Holding My Breath [Wattys 2016]

2 4 ~ R u s t y

Present Day ~ May 13, 2011

It all happens in a matter of seconds, in stages of panic. The first stage of panic is the fact that I am holding onto a chain for dear life as I sail over to the other side of the factory. I can feel my pulse rising and hear people below me cheering from below. The music is echoing around me as I spin through the air.

What an idiot.

Stage two of panic comes as soon as their cheers fade out. The music is still playing, and I can't hear what they are yelling. Until I realize it myself. Sawyer sucks at measurements and didn't give me enough leash to get across the gap.

Instead, there's a moment where I swing as far as I can go, and everything pauses just for a moment.

And just as I reach that point of pause, something pops where the chain is connected and I drop a good five feet. I hear Bailey scream from below on the sidelines.

Or maybe it was me.

And then I start swinging backward.

And here comes stage three of panic. I am swinging backward, back to Sawyer, straight towards a concrete wall. And spinning, no doubt.

So I let go.

I reach out to grab onto something, something to catch myself, but I can't see anything around me. It's all turning so fast that when I finally crash into the pit, I wonder whether or not I've actually stopped swinging. The wind is knocked out of my chest when I land on my back, a sharp sting shooting up my spine.

There is a moment of silence as everyone creeps up around the side of the pit, looking down at where I had landed on some boxes.

And then I pull myself up, cough a few times, and push my fist into the air with a scream of victory.

~~~

"I really thought you'd bit it," Colton says, letting out a low whistle.

Now, hours later, we are all sitting on our own crate, crowding around a metal can with a fire in it. Apparently, Colton has matches in his truck solely for this reason.

I shake my head with a smile, holding a piece of cloth to my still bleeding shoulder. It only took a few minutes after everyone helped to pull me out of the pit that somebody noticed my arm was bleeding. I didn't even feel it.

Damn Blue's hunting skills. Or lack thereof.

I guess no matter how good of a job Blue's dad, Jack, had done patching me up, a fall like that didn't let it stand a chance.

As soon as the sun had gone down and we had been here for hours, the place was so dark we couldn't see. So we all crowded around while Colton lit the fire, then opened up the windows so the smoke could escape.

These windows are a little different. Instead of pushing them up or to the side like every other window I've ever seen, you have to... Slant them sideways. It's confusing.

I'm finding again and again that Wallen, Virginia has its moments.

"Why didn't you make the chain long enough?" I ask Sawyer, who is throwing pieces of cotton into the fire, making it sputter in distaste.

"Because he's never actually done that before," Bailey giggles when my eyes widen.

"What?" I sat up a little straighter. "So you didn't even know if it would work?"

The only reasons I'd agreed to jump was because he would give me information and I thought he had done it before. I thought they all had to do it before. Initiation, he had said.