I Will Not Leave or Forsake You

Chapter Four: The Cellar and the Will to Live

I woke up dazed.  It took me a second to come to senses, and right when I did I comprehended I was being dragged.  I peered up to find Alastor pulling me down the steps to some place dark.  It took me a moment to recognize that it was the cellar.  Before I could say anything or even indicate that I had woken up, he heaved my body down the stairs.  I rolled down the cobblestone steps to the dirt on the bottom of the staircase.  I could feel my arm pop out of the joint, and I recalled seeing when I was younger a doll that was controlled by strings.  The body parts seemed so unnatural even though it was meant to look like a human child because often they would twist into unusual positions.  That doll reminded me of the appearance of my own body.

I found a way to roll my way to my back, and I watched Alastor lock the door with himself and I still inside of it.

"Alastor," I whimpered from my dry lips, "what are you doing?"

He glared down at me coldly.  "So you're awake already?"

"What are you doing?"  I repeated the sentence, but my voice couldn't change from the weak and pained sound I could muster.

He started down the steps and found his way to my body.  He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.  "You see, while you would often leave in the afternoon to go run errands for the incompetent idiots in town, I would pretend to leave so you would feel as if the house was empty.  In reality, I would leave just long enough for you to do so and then come down here to work on my... cave of sorts."

"What in the heavens are you talking about?"

"Aren't you looking, Father?  I've been storing things here for years in case something like this happened.  In case you... sinned against me."  Alastor walked me past a variety of things on the walls.  "Why do you think I was so useful when I was young and asked to learn so many trades?"

The walls were lined with preserved food and with tools.  There were many types of clothes that sat in a chest near the entrance and kits to take care of things for long periods of time.  I looked around the cellar to get a general idea of my surroundings.  I hadn't paid much attention before, but it appeared that Alastor had been doing some remodeling.  The door had been redone and was now made of wood paneling at the top of the stairs.  A door had been added to the second room in the cellar, and it was made out of the same wood paneling as the other.  All of the walls were made of cobblestone, and the ground was all dirt.  A large hole was dug into the corner of the large room, and I assumed it was for bathroom use.

"What have you done, my boy?"

Alastor twisted my bad arm at the sound of the word boy.  I shrieked at the pain that shot up into my shoulder.  "DON'T call me boy."

He opened the door to the other room which was pitch black.  I could make out that there was a bed in the room and a bucket in the corner, but I couldn't figure out if there was anything else there.  Before I could analyze any more Alastor hurled me over his shoulder and right into the wall across from us.  I cried out and dropped to the ground.  I was too weak to get up.

"This will be your room from now on Asim.  You mentioned that you might be interested in leaving me, but for you that is not a choice.  You will stay here until you die.  You will stay with me and never leave."  He stood in the doorway where the only light shone into the room from the few windows that lined the top near ground level in the previous room.  "The door locks from inside, and the only person with an operable key is myself.  You can try to escape, but if you do I will hurt you.  I will never hurt you enough to kill you, but you won't be healing very nicely or with the assistance of any sorts of medicine so I would watch what you do."

I struggled to lift my head to gaze at him.  My vision was becoming blurry as my body neared exhaustion.  "You don't have to do this, Alastor."

"You have made me do this.  Face the consequences of your actions, Father."