World Ashen

Chapter 2 - Jensen

"Sir, please don't hurt me," a young girl said, shaking with fear. Realizing the powdery ash covered the lens of a pair of red glasses sitting upon her nose. Perplexed, I said the first thing that popped into my head, "can you see out of those? Are you breathing okay? Coughing up blood?" I asked these questions without thinking and hoped it proved I would not hurt her.

"I'm okay. I had an old rag around my mouth when the ash started falling." She answered, calmed, but small sobs broke her words. "I'm Mary-Anne Johnson, by the way."

"Jensen Michaels," I said with a gentle smile, "Judging by the ash on your glasses, you were outside during the ashfall. Is there anyone with you?"

Mary-Anne's head dropped as she took her glasses off and began crying. "My dad, but he's dead. He died last night; a group of bandits brought us into this diner after they had tortured my dad. I had hidden in a cabinet, but I could hear everything that had happened. I had even heard your voice and a couple of others."

I guess Roger had distracted me too much for me to have noticed Mary-Anne. "I'm sorry for your loss. Where is your mother?"

"At home with my uncle. I wanted to thank you for trying to save Dad. I saw your twin dump his body outside the church. Just tell me you did everything you could. I know you weren't able to do much since you were in a church, not a hospital."

"We did everything we could. What are you going to do?"

Mary-Anne smiled as she hugged me. "I'll go back home, I guess. I don't care if I make it or not. And there is food in the kitchen. It was too much for me to take all of it. See you around, Jensen." She released me from her hug and walked to the door.

I followed but headed to the church to get help with the food. "I need your help to get all this extra food from the kitchen. And Jace, we need to talk." The six of us walked back to the diner and into the kitchen.

"What is it?" Jace asked as he began rummaging through the cabinets.

"Remember Roger from last night? His daughter, Mary-Anne, was hiding in a cabinet. She saw you dump her father's body, but she thanked us for trying everything we could. But seriously, you dumped his body?"

"I couldn't do much!"

I sighed, "it doesn't matter now. Just hope those other people didn't see you."

"Why does it matter if they did?" He said as he stuffed cans of peaches into his go-bag.

"You'll want to keep everyone on your good side if you expect to have a following," I said, rolling my eyes.

Jace slugged my shoulder and laughed. "So now you're finally letting me loose after all these years?"

"No, I was just seeing if you were still stuck in that crazy fantasy of yours, and you still are."

"So you never thought we would be better leaders than those old scumbags we had?" Jace stopped, placed a hand on my shoulder, and faced me fully. "You never thought of leading our own organization?"

I scoffed and pushed his hand off my shoulder. "We? Never once was there a "we." It was always you. How many times do I have to tell you that, Jace?"

Then it seemed as if my twin brother had taken a pair of scissors and cut the rope of our brotherly bond as he stormed out of the diner. Piper started going after Jace, but I held up a hand to stop her. "Piper, just let him go. He's gone."

I stood there in shock. Was Jace leaving me and our brother and sister? I also wondered if he realized it was going to be impossible for me to take care of them practically by myself. I couldn't protect the others and do other tasks like getting food at the same time.