Saturday, December 24th, 1833
The day before Christmas
A BLINDING FLASH and a roaring thunderous crashing. Stone sentinels of impossible, towering heights falling down upon us, knees buckling, torsos ripping to pieces, dust and snow, screams and a crushing, horrible weight dropping towards me, amused by my insignificance even as it perished—
Startling pain. A chaser of darkness, oblivion, death.
Then a sliver of light, pure, merciful morning light. Shafts tearing open as silhouetted figures worked to drag heavy flat sheets of stone from my moaning, complaining form.
“Over here! Found him!”
Crabapple’s grinning face loomed over me as the man hauled me from my makeshift crypt out into the blinding cleansing light of day. Head light, the world lazily whirling, soot and a low-laying bed
