Across the Globe [COMPLETE]

Heed The Plea

18TH OF JULY

Samantha

I can hear myself screaming, but it's as if my own voice wasn't mine anymore.

Blood drips, my body shakes.

I raise my palms to my face as I scream as loud as my lungs will let me, until my throat feels so worn out that no sound comes out anymore.

A pair of hands grab me from behind, shaking me by the shoulders.

"Sam, Sam! Calm down! Sam! I'm here."

The blood drips, and drips. My hands shake. Am I still screaming?

The hands are patting my shoulders, then my arms, my face, my body. There's a shadow looming over me, touching every inch of my body as if trying to see where the damage is. But the damage is everywhere. I'm broken, and I can't stop crying.

"Sam, please, calm down, please, it's okay, it's okay."

Strong arms wrap around me and hold me tight. I press myself against the warmth of it as I sob, the comforting feeling of an embrace breaking whatever little composure was left inside of me. But slowly, the panic recoils, backs away, and seems to take all other feelings away with it. I'm left feeling empty, numb, dead.

There's a hand holding the back of my head, and another one around my waist. It feels oddly familiar.

"Breathe." I'm told in a deep and commanding voice.

So I do.

I breathe in and out, again and again until the tears stop rolling. I'm not gonna die. Not yet, not today. I push myself away gently, and look up as my whole body trembles. I'm cold, so cold.

"It's okay Sam, everything is okay now," the voice says as a hand strokes my hair. I look up, and the vision doesn't make sense in my muddled up head. Maybe I did die after all. "Are you injured? Where does it hurt?"

I shake my head a little, "I'm cold," I say as I blink repeatedly trying to make sense of the guy standing in front of me. What is he doing here? How did he get here?

Tane hugs me again and I convince myself that this is real as my arms wrap around his torso. He pushes back slightly to look at me again. "Where does it hurt?" He asks. Everywhere. "Can you stand?" No.

I point at my ankle with a shaky hand, and he follows my gaze. He's half submerged in the stream just like me, and the water seems to be a tiny bit warmer now.

"I'm trapped," I say. My voice is so small, it doesn't sound like my own.

"It's okay," he says again, "I'll get you out."

Tane tries to push the log, but it doesn't move, so he tries to move the rocks from under my ankle, but I've tried that already, it's useless.

I'm soaked and cold, so cold now that he's not by my side anymore. I can't stop shaking, the water now almost to my chest. Tane keeps trying, and I want to tell him there's no point, I'm trapped forever, he should leave me here.

It's okay. I want to say.

I feel so cold, maybe I'm already dead.

"Okay," he says, coming back over to me and caressing my cheek with a gentle hand. Maybe he's been here for minutes, maybe it's been hours. "I'm going to push as hard as I can, and as soon as the log moves a little, I need you to try and get your feet out, can you do that?"

I nod. Is this a dream?

Tane sits down on the water next to me and he takes a deep breath; then his whole body goes under. I look at the blurred shape underwater, barely visible in the dark, and a part of me wants to reach down and touch him. He looks ethereal, like something just out of my imagination.