Dust to Dust

13

Deciding to talk to the adherents happened only a couple days ago, but it felt like forever. Time seemed to be moving slower and slower ever since she got there, and she couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But now seemed like the perfect chance since they were all gathered in a group near the hill by the river. The problem was how to approach them. If all of them really were that quiet, would they just ignore her all together, or tell her to back off? It was hard to say until she finally did it.

Jenny had been hiding behind a tree for several minutes, hesitant to even let them see her. She had never been this scared of anybody before, not even her math teachers from middle school. And that was saying something. They were almost as unapproachable as Asher, but she had only spoken with him because he came to her first. Before she knew it, she was walking towards them, and they didn't even turn to look at her. What a great start.

"Excuse me. Um... could I talk to one of you... for a minute? I have a few questions..." her heart was beating out of her chest because none of them even did so much as move. How was doing nothing the scariest thing that was in this whole camp?

They all remained silent and still for a minute, before one of them started to stand up. It looked like a woman, but it was hard to tell since the robe was so long. Her face was also covered with a very thick cloth, so her face still couldn't be seen very well.

"Alright. Let's go somewhere more private, Jennifer." God, her voice was exactly what she imagined. While she had only ever heard one of the adherents talk before, this one was different from last time. She started to head down the hill in the other direction, moving closer to the river's direction. At least she was willing to hear her out. Jenny slowly followed her as she took a seat next to the river's edge. She seemed nice enough, since none of the other adherents were even willing to speak to anyone aside from Asher.

Jenny sat down next to the adherent and the two just watched the water flow for a moment. The sun was starting to set, so the river looked really pretty this time of day. The pink clouds drifting above their heads, the sky getting darker as it went further up. It was all so peaceful, and to think that in some other broken part of the world, all that could be seen were ashes and dust. The world really was bigger than just her room.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" the adherent finally spoke, reaching for the veil covering her face. Jenny stuttered a bit. "Y-yes. It looks nothing like my hometown. There's so much color here, and back then it was only grey."

The adherent started to pull her head free from the fabric, and Jenny was shocked that she was just allowing her to see her, because if they had the veils on, that meant they were trying to hide their faces, right?

She had very short blonde hair, going down to just above her chin, and a few freckles were visible on her nose. But she honestly looked very friendly just from her face. She turned to Jenny, looking more sympathetic than she could have ever imagined. They were so closed off all the time, but she looked so sweet. It was like she was telling her that everything was going to be okay with just a glance.

"I'm sorry about the veils. However, we all grew up in very religious families. We all lived in a Catholic school, but hated almost everything about it. So we ran away and lived on the streets for a bit until we found Asher, and made our way of life once he explained what he believed in. We made these robes ourselves to show we were finished with whatever life we lived in before. Ah, I apologize again, where are my manners? My name is Charlotte, as you know I'm one of Asher's followers." well now the whole getup made sense. After just that, they seemed a whole lot less mysterious and creepy.

Jenny loosened up, and managed to relax herself, finally. "Nice to meet you, Charlotte. Thanks for telling me, I do have a few more questions though, if you don't mind."