Dreader's Escape

Seven

"Okay, I'm gonna go first! Just to check it out and make sure it's safe. Mason, you'll come down next, and we'll get all the girls down, okay?" Taylor instructed, reaching out and pulling one of the doors shut before carefully stepping down onto the second step of the broken staircase. Asher and Mason held that door closed so it wouldn't pull open and knock him down the stairs while he hooked the grapple to the door handle. He made sure not to glance down at the drop as he pulled on the grapple to make sure it was tight enough and wouldn't give in. "Okay, that should do it," he said, stepping around the door and pushing it open once Mason and Asher got out of the way.

"There's not enough harnesses for all of us... How are the rest of us going to climb down without any equipment? W-What if we lose our grip and f-fall?" Heidi stammered, a frown on her face. Patience dug through the bag and grabbed out multiple gloves, passing them around to all of us. "I saw these down there with the rope climbing equipment. Whoever stayed in that cabin before was prepared to climb mountains. The gloves should hopefully give us a better grip and help not scratch up your hands," she explained, smiling. We all looked at her in confusion and she just shrugged, putting on her gloves. "Don't look at me like that. I watch a lot of YouTube," she stated with a shrug.

It was true. She did.

"We'll let the girls have all the harnesses then," Taylor stated, causing Charlie to huff and place her hands on her hips. "I'm not some weak chick, you know? I can climb down that thing without a harness!" She defended, glaring at Taylor who tilted his head, frowning. "I- uh... I'm just trying to be a gentleman. S-Sorry, I'm not saying you're too weak, I know you can climb down the rope," he mumbled. Charlie hummed and crossed her arms, glancing away. "Ugh... I know, it's fine. You men in this group are too sweet for your own good," she grumbled to herself, turning her head back to face Taylor. "You take the harness, though. You're the first one going down, so you should be able to have it to get down there better," she told him, smiling a bit. Taylor shrugged, not bothering to argue with her, knowing it'd only agitate her more. "Okay, well... There's six in total, so one of you guys gets the other harness. Who wants it?" He asked, holding up the extra harness. Leo raised his hand up immediately and looked at the rest of us. "Uh... I'm extremely clumsy, so," he trailed off, bringing his hand down and crossing his arms.

He wasn't wrong, Leo was definitely one of the clumsiest among us all.

"I'm fine with that if the rest of you are," I said with a shrug. The rest of the guys agreed, Taylor handing the harness to Leo, who let Mason help him put it on while the rest of us helped the girls put theirs on as well, Charlie assisting Taylor with his.

Once we were all prepared, we put our gloves on and looked at Taylor who was stretching his arms, popping his shoulders. He took a deep breath and nodded, clapping his hands together. "Okay! See you all down there, He said, getting on the second step and sitting down, reaching out for the rope that was grappled to the open door, which he was now hooked to. "Be careful, dipshit..." Cassidy mumbled, crossing her arms. Taylor rolled his eyes and grinned at her. "Love you too, sis--"

"Please be careful!" Heidi interrupted, a frown on her face. Taylor smiled a little and nodded, causing Cassidy to scoff and roll her eyes.

Taylor made sure his harness was really hooked to the rope before grabbing onto it and dropping off the steps, using the equipment to keep his grip. He looked up at us, gave us a peace sign then began his trip down. Thankfully, Taylor made it down safely and called for Mason to come next after he had gotten a good look around his surroundings, but not moving too far, from what I could tell.

One after another, we let the girls down, helping them all besides Charlie who was able to get down like a pro. Heidi and Cassidy were the toughest to help down, though. We tried to get Cassidy to go down first, but of course she was being difficult. She would refuse our help and snap at us, despite looking like help was what she really needed. Meanwhile Heidi would cling to Charlie and Asher, who were trying to urge her down so that Charlie could go next, but Heidi was acting she was some cat terrified to get in the bath. I didn't really get their worry, as they were probably the safest in climbing this rope since they had the harnesses hooked and didn't have to worry about falling to their deaths if they slipped. Eventually though, they all got all down safely. Patience was the last girl to go and she was excited, loving every minute of it. She was a very adventurous girl, unlike me. I'm actually terrified of heights and was pushing everyone else to go ahead of me, until it was finally me and Asher alone.