The Books that Never made it

Take me

I couldn’t stop shaking. My teeth chattered loudly, making my whole head shake, but I forced myself to breathe and hang on.

          “Cole, I’m cold,” Ashley whispered her voice barley auditable over the screaming wind. Her golden hair was stuck to her scalp, soaked, along with everything else. I held her close to me, her shaking body just as bad as mine.

          “I know, I’m cold too,” I said through chattering teeth. I grimaced as the water sloshed around in my ears. I glared at the dark hole in the ice that was beside us. I shook my wet hair out of my face, panting with exhaustion.

Everything looked like firm ground when the snow blanketed it all. I’d screamed out her name, warning her, but it was too late. The ice crumbled from out beneath her. She’d looked at me with round scared eyes as she went in. I hadn’t even time to think, I just reacted. Diving in, I wrapped her against me, tossing her into a pile of snow on shore and crawled up beside her.

We lied here shivering, the winter cold eating us alive, feasting on our warmth.

          “Cole?” she asked, coughing into her wet sleeve.

          “Hmm?” I whispered, dipping my head into her shoulder.

          “Are we gonna die?” she asked.

I swallowed and tried not to think of how long it would take for the cold to kill us.

          “It doesn’t matter, nothing will happen.”

She sucked in a haggard gasp and shivered against me. “How do you know?”

I swallowed again. My throat was so dry despite how I had almost just drowned, “Because I know.”

          “Cole?” she asked again.

          “Hmm?”

          “Do you love me?”

I cleared my throat, lifting my head. I could see her pale cheek from over her shoulder. I reached out and touched it with the back of my hand. She was as cold as the water.

          “Yes, I never stopped.” I could feel her smile as I wrapped my hand around hers, giving it a squeeze. I dipped my head between her shoulders, listening to nothing.

          “Ashley?”

She lied still.

          “Ashley?” I said a little louder.

Nothing.

I groaned, grabbing her shoulders pushing her over so she lied on her back.

          “Ash?” I whispered.

Her face was pale like it was always, but her eyes stared out into nothing, her blue lips parted slightly.

I could feel my eyes sting as a warm tear slid out of the corner of my eye.

          “Ash?” I said my voice cracking. I grabbed her hand and tucked my forehead into the crook of her neck.

I lied in the snow, the wind taking my warmth and sucking it away in the wind. I closed my eyes and willed death to come for me.

Please, take me, please.

I gritted my teeth, huffing into Ash’s coat. I screamed into the winter’s wind. It refused to take me.