Chapter 2: Chapter 2
But Ash couldn’t sit around forever; she had to get going. She edged around trees, ducked under branches, and shoved her way through bushes and weeds. Her face was sticky with sweat. The scent of flowers filled the air as she toiled in silence.
When the sun went down Ash still walked, using her wind-up flashlight to show the way. She looked at her road map; if she kept walking south, she shouldn’t reach another town for quite a while, and that was fine by her. Finally, as her steps turned into staggers and stumbles, she collapsed in a clearing. Wrapped in a blanket and using her bag for a pillow, she curled up on the ground to sleep.
* * * *
Ash woke up way too late—around nine A.M.—and ate a granola bar. She put the empty wrapper back in her bag and took a few sips of water. She had to conserve supplies, but also knew not eating or drinking enough would be dangerous. Ash walked through fields all morning, and saw nothing else around except a few houses and trees in the distance. She felt like she was walking in the middle of nowhere, but knew there was a road in the distance because once in a while a car would drive from one end of the flat horizon to the other. She headed to the nearest group of trees for cover when she got close enough for passing cars to see her.
After a small lunch, she spent the next couple hours hiking through the woods. In mid-afternoon she reached a clearing, but hovered at the edge, unsure if she should go farther.
The clearing was actually a yard, and a two-story gray house with blue shutters stood in the middle. The paint was faded, and one window had a piece of cardboard duct-taped over it. A driveway coiled south, but Ash couldn’t see the road. She wondered if the place was abandoned. This would be a good spot to take a break, and there might be something useful inside.
After several minutes of hesitation, she walked across the overgrown yard and peeked into a dirty pane of glass. She could see a brown couch and an old TV. The next room was a kitchen with a table and two chairs. Ash walked to the back of the house and gasped; a rope ladder swung in the breeze, hanging from a second floor window.
Ash just had to climb that ladder. She could reach the bottom rungs without a problem, but couldn’t pull herself up because her bag was too heavy. Unwilling to abandon her supplies for a moment, she dragged a small log over from a woodpile beside the back door and used it as a stepping stool. As she climbed, the bag cut into her shoulder and made balance wobbly. She launched herself inside, falling to the hardwood floor with a thump.
Two dressers, a desk, and a toy box were stacked in front of a door to her right. Two beds stood ahead; one of them had an old stuffed animal on it. The heads of both beds rested against the east wall, across from the barricaded door. At the far end of the room was another window overlooking the south end of the house. There was also a bathroom. When Ash looked inside, she saw a chair shoved up against yet another door.
Something felt very wrong. Ash turned to go back out the way she’d come in, but then grit her teeth and dove under one of the beds.
The top of the rope ladder was scooting across the window sill.
Ash watched in indignation as a small boy dove into the room. A girl followed, stumbling because the entire rope ladder was now wrapped around her leg. The kids wore old clothes and carried school bags. The girl’s waist-length, tangled hair was dark brown; the boy’s was reddish-blond and shot out all over his head. They both had bruises on their arms.
Ash slid out from under the bed and strode towards them.
“Get out,” she demanded. “This is my spot.”
The kids froze. “Who are you?” the girl asked.
“This is my hideout, I found it first,” Ash said.
The boy giggled. “We live here.”
“Oh.” Ash felt her face grow hot. That made more sense than every runaway in Indiana migrating to the same creepy house.
“I’m Kevin Webster, and this is my sister, Dayna,” the boy said.
“What are you doing here?” Dayna asked, unraveling herself from the ladder.
“Leaving,” Ash said.
“You can’t.” Kevin spread his arms. “They’ll be back any minute.”
Ash sighed and walked closer, ready to push the kids out of the way and tell them to mind their own business. But the girl, Dayna, stepped in front of the window and stared up at her. Ash stopped a few steps away. There was something about Dayna’s dark brown eyes that seemed both wise and melancholy. As Ash gazed into them she felt like she was falling and didn’t know why. She shook her head, breaking the trance. These kids obviously had it rough, but that wasn’t her problem.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone