Descending

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The sound of James' heartbeat thumped in his head, louder and louder as he returned from the momentary blackness. He realized he was still underwater, out of breath, and clinging onto Amber's unconscious body.

The beginning of panic's dark claws began to set in, pulling James down into its never ending hell. He swiveled his head in complete and utter fear. Looking up, down, side to side, for any possible escape.

He looked up as the bubbles of his life and Amber's floated to the cave ceiling, popping on their way up, into ever-smaller bubbles.

James felt the twitch of Ambers body and saw her panic start as fast as wildfire. She began clawing at the water in desperation, for her own way out.

The count had begun to their deaths. Two minutes and ticking. . . ticking to a silent end. James' lungs were beginning to collapse on themselves, caving in like his and Amber's exit route had. Looking into Amber's golden saddened eyes, he realized reality had hit the both of them.

A sudden dark ball of filth, mixed with gore, slams into James. His dwindling life goes out like a light, in a torrent of bubbles, zigzagging to the rough cave ceiling. The bubbles pop and pop, as each one is erased, leaving James body to drown.

James' eyes widen in a terror as his two precious minutes are cut short. He looks to Amber and sees that she is holding her neck, strangling in devil's waters. She looks to him and James can tell she is crying; eyes red as sunburned skin.

James takes her hand and in a desperate last attempt, they slam into the rocks blocking there only way out. Over and over, they hit the jagged rocks, until their two bloods mix into one in the surrounding waters on all sides, enveloping them in its reddish tinge.

Amber once again starts dazing out of existence, slowly falling down, down, and down through the deep-blue, water-filled cave.

James screams her name, forgetting his own life in the process and swallows the bloody water in a large gulp.He begins to twitch in answer to his stupidity, losing his body's control, forced down into the dark pits of death.

He sees Amber lying on the caves' ground, far below, and in his dying moments, he allows himself to sink next to Amber, a peaceful end to such a horrible world James has endured in a never-ending cycle.

The darkness finally has a hold of both of them, sinking its fatal claws into Amber and James. They lie next to each other, James grabbing her hand and holding it tight, ready to escape this hell for good.

There's a ear splitting crack and the escape route shines like lightening, zipping through the wall of the cave, right to James and Amber's left. The crack spider webs on the floor below James and a crack appears between his and Amber's hands.

The pressure of the water subdues and James can feel himself falling, falling and falling. Amber's limp hand is torn from his and the light of the escape shrinks until it's nothing but a memory.

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The sound of water falling, echoing in the caves, is what wakes James from his near-death. He opens his eyes to a dark cavern, the only light coming from the reflecting light off of the water. Sitting up, James finds himself on a rocky shore within the heart of the cavern they had first entered.

The center was all a large pool of turquoise-blue water and on one side, a small waterfall fell from ten feet above James, a soothing sound to hear, the water's drip-dropping, and the constant flow of calm waters.

He hears a moan and pale hands grip James' tattered shirt. In a flash, he turns and sees Amber's pretty face light up with relief. All the two could do was embrace one another, shivering together in the chilly cave air, their breaths going up in a cloud of mist, entwining together.

"I thought I was a goner back there!" Amber told him in shivering shock.

"I thought both of us were!" James agreed.

"It all happened so fast! That guy just grabbed Maddie and ran out with her, then pretty much said 'screw the other two.'" Amber stated.

"Who the hell was he anyway? He took my sister away from me; we were so close to having her! I'm so pissed!" James yelled, the echo going on for what seemed an eternity.

" Well all we can do is get the hell out of here and find her, so let's get going!" Amber implied, antsy with the tons and tons of rock above her.

"Okay let's get out of this hell hole," James agreed a heartbeat later.

"And quick," Amber stated terrorized as the splitting of rocks thundered around the cave.

"B-but how do we get out?" James stuttered as realization hit him.

"I don't know. . . wait! Where did the dead creatures' bodies go?" Amber pondered.

"Maybe there's an exit underneath the water?" James guessed.

"The cave must have filled up with all this water from the cave above we almost drowned in before." Amber concluded back.

"Maybe. . ." James trailed off.

"I'll look for any other exits, while you go take a peak at the water's bottom," Amber planned out.

"Okay that sounds great!" James agreed.

"Well of course it––" Amber was cut off as cracks echoed everywhere, in all surrounding directions.

As the cracks spread, water began to fill in the cracks, raising the tides of death.

Then it all stopped and silence continued: drips and drops as more water entered, the current rising with the wish-wash of the cave walls, the ragged breathing of James and Amber as their adrenaline pumped through their veins, faster and faster.

"I think it's done," James whispered, his voice overtaken by the echoing over and over through the cave's own voice.

With a blink Amber looked at him, as if knowing what was coming, and the ruined ceiling crumpled above them.

Rocks flew this way and that as the ceiling caved in, one hitting Amber in the temple, knocking her out, blood flowing where she had stood.

Water poured in where the rocks had evacuated, spraying in James' face, throwing stinging grit into his eyes, and blinding him momentarily.

James could hear rocks tumbling and crumbling, burying him and Amber; Death's cruel joke in thinking they were safe beforehand.

With James last move he could take, he laid on top of Amber, hoping to save her at least, protecting her body from any more deadly blows.

Rocks covered him, punching his every breath out, every single ounce, until Death decided he had had enough, collapsing the remnants of the ceiling onto James and burying his remains forevermore.