Wake of the Dead | One

Chapter four

Jasper dared to look Killian in the eyes, leaning his weight calmly against the door frame to the kitchen. Killian's brows narrowed, and Jasper noticed the subtle coiling of Killian's muscles. Almost like a wild animal, his body was tensing up and ready for a fight at any second. This young man truly believed that Jasper was going to hurt him, then? After a brief moment of silence suspended in the air between them, Jasper finally let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. He hadn't noticed he was so tense during their whole staring contest of sorts. Not being able to take the brittle silence any longer he said, "Alright then, I'll leave you alone until I can find us some dinner." Turning his back on Killian to look through the kitchen again he hastily added, "You'll need some new bandages too."

"I'll find something to eat myself!" Killian's voice shouted from the other room. Jasper heard stumbling footsteps, then a loud thump as the other man tripped and fell over.

"That's going to be pretty hard to do from the floor, I'd imagine." Jasper replied as he opened one of the cabinets. The house they were in wasn't very extravagant. Jasper wasn't surprised that he hadn't found anything by that point, just a bit disappointed. The kitchen was made up of marble counters up against the walls. The surfaces were all covered in a thin layer of dust and cobwebs. Under the counter were wooden cupboards and drawers. Mounted on the walls were smaller cupboards as well. Jasper refused to look in the fridge, for fear of finding anything spoiled that would make his stomach churn for the rest of the night. At last he came to the last cabinet, and thankfully it wasn't empty. There was an old can of what looked to be peaches. Setting it down on the counter, Jasper noticed a place he hadn't bothered to check yet. There was a cabinet on the other side of the room.

Jasper's heavy combat boots made hearty thumping sounds on the wooden tiles as he cross the kitchen to the cabinet. Opening it, he was relieved to see that there were a few cans of food left over. More peaches, and two cans of soup. Picking one up, Jasper held the other two with his arm pressed up against his chest so he didn't drop them. Kicking the cabinet shut, he grabbed the can of peaches from the counter and made his way back to the living room. "See? Could be worse." Jasper said. He set the cans on the ground carefully. Without warning, Killian's hand flashed out and grabbed one of the soup cans, his gaze daring Jasper to try and take it from him. A quiet sigh left between Jasper's lips, "I'm not going to take your food. I might be hungry, but I'm not hungry enough to be a complete asshole just yet."

If Killian heard Jasper, he didn't acknowledge anything he said. Jasper watched as Killian took hold of his hunting knife and stabbed through the top of the can, cutting it open. When Jasper knit his brows together and looked closely, he noticed that there were dark bags under Killian's eyes, and his skin was paler than it should be. He was lethargic in his movements as well. The boy wasn't starving, but he was definitely in need of a good meal. "Here, have more." Jasper said. He gently kicked another can towards Killian, "You're going to need it more than I do right now." Killian glanced up, and gave Jasper a curt nod, before swiping that can away too.

Jasper crossed the living room and into the bathroom then. He moved the light switch, but nothing flickered on. He'd have to search in the dark and hope he didn't miss anything. The bathroom was lacking at best. Turning the faucet, no water came through. Opening cupboard above the sink, Jasper found a few bottles. Some pain medicine, with only three or four pills left. An elastic bandage, definitely something that would come in handy. He found nothing else but some bleach, which wouldn't do any good. Heading over to Killian again, Jasper set the things he'd found down. By now, the only thing keeping them from complete darkness was the pale moonlight filtering in through the cracks of the barricaded windows. "I'm guessing you won't let me help you, so there. Patch yourself up. Next time we find water, we can clean and reuse it."