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With a sharp pain in my shoulders, I came to an abrupt halt just after my head fell below the level of grass. I looked up through tear blurred eyes to see Edmund's hands still clasped in mine. I blinked away the tears enough to see him as well. He was above me, his head and shoulders hanging over the ledge, but the rest of him was hidden by the ground above.
"Don't let go! I've got you!" He shouted down to me.
My legs dangled aimlessly in the air. Panicking, I looked about for something to grab onto: a root, a rock, anything. There was nothing, not within my reach anyway. At Edmund's elbow, there looked to be a promising root from the old Oak tree, but it was too high for me to grasp.
"Edmund, how can we? There's nothing...I can't," I tried as my legs kicked about beneath me.
"Shh, stay calm. I will pull you up," he promised, trying to sooth me. "Just try to hold still."
I stopped my kicking. He began to pull me up, slowly. He was trying to wiggle himself back away from the edge of the cliff while lifting me with his arms. Soon I was high enough to let go of one of his hands and grab the root. I pulled myself up a little and our progress sped up ten fold. The hand still remaining in his was but an inch away from the top of the ledge when the root gave out suddenly.
The root sprang out of the Earth with a strong snap and some of the dirt decided to come with it. Once again, I felt the stomach-flipping sensation of a drop, and this time I did not seem to halt as fast, but a halt did come. Looking up, I could see that Edmund was almost over the edge as well as I. Before only his shoulders had been visible. Now his whole torso was hanging off the cliff with me. His hand still held tightly to mine, and I flung up my other hand to catch onto his.
"How-"
"I think my foot is caught on a root," he said, cutting me off. His face was turning red as his blood fell to his head. I could see him trying to think of an escape, but I knew as well as him- there wasn't one.
I felt the choking sensation building in my throat again, but I would not let it control me. These moments were important and they would not be lasting.
"Edmund...you have to let me go."
"No, I won't-"
"You'll fall too!" I cried out and I felt the burning tears returning. "There is no way to get us both up, but if you let go, you can-"
"No, I let you go once. I won't do it again. I will never let go!" He shouted, and I could hear the tears in his voice though my tears blocked my vision.
"Edmund," I whispered, hardly able to control the forming lump. "I love you..."
I let go with one of my hands. He held on tightly. "Edmund, it's okay, let me go."
"No, no." He cried, but I was slipping. The combination of time warring against his strength as well as gravity and my weight were all working against him. "Don't do this, please. Just hold on," he pleaded in a voice almost more weak and desperate than when he had asked me to marry him.
I gasped as one of my arms fell free as he lost his grip. Yet I did not plummet. With his now free hand, he grasped onto my remaining one with twice the strength. True to his word, he was not letting me go. But I knew, it was our lives or mine.
Persistently, I began "Edmund-"
"Grab him! Throw down that rope, quickly!" Adam's voice came from above, strong and clear to cut me off.
A rope was thrown down nearly a heartbeat after the words had been spoken.
"Millie, grab a hold of the rope," Adam yelled over the ledge. With my free hand I grabbed onto it. "Edmund, let go of her!" He didn't. "We cannot pull her up without her using both her hands. She could fall!" Edmund finally released my hand.
My heart nearly skipped a beat as I tried to do the transfer and slid an inch, but eventually I managed to hold tight. A knot in the rope, perhaps from a lucky tangle, helped to stop me and leave me where I was. I hardly had time to think about it before I was being pulled up, and Edmund was being slid back over the top of the cliff.
I did not let go until my head had been dragged a few feet over the cliff and naught but my calves and feet hung over the edge. Then I let go, crawled forward, and laid on by back breathing heavily.
"Millie? Millie?" Edmund reached my side faster than anyone else. Immediately he took my hand in his. "Are you okay? Millie? I'm sorry I let go. I'm sorry...I had to...I...Millie, talk to me!"
There were tears in his eyes, tears and fear. I reached my hand up to stroke his cheek and gave him a smile.
"Yes, my answer is yes."
And then his lips were on mine and everything in the world seemed right.
Anne Onymous · Wed Oct 07, 2009 @ 02:54am · 0 Comments |
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