MY SOUL TO KEEP - YELLOWJACKETS

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR — THE FAMILIAR FEELING

Isabelle screamed at the sight of the pole protruding from Rachel's neck. She sobbed, trying to free her hand from the dead girl's grip, and nearly threw up when she saw the wound that killed the Goldman girl again. Isabelle attempted to speak—to apologize, to beg for Rachel to let her go, anything—but all that came out were pieces of words all jumbled together.

     More tears escaped her eyes as Isabelle managed to pry her hand from the corpse's grasp. She threw up on the floor the second her hand was free and let out another sob. "I'm so—I'm sorry... Rachel," she cried as she ducked under the pole and stumbled toward the door Misty and her teammates were struggling to open.

     Isabelle moved to help them, only briefly seeing the pink of Melissa's snapback and Gen's last name in yellow cursive font on her letterman jacket before she heard shouting.

     "Help! Help me!" Van screamed as the teenagers managed to open the plane door and get out of the fire-filled plane, leaving the rest of them behind. "Help me! Help me! Help me! I'm stuck! I can't breathe!"

     Isabelle instantly tried to save the redhead as Shauna and Jackie ran up to them. "Isabelle, go! Get out! Get out! We'll get her!" Shauna shouted over the fire, pushing her toward the door.

     She didn't waste any time, which was probably because she couldn't form a coherent thought. Isabelle left the plane as fast as she could and fell to the ground, coughing out the smoke she inhaled.

     The second she thought she had calmed down, she threw up into a bush and immediately started sobbing again. "Belle!" someone shouted, running up to her and pulling her brown hair out of her face. Isabelle looked up and sighed in relief at seeing Lottie. But then she saw the look on her friend's face, and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Shit, you're bleeding."

     "I am...?" Isabelle breathed, suddenly noticing the strange warm sensation on her cheek and something rolling down it. She assumed—and hoped—it was tears running down her face, but she touched her cheek with her fingers and looked at them, seeing blood mixed with tears. "No... No, no, no. No—"

     Lottie grabbed Isabelle's hand and forced the sophomore to look at her as she hyperventilated and cried. "Hey, hey, it's okay, Belle. It's just a little bit. It's not bad."

     "Rachel... Lottie, there was a-a..." Isabelle sobbed, touching her neck. "She's... dead, Lottie. She was holding my h-hand, and... she died. She—No..." She harshly pulled her hand out of Lottie's gentle grasp, covered her ears tightly, and shut her eyes as she rocked back and forth to soothe herself. "There was so much blood... And Van... I-I left her..."

     "Fuck," the Matthews girl whispered as a tear rolled down her cheek, watching the younger girl in worry. She hadn't even noticed Shauna and Jackie running out of the plane moments before a part of it blew up.

     Isabelle flinched violently and ran away from the crash in a panic. "Help!" she heard their assistant coach shout when she slowed to a stop. "Help! Help!!"

     "Coach... Coach Scott?!" she shouted back, looking around and finding Misty on the same mission as she was. She followed the equipment manager to where they heard the coach yelling and found him trapped under a plane wing.

     A few of the other girls had followed them. "Hey, girls, is it, uh...?" he began, strangely calmer than he was only a minute ago. "Can you move it?"