Fear To Live For (Wattpad Edition)

Chapter 2

He was surprised to hear my scream. I knew it because I saw him slip on those dangerous rocks as he looked around for me. I screamed again and I ran towards him.

Kevin always said I was strong. I thought if I could stay still on the rocks long enough as his support for him to manage to climb back to safety, I could save him. At that time, the fall was a little far from me and I thought I could definitely do it.

I kept running until I reached the edge of the slippery rocks. The poor man was barely able to breathe and hold himself on the rock with his two hands. As I began to take my first step onto the rocks, the curious part of me wished me to look up.

My left leg froze in mid-air as I truly saw the scary sight of the falling water in front of me. It looked like it could crush me under just like I often crushed ants with my small shoes. I began to shake and I was scared, far more than I ever had been before. When I began to feel like I was going to lose my balance, I put my lifted leg back on the ground. My vision began to blur and I knew I was going to cry, if I wasn’t crying already.

I looked at the sinking man, no, my teacher Ms. Andrews told me it is drowning not sinking, and let out a strange sound, as if I was screaming without being unable to breathe, when I saw that he was not able to keep his head out of water for long enough time and one of his hands was now in the water, moving around quickly, trying to find some support.

Knowing that I should try to help him before anything happened to him, I began to run to him. The cold water of the fall made me shake a lot and I knew Mom and Dad won’t like my wet clothes. I will also have a cold now and won’t be able to play with Kevin for three days, just like the last time I had a cold. The push of the water was also very hard to resist but being a strong kid, I resisted. A part of me kept screaming at me to just go and get someone else for help but I knew it would be too late.

Three times I almost fell but recovered somehow. By the time I reached him, I knew that he was just about to lose his other hand’s grip. Only two fingers had a strong hold on the rock and he clearly seemed to be finding it difficult to keep holding.

I slowly bent downwards while shivering and began to look for a way to help him. Just that instant, I saw his hand begin to slip completely into the water and I knew that he was going to go to sleep forever, just like my granny’s elder sister did a year ago. She had looked beautiful, almost like a doll my friend Claire liked to play with, but I had doubt if he would look so good.

I have no idea what made me do it but I immediately stopped trying to get down slowly and immediately held his hand with both of my hands to hold him. Several things happened at once then.

Firstly, I heard a huge sucking in of breath and I felt happy. Happy to know that this person was still awake. Happy that I was really so strong. It stayed like that for a moment and then the happiness turned to terror as I felt my feet leave the ground immediately as I got carried away with him because of the water and a scream escaped my lips. A terror, to be forever unmatchable, held me and I couldn’t even let go of him. In that moment, I wished I had made a choice. Third was the coldness that filled me as soon as I touched the water and clutched to only source of outer warmth I had, the hand I was still holding. I held the fingers as close to me as possible and thought of my family. I wished we were always going to live together, not apart so that I would not have to choose between dad and mom. I love mom a lot but I would rather be with dad here, at home.

After a few seconds, I couldn’t breathe and I began to move around, trying to get air. Instead, I only got more of the cold water. The need to breathe air was almost unbearable and painful and when my mind finally began to calm down, as if I was going to sleep, I began to relax.