Hope isn't a word I really believe in. [ON HOLD]

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

‘Fear is the highest fence.’

 Dudley Nichols

Sinny was confused.

Utterly bewildered.

Pinnferr, her best friend, had just run away from her.

Not to. Away.

Okay, this isn’t real. I could kill myself right now, and I’d simply wake up in my bunk,she thought.

But the pelting rain that was massaging her skin to a rhythm felt real. The horrible pain in her foot felt real. The lonely, puzzled knot in her stomach, that kept twisting and twisting felt real.

But yet, it still felt like a nightmare.

The world was a blur and as she sat, kneeling next to no one, she could do nothing but replay what had just happened over and over again in her mind. It was like some sick series of television, that the channel just kept playing to fill in a time slot, and whenever it came on, you couldn’t help but watch.

In the background, she could faintly hear Alexia order, “Get him back, Kallee. He must be back at camp for a medical check, immediately.”

I hugged him…. The shock pulled his mouth agape… The fright imprinted in his eyes….

If Sinny cared, she would have noticed Kallee jumping for joy as if nothing had happened, and sprinting in Pinnferr’s wake.

Sinny’s knees were soggy from the puddles on the bushland ground. Her hair was plastered to her body and dirt-ridden. Her clothes stuck to her as if she had just been in the ocean, swimming at her leisure and her shoes now possessed holes.

Her eyes didn’t move, neither did herself. They just bored straight ahead.

He got up…… His feet kicked behind him…. His drenched clothes flapped the slightest where they were gathered and rippled on his damaged body….

How could this have happened?

She had made it; she had fought against the onslaught of rain, the wind, the darkness, her twisted ankle. So why wasn’t he alright?

She felt hollow. Her brain wasn’t registering that what had just happened was real. Yet, it could not stop replaying it….

His left arm pumped…. His hair was singed but still had that faint golden straw colour at the roots…. He disappeared through the trees…..

Her companions gathered themselves, ready to leave for camp. Sinny looked straight ahead. It’s a nightmare. It must be. It has to be.

I hugged him…. The shock pulled his mouth agape… The fright imprinted in his eyes….

She kept staring. It was not real. Time had slowed - motion captivated.

He got up…… His feet kicked behind him…. His drenched clothes flapped the slightest where they were gathered and rippled on his damaged body….

She just felt empty. She couldn’t describe the feeling of sheer loneliness, rejection, shock, all rolled in to one. And if there was a word, it would still not express exactly what she felt.

His left arm pumped…. His hair was singed but still had that faint golden straw colour at the roots…. He disappeared through the trees…..

Silence was what flooded her ears, but there was not - she should‘ve heard pounding rain and conversations. Her brain just blocked it all out, trying to focus its power on this one, recent event. That was all that mattered - Pinnferr.