—CHAPTER 5—
Running.
Running.
Running.
Jack was running down a long, dark corridor. Cut, bruised, and half-naked, he gripped the handle of a broken axe tightly. The seemingly endless corridor sharply turned left and right, and Jack balanced himself against the stone walls as he turned the corners.
Running.
Running.
Runni-WATCH OUT!
Suddenly, a masked figure swung at him with a katana, which he just barely dodged. The mysterious figure was relentless, swiping at from all angles, and his toothless weapon was starting to weaken. He had to make a move.
As the last swing cut the axe, he rushed the assassin, pushing the katana aside. Jack headed butted them into the wall, and their mask cracked. He pried the sword out of their hand, spun around and swung, slicing the assailant's neck with the blade. The cut made a gruesome sound, and the figure collapsed. As blood spilled from the cut, her mask fell off…
…Ashi!?
/
Jack awoke with a start, gasping for air.
He looked around his room desperately, as if searching for something. But everything seemed to be in order; he realized it was all just a dream, and sighed.
Not long after getting out of bed, Jack had just finished brushing his teeth when there was a loud knock on the door. He groggily walked over and opened the door to reveal a hulking figure, but not the one he liked to see.
It was his landlord, Mr. Owen, looking for this month's rent. Jack suddenly remembered it was the first of the month; better late than never. A stoic man, he always said the same thing when the rent was due, and this time was no different; in his usual deep register, "It is time."
Jack reached for his wallet, and ended up pinching his boxers; looks like the half-naked part wasn't a dream, how convenient. He looked up at his landlord and held up his index finger, "One moment, please."
Before Mr. Owen could interject, Jack closed the door on him and ran to get himself together. He grabbed a plain white tee and a pair of jeans from his drawer, holding the shirt in his mouth as he hopped down the hall, trying to put on the pants. He was clothed at least, but he still needed his wallet; oh right, it was still on the nightstand. Back to his room he went, picking up the wallet and digging inside for the rent money…which wasn't there. Jack was surprised a moth didn't flutter out of it.
Then he remembered that he kept the rent money separate, in a locked box somewhere in his kitchen cabinets. He started opening all the cabinets and draws, always unsure which one contained the box. He finally found it on one of the higher shelves slid it off, only to pull a collection of papers underneath down with it.
Jack picked up the stack of papers, only to see a collection of familiar drawings and doodles. His samurai counterpart stared at him from the page, reminding him of the person he thought he was. It used to fill him with determination, but now it only made him depressed. He also found the sword charm amidst the scattered papers, yet another painful reminder of his forgotten purpose.
Mr. Owen's loud knocks snapped him out of his reflective trance. He quickly pulled a small stack of cash from the rent box, opened the front door and handed it to the landlord. The man snatched the money, counting it before putting it in his back pocket, and walking away without another word; he wasn't very personable.
Jack closed the door and walked over to the couch, which he promptly plopped down on. The rent box only had enough for a couple more payments, and that was all the money he had at that point. Looks like he would be spending more time at his crappy job, which he suddenly realized he was about to be late to. He quickly jumped up, grabbed his bike keys off the kitchen counter, and ran out the door.
/
Ashi stepped outside her apartment, and watched the trees that lined the street sway along with the breeze.
Today was Sunday, the day Ashi always went to stock up on groceries from the store. She caught the bus and got off downtown, where all the stores she liked to visit were; now that it was day time, she wasn't worried about getting mugged again, or worse. But that was hardly the first thing on her mind.
Ashi was on her way, heading to her usual grocery store, and all she could think about was last night. It had been so long since she even thought about Jack, and back then he was the bane of her existence. But things were different now, for both of them. She was no longer vying for her Mother's acceptance, but still felt like she was missing something, and Jack was a shadow of the boy she used to envy. They both were, in a sense, lost. Maybe with each other's help, she thought, they could find their way again.
But Ashi remembered what discouraged her in the first place. Jack and AKu were apparently mortal enemies, and that bad blood ran through her veins; what would Jack think if he found out who her Father was? That fact had ruined so many other potential relationships before, and Ashi wasn't prepared for it to ruin this one.
She kept walking along, lost in thought, until her gaze drifted to the shopping center she was about to pass. There was a supermarket, "Sheriff Mart", that had clearly not been well-maintained; the neon was visible on half the letters of the sign, overhang below was missing shingles here and there, and the color of the bricks had likely faded long ago.
Ashi would have walked away with slight disgust at this point, but she suddenly remembered what Jack said about his current job. A run-down supermarket certainly fit the description of the store in front of her, and sure enough, she saw Jack's motorcycle in the parking lot. He must be on his shift right now, she could go in and say hello…but should she? They had just seen each other last night and she gave him her number, but he was probably going to wait three days to text her; that was the etiquette for this type of thing, or so he had heard.
But she didn't want to wait that long, what if something happened in those three days that caused him to forget about her? What if he met some new, prettier girl, and she was super into him? What if he lost her number and wasn't able to contact her, and they never ran into each other again?
Then again, maybe she would be coming on too strong if she went in to see him at work; he might think she was a stalker or something. And of course, the AKu thing was still an issue, and it made her rethink everything over and over. This was suddenly a really stressful decision.
Ashi stood there on the sidewalk, carefully weighing her options, until finally she came to a conclusion: she had to do food shopping anyway, so she would buy her things here at Sheriff's Mart (despite how gross it looked), and if she ran into jack on the job (which she was secretly hoping), she'd play it off as a coincidence. She took a deep breath, and walked across the parking lot to the store's entrance.
The automatic doors were painted to look like those saloon doors that would swing open as people passed through, even though they were just sliding doors. Ashi walked in as they opened with an ear-splitting squeak, and immediately thought that the store's outward appearance reflected the inside. The overhead lights were dingy, flickering and buzzing; merchandise was strewn about sloppily, clearly misplaced among the aisles; there were so many dried-stains of varying shades on the ground, she almost mistook them as part of the floor pattern. Surprisingly, there was a decent number of people shopping there. The three cashiers stationed up front (none of which were Jack) had a steady stream of customers.
Ashi was thoroughly disgusted at this point, but she had shopping to do (and hopefully, someone to see), so she grabbed a hand basket and started at aisle 1. She had a grocery list on her phone, but was barely focusing on it as she scoped the aisles for a familiar bearded face. She finally found him in aisle 6, carefully taking items from a cart and arranging them neatly on the shelves. Jack had on a simple white short-sleeve shirt and a pair of jeans; it seemed his uniform was just a nametag and a brown apron with the store's logo on it.
Watching him from the end of the aisle, Ashi was unsure how to go about initiating the encounter, when a frazzled-looking woman came shuffling past her into the aisle. Ashi and Jack watched as the woman clumsily perused the items he had just placed on the shelf, knocking things onto the floor as she searched for something in particular; reaching all the way to the back of the display and picking a product out from there, she walked away without making an effort to clean up the mess she made. Jack looked visibly frustrated by this, so Ashi stepped in to help him pick up the fallen merchandise. He had yet to notice Ashi's presence, but finally became aware of it when they both reached for the same box on the floor, accidentally touching hands.
They looked up and locked eyes with each other, and in that moment, time itself seemed to stop moving. Jack was first to break out of their shared hypnosis, his surprise catching up with him; "A-Ashi? What are you doing here?" he asked, breaking her out as well.
Ashi stammered, "O-Oh hi, Jack! What a coincidence that I ended up in this place you work, am I right?" she laughed nervously, and he joined her out of pure confusion. She still had to explain herself though, but she didn't want to lie to him either; "Well…I was in the area to do some food shopping, and I noticed this place that you told me about. You said it was terrible, so I decided to see how bad it was for myself." That was pretty much the truth, minus the part where she came in to see Jack, specifically.
"And?" was Jack's response. And? And what? Did he know she was lying? Did he want to hear her admit that she only entered this pitiful establishment to see him? Before she could die from embarrassment, he added, "Did I not tell you how horrible this place is? I don't remember exactly what I said, but it was probably an understatement."
Ashi sighed deeply in her mind, that was terrifying. "No, you played it down pretty convincingly. Although, words could never do justice to this travesty", Ashi spoke nearly under her breath as another odd-looking customer came by, sniffing the kind of product you normally wouldn't.
Jack blinked at the sight, then turned back to Ashi; "Yeah, and as you can see, the customer base fits the aesthetic quite well." They both laughed at this, until they heard someone Jack's manager shouting at him from the other end of the aisle.
"JACKWHAYUDOINSITTINROUNGABBINWITDATDERPURDYGURLYOUGITBACKTADOINWORKPUTTINDEMITEMSONDATDERSHELFORIMGONBEONYOULIKSNAKESKINONABOOTSTRAPYAHERDME!?" Ashi had absolutely no idea what the portly man had said, only that he was dressed like an old western sheriff, and he was clearly very angry.
Jack got the message though; "Yes, sir", he responded dryly, and got back to what he was doing.
Ashi rubbed her arm, and looked at jack apologetically. "I'm sorry, this is probably a bad time. I should leave you to it…" She started to walk away, but Jack stopped her.
"No, it's fine, really. He does that all the time, even when I am working." He ran his fingers through his long hair, "Listen, I get off at five. Would you like to…do something? Later?" He asked, sheepishly.
Ashi's eyes lit up, but she tried her best not to sound too excited. "Yeah, that sounds…nice. What did you have in mind?"
Now it was Jack's turn to search for an answer. Think, what was a thing to do with someone—a girl—you wanted to spend time with? They could go to dinner, or was that too serious? What about a movie? Seemed like a good idea for a first date…it was going to be a date, right? Whatever, movie it is. Hopefully she would go for it.
"Uh, how does a movie sound?" asked Jack, mentally crossing his fingers.
Ashi smiled softly at him; "A movie sounds wonderful", she beamed.
Jack was having a difficult time suppressing his excitement, "Great! So, I'll uh…text you when I get off then." They stared at each other once again, but comfortably now.
Ashi was the one to break away first this time. "Well, I should really get my shopping done. I guess I'll see you later."
She started down the aisle, as Jack responded, "Yes, of course! …Bye." She turned the corner, but popped her head back over just to say, "Bye", as well.
Jack returned to his work with a huge grin. The rest of the workday flew by.
—END CHAPTER 5—
/