Vanished

Chapter 5

Recap

That's where we are. In a servant passage, almost all of which are supposed to have weak floors. It was at that moment that the floor underneath us gave out a deafening creak. I looked up at Chance. The noise came from directly underneath me.

Chance P.O.V.

I hold Tory's eyes for a second. She doesn't move and barely seems to breathe. I edge towards her, never breaking eye contact. We probably should have seen this coming; this place is older than my great-grandparents and possibly older. It's my fault. I talked her into this. If she dies or gets injured, it'll be my fault.

"Don't. Move. A. Muscle." I edge towards her, one arm outstretched, ready to grab her if the floor gives way or flip us so I cushion her fall if the floor gives way.

Despite everything she huffs a laugh. "Trust me Chance, I'm not moving anything anywhere."

I edge closer and as I come level with a crack in the wall I can see what's cracking. The floorboards are partially rotten, and when I walked over them, a whole section of the floor slats broke in half near the wall. Part of the floor has come of completely revealing several supporting beams almost all of which are already broken or gone completely. The one remaining supporting beam underneath the slats is holding the patch of floor together just enough that Tory hasn't fallen to her death yet, but as I edge closer there's a groan and the rotten part of the support beam that's visible begins to bend, the section of floor tilting to one side and letting out responding groans as the still attached ends of the boards bend.

"Chance?" It's barely more than a whisper. Tory stares at me, every muscle locked except for those in her chest. Her chest rises and falls heavily and she shifts her weight to relieve her right leg of her weight. The floorboards give another creak, the broken side sagging even further down, the other end creaking and beginning to break.

"Cha-ahh!" The floor finally gives way. The final side of the floorboards snapping in half, the supporting beam unable to take the weight of the section of floor and the fourteen year old standing on it.

Tory's scream pierces the air and there's shouts of alarm from the room on the other side of the wall and from below. The sound of thudding boots and thudding as someone tries to break through the wall are all drowned out as I lunge. Tory's legs disappear through the hole as time slows. The head of a policeman, that I don't recognise, appears through a new hole in the wall. His mouth forms an 'O' of horror as Tory's blood-curdling scream almost seems to echo and reverberate throughout the house.

Tory's mid-section disappears through the hole as my hands reach for hers... and miss.

"TORY!" Dad's horrified face is visible through the gap and I stagger to stay upright, my eyes still locked with Tory's. Dad stretches his arms out, catching Tory as she falls. Both of them go down. Our dad lands on his side, his breath rushing out of him from the impact. His arms are still around Tory and partially cushion her landing. But his arms only around her middle and as they land, Tory's back against dad's chest, her head is flung to the right, slamming into the floor full force as they land.

There's a moment of absolute quiet and then, "Steph! Tory!" Julia appears, flying towards the tangled mess of limbs lying on the floor. The police officers on that level part before her like the red sea parting before Mosses. She kneels beside them as dad groans and rolls over, still holding Tory against him, her weight on his chest not helping his efforts to get his breath back. He definitely can't get his breath back once Julia leans down to hug them, her hair spilling over dad's face as he gasps for breath. Despite everything a smile tugs at my lips, how can they keep denying that they like each other? It was only when Julia finally sat back up and the surrounding policeman turned their eyes back to them, that my knees decided now was a good time to remind me that I was still kneeling on the uneven wooden floor.

"Chance! What happened?" Dad stares up at me, Julia follows his gaze and stares up at me, a frown creasing her face.

"We were exploring. The floor fell through. I'm sorry dad, I didn't know!" My dad sighs but Julia smiles up at me.

"It's okay Chance. We didn't tell you about the dangers-"

"Well, actually-"

"Shut it, Steph, I'm trying to parent over here. Anyway, you weren't to know sweetie, someone's already called an ambulance-" judging from the frantic scrambling of police officers reaching for their phones behind her, someone had not called an ambulance. "And they'll be here really soon. She'll be fine, Sweetheart. Can you get down?"

Before I can reply a male voice cuts in from somewhere behind where I'm standing. "We've got an access point to the corridor established Detective. We can get him out this way." Turning around I see the policeman who made a hole in the wall earlier has made it big enough for me to squeeze through. I believe he's the one Julia and dad called Lead Dolt earlier.

After scratching my arm on the jagged edge of the rotting wall Lead Dolt had made a hole in and then almost breaking an ankle when I stepped on a rotting floorboard, I finally made it downstairs. Lead Dolt, who is apparently called Hawkinson, looks like a puppy expecting pats as he scurries up to Julia and tells her the results of his phone calls. He then changes to puppy with its tail between its legs when she tells him that there could never be a more in-appropriate time to tell her this.

"Chance?" Tory blinks at me from the ground, shifting onto her side from the position dad put her in.

I scramble over to her. Relief floods my body as she smiles up at me. "Hey Tor, how you feelin' kid?"

She chokes out a laugh. "I'm only two years younger than you! ... Do we have water?"

Dad, having apparently already known what she would need, joins Julia and I on the floor. He holds out a bottle of water as the police officers surround us. Tory is loved by pretty much all of the police in the town and they all looked quite concerned. A few have gone to wait for the ambulance down the hill, mostly so they can help the medics to get their gear up the hill.

"What hurts, Sweetie?" Julia leans over her just as shouts of "Ambulance!" reach us.

Two people wearing hospital uniform come forwards, loading Tory onto a stretcher. I follow them down the hill, hopping into the back of the ambulance while dad and Julia get into her car.

The sirens are switched on and then we're off to the hospital.