Supposed To Be Mine

Chapter 22

UNEDITED...

River bravely began toying with the vine that just saved her life, but whose thorns were also sticking into her flesh. She picks and nicks at it, but only to create more pain. Every inch she touched had more thorns that were ready to take more blood from her. Its official, she's stuck. She looks around at her surroundings and realized that she fell completely off the trail. There is no way anyone would come stumbling across her.
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Ryan's eyes open. He was laying on the top bunk of one of the beds next to Ana. He had so much confusion and internal frustration within himself. Something was happening to him, and he was trying his best not to let it. Fighting his demanding, possessive, and angry nature to stay buried within him.  He needed nothing of his father. Anything like his father is the opposite of what he wanted to be. His father was a man who drinks, smokes, cheats, lashes out in anger, and reeks of jealousy and rage. A man with no heart, who hurts and abuses. He swore to himself as a small boy he would never be like his father.

He glances across looking over at the other top bunk bed, where River was supposed to be. She wasn't there. Automatically he was irked. He needed to know where she was and if she was okay. He rises and looks back at his sleeping fiancé before getting out of the bed. He slips on his shoes and exits the camper. Right away he notices a mess on the ground from scattered garbage. But where is River?

Instinctively he circles the camper in hopes to find her, but the only thing he finds is her phone dropped in the dirt. "Shit." He curses.
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"Ouch." River hollers. She accidentally slices her finger in trying to get free. It felt like it was no use, the more she moved, the more she would continuously get hurt, but if she didn't keep trying she was going to die there. "Okay River, stop being a baby." She blows out a long even breath and carefully turns her leg. She finds the loose end begins peeling it back. "Owe!" She pulls out one. Only about seven more to go. "Shoot!" She pulls out another one. "Thank you vine for saving me but you suck." She squeezes her eyes shut, and decided she couldn't drag it along. Biting down, she yanks the vine and takes the pain like a wrestler, moans and groans and all. When she looks back at her leg, thorns were still stuck but she longer was.

She rotates her ankle to make sure nothing is broken, and then stands up carefully to put weight on it. She had slight pain from the cut, and three thorns still residing in her leg, but could still walk, with a limp. She glances up but didn't glance down. Her fear of heights was still very real. Looking down would make it even more real. Carefully, she digs her fingers in the grass and dirt and tries to climb her way back to the top. "Ahh" She cries out as she skids back down. It was too steep to climb but she tries one more time. This time she manages to make it around 10ft before sliding down again. "Crap." She glances around. The only thing she knew for sure was that she is supposed to be on top of the cliff and she couldn't climb. There must be another way. Looking below her now, she stays on her butt and carefully scooches her self down. Luckily there was a soft pile of bushes for her to land in. "One," She closes her eyes. "Two, Three." She lets herself roll.
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"What?" Landen exclaims.

"I found her phone and I can't find her," Ryan repeats. He woke everyone up and brought River's disappearance to their attention.

"Oh my God." Lucille's dropped down on the sofa she was standing near. "My baby."

"Don't worry." Angela comes to her side. "She's fine."

"We're going to find her." I've already notified the park and the police. Landen, Zack, and I will start searching as well." Ryan takes full charge of the situation. He grabs River's backpack and orders his brothers to get moving.

"I'm going too," Fredrick announces.

Once outside, the four men gather around each other and look down at the map.

"I'm taking the trails." Landen touches the spot. He pulls out his phone and takes a quick picture of the paper.

"Zack go with your brother," Fredrick commands. "Everyone meet back here by five to check-in. Whether you find her or not."

Ryan takes a picture of the map and then hands it to his step-father. "Take this. I'm going that way." He points to his right.

"I'll go this way." Fredrick takes the other direction.

HOURS LATER

Five o clock came and went when Landen and Zack reached the campsite. Their father was there waiting, leaned up against the RV starring off. Cops and park officials were talking to a panicked Lucille and Angela, but there was no River.

"No ones found her?" Landen was hoping every time he blinked that she was found.

"I'm afraid not" Fredrick shakes his head.

"Maybe Ryan found her." Zack brings some positivity to everyone's glum
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Ryan has been walking tirelessly. He could see that within a couple of hours, daylight would be gone and his eyesight would become useless. He should have turned back already, but his feet kept moving him forward. He didn't want to give up, he physically couldn't, but could River have gotten this far? Hesitantly, he turns himself around and starts walking back. He takes a different route and holds onto the hope that she was found. After continuing for a little while, he comes to a cliffside. Something began tugging at his gut, pulling him to look over. 'Go near, and look.' It said.

So he did, and what he sees sends his heart rate soaring. There was flattened grass going down as if someone had rolled on top of it, and if he wasn't mistaken a piece of River's t-shirt.
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