"Nice to meet you as well. You're beginning to gain some color back." Nicolas responded, noticing the dark complexion and attractiveness of Maria, "I'm sure you'll look and feel much better in the morning." He looked to his companion nestled in her bed in the corner, "By the way, that's Coal. She won't bite." He turned and left towards his bedroom. Once he entered the room he stopped for a moment, realizing he'd left the light on before.<span style="font-style: italic">Ahhh... Damn. Trying to pay the lowest bill possible, and I forget to turn a light off... Oh well. I'm sure I can scrounge up the extra few cents or dollar. I did have other things on my mind...</span>He closed the door, looking around his near empty room and sighing deeply. "I've been here so long..." he mumbled to himself, "Alone for so long... Can they all really be that bad?" He walked to his small desk and flipped a picture frame back onto it's stand so that it was visible. He stared at the photo of man, woman and child for a moment. "Good ol' mom and dad... Bastards..." He looked down at the floor for a moment before continuing on to himself, "Wanting a perfect child... Locking me in a room, away from everyone... Same damn thing I've done to myself..." He got up and began to walk towards his dresser, "Not that I'm not happy, but... Just so lonely... Even with Coal, who'd never leave my side... How long<span style="font-style: italic">has</span>it been? I was... 19?"<br/><br/>He looked to his calendar, the only sign of any recent civilization. He saw it fit to at least keep track of the days and months, crossing out the days as they come and go, buying a new calendar every year when he gets the chance. He looked at the year, "So," doing the math in his head, "I'm... 26?! Seven years... Seven years ago I left, vowing to never go back... And to hell with them if they found me..." He removed his jeans and changed into a pair of sweat pants, turning off the light and laying down in his bed, the trip across the room through the darkness already memorized.<br/><br/>He laid flat on his back, throwing his covers over his body. He gazed at the ceiling as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, his thoughts sporadically jumping from past to present.<span style="font-style: italic">I can't deal with that again... Not that image... Sure, I'm lucky I came across this place, but I didn't want to find that... I don't want to see a woman, <span style="font-weight: bold">much less a baby</span> like <span style="font-weight: bold">that...</span></span>For the first year, he hiked, hitch hiked and moved further and further away from his parents and the civilization he knew with nothing but a bag of clothes and little money, making an attempt to simply<span style="font-style: italic">disappear.</span>He had stumbled across the small house in the mountainside 6 years prior after wondering through the mountains for hours, freezing much like the woman and child staying in his den. He had rung the door bell many times to no answer, and heard no movement inside. Finally, in an act of desperation, he tried opening the door, finding it unlocked, an old man passed away in the chair he often sits in now, almost alone, only a small puppy with him. He needed the shelter, and had no clue what else to do. He walked inside, feeling the kiss of warm air across his skin, hoping he wouldn't be sent into the unforgiving cold again. Thinking the old man was merely asleep, he tried to wake him, only to find that he wasn't going to wake from the slumber he had entered.<span style="font-style: italic">I <span style="font-weight: bold">don't</span> want to see that <span style="font-weight: bold">ever</span> again... I haven't visited his grave in quite a while... I should probably keep that from Marie... Don't want her to be scared... I didn't kill the man for a home, I just found him... She's scared enough as it is. Of me, of everything. I can see that on her face. I can hear it in her voice. It's like watching myself... All those years ago...</span><br/><br/>Nicolas drifted off to sleep. Straight into his usual nightmare he went. Walking through the frozen mountains, just a wasteland of ice... The loss of hope when no one answered... The image of the man... The feeling of anger at how much the world doesn't care... How this man would've stayed there alone with no burial had he not found him... And the small pup that would've stayed locked inside the house and died alone... Feeling that no one cared about him, so why should he care about anyone else...