Deep End

Chapter 8

I woke up draped over Eric's body. Dead pandemonium lay around me. I felt my limbs slide into shock, my face twist into horror. But I didn't scream. This entire thing felt so surreal, it seemed as though any sound would shatter the mirage.

I looked down at Eric. His eyes were closed, and blood was coming from his eyelid and the corner of his mouth. I grabbed his hand tightly, compressing the panic attack I wasn't having into the grip.

He was dead. He was dead he was dead he was dead- but no. There. A faint tremor pushed up to the surface of his wrist. It was relatively steady. Pulse. Pulse. Pulse.

I cried out  involuntarily.

"Eric the plane crashed," I said hoarsely. "Eric, wake up and help me. Help me."

He didn't respond. I dropped his hand with another cry and stood on shaking legs. There was another sprawled body, just feet away from me. Red hair lie on the ground around her but there was blood streaking through it as well. So much blood. The doctor. I knelt beside her her, shoes splashing in the sticky puddle. The doctor's eyes were open but they were clouded with death, her mouth open in a yell that would never come through, body crumpled spread-eagled in her own blood. Blood. So much blood.

I stumbled back from the corpse, screaming. The horror didn't leave my body with the scream, instead it intensified.

"Eric!" I yelled. "Eric!"

He didn't respond. Ice Man. He'd been on the plane as well. Was he dead, too? My breathes came in quick succession, until my lips were numb with hyperventilation.

A hand gripped my arm. I stopped breathing.

"Kamilla, Kamilla."

It was Eric. Thank the lords, it was Eric. I sagged against him, sending us both toppling to the floor.

"Eric, the plane, it crashed, you were out cold, she's dead, I saw her, the doctor, she's dead, your bleeding, she's-"

"Shhh." His hand muffed my panic, pressing against my mouth. "Shh. Calm down. Tell me what happened."

I tried to follow his instructions but any words were lost in a wave of sobs.

"Shh. It's okay," he said softly, smoothing my hair down in an attempt to orient me, I think. "We crashed. Doctor Nimble-"

"Dead," I choked out.

"Okay. And Brandon?"

"And Brandon?" I echoed.

"The other man. He set you off before, remember Kamilla?"

Set me off. Like a bomb. Fire and ice. My thoughts were chaotic.

"Ice man?"

"What?"

"Brandon. I didn't see him."

"Okay. Do you see a way out of the plane?"

I looked around blearily, then crawled uphill to a red emergency exit sign. The entire plane was off-kilter, and my head swam trying to figure out if we were tilting up or down. Maybe neither.

"Did you find one?"

"Yes," I answered.

"Good. Open it."

I gripped the handle in shaking fingers, the stopped. "Why can't you? Are you hurt?"

Eric began crawling toward me pushing shattered objects out of his way. "My leg is broken, I think. And I- I can't see out of one eye." For the first time, I heard a tremor in his voice. "Open it now, Kamilla."

I did. And I was instantly blinded by golden light. I gasped and shut my eyes, pain exploding in my rib cage at the noise.

"Describe what you see."

I blinked, peering out of the plane again. "We crashed in a field."

"Good. Jump out, I'm right behind you."

I looked at Eric. He was still bleeding. His left eye was covered in blood and squeezed tight, his right eye in a bare squint. I looked over at the doctor's body, still spread-eagled on the floor.

Then I looked back at the long yellow grasses a dozen feet below me, and jumped.