Cinders: An Intrulogical Story

Chapter 14

Logan laid down on the floor of the cellar, it was cold and wet, probably from some type of flooding that happened years ago that nobody bothered to fix.
He felt empty and alone, he had cried for two hours now and had thoroughly exhausted himself to the point that he didn't even feel like getting up.
His body ached and his head throbbed, he felt sick to his stomach but at the same time practically starving.
He shouldn't of ever tried to fight back against them, now his book was burned, his father's clothes were stolen and he was sleeping in a moldy basement with no light.
The last few bits of hope he had that his family would ever turn around were totally smashed right before his eyes, they never wanted him to go to the ball, that was just a ploy to get his clothes.

As if they would ever care about Logan's happiness, he would never be more than a maid to them, he wasn't even a step son.
He couldn't even remember the last time Roman even acknowledged he was supposed to be his son, for all Logan knew Roman just thought of him as another stupid mouth to feed.
Some noises were heard outside the cellar door and Logan ignored his aching body pain to bolt up and tremble with fear, if it was Roman he was prepared to just get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness.
Roman would of loved that, in fact that was probably why he even threw him in here in the first place, to make him realize just how "good" he had it.
Logan instinctively closed his eyes as the cellar doors flew open, ready to be beaten or worse but was surprised when he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder.

He opened his eyes to see Virgil kneeling in front of him with a bowl of soup.
Logan looked behind him and noticed it was now night time.
'Oh my, how long have I been down here?' Logan thought to himself, in all the wailing and sobbing he must of lost track of time, although you couldn't really blame him since the room was pitch black and had no windows.
"I cooked you something since I figured you wouldn't be getting any other food tonight." Virgil said, he looked at Logan with pity as he grabbed the soup from him and ate it quickly.
His stomach still rumbled from hunger but the pain was much more bearable, Virgil sat down right next to him, crossing his legs.

"How did you-" "Please Logan, if you didn't expect me to know how to pick locks already I think I can safely assume you know nothing about me." Virgil responded, awkward silence filled the room, Virgil wasn't sure what to say to him.
He really wanted to communicate his shock at what had happened but he didn't want to sound mean.
"Logan I mean this in the nicest way: what's wrong with you? first with breakfast and then whatever the hell happened upstairs! Seriously what the heck were you thinking!?" "I wasn't." Logan shamefully admitted.
"You've really changed over these past few days Logan, between the running off and the disobedience you are practically a totally different person." Logan leaned on Virgil, tired from crying in the cellar all day "I don't know what's wrong with me today." Logan weakly said, it was hard to speak as his voice had gone hoarse from screaming and wailing so much.
Virgil felt obscenely awkward having some one rest on him, he didn't like being touched and he would of usually pushed Logan off, but Virgil didn't say anything.

He knew very well Logan was terrified and exhausted and needed some one to lean on for just a moment, Logan couldn't fully appreciate the gesture then but looking back on it, it was so much more meaningful.
"Even if what you did earlier was nuts it was still pretty funny, seriously, I'm never gonna forget the way Patton looked after you hit him." The two laughed with each other, a rare moment of levity in such a dark a depressing day.
"They shouldn't of said that stuff about your dad, it wasn't right." "Thank you." As the two sat together in the cellar Virgil got a very nefarious idea.
"I just realized, I know where they are keeping your dad's clothes and it isn't stealing if you steal back your property.
I could hide it some where if you wanted me too, you'll still probably get punished but at least they wouldn't have it." Logan quickly nodded, urging Virgil to go find it a proper hiding spot while he stayed in the cellar, Virgil quickly rushed upstairs to stuff it underneath his mattress.

Logan took solace in the fact that even though they destroyed his book he could at least keep one family heirloom, he sighed and laid back down on the ground.
He could hear carriage sounds and foot steps as Roman and Patton arrived home and entered the house.
'They must be tired' he thought, that was good, being tired meant neither of them would hurt him again tonight.
The punishments would come tomorrow, Logan closed his eyes and tried his best to sleep, ignoring the coldness of the cellar and the creepiness of the rodents that crawled around near him.
It took forever to fall asleep, the worst part wasn't even the living conditions, It was the pure dread Logan had as he knew the minute he woke up he would be in for the beating of his.

All he could do was stay up and think about all the things that were coming for him tomorrow and how badly he wished he would of just stayed quiet and faded into the back ground.
Although Logan knew deep down that that wouldn't of helped anything, they would of just found more excuses to treat him coldly, they found any reason to hate him.
Logan still didn't understand why any of this was happening to him, why his family hated him so much, even if he was common, even if he wasn't really one of them, there was no reason for them to treat him as cruelly as they did.
He always wondered if he did something to offend them, something terrible that maybe showed that he deserved all of this but every attempt Logan made to please them just ended in more complaints.
Why wasn't anything enough for them? Why were they so cruel? Why did they never love him? The questions still haunted him, but what haunted him more was just knowing that he would never truly get the answer.