The Cinder

Rosanne {15}

My arms were hurting like hell. It took all my willpower not to hiss when Diego pulled me towards him.

Unfortunately, I couldn't help wincing visibly when he put his hands under my arms to lift me into his embrace.

"Rose?" He shot me a knowing look. Of course, he knew I was hurting. Diego didn't miss anything. Not when it came to me.

After Jared and Brandon had pulled us up safely on the branch, we were forced to make a conflicted decision of whether to climb up or down.

Both seemed equally dangerous since we had no ropes or any other stuff that would assist in rock climbing.

Luckily though, Jared had managed to grab a few bags before the car had fallen.

My travel bag was not one of them.

Not that I was feeling for its loss but apart from my clothes, which I didn't really give a care about, it also had my forever-staying first aid kid.

Looking at most of us injured and bleeding did not sit well with me. I wanted to tend to their injuries.

After a heated discussion we concluded that if we climbed up, we'd have to find our way down again by the hills and no one knew what we might encounter.

We didn't know what could happen down there either but it was a moot point because we anyway had to go in those woods.

Going back was not an option now. Not until we had the gemstones.

Also, if we walked back, there could be a risk of getting caught by the people of the Brooke.

This way, we'd at least have a powerful source to threaten them if they tried to harm us.

"What was it anyway? Why did the car lost control like that? Why did Rose scream for you to look out?" Brandon had asked Diego.

"Not sure but I think it was an animal. A bear of some kind. He just stopped in between trying to jump on a tree. We would have crashed into him so I tried to change the directions of stop the car. Went all into a clusterfuck."

"There are many unknown creatures out there. You never know what might cross our paths." Jared had commented.

"So what do we do now?"

"I suggest getting down seems like a start."

Already having to pull so many people and then hanging with Diego's weight in my grip caused my arm muscles to scream in silent agony.

I tried my best not to panic as we slowly climbed down the rocks.

None of us were trained climbers and with the exception of Diego and Arianna, no one has ever went on any sort of rock climbing trips.

Still neither of them had any experience with free climbing without any equipment.

It took all us an uneventful hour approximately to land down to the ground safely.

That was when Diego took me in his arms and noticed my state.

My own arms were sore, refusing to lift even an inch. The side where I had fallen from the car was throbbing badly.

Earlier, Diego had asked me how I was not in the car with them but on the upper branch instead.

"I don't know why I did it but I guess you can call it instincts. The moment we fell down the cliff, I opened my door and held on until I found the branch and jumped."

Needless to say my story was rewarded with a hell of a shouting, lectures and curses about how stupid that was.

"But it saved us all didn't it?" Jared had taken my side.