(The following chapter gets a bit sad with mentions of actual historical events in Burr's life, and there is a very small mention of blood so if you don't like that, skip to the next chapter)
The night crawled into existence and with it everyone feel quickly to sleep. Well, except for the adults of the group. While the children all shared the guest room Aaron and I slept in the living room, leaving Lafayette and Hercules to gallivant in their own room. I wonder how Georges managed to get any sleep while living with them-
I thought Aaron had somehow fell asleep before I saw him get up and don his mask before going towards the front door. I heard it hiss open and even though I wanted to try my luck at trying to sleep through whatever was going on in the master bedroom, my curiosity wore out and I just had to see what Aaron was doing
Aaron had always been a quiet man, often kept to himself and barely shared anything about his private life. The only reason any of us even knew that he had a wife and child was when he had to take off work to look after the little girl that was left when the mother... well... no one is very sure what happened
I grabbed my own mask and slipped it on before going out the door, making sure to close it tightly behind me. I found Aaron not too far from the entrance, looking out over the empty streets. The sky was chocked with clouds and ash and there was barely any light that made everything choke in the darkness, but I had a feeling this was what Aaron preferred to the eerie moonlight that used to blanket the streets that had no streetlights
"Chilly for once" I called, causing Aaron to jump and look back at me "Ah- Alexander" he said as I went to stand next to him "I feel like we're in a desert" I said ignoring the fact that I had scared Aaron "Suffocatingly hot during the day, oddly chill at night" I finished and Aaron sighed "I suppose you're right he said before leaning back against the building
"Couldn't sleep??" I asked and Aaron nodded "Hard to with those two causing a ruckus" he mumbled and I chuckled "Try sharing a dorm with those two, man if studying didn't keep me up they did" I said. I know what you're thinking "Alex why are you suddenly being so nice to your mortal enemy?!" And the truth is, it's all just a calculated attempt to try and break through Aaron's shell. If we were really going to be stuck together, I had to know as much about him as I could, it could come in handy, you never know during these times
"Sounds horrible, makes me glad I had an apartment for College, though I wasn't there for too long so I didn't feel like getting a dorm" Aaron said as I leaned back against the building with him. Copying was often a sign of someone either liking you, or truly listening to what you were saying, which I knew Aaron knew as we were both lawyers. I had to get him to think I was actually trusting him so he'd open up
"Lucky bastard, I tried to speed through but they wouldn't let me, said it was way too stressful of a course to be taking in just a couple years" I said and Aaron chuckled "It wasn't so bad, besides, I had nothing better to do" he said before going silent again. I pursed my lips and tried to think of SOMETHING I could say to get more information out of him, but I couldn't think of anything
So I decided to play a risky move. "Betsy and I loved going out to the middle of nowhere and star gazing. She seemed so surprised that you could actually see the milky way in person" I said before turning to see Aaron's reaction. For a moment he didn't respond, but then finally he sighed and opened up "Theodosia and I had never left New York, but we'd always planned on it" He said and crossed his arms
Well that didn't help anything- Theodosia was his daughter, but I knew he had a wife based on the ring still present on his finger. What had happened to her... "We wanted to go with Theo, possibly go to London, but then she got sick again and we couldn't go" Aaron added and now I was just downright confused before I figured it out. Aaron's wife was named Theodosia, and they'd named their child after her
YOU ARE READING
Ashen Heart
AvventuraEveryone knew it was coming, but when it came, no one was prepared. The Yellowstone Volcanic eruption took out much of the Unites States, except for parts of the Eastern Coast which luckily took a minimal blow. Years later though, things have change...
