Children of Dawn

Jake’s POV
It was my turn to feed our new friend. It had been three days and we still didn’t know his name. He had been sleeping for almost all of that time. Not necessarily peacefully either. He writhed in his sleep, to the point where Jinxx was worried that he might bust his stitches. Sometimes he screamed like he was being attacked but by the time any of us got to him he had always slipped back to a somewhat peaceful sleep. I walked into the room that he was staying in, stepping quietly so that I wouldn’t disturb him. With the hand that wasn’t holding the bowl of chicken broth I pulled up a wooden chair and sat next to him. I gently cradled his shoulders and pulled him so that he was sitting up. I started feeding him, part of him must have been awake because he didn’t choke when we fed him, but his eyes never opened. Everything went just like normal until I only had about three spoonfuls left to give him.
He stirred in my arms, then groaned. I stopped feeding him and looked at his face he turned his head to the side and his eyes fluttered open. They were strikingly blue and they focused on my face. I could hardly believe that he was waking up. Part of me thought that he never would. He wiggled around and his face twisted in discomfort.
“Dude, how are you feeling?” I asked. It was the only thing that I could think of. He didn’t respond other than to push my hands off of him. He struggled, attempting to sit up on his own. It didn’t work. He collapsed back breathlessly into my arms. I knew then that he was too weak to really be awake. I fed him the last few spoonfuls of broth and then laid him back down in the pillows. His eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out. I watched him for a moment, until the steady rise and fall of his chest convinced me that he was sleeping soundly. I walked quietly out of the room to deliver the bowl back to the kitchen, past Ash and CC curled up under blankets on the floor.
“How’s he doing?” Jinxx asked, a yawn stretching his jaw. Between being woken up by the kids screams, trying to finish the house, and trying to keep our bellies full none of us were getting a ton of sleep.
“He woke up,” I said.
“He what?” Jinxx exclaimed turning to look at me.
“Just for a second, just long enough to realize that he didn’t like me touching him, then he passed out again,” I explained. Jinxx was out of the room as quick and as silent as the wind. He was back within the next minute.
“Well he’s totally out of it now,” He said as he reentered. I nodded. I’d guessed as much. I stretched my arms above my head hearing my back pop.
“I’m gonna go to bed before he starts screaming again,” I said. Jinxx nodded, leaning on our rough little table. He rubbed his chin.
“You should go to bed too, you’re as tired as the rest of us,” I suggested.
“I will, I just need to think for a minute. You should get some sleep though. Fishing all day isn’t the easiest of tasks,” He said. Fishing was in fact one of the easiest things we did regularly, but I got the hint. He wanted to be left alone.
“Goodnight,” I said and I left him. I walked back out into our living room. It didn’t have any couches or anything yet. We weren’t sure how we were going to get those, yet. I had a pile of blankets and pillows that I had designated as mine. I sat myself down on them. As I shuffled around and tried to get comfortable I expected for there to be the shrill shrieks from the from the kid to scare me out of my skin at any second. He didn’t make a noise though. I laid on my side and wrapped myself in blankets. As I drifted off it seemed like the house was finally somewhat peaceful. We just had to finish the second floor and we’d be living like kings. For a moment, for what felt like the first time in a long time, I was fine with where I was.
The Next Morning
I was surprised to find that I wasn’t woken up by screaming or thunder or a bear busting in the tarp that still acted like our front door. I woke up to sunlight streaming through the little chunks we’d cut out of the walls that would hopefully be windows at some point. I rolled onto my side and sat up. In the dim light of the house I could see that everyone else was already out of bed. I stood up off the ground and stretched. I could hear talking in the kitchen and I smelled some sort of meat cooking. My stomach growled. I walked stiffly to the kitchen.
“What are you planning on doing with the kid?” Jinxx asked.
“Keep him,” Ashley said with a shrug.
“He’s not a dog,” CC said with a snort, “Good morning, Jake,”
“Good morning,” I replied grabbing some deer meat off a plate.
“I’m not sure if the four of us are fit to try to basically raise him, we’re still pretty much kids, and ya know he’s not that old,” I said as I sat down.
“Yeah, the kid’s got parents for a reason. They’re probably worried sick about him,” Jinxx said, but Ashley shook his head.
“It’s just what he said when I found him,” Ashley said.
“Wait, he said something? I was under the impression that you just found him and he was already unconscious,” I said.
“Well, no. When I first found him he was still awake and all he said was ‘I didn’t mean to kill him’,” Ash explained rubbing his temples. We were silent for a moment.
“Look, for all we know he accidentally shot his neighbor’s dog in the eye with a BB gun,” CC said sitting back in his chair.
“It wasn’t my neighbor’s dog,” A voice came from the doorway to the kitchen. We all jumped and turned. The kid stood there gripping the door frame and swaying on his bare feet. He was wearing nothing but his boxers and the gauze around his stomach. I could see every single one of his bones. From his knobby knees to his collar bones that looked like handles, the boy was painfully thin. He was pale white, his lips the same pasty grey as his face. He looked more or less like he’d been raised from the grave.
“Jesus fuck,” CC whispered after a moment of silence. When he was covered in blankets and lying down we hadn’t noticed just how tiny he really was.
“You should not be walking,” Jinxx scolded taking a step towards the boy. The boy looked like he was contemplating whether or not to run. Not that he would have made it all that far, but a blind man could see that he was scared. Jinxx took another step towards him, and it was a good thing he did too, or else he wouldn’t have gotten to the boy fast enough to keep his head from hitting the floor. Standing simply became too much and the boy’s knees buckled. Jinxx caught him just in time. Jinxx swept the boy up into his arms with ease. By the time Jinxx had the boy sitting on the table he was coming back around. He hung his head and leaned against Jinxx to keep from toppling over. I put my arm around his bony shoulders and he was trembling. None of us knew what to do, what to say, what to ask. We stood in silence for a few moments. Listening to the sound of the kid trying to catch his breath.
“How- How are you feeling?” Jinxx asked. The boy raised his head his forehead glistened with sweat under the mat of black hair. He looked around the room, at all of our faces seemingly searching for any sign of danger.
“It hurts,” he said wrapping his arm around his stomach.
“What happened to you?” CC asked.
“I killed one of my classmates,”

Notes

Not to worry folks, I'm going to make up for the last few weeks I missed. There will be at least one more chapter today, maybe more if I have time. I hope you enjoyed it. Happy New Year.