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“It’s okay. I’ll be just a moment,” I soothed him. Putting my hand to my forehead, I used my blood as a makeshift paint.
Demented? Yes.
Effective? Also yes.
Quickly, aware of the Ragers fighting behind me, I drew a picture on the railing. It took only a few seconds, shorter than what it would’ve been to spell out my name.
“Are you ready?” I asked Tommy as soon as I finished. I held out my hand, the non-bloody one, and he immediately engulfed it in his own.
I had no time to think about the people I was leaving behind, or the lives lost. No, I would lose my mind if I were to focus on such a depressing detail. I had to get Tommy to safety, first and foremost. He saved my life - at the expense of his own - and it was time to return the favor.
Would I be willing to hurt someone I loved to help a complete stranger? Was this young boy twice the person I could ever be?
I didn’t know the answer to either of those questions.
Holding my breath, I stepped off the ledge.
And down we fell.
Let me make something perfectly clear to you. Never, and I mean never, is it a smart idea to throw yourself off a bridge.
It hurts like a bitch, especially when you tumble down the side of a hill.
Loose pebbles and sharp rocks jabbed themselves into my side as I fell. My head, still roaring from the blunt force the Rager had inflicted, whacked itself against a jutting tree stump.
Sometime during my tumble, I must’ve let go of Tommy’s hand. The boy was no longer beside me.
I was relieved when I heard his cry of pain. At least he was alive.
For now.
When I finally stopped falling, I was a panting, broken mess on the forest floor. A few painfully sharp twigs jutted from my arm, and I ripped them out with a small growl.
Why did this shit always have to happen to me?
“Tommy!” I cried hoarsely, though I doubted my voice carried over the screams from above.
It wasn’t like in the movies. I didn’t just fall and transport myself into an entirely different reality, free of monsters. It didn’t all of a sudden become deadly quiet, the silence broken apart by the intermittent song of crickets.
Nope, I still heard every scream, every snarl, every gunshot. I still saw the blood coating my fingers, cascading down my cheekbones like teardrops.
The silhouettes of Ragers captured my attention from their perch high above.
Had I really fallen that far down?
Of course, I realized that question wasn’t necessarily important, but it was all I could think about. I refused to think about the boys I had left behind or the creatures that could be lurking in my new resting place.
“Are you okay?” a timid voice asked. Tommy. He dropped to his knees beside me.
“I’m fine. How about you?”
He looked okay, at least on the outside. I knew, mentally, that the wounds inflicted could be fatal.
“I’m fine. There’s a house up ahead.” He pointed towards a particularly dense thicket of trees. I wondered what he had seen during his tumble that led him to believe that because I saw jack shit.
“You sure?” I asked.
“Of course I’m damn sure!” Tommy snapped, and I blinked at the little boy.
