Of the Trees(82)

“Enough of this nonsense,” someone sneered. Cassie shook her head, and the mist evaporated. Gone, or never really there to begin with. A trick of the senses. Before she could think it through, over the huff of annoyance from above, the seat of her pants was saturated in cold water. She pushed her hands to the ground around her, water pooled over her fingers, then her wrist. It was rising.

Cassie got to her knees, jerking Ryan to a seated position against the side of the well. She smacked his face. His skin was cold and wet under her hand.

“Wake up!” she shouted. Cassie shook him, pounded on his chest, yelled for help. The water rose steadily, her knees were cold and wet. It crept up her thighs. “Ryan, please!”

Nothing. His head lolled on his chest and the water, dark and shining, covered his lower half. She wracked her brain. Even if she called out to Aidan, acknowledged that she heard him, saw them, would that save Ryan? The soft hiss came back to her, and she gritted her teeth. No, she couldn’t save him by calling out. She thought of her mother, the ER nurse who would know exactly how to wake him. What would she say, if she saw her daughter now, stuck at the bottom of a created well in the middle of the forest? Would she know how to save them?

Her voice floated clear through Cassie’s mind, always so direct, always focused. She could handle a crisis. Cassie couldn’t. Random snippets of CPR, of treating frostbite, it flashed in her brain, none of it useful. Then an afternoon with Laney, Cathy darting about the house in pajamas on her day off. It had been a snow day. They had been watching a movie, something dumb on television when Cathy stopped collecting laundry and stood, watching the characters on the screen.

“Stupid,” she had muttered. “Would it have killed them to get some medical advice before filming this.” Those kinds of things had always bothered her mother when they watched anything medical play out in a movie.

“That’s not how you set an IV.”

“You’re giving them what for that?”

“Now they’re not even pronouncing it right!”

But on that particular afternoon, Cassie remembered, her mother had snorted. “A simple sternum rub would have that wuss up in a second. What a waste of time.” Laney had bugged Cassie’s mom until she showed them what that was, a hard rub of your knuckles up and down the unconscious person’s sternum. Cassie and Laney had wrestled each other to the floor and tried it. It hurt like hell, which was the point, of course.

Cassie yanked at the zipper of Ryan’s coat. His head fell forward, and she pushed him back, making a fist and pressing her knuckles hard to the center of his chest. She rubbed vigorously, pushing into him until she felt he might bruise. He came to with a lurch, crying out in pain.

“What’s going on?” he gasped, rubbing at his chest.

“Get up,” Cassie said, pulling on his arm. Water drained from her jeans as they stood, making cold paths down her legs. He pulled her to him and leaned on her heavily. She didn’t mind, happy for the solid feel of his body, the warmth leaking from his jacket.

“You should zip up,” she murmured, pressing her face into his chest. He squeezed her but didn’t pull away to fix his jacket.

“Did we fall?” Cassie nodded into his chest. “How long was I out?”

“A little bit,” she answered. “I was starting to get worried.”

The water hadn’t stopped rising, but neither had realized it. They were both soaked from the waist down, and it wasn’t until the water reached dry areas, the tails of their coats and then further, creeping up onto their waistlines, that Cassie felt the fear spike again. For a moment, with Ryan awake and here, it hadn’t seemed so impossible. But once again, she was thrown into the maelstrom, waiting for the water to rise too high.

“Have you tried to climb?” he asked, sounding breathless as he realized what was happening. She nodded again, pulling away.

“It’s mud,” she said, “all mud. I can’t get a hold.”

As she knew he would, Ryan turned and tried to find purchase on the soft walls. Just as it happened to her, chunks of earth fell down on him.

“My phone?” he asked.

“Gone.”

The laughter from above was audible to her, but she was blocking it out. The musical tinkling as though there was a cocktail party above her was distracting, but not overwhelming. The water and Ryan took most of her concentration. The lower half of her shirt was soaked now, cold tickling her ribcage.

How far would he push this? Would Aidan drown her and Ryan too, just to prove something? Cassie didn’t think so. He liked her face, he wanted her attention. But, surely, he didn’t want her dead.

“She’s not responding.” Cassie’s ears perked up at his voice. She looked to Ryan, trying to make out his features in the moonlight. He didn’t appear to have heard.

“She was before,” Aidan answered. It sounded like he was sulking. “If you hadn’t interfered.”

“Poor Aidan.” A soft feminine voice laughed. “All you’ve got going for you is your looks. It’s been that way forever, hasn’t it?”

The water rose slowly, but steadily; it was just under her breasts now. Cassie shivered uncontrollably, colder than she had ever been in her life. The water sliced through her, her feet already completely numb. She doubted she could climb now even if the walls didn’t fall apart.