SHAUNTI [2015 featured story]

Chapter Fifteen: An Almost Goodbye

The cold clamped around his body, paralyzing him between life and death.  Floating was more like a torturous dance where his partner’s face was rippled with cruelty.   Jace’s heart thundered in his chest; thundered in his ears.  He opened his eyes for a moment and looked up at the hole above him.  It seemed too far away, but he knew his lungs were giving out.  Kicking his feet simultaneously and clawing at the water, he sped to the surface.  Everything rushed by his face at a blinding speed and all that was functioning were his instincts and muscles.  He had no time to think or process what had just happened. 

His hands slipped out from the water’s surface and clasped onto the thick ice above.  As he scrambled to heave the upper half of his body up, his lungs deflated and a cold fluid rushed up his nose.  Jace closed his mouth, but the water had already flooded his airway and lungs.  It burned like cold iron and everything inside stretched in an agonizing pain.  Jace’s fingers slid from the surface and his body sunk to the unforgiveable abyss below. 

Knox clambered over the slope and skidded to the edge of the snow-covered ice.  With eyes stretched and breath hitched in his throat, Knox stared in horror at the black circle gaping in the middle of the white world.  Bubbles surfaced and Knox didn’t have to guess what had happened.  In staggered steps, he glided across the ice.  He was careful to always test the next section by pressing with his toe.  He had to, several times, retract his foot and find another route.  It seemed he had to do a lot of that the closer he approached to the hole. 

When at last he was close enough to the hole without breaking the ice or slipping in himself, Knox knelt and slowly distributed himself on his chest and stomach.  Looking inside the rippling water, he held his breath.  As the pain in his chest expanded, so did his heart.  Shaking from an uncontrollable emotion, Knox bowed his head.  Tears dripped from his face.  His mind was swimming in his own pool of disaster.  Opening his eyes again, he plunged a hand inside the water and splashed around violently.  His sadness became anger as he struck nothing but water.   Scooting away from the edge, he stood up and stared at the ground determinedly. 

“Where are you?”  His eyes scanned the top of the ice.  Kneeling down again, he frantically swept the snow away, slowly revealing a pale blue shield.  As he continued this procedure, the wolf, who had been sniffing the area the whole time since Jace had disappeared, began whining and pawing at a section several yards away from him.  Knox’s head jerked up and a streak of hope came across his face.  Too excited to remember he was on ice, Knox jumped to his feet and started running to the wolf, only to hear the ground below him crack and his body plunged into the icy waters.  Several sheets of ice separated, expanding the hole exponentially.

Unlike Jace, Knox successfully shot through the surface and grappled for the edge.  With one hand clinging to his salvation, he spun around in circles, looking for Jace.  He saw the wolf pacing anxiously opposite of him and stopping frequently to look at Knox.  Through chattering teeth, Knox swam robotically over to the wolf and then, without hesitation, filled his lungs with air and plunged under the water again.  Within seconds, Knox found his arms around Jace’s upper body.  Knox swam upward and broke through the waters again.  Shaking the hair out of his eyes, he looked down at the boy’s light blue face.

Through a cracking voice, Knox said quietly, “Jace?  Jace?”  Steadying his friend on his shoulder, Knox flung his elbows out onto the surface and crawled out.  Once he was on solid ground, he dragged Jace out and laid him out on the snow.  Immediately, Knox stripped Jace’s layers off, leaving only the boy’s t-shirt and sweat pants.  Shivering uncontrollably, Knox tried to find a tolerable breathing rate, but he was going into hypothermia and he knew he couldn’t function if his body failed on him.