09 - 04 - 15

When I finally get control I open my eyes and look around. "I'm good now." I say and turn to see if there is any light.

"Can you bend us out of here?" He asks in a soft voice.

"No, I need to see. If I moved something it could crush us and I'm not strong enough." I say and lean against the cool wall. "Let's just start walking and see if we can find a way out." I say and lean off the wall.

"Ok, but I can't tell where you're going. Walk towards my voice." He says and I do with my arms out. Then I feel his back. He jumps a little. "I thought you were in front of me." He says and I feel him turn around. He grabs my hand and I start walking in a direction.

We both walk slow and carefully. I take another step when Sam's hand is ripped out of mine. I hear him mumble a few swear words, but can't find him.

"What happened?" I ask still trying to find him, but all I see is blackness.

"I hit my head on something, you must have been too short to get hit by it." He says and I try not to laugh. It's a little funny that he got hit. "Did you just laugh at me?" He asks and I hear the smile in his voice.

"Noo." I say, but he can obviously tell I'm lying.

"You're so mean. I don't laugh when you get hurt." He says dramatically.

"Really, how about the mud, or when I trip over anything. You laugh at that." I say and cross my arms even though he can't see me.

"That's different." He says and I hear him move around.

"It's the exact same." I say and then I feel his hand on my shoulder.

"It would be a wicked to play hide and seek in here." He says making me laugh.

"Only you think about those things." I say and turn around. This time he puts a hand on my side which makes me feel warm. "I'm having one hand in the air so I don't hit my head again." He says making me laugh again.

***

"We are getting nowhere." I say and stop walking. I feel Sam drop his hand from my side, making me a little more frustrated. I don't know why, but it does.

"I don't know what to do. I mean we can't see anything, can't contact anyone, and no one knows where we are." I hear him say. I huff and take another step forward, but the floor isn't there making me fall. I scream and then hit the ground.

"Corrine?" I hear Sam ask concerned. I go to push myself up, but pain rushes through my left hand. I scream from the pain and hear Sam's voice again. "Corrine?" He asks more urgent.

"I- I'm fine, just hurt my hand a little." I say looking up, but again can't see anything. I look around to see if there is any light, but I still can't see anything.

"Can you stand?" I hear his voice again. I put my right arm down and feel water. Then I realize that the water is almost to my waist.

"I am standing, I'm surrounded in water." I say and start to shiver holding my left hand to my chest.

"Raise your hand. I want to see if I can grab you." He says and I hear more shuffling around. I slowly raise my right hand. His fingers barely brush mine. "Ok, hand me the backpack." He says. I slowly and carefully take it off making sure not to hit my left hand. I hold it up and he grabs it before doing something. "Hand me your hands, I should be able to pull you up without me going in with you."

I try to move my left hand, but pain goes through it again. I bite my lip and the scream comes out quietly, but Sam still hears it.

"Corrine? What's wrong?" I hear him ask.

"My hand, I can't move my wrist without pain going through it." I say and wipe a few tears that had fallen down my face.

"Ok, I'm going to come down there and lift you up. Can you get to one side and then raise your good hand so, I know where to jump in." I walk until I feel a rock hit my leg. I raise my right hand and feel his almost immediately. "K, I'm coming down."

Then I feel water splash on me. "How is this going to work?" I ask and start shivering again.

"I'll lift you up and then I'll find a way up after." I hear his voice. "Walk to the middle." I do and then feel his arm. "Ok, step on my hands and I'll try to get you up. Your right hand is ok, right?" He asks. I nod my head, but realize he can't see me.

"Ya, my right hand is ok." I say and feel him move closer to me.

"Step on my hands." He says. I find his hands with my right one and then put my foot in his hands. He slowly raises his hands and we wobble a bit, but I find the ground.

"Ok, I can feel the ground." I say with my right hand on it.

"I'm going to lift you up fast and then you need to pull yourself up, ok?" I hear him say.

"Got it." I respond and then I lift up. I push myself up more on the ground and then rollover to make sure I stay on the ground. "I'm good. How are you getting up?" I ask and look down the whole. I can hear the water, but still can't see anything.

"I'll hold myself up on the sides and then freeze the water so I can stand on it." I hear his voice again. I hear movement and then it sounds like the water is freezing, like the hardening sound. What feels like ten minutes later, he finally gets out.

"You ok?" I ask as he grabs my right hand.

"I'm fine. How is your hand?" I hear him ask. I have my left arm close to my stomach so it doesn't get hurt.

"I don't know. I can't move my wrist or put any pressure on it." I say and thinking about it is making it hurt worse.

"Ok, can you put it in my hand. I won't try to hurt you." He says letting go of my good hand. I slowly move my arm to his hand. Once I put my hand on his the pain is back.

"It hurts." I say and squeeze my eyes close. I feel him barely touch it and more pain comes. He removes his hand.

"I think you broke your wrist. It's swollen a lot and you say you can't move it." I hear him say. I pull my hand back and wipe my eyes again. I pain doesn't go away though so my eyes start to water again. "You put clothes in the bag right?" I hear him ask.

"Ya." I say and then hear him move again. Since his body heat is gone I start to shiver again.

"This will hurt, but it needs to be wrapped in some way. With what I think is a shirt, I'm going to wrap your wrist. Can I have your hand?" I hear him ask. I know he's right, but I still don't want to. "Please Corrine." I hear his voice and he sounds like he's begging me to.

"O-Ok." I say. I grab his hand with my good one and bring it to my bad one. He slowly grabs my hand and I squeeze my eyes shut. He begins to wrap it and it takes all my strength not to pull my hand away. I feel tears run down my face and then I hear Sam. "It's done. All done." I feel the cloth tight around my wrist and it hurts. I don't try to move my hand, I just leave it there. "I know it hurts, but It'll stop soon." I hear him say. I feel his hand on my shoulder and then he wipes the tears from my face. How he found my face in the dark I don't know.

"I-It's cold." I say trying to talk about something else.

"I can't see, but I might be able to get the water off of our pants." I hear him say and then he removes his hands from my face. I feel my pants start to dry and then hear water splash. I tense up expecting to get wet, but the water never comes. "There, know we are at least dry." I hear Sam say. I nod my head a little even though he can't see.

I wonder how long we were walking. It seemed like a long time, but it could just seem that way because we can't see anything. I hear Sam start moving around again and try to see what he's doing. "Let's just take a break." I hear him say. I walk to where I think he is and sit next to him, making sure not to hurt my wrist. I'm still cold even though I'm dry. I feel my teeth start to chatter. "Come hear." Sam says and gently grabs my sides. He pulls me close to his chest. His legs are on either side of me making all the heat stay by us. I pull my legs up and rest my hand in between my legs and stomach. I feel him lean against the wall. I slowly rest my head on his chest and close my eyes.

***

I wake up suddenly and look around. Where am I? All I see is darkness and then I remember, everything coming back in a flash. Stuck in a stupid cave with a broken wrist. I move a little and then something falls off me. I pick it up and feel it. One of the sweatshirts I brought with me. I pull it over myself again and start thinking of how we are going to get out of this place.

After thinking for awhile I still don't come up with anything. If Sam wouldn't have found me this would have worked out, but no he had to go and follow me into a cave. Then he moves under me and I hold my breath hoping he's not waking up. He grabs my sides and pulls me closer to his chest. I feel warm again. I know what theses feelings add up to, but I don't want that to happen. I just want to be friends, if it's anything more then people get hurt. I know that cuddling with him means more, but I can't stop it. He makes everything better. I shouldn't be thinking these things, but my heart and brain don't listen to each other.

I try and grab the backpack, but I can't feel it. I move my right hand around, but still don't find it. Where in the name did Sam put it? I turn a little, but I feel Sam remove his hands from my side. "What's wrong?" I hear him ask in a sleepy voice.

"I was trying to find the backpack so I could grab a water." I say facing him.

"It's being my pillow." I hear him say and I can tell he's smiling. He moves forward and then the backpack's in my hand.

"Thank you." I say and open a zipper I feel around until I find a water bottle. "Do you want one?" I ask, but he doesn't answer right away.

"Um, ya. Sorry just was thinking about getting out of here." I hear him say and he sounds a little disappointed. I hand him a water-bottle and find one for myself. That means there is only one more.

"Careful on the water I only have one more." I say and take a needed drink of the water.

"Ok." He says and I hear the bottle crunch a little. "Can I ask you something?" I hear him ask.

"Sure." I say putting the water bottle away. I feel him hand his to me and I put it in the backpack as well.

"Why don't you let people help and don't give me a crappy answer." I hear him ask. I take a deep breath before answering. He might as well know and it's not like I can fight with him right now.

"I'm not used to good help from others. I can't let people help me because then they look at me differently or they get hurt. The people that find out about my cutting they see me as fragile and then when the abuse shows then people pity me."

"Pity won't help, treating me like a normal person will help me, but no one ever does. You people, I get you want to help, but you can't help someone who doesn't want your help. He will find me again and he'll hurt anyone I'm close to. He always has and always will. He shouldn't restrict me from what I want, but I let him and I always will. If you guys would let me be on my own then maybe he won't hurt anyone and maybe, just maybe I can live my life alone." I say and can feel his gaze on me.

"He won't hurt you, not again-"

"Don't say that. Don't say it. You're just lying to me and yourself." I say and stand up, but he grabs my upper arm, he always craps my upper arm. He's always conscious of my cuts.

"I'm not lying to anyone, he won't hurt you again." I hear him say. I turn out of his grasp and start walking again.

We walk in silence for a long time. I run my good hand across the walls and it feels cool. My toes on the other hand are like icicles. I should have worn shoes. We ran out of food and water. He made me drink more water than him even though I'm smaller. I tried to get him to drink more, but he refused. I keep walking in the dark when I feel a breeze. That's means there is a way out soon, hopefully. "Do you feel the breeze?" I ask with a smile.

I hear Sam's voice right next to me. "Ya, it feels good." I walk a little faster and then the walls get closer. "The space is getting closer." I hear Sam's voice in a worried tone.

"It's fine. I can see faint light." I say hoping to reassure him. Then I feel the ceiling. We have to go through a little tunnel before we can get out, but it looks kinda long to get through. "We are going to need to go through. Do you want to go first so you can hurry up. It's going to take me awhile to get through with my hand." I say and turn to face him. I can actually see his face. His hair is a messy, he looks tired, and his breathing is starting to pick up. "Hey, look at me. It's not long, you can do it." I say, but he shakes his head.

"No, I can't. I can't breath." He says and his face goes pale. He's fidgeting with his hands and looking everywhere.

"What can you smell?" I ask and he looks at me confused. "What can you smell?"

"Fr-fresh air." He responds still having trouble breathing.

"What can you see?" I ask another question. This time he looks at me.

"Rocks."

"What can you hear?" I ask and he stops fidgeting.

"Water and wind."

"What can you touch?" I ask not looking away from him. He closes his eyes before responding.

"You and the ground." He says and opens his eyes.

"What can you taste?" I ask and he looks down at his feet.

"Water and dirt." He says and looks back up at me. "Thanks." He says. I nod my head and move to the side. " I can-"

"Don't say it, just hurry through it. Give me the backpack, I'm smaller." I say and hold out my right hand. He slowly hands it over to me and I put it on my back.

"Keep talking to me, ok. I really don't care what you say." He says and starts fidgeting again.

"I will, you got this." I say and he gets into a crawling position. Once he begins to crawl I start talking about random things. "Have you ever thought about college? Like where you want to go? Why you would or wouldn't want to go? What would you go for? I have no clue what I would go for. I like learning about nature, but why would I go to college for nature, I don't think I can even earn a living for that. I've never really thought about learning how to earn a living. I just worked at a library and thought that somehow things would work out. I should have thought more about it. I don't really know what I like though. I mean besides reading and I like to just lay outside and stare, but how do I make a living out of that?"

"I need to figure that out. I don't even know what good jobs I can get if I don't have a degree, if there are any decent jobs. What do you think would be good? Do you have a job?" I look through the tunnel and see he just made it out. He stands up quickly and I see him shaking. "Hey, do you have a job, just curious?" I ask and he turns and looks through the tunnel.

"Y-ya. At the daycare." He says and slows his breathing down.

"How old do you work with?" I ask and he laughs a little.

"Four and five year olds. There aren't a lot of kids so sometimes it's different." He says and sounds back to normal. "Ready to go through?" He asks. I nod my head and push the backpack in front of me. I start to crawl in and use my elbows to help. I push the bag, move forward a little, and repeat. I keep thinking that I hear something, but it's probably just my brain. I keep moving and the sound is starting to get louder. I start to move faster when I hear Sam's voice.

"Corrine hurry up." He says and I move faster. What is that noise? Once I push the backpack threw Sam grabs it and my hand at the same time and starts running. I look back and see two wolves. Not good. I turn my head and run faster, but we can't outrun them. I pull Sam to me and then move my feet and hand making rock go around us. I feel the wolves run into the rock, but don't budge. I can hear Sam's breathing pick up, but I can't let the fort thing down.

"Sam think of the five questions. Smell, see, hear, taste, and touch." I say trying to get him to calm down, but his breathing starts to go faster. I can't make the rock bigger either, I don't know how without having to bring it down and with only one hand. Sam starts to push on the rock, but he can't move it. His face gets pale. "Sam don't you dare. Focus on me. Don't pass out on me." I say, but he won't look up at me. "Sam?" I say, but I think he passed out. "Sam?" I say louder, but he doesn't even flinch. "You are so dead when I take this down." I say even though he can't hear me.

I keep the field thing up until I can't hear the wolves. I take the fort down and look around, but thankfully I don't see any wolves. How did I not think about animals in the caves? I look down at Sam. He's on his back with his hands still in fists. "Sam." I say kneeling down next to him. "Sam wake up." I say more sternly. "Sam I will slap you, wake up." I say even louder. I grab his shoulder and shake it. He opens his eyes and blinks a few times. "You past out after your little panic attack." I say and he sits up.

"People can't pass out from a panic attacks, the only way is if your heart rate beats faster and then drastically slows down. It's all in the brain." He says running his fingers through his hair.

"Then why did you pass out?" I ask confused.

"Maybe dehydration." He says looking up at me.

"Told you to take more water." I say and fold my arms. He chuckles and shakes his head.

"Let's go before Jake kills us." He says and stands up. He lays his hand out for me to grab. I take the gesture and stand up.

"Oh, and what is your full name?" I ask, he looks over at me with his eyebrows together.

"Sam Anthony Jones." He says in more of a question.

"Well Sam Anthony Jones the next time you pull me and start running for dear life without telling me why I'll slap you." I say and he raises his hands.

"Sorry, I just didn't want you to get eaten by wolves." He says like I should be saying thank you.

"I saved your life too, so we are even." I say proud and he brings his head down. I smile at him. "Haha." I say and he looks up at me.

"What's your full name?" He asks I take a deep breath.

"Corrine Alexis something." I say and look away. How does someone not know their own last name?

"Do you not know your last name?" He asks. I slowly nod my head. "Why are you embarrassed?"

"Because who doesn't know their own name? It's pathetic." I say and look up at his face.

"It's not like you just don't remember. So what, you don't know. It's just a last name. If anything it's cool, you could pick one and just tell people that." He says and I smile. Just pick one. "Ha, I got a smile." He says and does a little dance.

"You are so weird." I say laughing at him. He shrugs and picks me up at my waist before spinning me around. "I'm getting dizzy." I say, but he doesn't put me down. "I already can't walk straight, this isn't going to help." I yell and hear him laugh in response. He puts me down, but when I try to take a few steps I end up falling into the ground. Sam laughs until he sees my face. "Hit my hand." I say holding the tears back.

"Sorry, sorry I completely forgot about that." He says and knees down next to me.

"It's ok." I get out, but he gives me a look that says he doesn't believe me. He grabs the backpack and puts it through my left arm and then my right. Then he he moves to kneel in front of me.

"Piggy back ride for you." He says and I start laughing. I get on his back and he lifts up like I weigh nothing.

"Question. Do you know where we are?" I ask and look around the trees.

"Kinda, sorta, maybe." He says and starts walking. I have my hands over his shoulders, my left one a little out so it doesn't hit his chest and he has his hands under my legs. I feel so tall on his back. He must be like 6 feet tall. Lucky guy, well being tall may not be all that great. I mean they have to duck for almost everything, they don't fit in small places, can't have small cars, the only good thing is getting things from tall shelves, looking intimidating, and being able to hold things over people so they can't reach. "Whatcha thinking about?" I hear Sam ask.

"How it might not be all that great to be tall." I say and he smiles.

"Ya, it's not what everyone thinks." He says and starts talking about things that have happened because of his tallness. I laugh at a few of them and just enjoin the forests around us even though he doesn't know where we are.

***

"I finally know where we are." Sam says and sounds excited.

"Really?" I ask and look around. I don't recognize any of it. Just trees and more trees.

"Yes, we are four hours away, but that's in a car." He says and jumps to push me up more on his back.

"You can let me down." I say because I don't want him to get tired.

"I'll keep you on my back. One your warm. Two you'll fall walking. Three I'll end up caring you because you're dehydrated." He says like there all facts.

"I'm going to ignore one and two and just go to three. How do you know I'm dehydrated?" I ask, not even sure myself.

"Because you have a fever, you move your head in a curricular like you're dizzy, you have been getting confused easily, and your weak." He says like it's nothing when really how do you know that much.

"How do you know I have a fever?"

"Because you're really warm and it's cold out. If I were to set you down and feel your forehead you'd be pale and feel warm." He says and I can see a small smile form on his lips. I go to ask another question, but he interrupts me. "Just believe me when I say you're dehydrated."

"Fine." I say and put my chin on his shoulder. I can feel him chuckle. Meany.

He walks a few more miles and we are now on a back-road. My stomach starts to turn though. I thought it was going to pass, but the feeling is getting worse. "Set me down please." I say feeling like I'm going to throw up. He does and I go on my knees. He rushes to pull me up, but I start to puke. He makes sure my hair doesn't fall into my face which is nice. I mainly just throw up gray stuff. Once I'm done I slowly stand up and wobble on my feet. Sam puts his arm around me instantly.

"That's also a sign you're dehydrated." He says and I smile a little.

"Ok, Mr.Smarty Pants why do I feel like crap and you're fine? You even had an extra 90 pounds on your back." I say and look up at him. His face is quite beautiful if you really look at it. His cheekbones aren't too defined, his nose is cute, and his blue eyes I could stare at forever. I think he's talking to me. Why is he talking to me?

"- and my body is stronger. Are you listening? Never mind. Hop on my back, we need to get back." He says and bends down so it's easier for me to get on. I get on his back forgetting about my hand I accidentally slap it with my other.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." I repeat putting my forehead on his shoulder. I feel like tears want to come, but they don't. Probably another sign of dehydration. "I hate my wrist."

"What'd it do to you?" He asks making another smile come to my lips. He always knows how to make one come to me I guess.

"It causes me pain." I say into his shoulder.

"I think you caused it pain. Maybe it's returning the favor." He says and I hit his chest with my good hand. "Sorry, sorry, gosh take a joke." He says sarcastically. I roll my eyes and laugh.

"This is going to be a long trip isn't it?" I ask, but it's more of a statement.

"Yup." He replies and we go into a comfortable silence.