Children of Dawn

Ashley’s POV
“I killed one of my classmates,” he said. We all looked at each other. Jake still had his arm around the boy when he started crying.
“Please don’t send me back, they hate me at that school they’ll never believe me that it was an accident,” He whimpered.
“It’s okay kiddo, I told you we’d keep you safe here,” I said without thinking. Jinxx shot me a look that may of meant that I’d just said something stupid. The boy looked up at me, like he didn’t believe me. Then his eyes flickered quickly around the room again. He didn’t trust us, which made a lot of sense. I noticed that Jinxx left the room.
“What’s your name, dude” CC asked.
“Andy,” He said. We all introduced ourselves to him. There was no hand shaking or warm greetings. None of us knew what to do with him. A moment later Jinxx reappeared with one of our warmest blankets. He handed it to Jake who gently put it around Andy’s shoulders. I wasn’t sure if he was shaking from cold, though. He very well could have just been in a lot of pain or very tired.
“Andy, are you hungry or anything?” I asked. He looked at me for a moment before shaking his head. It was hard to believe that he wasn’t hungry. After that Jinxx hit with a battery of questions all of which were answered no. He wasn’t thirsty. He wasn’t feverish. He didn’t want to go home. He didn’t want to stay with us. He didn’t want to go to the police. He didn’t want to set out on his own. He didn’t want his bandages changed. He didn’t want any of us to touch him at all. All that we learned was that he was confused, and didn’t want anything to do with us. So we let him be. We went about our day while he sat on the kitchen table quietly and hugged the blanket around himself.
We didn’t leave him alone of course. I was elected to stay in the kitchen and finish laying stones down around the chimney for our cookfire. Jake brought me all the stones that I needed to finish and so I sat, fitting the rocks together like a puzzle and looking up at Andy periodically. I lifted a stone into place and looked up at Andy. He was sitting on the table, staring down at his feet, he didn’t move other than shaking. He might have been crying, but I had sworn to leave him be. So I didn’t say anything. I put three more of the flat-ish rocks into place and when I looked up again Andy was looking at me. As soon as his eyes met mine he looked away quickly. I almost opened my mouth to say something, but then decided against it. The kid was obviously terrified. I went back to work for a few more minutes. The wall was almost done and I was pretty proud to say that it actually didn’t look that bad. I glanced up at Andy again, he was looking at me like before, but this time he didn’t look away when I met his eyes. We stared blankly at each other for a moment.
“You need something?” I asked, trying to sound as friendly as possible. Andy looked at me for another second biting his lip.
“Where are my clothes?” He asked. I stood up and he jumped even though I was a solid twelve feet away from him.
“I can get them for you if you want,” I said. He nodded. I walked past him and into the living room, I could see CC in the bathroom creating what would eventually be our shower. Then we wouldn’t have to go all the way down to the river and bathe where we might offend the squirrels. I passed by the room as I went into the room where Andy had been sleeping. His clothes were folded on the floor, we didn’t have a much better place to put them. I picked them up and as I left Jinxx was coming in from outside.
“What’s up?” He asked.
“Kid wants his clothes, so I’m bringing them to him,” I said holding them up.
“Let me see if I can get him to let me look at his wounds before you give him those,” Jinxx said holding out his hand. I handed him the pile of clothes and he walked ahead of me into the kitchen. Andy looked up when we entered. His eyes flickered between me and Jinxx fearfully.
“Andy, you want your clothes, I want to look at your wound. You let me look at your wound and I’ll give you your clothes,” Jinxx said. Andy looked straight up terrified. He shook his head frantically.
“Why not?” Jinxx asked. Andy looked at me and then back to Jinxx.
“Does he have to be in here?” Andy said jerking his chin at me. Jinxx turned and looked at me, confused.
“What’s wrong with him being here?” Jinxx asked. Andy looked at the floor nervously.
“He’s a rapist,” Andy said so quietly I could hardly hear it.
“What? No I’m not where did you hear that?” I exclaimed walking quickly into the room. Andy jumped and scooted back on the table to get farther away from me. Jinxx held up a hand to stop me from coming any farther into the room.
“Where did you hear that, Andy?” Jinxx asked.
“I-I saw it on the news a week or so ago. The girl. He killed her boyfriend and then raped the girl in the alleyway!” Andy said. He was trembling harder than he had been earlier. Jinxx turned and looked at me. I could feel my stomach sinking, I suddenly felt sick.
“That- It’s not true! I killed the guy but I thought that he was gonna hurt the girl. I never laid a hand on her like that,” I stammered. Jinxx looked between Andy and I.
“I swear the girl is lying. I would never do that to someone,” I was nearly yelling. At that point I didn’t care if I scared Andy, Jinxx could not think that was true.
“He’s lying! Why would the girl say that if it wasn’t true!” Andy said pointing an accusing finger at me.
“I don’t know, maybe she was mad that I killed her boyfriend!” I shouted taking a step towards him. Jinxx put a hand on my chest and Andy was cowering. CC came into the room upon hearing the commotion.
“What’s going on?” He said.
“That little brat is lying! He’s trying to call me a rapist!” I yelled.
“CC, get Ashley out of here, Andy is confused,” Jinxx said calmly. CC grabbed my arm, I wanted to wring the kids neck, but I let CC pull me out of the room. He pushed me out of the house and into the sunlight outside. When we got outside CC turned me to look at him.
“Tell me the truth right now,” CC said.
“I didn’t! I never put a hand on that girl like that. I wouldn’t rape someone,” I said. CC held me by the shoulder and looked at my face. “I swear I didn’t” I whispered.
“I believe you,” CC said with a nod.

Notes

Hope you all enjoyed this second update of today! I meant for it to be longer but I'm a bit distracted right now with a friend who's struggling with psychologically abusive parents, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway. Let me know what you think!