Separated

Chapter 20 - Nikolai

New Chapter!!!🌱🪵🌴

This chapter is a little longer. I hope you enjoy!!!💗

Have fun reading 🕸️🐦‍⬛
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I underestimated the impact of the waterfall. Within seconds, she was out of my hold, and I frantically search for her the second I find footing.

I shout for her name. Over and over. Hoping to see her pop out of somewhere spewing out some smart remark. Something along the lines of how stupid I was and that she'll never come close to me.

That's fine. As long as she's fucking alive. That's fine.

But even as the seconds pass by, nothing. Nothing comes out.

"Minori! Minori!" I repeat her name.

But no answer comes. Just the sound of water thrashing.

I go under.

I can't see her.

I go under again.

I still can't find her.

She was fine. She has to be fine. She has to.

I go under again and further in the distance, I see something dark in color. It has to be her.

I swim across, and within reaching distance, I realise it is her.

Her whole head under water.

Her eyes closed.

Shit!

I bring her head above water. Her face deathly pale. Her lips turning into an alarming shade of blue.

"Minori! Minori!"

She wasn't breathing. Her body limp and lifeless against my hold. I swim as fast as I could over to firm ground and manoeuvre her and myself over.

"Breathe Minori, breathe."

Settling her on her back, I squeeze her nose and deliver two rescue breaths.

No change.

She was still ghastly pale. Her lips now turning purple.

I place my hands on her chest and begin chest compressions.

. . . 26, 27, 28, 29, 30.

Another two breaths.

Still nothing.

"Come on Minori, come on."

I continue.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 . . . . . 28, 29, 30.

Another two breaths.

And then she chokes and coughs, water sputtering out before she instinctively rolls onto her side.

A sigh of relief expels from within me.

"That's it, you're okay. You're okay." I say, gliding my hands up and down her back while she expels all the water. She was still finding difficult to breathe. She was wheezing and that was alarming in itself.

"You're okay. You're safe." I reassure her, continuing to glide my hands against her back. I pull the thick wet strands away from her face, relieved to see that she was no longer as pale as she was before.

Her lips were still a blue shade but no longer purple.

She was okay for now.

She was breathing.

She was alive.

After a couple of minutes, she begins to settle, and I scoop her up and settle her into my hold. She doesn't struggle and lets me do so. My body relaxes as I listen to the beat of her heart, and feel the rise and fall of her chest, her breathe fanning my neck.

She seemed so small in my hold. So vulnerable.

And she was shivering, freezing cold.

We were both wet, and the fact that the sun was setting now, was not helping at all.

Standing up with her in my hold, I seek for shelter. Moving about and trying to get down now wasn't going to help us. I needed to get her warm.

Whether I was fortunate or just out of pure luck, there was a small cave like structure not far off and I settle her and myself inside. I place her down onto the ground and ensure that she was sitting up right. She may be breathing spontaneously on her own again, but she was still unconscious. A risk.

"No . . .  no . . ." She mutters. Her head moves slowly from side to side. Eyes still closed.

"Minori?"

"Don't. . .  No. . ." She mutters again, her breathing labouring.

A nightmare. Possibly a fractured part of her past.

I scoop her up into my arms, resting her head against my chest and just hold her.

"I can't take away your pain or nightmares but . . . I will make sure anyone who intends on inflicting pain on you will regret having such thought. I will eliminate each and every single one of them so you can live as best as you can. I will promise you that."