The Bewitching - Midsummer Aine - Book 2

Chapter 27 - Negative Consequences

She could feel the air around her as she fell. It should have been dreadful, and to a small extent it was, but there was also a feeling of peace as if whatever burdens she had been carrying on her shoulders had been lifted. Maybe it was knowing the future she had seen would not come to be, the struggles and the losses were not hers to witness and bear. In that thought she took solace.

Instead of watching the ground rush up towards her, she closed her eyes, letting her mind drift to wherever it pleased. Almost as she expected, it went to Dantes. If he was gone, she wondered what his last moments might have been like. The thought of how Dewdrop had left him almost made her cringe. She could only imagine how horrid and terrifying his possible final seconds must have been. He had gone from being the mysterious stranger in her dreams, to an enigmatically complex living and breathing person in her life who seemed torn between keeping her close and yet holding her at arms length.

In a way it was sad. That was all that she would know of him. There were so many things that had been left unsaid, so many secrets still held. At once she was overcome with a sense of sorrow and pain. Maybe it wasn't suppose to end this way. Maybe it wasn't time to give up.

As she thought this an inner voice called out, "Reach up!"

At first she tried to ignore it. It was far easier just to let things be and accept what was to come. The more she tried though, the louder and angrier the voice became until it was almost unbearable.

"Reach up! Reach up!" It screamed over and over in her head until it became too painful to bear. Her hand stretched out into the air above in hopes that the voice would stop, fully expecting to be grasping for air.  To her surprise her hand met a steel bar. As her fingers wrapped around it, she could feel the jolt as it traveled down her arm and to her shoulder, her strength battling against the pull of gravity. The sudden stop almost pulled her from the bar as she hung, dangling from the very tips of her fingers above the street below.

She reached with her other arm in an attempt to get a better hold upon the bar. The first several attempts failed, with her hand slipping from the steel, or just missing it as she tried to swing that side of her body up towards it. She could feel her fingers on her other hand beginning to slip, and the pain shooting through her made it even more difficult to hold on.

With her strength failing, she made one last valiant effort just as her fingers slid from the bar. For a split second she dangled in thin air, and just as she felt gravity once again take hold, her other hand grasped firmly around the cold steel of the bar. The air escaped her lungs as she let out a deep sigh of relief, and glanced down at the street below.

The creatures from the streets were all staring up at her, their bodies completely still as if robots awaiting a command from an unknown source. A moment later, as if on cue, they all began marching forward in unison towards the building that she now hung from. There was no telling what they would do, or of their intentions, they just marched like puppets on a string.

Whatever it was they wanted, hanging helplessly from the side of the building didn't seem like the best place to be when she found out. As quickly as possible she pulled herself up onto the ledge just below the bar, wincing in the process from her still tender arm. The ledge itself was narrow, and it was times like this she was grateful for how petite she was, which made it easier to maneuver and balance upon it. Not that it made it safe, but certainly safer for someone of her stature than if she had been of a larger frame.

Once upon the ledge, she looked around for a way to get back up to the roof, which was a good several stories above her. The various windows at bars around them, similar in nature to the one that had saved her life. At the same time they were spaced far enough apart that climbing them would certainly be a challenge, and even more so because of her sore arm. She smirked, thinking of how her petite nature in one way made it easier to find some safety upon the ledge, and at the same time would now prove to be a hindrance to climbing to the top.