Nirvana (Take Over, Craig)

Wednesday, Estonia

It was as if in that moment the world in it's entirety held it's breath so the sound of his heart breaking was more audible. The soundtrack to the beginning of his misery started off with a snapping of bones, and a scream of absolute agony. Followed on queue by sound of falling rocks silencing the screams,then silence...

Where before there stood a man screaming there was now nothing but a puff of settling dust. what an appropriate visual to such a silence. This particular vision of silence stuck with Craig through the rescue, the memorials and the funeral. Tears seemed to be beyond him at this point. He was not the only one who'd lost someone they cared about in the mining accident but Steven had been all he'd had. All of Craig's memories, happy or otherwise were always inclusive of Steven. They had grown up together, inseparable. From their days in the orphanage to the last three years working the mine. They had done everything together and would not have traded their time together for anything or anyone. they had had each other and that had always been enough. 

'Till death do us part. The words tattooed across his forearm had once been a source of great pride and joy, now they sat there forever indented into his skin a  constant reminder of the death that indeed did them apart. Forever a reminder of what he lost. It had been two weeks since the funeral and Craig had yet to leave the house. He spent all day and all night on the bed silent as a mouse with tears streaming down his face. When he wasn't crying he was sleeping or lately more often than not unconscious from lack of sustenance. The room he sat in wreaked of sweat and lack of ventilation which fostered a rotting like smell. It seemed a very appropriate scent to his life as it was. His soul was rotting, purely from sadness. He felt no anger and no guilt, he blamed no one at all for the accident, he was well aware it was simply that; an accident. All he seemed to be able to think on was what he lost. 

For the duration of these two weeks his landlord's daughter, a quiet thirteen year old who Craig knew to be legally deaf, came in three times a day without fail and left a plate of food on Craig's bedside table which he always ignored. At the next meal time the little girl would switch his plate for a fresh meal and leave without saying a word. On the third week she came in to find him barely awake and his previous meal untouched. She took the plate and left. Returning only a few seconds later she entered his room once again holding two plates. She placed one in front of him and with the other she sat near his feet and faced him. It took him a while to realize that the girl would not eat unless he eat.

He was absolutely miserable and despite his deteriorating body he would not starve her and so with aching muscles he reached for his plate and took a bite of his food. For every bite he took she took one too, when his plate was cleared she smiled up at him and handed him a glass of water. He drank deep and attempted to thank her, his voice came out more as a croak than words. She seemed to understand what he was trying to say and she smiled and kissed him on the cheek. Something about her kiss was unbelievably soothing, he found himself smiling as she walked away. As he fell asleep that night it was not the settling dust and it's significance that he thought off but rater the happier times, when Steven was alive, laughing and holding him...



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