Take Courage, My Heart

Chapter Four

My heart was about to explode out of my chest. Sweat clung to my forehead, sticking my hair to my skin. I was folded into myself behind the armchair in the library. From what I had managed to learn, the library closed ten minutes before curfew, and I had been sitting here for nine minutes already, even if it felt like an eternity. I could hear the library's supervisor looking around, making sure everyone had left. My gaze was glued to the watch around my wrist. I had wrapped my tie around my left hand, ready to use it as a makeshift guard. Hopefully, it would help if I made it to the outer wall.

The heavy, wooden door of the library closed and I heard it lock. A silent exhale left my lips and I pushed myself up and out of the uncomfortable position I had stayed in. I looked at my watch. Already thirty of my fifty-seven seconds were up. And the chances of the curfew check taking less time this night existed.

I flung the window open and without thinking about it I climbed on the ledge. The outer wall of the building was smooth with no ledge or bump-outs for me to utilize in order to climb down. I looked down at the distance and cursed myself inwardly. This was such a stupid plan. I took a deep, calming breath and climbed down from the outside until I was holding myself up with my fingers. I took another deep breath. I had minimized the height between me and the ground and I was planning on falling on the softest thing around -which I hoped didn't have thorns-. I could survive this. I had to. I didn't have time. I pushed off, clearing the wall but not going too far and missing the bushes.

The impact came faster than I expected. I remained as relaxed as I could while falling down four stories. The bushes somewhat cushioned my fall, but it still hurt like hell. I had to suppress a groan of pain when I felt something solid embed itself into my outer thigh. I blinked back the fog of terror and looked down at my thigh. A branch from the bush had snapped by the impact and broken my skin. With clenched teeth, I reached down and pulled it out. Thankfully, it hadn't even gone one inch in so the blood that followed was not worrying. I would still have to get it cleaned and probably stitched later. Alright. I took a quick inventory. Nothing felt broken. I could move my limbs. My heart was still beating. Time to go.

I tightened my grip on my tie and got out of the ruined-now bush. It mustn't have expected a human falling onto it tonight. Poor thing. The dark of the night had settled, but I paid no attention to it as I ran to the wall, trying to ignore the stinging pain from the wound on my thigh. An alarm went off from inside the building and I tensed up. Shit shit shit. My fifty-seven seconds were up and people were looking for me.

I was so thankful that the outer wall wasn't smooth like the building had been. Sure, it wasn't made of stones, which would leave crevices and edges for me to have a better grip, but it was better than smooth fucking plaster. There was no way I would be making it through this next part with no injury but minimal was my goal, not unscathed.

I ran and jumped up, grabbing onto the wall between the razor wire loops. A brief sense of relief washed over me as my fingers reached the other side of the wall. It wasn't too thick, which gave me better leverage. I started pulling myself up, keeping my head turned as far to the side and as far away from the sharp loops as I could. I had always hated doing pull-ups, the added bonus of razor-sharp metal did not help at all.

Once I was as high up as my arms could bring me, I started moving my lower body. I could feel metal touching my cheek and ear but was poignantly ignoring it as it wasn't cutting my skin yet. If the razor wire wanted to pet me, it could. My leg moved to the side and my foot nudged the metal loops and touched the ledge of the fence. I took in a sharp breath as the razor wire bounced back in place, touching my cheek slightly more and nicking it.

"Get him down!" someone yelled out and adrenaline shot through me.

Fuck this. My foot hooked on the other side of the wall, razor wire ripping my pants and scratching my leg. I suddenly felt so grateful for the combat boots we were made to wear. At least, my feet would be unscathed by the end of this. I let go of the ledge with my tied-up hand and grabbed the razor wire. My tie wasn't good enough, the razor wire cut into the flesh of my fingers and they started bleeding.