Target To Save

Chapter 20 - Part 2

The bleeding out of her eyes was starting to get annoying. Choking and drowning in her own blood as her body attempted to heal itself was the next thing on the list that really needed to stop. Suffocating was overrated and honestly after the first three times, just bothersome. She cursed that her mercies wouldn't let her stay dead because this is how she found out, alone, buried six feet in the ground. No one had known, especially not Ivalin. But pain racked her body, her throat burned. She coughed up dirt. No one had known Ivalin would come back to life.

Now, she knew. Now she knew she couldn't stop dying. That she was trapped in a small area. Wooden, dark, dirty, a coffin she had been buried in. A coffin she kept dying in. The air was thinning, it was hard to breathe, and everything burned.

At first, she didn't know where she was or what had happened, but the panic slowly dwindled to survival instincts that failed her every time her heart stopped.

Her arms wouldn't respond, her legs wouldn't move. She couldn't slam her hands against the wood, cracking it, grabbing attention. Frustration filled her senses, blood trailed out of her eyes, and she sighed. Being able to move was a nice idea, but not something she had actually been able to do for the past four days.

She closed her eyes, and gathered up all her strength. She tried to lift her arms again, and again, and her hands slammed on the wood above her. It barely moved. Her body was shaking, fatigued raced through her arms, and she tried one last time. It shattered, dirt piling above her, drowning her alive. She struggled to breathe, her heart raced, earth pressed up against her. It was cold, it was crushing, she opened her mouth to inhale, and dirt covered her throat and the world went black.

When she woke up again, she woke up to darkness, to grit in her mouth. Her ribs were cracked, the ground burned. Dirt filled her eyes, and she slowly shifted the earth away from her hands, then her face. And she slowly could move.

It took forever, she kept drowning in mud, in blood, but she scratched her way through the earth. Panic held her chest, the lack of oxygen kept getting to her brain. Sometimes she swore she could hear bugs crawling next to her, around her. Horror would fill her senses and she'd crawl faster, dragging herself in a mess of her own making. She'd move the planet to only get crushed by its gravity.

And then her hand hit air. No more dirt, so more burning cold, freezing hot mud that surrounded her skin. She pulled her body out, coughing up dirt and blood, trying to breathe in the clean, fresh air. Grime covered her body, and she cried, red dripping down her cheeks.

Ivalin breathed into the daylight, sobbing. Her body burned, and her lungs couldn't get enough air. Her eyes adjusted to the light that could last forever. She was alive.

The End