Finding Maisie

Finding Maisie: Chapter 25

The rest of his body resembled the colour of his arm. Cold and pale. I felt a little apprehensive kneeling over to Harry due to the number of times I had seen him try to hurt me, but I needed to see if he was alive.

I placed my two fingers at a pulse point and waited. Nothing met my fingers. I couldn't find a pulse.

A feeling of sickness spread through me. Harry was dead. Someone who I had seen look so strong and powerful was now looking so vulnerable and, well, dead. If the confident and aggressive Harry didn't survive the explosion, who else didn't?

My ears came alive with a loud ringing. It relieved me to know I would still be able to hear, that way I wouldn't miss anyone calling out to me.

'CALLUM!' I yelled. 'MAISIE?! Please someone answer me!'

Only silence met my calls, but I couldn't lose hope. I wouldn't lose one of my best friends again and not know what happened to them. They were just probably stuck somewhere and needed my help. They couldn't be dead.

There was a small cough behind me. My heart leapt in my chest and I tried to find its origin. All I could see was a massive piece of rock from the waterfall.

Again, the cough sounded.

As I was facing the area the person was I could tell that the noise was coming from under the rock. Whoever they were, they must have been trapped under there.

'Who is that?' I called out to the rock. The sound of my voice frightened me. It sounded so worn out and fragile. It didn't sound like me.

'Poppy?'

The voice struck me as it was so exasperated. They sounded like they couldn't breathe. That rock was crushing them.

'Is that you, Poppy?'

I recognised the voice now. It belonged to Joshua. I felt guilty from the relief filling myself at that moment. I knew there wasn't much I could do for him so I was glad that no one I loved was under that rock.

'Yeah, yeah it is,' I said, again surprised at my weak sounding voice.

I moved over around the rock and saw only half of Joshua's body lying on the ground. The rest was under the large, adult height, solid rock. His face looked dreadful. It was as pale as a sheet of paper but still extremely dirty. He looked ill.

When he saw me his eyes widened a bit. At first I wondered as to why he did this when I realised the state I must be in as well.

'You look like rubbish, Poppy,' Joshua coughed out.

'Thanks, Josh. You don't look too great yourself,' I retorted back.

'Bet I still look twice as good as you,' Joshua said, with what was at first a half smile before turning into a grimace of pain.

It was hard looking at him and thinking that he had betrayed Callum and I, that he had killed my father. Talking to him normally like I was just made him seem like normal Joshua.

Joshua went from painful to pleading, 'Help me.'

'You killed my dad.'

'I know. I'm sorry. I wish I hadn't.'

That wasn't enough. That would never be enough. But I had to. I was better than him, I wasn't the type of person who could leave someone for dead. I knew I would feel wrenching guilt for as long as I lived if I did. I was going to help him.. But the question was, how? How would I be able to move the large piece of rock taller than me and wider than me? I highly questioned how Joshua was alive even now under that weight.