The Ashes of What Remains

Jasper?

"Jasper, look!"

Nemi showed Jasper a cool looking knife they found in one of the drawers they were nearby. Jasper tilted his head, taking the knife to examine it up close, to check how sharp it was. The gang had found a nicer seeming house to ransack. And Nemi had been set on becoming friends with Jasper. They thought he was really cool.

"We should keep Kanik from knowing we found it cause he's gonna want it soooooo bad." They snickered a little.

After a minute, Jasper handed it back to them with a smile. It wasn't exactly visible, but his eyes could hint at it. So Nemi smiled back. Jasper gave a thumbs up before looking around.
Where the hell even WAS Kanik?

To answer his question, there was a loud snore in the other room. Jasper audibly sighed. Nemi quickly gathered up all of their stuff, heading towards where the snore came from.

"You stay there, I'm gonna get ahold of him."

And then they left. Jasper sort of just... Sat on the ground to wait. Meanwhile, Kanik was sleeping his life away, like HHOOONNKKKK minimimimiimm. And he somehow fell asleep sitting up examining stuff. All the running around wore him out. Nemi grabbed Kanik by the shoulders and shook him around.

"Oi! Get your ass up!"

"aAAH- YOU- WHAT- I'M NOT SLEEPING!!"

He was very much sleeping.

"YES YOU WERE! GET UP!" Nemi grabbed him by the arm and yanked him to his feet.

"HEEEYY, BE CAREFUL WITH THAT, NEMII-- OW!! YOU'RE SQUEEZING ME!! I'M UP, I'M UPPPP!" Kanik yanked his arm back, rubbing where they grabbed. It didn't actually hurt, he's just dramatic. Though Nemi didn't necessarily care if they hurt him a little, he's very clearly been through worse.

"Now we gotta get going! Jasper's alone right now!" And they started running back to where they had him stay. They felt like a sibling to him.

"Frankenstein's alone?" No matter how close they would all get, he would always make comments on how fucked up Jasper looked. But Jasper didn't mind it, at least it keeps the spirits up. Nemi very much did mind it, though.

"Look at yourself, you think you can say shit?" They were mainly referring to his fucked up eye. And the fact that he's very commonly covered in blood.

".. Touché."

Walking back, Kanik felt.. Off. Something wasn't right. Sure, they live in a world where a gun may be your only friend until the day you die, but a DIFFERENT sort of off.

"JASPER!"

Nemi was calling out from the room. They had gotten ahead of Kanik by a lot. They didn't know where Jasper was, just not in here, that's for sure.

"Fuck. FUCK!"

"He's not in there either!?! Where the hell could he have gone!?!"

Short answer, not far. Just outside the window, Valentino had a knife up to Jasper's heart, since someone beat him to the neck years ago...
And Jasper couldn't even scream for help. With what vocal chords? Val slowly made his way with the practical zombie in hands back to Shank and Kleide, who were waiting for him.

"Got him?" Shank had already immobilized the beetle.

"Yeah. Wheres-? Oh."

Kleide was like... On the opposite side of them, holding his hand over his nose.

"Over there. You think he's gonna be within ten feet of that bloody mess?" Shank pointed at Jasper.

"We'll be getting the others."

"Right. Keep him safe for me!"

Even Jasper rolled his eyes at that. And he's being held at knife point right now.

"JASPER!!" Nemi was running around the house, They were worried for Jasper, and for themselves and Kanik. If somebody took Jasper then they were probably gonna take the other two as well. They stayed armed with the blade they had found earlier. By now the two were split up, which though it was the worst possible idea, Nemi thought it would help them cover more ground. Until they felt something prick their neck.

"JAS?? JAAASSSSS??? BANG ON THE WALL IF YOU CAN HEAR US!!!" Knowing Jasper couldn't yell back, banging would be the next best option. It would definitely draw attention to it since its only..
1 person now.
Kanik fell silent, listening for any type of banging or anything from Jasper. Nothing. Nothing but the sound of footsteps coming from behind him. But as soon as he went to turn around, everything went dark.