Flashback: Nothing Breaks Like a Heart: Part 2

I sat in the cold stone cellar for what felt like days, hell it could have been, I had no way to tell the passage of time down here in the dark.  There were no windows down here, no light penetrated the blackness, not even from the bulkhead doors that lead up into the world above. The cold from the walls had crept into my bones, into the very marrow a few hours after I crept in here.  I was so cold that I thought I would never be warm ever again. Even the fire rampaging through my home above gave no heat to my safe house below. I stretched out my legs as cramp threatened to remind me who was in charge and it sure as shit wasn’t me.  

Once the the fresh attempt to cramp my legs had passed, I gingerly got to my feet, holding onto the cold stone wall for support, I took a deep breath as a wave of lightheadedness swept over me.  My newly transitioned body was stronger than it had been, true but I had been here for scribe knows how long and I hadn’t eaten since the evening I had transitioned and my new body wasn't thankful for my negligence.

I walked around the cellar slowly,  my hand caressing the wall, craving it's safety.  These walls had saved my life, Patrik…. Tears stung my eyes as I thought of his sacrifice, knowing if he had not went up those stairs, I would be dead.  Instead I was here, alive, safe while everything, everyone I loved was ash. Dead. Gone. Forever.

The thought that I would never see my sister or my Mahmen or my Father, shit even my grandparents.  Everyone who meant something to me was in the house, ready to celebrate my transition. And now, I was completely and utterly alone.  I had been as quiet as the proverbial mouse since I came down here, so beyond terrified that the Lessers would hear me and come down and find me, I hadn’t let myself cry, but I couldn't hold back the tears anymore.  They came in rivers and then in waves, coursing down my face and pooling onto the floor below. The sobs were heavy, echoing throughout the cellar, reverberating off the walls. I made it round to the bulk head and ran my fingers over the internal locks.  I eyed the keypad on the wall next to the door and wondered if it was safe outside, I had no way to tell if the sun was up ready to give me a wicked sunburn or if the night was on my side.

Only one way to tell,  finally time to face my  future as a newly transitioned orphan.  I entered the code and pushed the doors.  “Ready or not Caldwell, here I come!”