The Conductor

Chapter Ninteen- Cicile

I dangled over a colony of Wood Splits in a bundle with the Conductor and Brittany. We were tightly bound together with fiber ropes rubbing against our skin and leaving painful burns behind. The Conductor was diagonal to me, and Brittany was right next to me.

We hung there, looking down at our certain doom. The Conductor had a look of thought on his face as he concocted a plan.

"Well, I'm glad to see you're comfortable." the Drum Major laughed, walking around us. Her laughter faded as I gnashed my teeth at her. "I hope you enjoy your very few moments of conversation as you're slowly lowered to your sudden death. Tah-tah!" she waved.

I was suddenly surprised as we were slowly lowered to the floor to our certain doom.

I kept fighting to break free. The Conductor looked over at me with a sincere focus.

"Cicile." he whispered.

I looked up at him.

"Grab my baton."

"What?" I questioned.

"Grab. My. Baton. It's in my back pocket. If you grab it I can burn a hole through the ropes and bust out of here."

I sighed in confusion and nodded.

I wriggled my right hand free and scanned around for the baton. After a few moments of struggling, I finally grasped it in my free hand.

"Got it!" I whispered in triumph.

"Excellent." the Conductor gasped. It was getting harder for him to breathe as he was slowly lowered down. "Now hand it to me. Do NOT drop it!"

I slowly bent my wrist to hand the Conductor his baton.

"Do you have a firm grasp on it?" I asked.

"Yes." he squeaked.

He took the baton from my hand and got to work. I could hear the quiet buzzing of his sparked baton, attempting to burn the thick ropes.

We were still very high up above the Wood Splits, but we got lower every millisecond. You could tell they were getting excited.

"Conductor, hurry!" Brittany whispered.

"I'm going as fast as I can." he replied.

I was filled with terror as we kept getting lower. We were halfway to the floor now. The buzzing noise came to a complete stop.

"Grab onto me." he gasped.

I held on to the Conductor firmly, Brittany doing the same. He continued to burn the ropes for a few more seconds. The ropes split with a loud snap and we went charging towards the wall, me screaming and hanging onto the Conductor for my dear life as he hung onto his baton with one hand, the rope the other. I could hear the Drum Major's enraged screams as we flew through the air towards freedom.

The Wood Splits attempted to grab me by the foot as the Conductor opened the portal and we flew inside, the rope burning on the edge of the portal, to safety.