The Koet

Chapter 10- Decent Beckons

Tessa 

Waves of black, white and red crash into me. Each bringing another world of pain and haze. I am floating or drowning, whichever. I cannot move. The blackness is alluring, beckoning me. 

I want to go there. Anything to escape the waves of pain, but gentle hands hold me back. The shocks of red bleed out into the waves of black and white. They gradually slow, swelling behind my eyes; becoming less crashing and more oppressing. They threaten to overtake me. I feel myself fighting. The gray is closing in on me. 

A sharp movement and I a rush of pain shoot up my spine. It radiates through my head, overtaking any other thought; sending my world into spirals. The gray explodes to white, and then fades into black around the edges as my body succumbs. The blackness rushes, overtaking me, incapacitating me. The pain bounces in my head, radiating to my whole self, the Grey bleaches out. Its white again. 

And then it is over. 

I lay still for a moment, reveling in the solid ground underneath me. My thoughts drift randomly through the fog; I recall the sense of being anxious for something and being scared. It floats at the edge of my consciousness like a cloud, but I don't truly comprehend it. No emotion effects me now. I lazily open my eyes, not bothering to lift my head from its grassy pillow. 

Driven by subconscious instinct, I know I cannot continue to lay here. The haze slowly weakens, I can feel parts of my body now. They tingle as though coming back from the dead. Move, my subconscious impels me. 

I bring up one arm, bracing it on the ground to lift my torso unsteadily. I go to lift my other and I am shocked by the shooting pain that rushes from my shoulder. Don't blackout, I think as I fight through it, managing not to loose my balance and have to start over. When I get both my arms down I suck in the breath I had been holding, my vision dances in front of me, I feel myself losing again. The trees spin around me. 

No.

I push back, dropping my head in my hands, waiting for the pain to subside. When it is manageable, I move again to my knees, feeling stronger as I go. I manage to sit. My head is pounding, my body aching, my shoulder searing; but I try to think past that. 

Still images appear through the haze; a man with striking blue eyes, a girl on the tracks, the cold calculating gaze, the content look in Jamie's ----

Jamie.

Oh My God. 

I remember his soft footsteps behind me and then his limp body lying on the forest floor. 

I scramble to my feet, adrenalin fueling me, masking all other thoughts. 

Jamie. 

My head rushes, I can barely keep from moaning in pain as I scan the area. He is no where, but there is a trail and it is fresh. I take a step to follow it but I stumble, having to clutch a tree to stay upright. Whiteness clouds my vision, but even before the vertigo subsides I am running-- crashing really, through the forest.

I'm Coming.

Vines and branches rip at my skin, but I continue. I run thoughtlessly; only one goal in mind: Save Jamie. 

The blind panic is in my every thought, pushing horrible memories on me of a different little boy; Younger, blonder, innocent. Memories of the day my own brother was taken. 

I was nine, he was seven. It was near dark, but we could come home whenever, or not at all. It didn't matter what we did. We were playing in that little park at the edge of that gross trailer park that we used to live. I was hiding from him, concentrating so hard on not being seen. I waited and waited for him to come and finally see me in my clever hiding place, but no one came. I finally got down and ran and called for him; screamed and screamed his name until my voice was hoarse and blistered.