Chapter 3: February
It was still pitch black outside when Elliot woke up. His face was stiff from the cold, and, for a second, he feared he might have ice in his beard. He pulled the covers over his head and rubbed his palms against his cheeks to warm them up. When his entire head started to tingle and he felt like he would choke from oxygen deprivation from being under the blanket for so long, he took a deep breath, flung it off, and jumped out of bed, careful to hunch over so he wouldn’t hit his head on the sloping ceiling.
“Holy s**t,” he muttered when his naked feet touched the freezing floor.
The chill penetrated his soles and crept up his calves as he crossed the floor to the woven basket in the corner where he kept warm clothes. He pulled on two pairs of thick, fuzzy socks, snatc
