Masons POV
After pulling my jacket and shoes off in less then 3 seconds I see her. Shorty looks at me but as soon as I see her she gets sucked under. I would have expected her to yell for help. Did I seriously just see her take her life? No. She's not dead yet. I saw her not half a second ago.
I jump in the water not thinking and I search for her. It takes every ounce of adrenalin pumping through my body to not get pulled under. I have to swim 2 times faster then the current in order to catch up to shorty, catch her, and grab the next bridge.
My problem; I can't find her. The fucking muddy water is too damned dark for me to see her under water and she's not likely to be floating on the surface.
Next thing I know I see an arm. I don't even have to think, I swim as fast and as professionally as I can. I don't think I have ever moved that fast in my life. Swimming at least.
When she comes into arms reach I grab her and I think I almost break her arm. I can't really tell because already the coldness of the water has numbed me. I am seriously numb. I pull her toward the surface more and I can see she's not awake. I can't even tell if she's breathing. I panic even more.
I kinda throw her over my shoulders and just drift towards the next bridge. I swim towards shore just in case the bride just gets in the way.
When I-we actually get to the bridge I'm by the shore. It's nothing but dirt and weeds. Not like the bridge she fell off. I climb to the side trying to have shorty still balanced on my back. If I drop her I won't be able to forgive myself for yet another thing.
I push myself with my left arm, forearm on the ground. I ignore the pain of the sticks and weeds digging into my skin as I hold Shorty's arms around my neck with my right arm. I basically dig a hole in the dirt with my legs trying to get to the flat ground at the edge of the canal.
I'm out of breath when I make it up. I collapse on the ground from the rush but as I do, I crush Shorty's hands. I had forgotten I was trying to save her life while keeping mine still intact.
I roll her off of my back and onto hers against the ground. Now I begin to freak out. I lean down to see if she is breathing. She's not. Lucky me I learned this at camp so I can do CPR. I straighten her neck for a half second, plugged her nose, and breathed into her. She's still not moving. I push on her chest but nothing happens still. I repeat this maybe 15 times. By the fifth time I'm already in tears. It had hit me.
She's killed herself because of me.
She's dead and won't wake up because of that fucking prank that my brother set up and I was a fucking dumb ass to go along with it. I'm still trying to understand why I went along with it. Maybe I just knew I could never do anything like this ever again in a lifetime. But now that I have done it I can never forgive myself. It is now my biggest regret. She's gone.
I am a blubbering mess and I am now holding shorty in my arms rocking back and forth just crying. No one is around. Just kids playing in the distance at the park. No one knows what has happened. No one will.
My mind begins to race with what will happen next. Do I hide her body? Do I push her back into the canal for someone else to find? Do I call 911? What will my parents think? What will her parents think? Did she tell them? Will I go to prison? Will I be allowed to her funeral?
I'm still crying and I just shut down. All those thoughts. I lock them out. It's just me and her sitting on the weeds and grass. I couldn't do anything to save her. And I don't even know if she wanted me to.
With every one of these thoughts now I cry even more. All the trust that she has lost for everyone even when she wakes up. If she does. She will. I just have to keep trying.
I breath into her again but my breathing keeps collapsing. I take one last second to hold her and breath into her one last full time.
I close my eyes and hold her until someone can find us and what I have done.
•••
YOU ARE READING
Nightmare?
Short Story⚠️Written in the early 2014⚠️ [just another dream I had] Mason goes off on his 4 weeks of different summer camps while one of his best friends, shorty, waits behind in town for a weekend where he is open to hang out again. She sends him a message on...