Sound Waves

Regrets and Consequences

The look on Raven's face when she woke up and saw me. I don't know if it was hate, sorrow or forgiveness but as soon as I saw it, I couldn't stand it, I got up and left. She couldn't come after me because Janice stopped her, saying she needed rest. But that was three days ago, I can't bring myself to go back, especially because of what I did to Raven, if I didn't scream she never would've gotten hurt, instead I should've accepted my fate to fall and die. Stupid me. I stop my aimless wandering and I sit down, using my finger to draw random lines in the dirt. I look around at my surroundings, looking for something to eat or drink. I've been too caught up in my thoughts about how Raven feels towards me, she could hate me, she could be worried about me, or she could've forgotten about me. I push the thoughts away and continue looking for food or water, I look around the trees, I look to the hills and when I'm about to give up, I hear twigs snapping and jaws munching from behind me so I twirl around to see two deer, a young one and an older one; mother and daughter I presume. I think back to my Grade Seven Survival Camp and I start to quietly create a spear from some short vines, a sharp rock and a nice, long branch that I luckily found on the ground. I finish and it isn't the best, but it will have to do, I rack my brain to remember the anatomy of a deer so I can get a good piece of meat and kill a deer as quickly as possible, I decide to hit it in the heart or lungs, they are reasonably close to each other, just behind the shoulder so if miss the heart I will get the lungs and if I miss the lungs I will hit the heart. I say a quick sorry to the baby and the mother and then I aim my spear, throw it and it goes soaring through the air and hits the mother deer straight in the heart. It falls down, immediately and within seconds its chest stops moving. I shoo the little one away and take the spear and take away the rock I used for the point and started sawing through the meat until I get a decent size. I grab a few sticks and use them to create a fire and get a larger stick to hold the meat on while it cooks, while I am waiting I decide to find some water.

I find a creek with clear water and so I cup my hands and just before I get my hands into the water I get a terrible stomachache suddenly and I fall to the ground clutching at my stomach, all I can think about is Raven and Janice. I feel a cold blade slice through the flesh on my arm and I feel dizzy like my head just hit the ground. I stay clutching my stomach, keeping in sobs of pain, for about fifteen seconds when the pain finally subsides to a dull throb and then the world goes black for what feels like ages and when I can see again, I am at the cement tank at the opening to the sewers. I slide through the gap, even though I still regret everything that happened to Raven, what I did to Raven. I continue down the pipe way towards the glow that never seems to disappear and when I get to Raven's cavern I see her body on the ground with a long, thin cut across her arm, in the same place I felt the blade on my own arm and her head is bleeding  from a small gash that was probably from her hitting her head. Janice's story didn't say anything about feeling people's pain but I'm certain that what I felt was what had happened. I scan the area for Janice's body but she is nowhere to be seen so I run over to Raven's body and fall to my knees and I lay my head down on her chest, looking for a heartbeat and I worry that there is none until I feel a tiny bump, so I jump back up to my feet, trying to remember how Janice made the healing potion so I head over the slab of cement where the ingredients are but as I do, I slip on a puddle of some kind of liquid and I fall onto my back. A searing pain runs through my spine and I look at my right hand, which fell into the puddle. My hand is a vibrant red and I realise what the puddle was. Blood. As this realisation hits, my head falls to the ground again and I am back in the forest.

I look around me and I see roughly seven strong, young men sharpening different tools, swords, daggers, axes and there are a few men loading shotguns. I wander around what looks like a camp and I accidentally bump into one of the men. Or I should've, instead I go straight through him. I sigh in relief and then I realise that that means I'm either, dead, invisible, or not really there. My breath starts increasing and I start hyperventilating until I hear Raven's voice in my mind.