I wanted to shove a damn sock down Michael’s throat.
When I flashed my light down against the river, what I saw horrified me. The water was rising. The river rushed harder. And I saw Clint’s legs floating. If I didn’t hurry up, he’d be pulled away by the current. Swept away, without a trace.
And I couldn't let that happen.
I slipped my phone back into my bra and slowly made my way down. I slipped and yelped. I ripped my nails off my fingers as I clung to the side of the earth. Trees groaned as I stepped on their roots, making a staircase for myself. And just as I hit the last rock I needed, I drew in a deep breath.
“Clint, can you hear me?”
The sound of the rushing water grew behind me as I touched down onto the bank. My feet sank immediately into the mud. The silt. The thick of it all. Making it even harder to get to Clint. I lost a shoe prying my foot out of that shit. I heard tires squealing on the bridge as the smell of burnt rubber wafted up my nose.
Reminding me of that disgusting dream I hoped to never have again.
“Clint! Can you hear me?”
I kept repeating the phrase as I made my way for him. As his body kept rising. As his legs kept floating. I saw his hips leave the ground. Then his lower back. I saw his body tilted in the direction of the current, and I was still a few feet away from him.
“Clint!”
A wave came out of nowhere, jostling his body. And before I knew it, he sank underneath the river. I threw myself at him, reaching out for him as best as I could. But it was no use. His body swept itself away, dragged with the current as the water levels kept rising
. Higher and higher, like some devil from below torturing me before he killed me, too.
“Clint! No!”
I sprinted as quickly as I could. It felt like I ran above the quicksand silt as my hand reached out for him. His leather jacket trailed behind him, fluttering on top of the water. And with one last lunge, I felt the fabric against my fingers. I clutched it, tugging as hard as I could. Tears rushed down my cheeks as my feet sank ankle-high into the silt and stuck, trapping me as the river rushed with a black fury.
I wouldn't let it take me tonight, though.
Because it wasn’t allowed to have Clint.
“Come on. For fuck’s sake.”
I groaned and grunted as more sirens approached. As more tires squealed. As Michael continued to yell and scream at me. I got Clint above the surface of the water and pulled him up the embankment, holding on to him for dear life. I reached up for a tree root, tugging on it as a tree fell over the edge of the river. I screamed as it landed just beside me. Finally giving up because of the water erosion against its roots.
But it gave me something to cling to. Something to wrap my arm around as I held Clint against me.
I drew in a shaking breath. “Just hang on, okay? Help is here.”
I kept pulling on the tree, getting us higher and higher. There was a small perch. A small indent in the side of the earth that provided the dream of relief. My arm cried out for mercy. It shook with a need for rest. But I wouldn't let my body give up now. I slid my arm up the tree, hanging on to Clint as I slowly made my way for that indented earth.
And when my back finally sat against it, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally, a patch of dirt that didn’t try to swallow us whole.
“Come on. On your back. Let’s go.”
I rolled Clint off me and slid him to the ground. I put him on his back, gazing down into his face. The flashlight from my phone poking out of my bra gave me a hard glimpse at what he looked like. And it was hard to take in.
“Clint, can you hear me?”
I tapped his face softly, but I stopped soon after. His nose was broken. There was blood all over his cheeks and pooling in his mouth from the gash in his forehead. I reached out and checked his pulse. It was weak, but there. And as my eyes continued to roam over his body, I saw his shoulder was dislocated.
“Clint, please. You have to wake up for me, okay?”
I couldn't get over the blood. How much there was. How dark it looked against his skin. I didn’t know where the hell it was all coming from and I felt panic grip my chest. I tapped his neck. I placed my hand over his heart. It seemed to be beating slower and slower. Like he was slowly fading away from me.
My tears dripped against his face. “Clint, please. You can’t do this to me, okay?”