Last Man Standing

Chapter 37: Clinging to Life

My eyes fluttered open.

I was lying in the cage on my side, head cocked down through the gaping bars so I was greeted by the image of the terrifying abyss.

I don't know how I managed to land in the small cage in my deranged state. It was no more than a five foot square, just shy of my own height. I didn't know whether to feel relieved to be alive or irritated that I wasn't dead, thus ending my troubles for good. I came to the conclusion that the former had a slight edge on the latter seeing as I wasn't hurling myself out of the cage to meet my death.

But I still had the option.

A sharp pain at the side of my head took over my attention, quickly followed by an equally painful throbbing coming from the back of my head. I reached around to feel where my wound had reopened after being hurled over the balcony. The blood was all hot and sticky, which meant it was only now starting to scab over. I checked my second head wound from hitting the cage and discovered that the results were similar. I gave the sun a quick glance to gage the time. It was around midday.

I moved to push myself up to a comfortable sitting position, but the sudden effort shot the most excruciating jolt from my left knee. An involuntary cry escaped from my lips. My eyes fell on the hideous sight of my dislocated joint, poking through the large tear in my pants to taunt me. I had never seen anything so swollen in my life, throbbing splotches of purple, brown, green and blue layered amongst the blood and dirt from sliding down the cliff.

I had to push my bones back into their proper sockets. I had to stop the pain.

Very carefully, I moved into a sitting position where I was leaning against the side of the cliff for support. Once I was settled, I moved my hands to either side of my damaged joint. On the count of three, I forced myself to push as hard as I could from both sides in hopes of realigning the bones.

The discomfort was too much to stand. I bit down on my tongue to hold in my screams. I pulled my hands away from my knee to stop the pressure. Tears threatened to fall as I mustered up the courage to check on my progress only to be left disappointed; my efforts had proved useless. I was unable to push both sides hard enough for anything to click back into place, plus my own fear had me pulling away the moment things got too painful.

I needed it to be quick and strong; a force of pressure that doesn't rely on my stamina.

A rock that was too large to slip through the bars of the cage rested nearby. After closer inspection of my surroundings, I noticed that several jagged stones were scattered around my cage. They must have broken lose during my fall.

I repositioned myself so that one side of my knee rested securely against one of the bars below, and then I took hold of the closest rock. Before I could second guess my plan, I brought the stone down hard against the dislocated joint.

I couldn't bite back the pain this time. I shouted in agony upon impact as the bones slightly jumped in the right direction.

I brought down the stone again, using my anguish as a means of encouragement. My adrenaline forced the stone to hit my knee with even more vigour than I had thought possible.

Another shriek escaped my mouth, but my efforts were not in vain. The bones had moved even closer to the joint. One more hit would probably suffice.

I brought the stone down. My screech of pain quickly turned into a holler of triumph as the bones slid back into place.

I closed my eyes and threw my head back against the cliff to steady my breathing, waiting for the aftershock to subside.

I squinted into the sky, bathing in the sun's rays as I took in this most rare and precious moment; I was finally alone and at peace. I felt carefree, so far as to reach under my shirt and tear away the bandages that had been holding my cleavage in. My lungs released an enormous sigh of relief as the last couple of feet fell away. I peered down through the collar of my shirt to make sure my previous injuries could handle the absence of the bandage. It felt like my ribs had heeled over just fine, but new bruises began to surface from the beating Tiberius gave me. I could also feel an enormous amount of pain coming from my spine after being tossed over the balcony; I couldn't see the damage, but my body made it painfully obvious that it was there. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but smile at the sight of my exposed chest with the two rings nestled sweetly down the center. I hadn't realized how liberating it would be to expose my true nature, even if it was only for me to witness.