Salle D'Evasion - Ben Miller x OC

Chapter Five - Body Heat

"What was that? What happened? Where's Danny?"

We all rushed to the hole, hoping this was some kind of joke.

Ben was standing a couple feet away from where Danny was standing, frozen in shock, "He just fell through."

"What do you mean he fell through?" Jason said, looking around the hole.

I frantically started to search the ice. He couldn't be dead.

"He's trapped under the ice!" Mike shouted a couple feet away, the rest of us sliding towards him to help find Danny.

I swiped snow and sleet out of the way, trying to get a clear view of the water.

No no no Danny where are you-

He can't die, he can't. Everyone was screaming, searching. At one point, I was ready to jump into the water and drag him back to the hole, but Jason stopped me short.

"There is a current under there. Even if you find him, you will not make it back to the hole."

I went back to combing through the top of the ice, but it was no use. Mike said something about him being dragged around under the ice. Zoey and Jason were shouting something incoherent, something I couldn't make out. I was shaking, tears on the verge of spilling.

No, no no no Danny come on. Come on don't die please don't die-

After what seemed like forever, Mike shushed us all. We all went quiet, so we could hear where Danny was stuck.

There wasn't anything. There was silence. A silence that sat heavily, uncomfortably on everyone's chests.

Danny was dead.

Jason walked up behind me and placed the red coat on my shoulders, "You were right. This is real."

This is real.

I was shivering, but not from the cold. I felt like I was going to pass out, but not from my tired limbs.

"How did it happen?" Mike spoke up, breaking the fragile silence.

"What?" Ben looked up, he hadn't moved an inch.

"How did it happen?"

Ben only stared in complete shock.

"How did Danny fall in? You're the only one who saw!"

"He was there and then it exploded, and then he fell."

"You threw him the lighter, and somehow you're perfectly fine?" Mike was throwing blame. I understood why. We were all trying to grasp at an explanation. A reason for why this happened.

Danny was so young. Young, and happy. He must've been so scared, trapped with no way out.

"I threw it across the ice. I was just being an asshole." Ben defended.

"Yeah, you threw it to the exact spot that just happened to collapse?" Jason was joining in on the blaming now, too.

Danny just wanted to have a fun time. He seemed so thrilled to do this.

"Are you saying that I did it?"

"Hey, your words, not mine."

God I wish I had just gone to get the lighter.

What difference would that make? The only difference would be that I would be the one trapped under the ice.

How would that change anything? What could I have done to change the narrative? How could I, someone with little to no experience, have fixed any of this?