a chair and started looking at the wound. I pulled up one too, closer to the boys head. For some reason I suddenly felt a huge protectiveness over him.
“Jake, go get the first aid kit, and some pliers. This kid’s stomach is full of glass,” Jinxx demanded. I was suddenly glad that Jinxx had made us take the risk of stealing medical supplies on our last trip to town. CC had left the room, blood wasn’t a thing that he really liked to be around. As soon as Jake got back with the pliers Jinxx got right to work. Pulling shattered glass, as well as twigs and leaves out of the kid’s stomach. I had never felt so helpless. Just kept reaching up and checking to make sure the kid’s heart was still beating, every time I checked it still was. For a while I think I might have actually been praying. Other than that there was nothing I could do. Jinxx worked for what seemed like hours. Suddenly the kids started to wake up. He squirmed and tried to get Jinxx’s hands off of him. After that I had something to do for a while. I grabbed the kid’s wrists and pinned them above his head, it wasn’t hard to do. He was weak. The hard part was listening to him scream. His scream was harsh and high pitched, it sounded like complete agony. Tears streamed down his face as he fought against me with all of his strength. Eventually Jake had to come over and hold down his legs so that he couldn’t try to kick his way out of the situation.
“It’s gonna be over soon, I know it hurts, but we’re trying to help you,” I told the kid, trying to keep my own fear out of my voice, but he refused to listen. He cried and screamed until suddenly he went limp as he blacked out again. By that point Jinxx was stitching, and it didn’t take long after that. Soon he was wrapping the kid’s abdomen in gauze. When he was finished he sat back and sighed. He was covered in blood up to his wrists, and I had it on my shirt and hands from carrying him. Jinxx looked at me.
“If he doesn’t get an infection, that kid might somehow live. He’s a fighter,”

Notes

There he is! Andy is now officially in the story. I hope you all enjoyed, I spent a ton of time making sure that all this fit with the chapters in Sons of Night so I hope you enjoyed. Leave me a comment and let me know what you thought. Good luck with your finals everyone!