The Edge of Ruin

Chapter 2: The Elephant in the Room

Alex had taken to calling them Ash.

Their pale complexion, slate-grey eyes and snowy hair reminded her of the ash she cleaned from her fireplace in the winter months, and though they had turned their nose up slightly at the name, they hadn't voiced any objections yet. As for their gender, they didn't seem to care which pronouns Alex used for them, and so she'd resolved to staying gender-neutral for the time being.

She reasoned that, should they ever remember anything, she would change her ways immediately. So far, Ash had not remembered anything past the fact that they were there to help Alex, whatever that meant. Or entailed.

It was currently seven in the morning, and Alex was almost late for work.

"Okay, so," she started, tugging her hair into a ponytail while Ash stared balefully at her from their seat on her purple couch. The remains of the rune still smouldered behind them, the smell not quite yet dissipated. "I need to go. You need to stay put."

Ash blinked. Considered this. Then, "No."

"No?" Alex sighed, tugging her jacket off the wall and shoving things into her bag. "The hell you mean 'no'?"

"I am here to help." They said, as if this explained everything. "So I will help."

"Okay listen," Alex said, ducking to fix her smudged lipstick in the hallway mirror. "I need to go to work. My boss will have my ass if I'm late again, and I definitely cannot bring you with me. So I need you to stay here while I go in, and then we can talk more tonight when I get back. I'll bring along someone who might be able to figure out where you came from." And how to send you back, she thought quietly to herself.

Ash blinked again. "No."

Alex groaned. "Please? You can watch TV or something, I don't care. I just really have to go now."

"TV?" Ash blinked again. They did that a lot.

Alex stared back for a few seconds, considering.

"Jesus, okay," she said, chucking her bag and jacket onto the coffee table. "Wait here."

She jogged upstairs, returning a few moments later with clothing that looked to be in Ash's size.

"Put these on." She tossed the clothes at them. Ash, who still sat in the robe Alex had draped them in last night, stared briefly at the clothes in their hands and then back at Alex.

"I will leave you here," Alex said, though she didn't mean it. She didn't need Ash following her anywhere and causing a scene. She was in deep enough shit already with their arrival and the rune smouldering on her accent wall, and she dearly wasn't looking forward to tonight and what she needed to say to her mother.

Five minutes later, Ash was dressed and standing awkwardly in the jeans and lumpy sweater Alex had tossed at them. If anything, the feminine clothes made them seem even more androgynous, and Alex figured she'd have a long day of fielding some interesting questions from the café's more elderly patronage so long as Ash was by her side.

She sighed. Nothing to be done for it now, she supposed.

"Come on," she said, grabbing her keys and weaving out the door, Ash lithely stepping behind her. They moved with a that nearly unsettled her, eerie in its familiarity. She shook it off and pulled the door closed behind them, turning to lock it while they waited on her porch.

"Watch your step," she said, dodging the icy patches on her front stairs as she made her way to her car. They followed dutifully behind her, and then stared mutely from the passenger side door as she got into the car. Alex noticed just as she'd turned the ignition, and took a moment to rest her forehead on the steering wheel, sighing deeply. Today was going to be a long day. And she hadn't even had coffee yet.