Crescendo

Chapter 2: The Minor Fall

I plummet downward, turning in midair, my feet a windmill of movement. The pit of my stomach drops and I feel weightless. If not for the rush of wind surrounding my body, I would think that I was floating. The light from the bathroom flies in and out of my vision, growing more and more distant. "Finley!" I hear Maya call. With no way to grab onto the walls, I stop flailing my arms, close my eyes, and allow myself to fall.

I don't know how long I'm falling for. It could be seconds, minutes, hours; forever rocketing downward into a black abyss. But I do know that when I hit the ground, I hit the ground hard. I smack down onto the cold concrete, my back the first thing to come into contact with the floor. A loud "Oof!" escapes my lips, and I flop back until I am laying limp on the ground. Pain radiates from the small of my back to every far-reaching extremity of my body. I stay there for a while, a host of throbbing pain.

After I begin to feel the sharp ache fade, I slowly push myself up into a sitting position and look around. It's incredibly dark; I'm barely able to make out my hand in front of my face. I'm scared to get up and walk around. I have no idea what's out there.

I'm about to stand up when I hear the sound of a body hitting concrete, and a loud "Shit!" a few feet from me.

"Maya?" I call out. I can hear the fear in my voice.

"Oh, God, that hurts." Rustling noises come from my right. "I don't know why I jumped in after you. I should've gotten a teacher-"

I stand shakily and stumble towards the sound of her voice. Still wobbly on my feet, I accidentally kick Maya in her side.

"AH, GOD!"

"Oh my gosh, Maya, I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine, it's- AH!" She gasps in pain. "I think I- oh no, yup, I broke something."

"Oh geez, Maya," I kneel down next to her and stick out my hands, feeling for her in the dark. I brush her shoulder and feel her wince at my touch.

"Sorry," I mumble.

"No, no, it's fine." She reaches out and grabs my hand, then yanks hard and pulls herself up. "WOO, okay. Ow. Ow ow ow. Bad idea."

"What hurts?" I ask, completely useless.

"My side, mostly," she pants. "You think I broke a rib?"

"I mean..." I don't want to sound too pessimistic, but I have to level with her. "I'm gonna be honest, you probably broke more than one rib." I am a realist, after all.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Finley." She wraps her arm around my shoulders and leans against me. "So. Are we stuck down here?"

I look up into the infinite darkness above us. "I guess so."

"Great," she moans. "I have no idea how we even got down here. Like, there's no way a hole this deep went unnoticed. And it couldn't have been dug in the short amount of time necessary for it to be unknown to the school."

"Yeah..." 

I look around and try to see, but even as my eyes adjust and I can make out Maya's face in front of me, I still can't see anything beyond her. I weigh the options in my head. Either we stay here for an undeterminable amount of time, or we venture out into the dark unknown. Neither option sounds good, but we have to do something.

"Okay, Maya." I hoist her up further onto my shoulder. "We're gonna walk. Think you can walk?"

"Yeah," she grunts, planting her feet. "Yeah, let's do it."

With a nod to each other, we begin to slowly make our way into the darkness in front of us.

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