~Ashlynn~

Aiden Rogers.

I N    A S H L Y N N ' S   O P I N I O N, he shouldn't have been here. If it weren't for Connor, she would have dumped his unconscious self in the middle of the woods and leave him to be hunted down by some other guy looking for her. That boy was nothing but trouble. But Connor insisted on keeping him.

"He's dangerous, Ashlynn." he had said, watching him sleep on the bed. Her bed.

"Exactly! We need to get away from him! Call the police!" She countered.

"Are you an idiot? That would just draw attention to ourselves. What would happen when they arrived to find three 15-year olds living in the middle of a forest? Besides, what are we gonna say? 'Yeah, this kid with a gun created a wind storm in the middle of our front yard and blasted all these wolves away.' They'll send us to a mental hospital!" 

"Connor. He created a freaking windstorm in the middle of our front yard. He could potentially kill us! If you don't want to call the police, the least we could do is ditch him in the forest!"

"And then what? He would come looking for us, and he'd try to kill us with his wind thing. It's better to have him working with us rather than against us. Besides, I want to investigate his powers. I think I have a hunch as to what happened to him.

Ashlynn blinked, taken aback. "Investigate his powers? He is not a science experiment, Connor, HE IS A TEENAGER, WITH A GUN, AND THE POWER TO CREATE A TORNADO WHENEVER HE GETS MAD! HE IS DANGEROUS!"

But Connor had refused to listen to her. For the next few hours, he spent his time trying to wake the boy up while Ashlynn went out in the woods to hunt. 

Whoosh! An arrow pierced the air and landed right in the middle of the target suspended by two strings holding it up from a rather large tree trunk. She rode through the depths of the forest atop Aries, who ran with such speed it was rather fascinating. 

She whooped as they jumped over a ravine and carried on. Bam! One dead bird fallen from a tree fifteen feet away. She was a natural at hunting now, thanks to Connor. It was exhilarating, it made her feel alive. A way to escape from her problems. 

It wasn't until lunch time that Ashlynn came home, famished. She climbed up the front steps, avoiding the arrows stuck in the grass. She pulled one out of the wooden door as she strolled inside. She grabbed a muffin from the pantry and took a bite, loitering by the bedroom door.

The boy was still asleep. Connor was at his bedside now, muttering some calculations out loud.

"You should probably leave him alone, you know." she said. Connor jumped.

"You scared me!"

Ashlynn merely shrugged, walking forward and sitting on the chair opposite him. "Still hasn't woken up yet?" she inquired, gesturing to Aiden.

"No..." he said, still lost in his thoughts.

"I had a dream about him, you know." She blurted out loud. She made a move to cover her mouth, but Connor had already looked up with interest, so she decided to go on. "It might not have been real. But it seemed like it. Anyway, this boy, Aiden, he was walking through the woods with what looked like his sister. Clara Rogers. And he pulled out his gun, showing her that they had protection to use against their enemies." She paused to let that sink into effect. "And Clara ran away in fright."

Connor nodded, his eyes far away but his mind processing his story. "It would explain why he asked if we had his sister when he first saw us. He probably thought we might have taken her hostage, since we looked like killers."

Ashlynn shook her head. "You're missing the point. Enemies, Connor. They were on the run from enemies. What if he leads them here? I don't think we can trust this boy, Connor!"

Connor looked her up and down, his silver eyes still calculating. It wasn't for a minute or two that he finally answered. "I think we can."

"What?"

"Listen, Ash. I need you to do something, okay? I need you to help me with something." Connor proposed, leaning forward, his eyes still watching her.

Ashlynn shifted in her chair uneasily. She had a feeling she wasn't going to like what he was about to say. "I have this...theory. It's kind of hard to explain, but if this kid can control wind..." he trailed off. Instead, he leaned forward more, and gestured for Ashlynn to do so as well. She reluctantly did so.

"Listen to his heart beat, Ash. It's beating at 400 beats per minute. That's not normal. You could die from that. No regular human being has a heart rate that fast." He said.

"You're saying...he's not human? What is he?"

"Look Ash, I have a theory...I just need you to test it out." he told her, leaning back in his chair. "Can you put your hand on his forehead for me?"

Ashlynn looked at him wearily. "What's this got to do with anything?" It made no sense. Connor was making no sense. If only he would tell her what was going on...

"Just do it!" He sighed, exasperated. "Look, please?"

Connor never said 'please.' He must have really wanted her to do it. Reluctantly, she put her hand on Aiden's forehead. 

"Okay. Good. Now...I don't know. Concentrate on like, awakening him. Bringing him back to consciousness." 

Ashlynn rolled her eyes. What was Connor playing at? She thought about awakening Aiden. Her hand shoke with concentration.

Connor's eyes were fixated on her hand. He watched it like a hawk. Her hand was shaking violently now. Suddenly, she drew it away from his head, as if she'd been burned. "What are you doing?!" he hissed.

She couldn't explain. She didn't know what was happening. Something was growing inside of her. Something was happening. 

She went pale all of a sudden, her hand shaking more than ever. Sweat was running down her neck. "Shh...don't talk! I...I feel something..."

And all of a sudden, just as her hand jerked upward, Aiden's eyes fluttered open. Ashlynn's hand returned to her side and she collapsed onto her chair, exhausted. She stared at the boy.

"I...I brought him back? I...awakened him?" she asked, her eyes wide.

Connor, for once in his life, was speechless. The two of them stared at Aiden in awe.

"What?" his croaky voice asked as he attempted to sit up and failed. Ashlynn and Connor looked at each other.

"You're gonna have a lot of explaining to do."

***

"All right, inquisition time. According to Connor, you would have gone into a coma if I hadn't woken you up. Don't ask me how I did it, I don't know. In return, you're going to answer all of my questions, and completely honestly. Got it?" Ashlynn asked.

She was sitting on the edge of the bed with her best fierce glare on. Aiden sat down, looking uncomfortable.

"Um..okay."

"Right then, let's start at the beginning. Who do you live with?"

"Uh, my mom and my three sisters." he answered. Ashlynn kept her stare up.

"What about your dad?" she asked.

"Gone. Left right after I was born."

"How did you get a gun?" she asked, gesturing to the bag in the corner.

"Nicked it from a police officer during the Clothing Heist."

"The Clothing Heist?"

"Hey, I like to give my adventures names, all right?"

"Elaborate on your 'adventures'." she ordered, staring at him in the eye. Aiden shifted uncomfortably again.

"Look, man. What I'm about to tell you, it's my biggest secret. Only one person knows about this aside from you. You cannot repeat a word of what I say, all right?" Aiden commanded.

Ashlynn merely nodded.

"I'm a thief. My family doesn't exactly have a lot of money, so I steal from the people that do. Been doing it for years. See a beggar on the street? Suddenly there's a gold necklace in his possession. I steal for my family, and the other poor people out there. The people who need the money. The Clothing Heist...that was for Ol'  Mrs. Betty down the street. She hung her clothes outside for the washing one day and they got stolen. I went down to the mall and stole thirteen outfits for her. Nobody knows it's me."

Ashlynn blinked. That was a lot to take in. But why did it feel...sweet?

"Okay," she nodded. "Your secret's safe with me. What happened the night you left your house? You brought your gun for self defense. Who were the enemies you were defending you and your sister against?"

"How do you know that?"

"Just answer the question!"

Aiden eyed her, but continued nonetheless. "The night I left, I was going to find my dad. Teach him a lesson. He hurt my mother by....I can't tell you that, I'm sorry. Anyway, I figured, after all these years, I needed to find him. My sister insisted on coming along with me. But then this car started following us. I started to pedal faster - we were on a bike - and the guy started to shoot with his gun. I was able to cause a diversion and he crashed. My sister and I escaped, but -"

"Okay, that's enough of that." Ashlynn knew what he was going to say next. How his sister ran away. She already knew that part of the story. "What's your connection to air?"

"Air?"

"Yeah."

"Uh...I breathe it in?"

"I don't mean it like that! I meant like, wind. Air. The sky. Any connections?" Ashlynn asked, exasperated and frustrated by this point.

"Oh. Well, I don't really know why, but I've always hated the wind. Ever since I was little, it's been my worst fear. I can't stand it."

Ashlynn blinked. This was making no sense to her. First this guy creates a tornado in their front yard, and then he says he's afraid of wind?

"Do you remember anything from last night?" She asked. Maybe he suffered from short term memory loss or something.

"I remember the wolves. One of them tried to attack me. I don't remember anything after that. My vision went blurry and I think I blacked out." He informed her, drumming his fingers on the headboard of the bed.

"You created a tornado, Aiden. I saw your eyes. They looked mad. Scary-mad. And you - Aiden, I don't even know what happened. All of a sudden the wind picked up and there was a windstorm right then and there." She paused, watching his face carefully. "You moved your arms upward and yelled something out, and the wind swirled around you, picking up more and more speed. And then, you yelled one more time and the wind rippled around you. It sent the wolves flying. And then you passed out."

"That's....impossible...I don't, I -" Aiden stuttered, trying to find an explanation. "Are you sure? Are you sure that's what happened? I've never done that before, I swear!"

Ashlynn shook her head. She had just seen the impossible. Aiden was dangerous, but Connor was right. It would be better to have him as a friend than an enemy.

"Connor wants to keep you here. We'll find out what's happening to you. Then I'll help you find Clara. Deal?"

"I...I never told you my sister's name was Clara." Aiden got up, leaning forward.

Ashlynn froze. "Uhh...you talk in your sleep." She covered up her lie as best as she could. "Listen, why don't we focus on finding out what that whole wind fiasco was yesterday, okay?"

Connor's voice sounded behind her. "Whatever's happening to him, Ash, is happening to you too."

***
Hey guys! Sorry for the super long wait! This was more of a filler chapter, but I'll make the next one a little bit more interesting. I was just really busy these past few weeks and haven't got any chances to update.
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helloperson11 :) <3