CHAPTER 5: BEING THE HERO
JAMES' POV
"I'm a greedy, selfish bastárd. I want the fact that I existed to mean something."
-Harry Chapin
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Who would’ve guessed that there would come a time where I would have to witness someone fighting for their life? I certainly hadn’t.
Walking down to the festival while studying the not-so-pretty town, I suddenly catch a glimpse of her – a brown haired girl in the middle of a dirty looking pond, struggling to keep her head above water. Her arms are waving like a lunatic, and her legs are kicking for dear life. She resembles a dog with the way she’s trying to swim to land on all fours. The difference is that a dog probably would’ve managed the swimming part a lot better.
I react instinctively; running as fast I can towards the pond, I’m ready to jump into it and save the poor girl. Then I hear the chuckling; the loud, mocking comments coming from behind me. Spinning around, I realize that pretty much everyone around me is looking at the drowning girl. And they’re laughing.
What the héll?
Why hasn’t anybody saved her? “Why are you standing there and not doing something?” I yell at one of the men beside me, gesturing to the girl. “Can’t you see that she’s drowning?”
His only response is more chuckling. “She can’t drown,” he explains, coughing loudly because he’s laughing so hard. I glare daggers at him. “The – the water is too shallow. If she had just – just calmed down, she would’ve realized that the water only reaches her waist.” The man is gasping for air, having a hard time talking normally.
Oh. That explains why nobody has gone to save her yet. I cast a doubtful glance at her. She looks vaguely familiar…“Even if she can’t drown, she’ll probably die of a heart attack,” I tell him critically. “I mean, look at her!”
As if on cue, the girl starts screaming at the top of her lungs, “Someone help me, please!” adding a nice effect to my dramatic tone.
I look around me desperately, hoping that there’s someone else that will do this. Jumping into a muddy pond and getting my fine suit wet just to convince a girl that she’s not – no, scratch that, convince her that she can’t drown isn’t exactly on my ‘things-I’m-dying-to-do’ list. But since none of these lousy townsfolk looks like they’re planning to help her anytime soon, I don’t really have a choice.
“Fine,” I mutter under my breath, giving a deep sigh. Dreading the moment when my skin has to make contact with the dirty water, I carefully take a step forward. Then another one. And two more. And suddenly, I’m standing in water reaching my hips.
The girl is not far away from me now. As I approach her, I suddenly recognize the brown curls; it’s the greedy little pig that sold candy to me yesterday. I feel a strange urge to burst out laughing. This girl tried to cheat me, gave me directions to a non-existent red house, and now she’s in the middle of a dirty pond, floundering clumsily while being laughed at.
Karma’s a bitch.
Then again, I’m in the exact same position as her – soaked to my skin and freezing. So it’s not as if I’m any luckier.
She’s so busy thinking that she needs to fight for her life, that she doesn’t even notice me sneaking up behind her. A sly grin appears on my face, and I’m suddenly feeling incredibly childish. It’s too hard to resist; I just have to do it. Just once.
