Off Planet (Asterism Chronicles Volume One)

Chapter 13

I woke up to someone picking me up. Frightened I jumped, only to open my eyes to Jack. I held my side as that jolt brought pain which subsided in seconds.

"Sorry." He said looking down. "You fell asleep on the floor."

"It's fine." I yawned looking outside. It stopped raining, but was still cold enough to make me shiver.

Jack felt the clothes that he had hung up, finding them to still be wet. He had changed his shirt, but his pants were still wet.

"You're going to get sick. You need to take care of yourself too" I told him as he rubbed his hands on his wet pants.

"These are my only pair. All the other clothes were Erins."

"There has to be something for you to wear in the box."

I walked to the back room and straight to the box. I hadn't noticed it before, but all the pants were for girls. As I dug through them I found a pair of sweatpants that looked to fit him.

"Wear these." I said as I handed them to him, closing the door as I left.

As I walked into the kitchen I looked around for a blanket to fight the cold that was seeping through the hole, finding nothing in the cabinet. I sneezed as Jack came back into the kitchen.

"Told you they would fit." I pointed to the pants which fit him perfectly.

"Yeah, these were Erin's favorite pants to wear." He said holding his hands up to the fire.

I left him there standing in front of the fire and went to grab blankets. I opened the door to the bedroom and grabbed the two heaviest ones to use, with them in my hand I returned to the kitchen.

I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders as Jack did the same. We sat there watching the fire as we waited for the room to heat up. The kitchen is separated from the living room by a door, with that closed the heat filled up the room quicker. As we waited Jack fell asleep, laying down on his stomach. I looked at him as he slept, this is the first time he's fallen asleep first. The blanket was falling off his shoulder, as was his large shirt, showing the tips of some scars. A small gasp left my lips as I leaned over him and carefully moved his shirt more to get a better look. But as I did, he opened his eyes and jumped up.

"I'm sorry." I said as I scooted away from him, his angry face glared down at me.

Without a word he walked out the house. As I followed him I watched as he picked up rocks and chucked them down the road. He was grumbling to himself as I stood there. He turned around and saw me watching him. He stomped up to me and looked down on me.

"I- I don't know what to say." I said as he looked at me with a face I'd never seen on him before. He had always been cheerful. "I'm sorry, what happened?"

"This is what happens when you tell the cops your parents made you hack!" He said as he felt his back walking back in the house. He pulled off his shirt to reveal more scars going down his back. Some of them reaching from one shoulder to his hips.

"I'm sorry." Was all I could say.

He turned around to show that his chest and stomach had them too. Without talking to me he went into the bedroom and closed the door. I decided to let him calm down so I headed back into the kitchen and covered up with a blanket.

By the time it turned dark the clothes had dried. They smelled of smoke, but that's better than freezing to death.

I stopped outside the bedroom door wondering if Jack was calmed down yet. A slight knock on the door later I found Jack asleep on his bed of rags. He was shivering again so I took the one blanket from the kitchen and laid it on top of him. As soon as I did he grabbed it, afraid he had woken up I jumped back. He relaxed again as I layed down in Erins bed. I fell asleep to the curiosity of Jack. What are those scars? Why does he have them? What did his parents do to him?