The Boy Who Couldn't Cry

Chapter 9- Fear Strikes

I let my guard down. I thought everything had been completely resolved, but I guess it took me a while to learn, that life will always have new obstacles to face, new challenges to overcome.

It had been a few weeks since Jake and his family moved back in, and they just lived in the neighborhood across from ours, so it worked out well.

Jake found out he was good at guitar and got pretty good at it honestly. He would play his guitar while Hannah and I played piano, and Hannah was also a great singer. We jammed out together from time to time and really enjoyed ourselves and took pride in our talents.

One day, my family decided to go rock-climbing together. But since it would've just been me and my parents, they said I could invite some friends. Of course, I invited Jake and Hannah.

We rode in the car together for an hour and goofed off and laughed the entire time. It was really fun.

Our silver Coupe finally drove up to the huge mountain. All of us were as excited as kids on Christmas. We'd never taken a trip together and done something fun like this, so it was cool that my parents had said they could come.

The mountain air smelled fresh and free. Wind blew against my face and through my messy hair.

The five of us rented gear for climbing and got started immediately. Everything went fine . . . at least until after our lunch break.

We had been climbing for a few hours, taking the occasional breaks of course. We had all been having a blast and I was so happy that we'd been able to do this.

It had been going well before. Jake was probably the fastest climber, but Hannah was probably the most skilled. She was great on the more challenging parts and climbed rocks like a champ. I didn't suspect that anything would go wrong. We had our gear after all. We had our safety ropes, and harnesses.

Hannah and Jake were practically racing each other. Hannah's skill against Jake's speed made it hard to see who the best was. They were both doing great, until it happened.

Hannah was laughing at Jake as he struggled to keep up, and she didn't notice the sharp rock rubbing against her rope, until it was too late.

Snap!

You'd think the ropes would hold better, especially since they were designed to keep people safe. But I guess not.

My mom screamed, but I just watched in silent shock as Hannah fell and fell. Her face had been full of horrified alarm.

It had happened before anyone knew what had happened. Thankfully though, she only fell a few feet. A ledge caught her before she could go any further and get any more hurt.

The four of us climbed down to her. She was unconscious and her head was bleeding. My dad called an ambulance as well as Hannah's parents, and we all rushed to the hospital with her.

Almost two hours later, the doctor came out. His expression didn't help my fear to die down though. He obviously had bad news.

"She appears to have a concussion." He said sadly. "We don't know . . . we don't know if she'll make it."