Transparent: A Divergent FanFiction (Book One) ©

Chapter 6

            As the metal beam came crashing to the ground, sending clanging reverberations throughout the pavement, I held my hands over my head and braced myself.  Braced myself to hear the dull thunk of her body hitting the ground. I waited, grief coursing through my body at the thought that I hadn’t been able to do anything, but the sound never came.

                Removing my arms from my head, I took a step back and craned my head up. Dangling from one hand, by only two or three fingers, Randi continued to sway perilously in the wind. She must’ve had time to reach out and hook onto another pole before the beam had given away.

                “You ok?” Danny shouted up.

                “No you idiot, of course I’m not ok!” she snapped, trying to sound brassy though her voice shook terribly; my attentive candor ears catching every hint of panic in her tone. “I’m slipping!”

                “Hang on!” I called out, dropping my backpack and reaching for the sculpture.

                A firm hand wrapped around my shoulder and I spun around to face Danny.

               “Sage what are you thinking? That thing might not hold the both of you, we have to go find someone!”

                “There’s no time,” I said, brushing him off.

             One hand over the other, I quickly scrambled up the instable structure, not once looking down at the ground. I had nearly reached her when one of the metal poles I’d been standing on shuddered and I almost toppled over. Wrapping my hands around the beam next to me, I stayed still as the structure continued to shift and swing. I glanced up, she was so close, I could literally touch her leg if I were to reach my arm out.

              Just as I thought that, the sound of groaning metal filled my ears. The wind picked up and whatever balance she’d had was gone. Her fingers slipped, and though it had probably only been a few seconds, I felt that the events that followed lasted for hours; I saw her arms flail, hopelessly grasping at the air, brown hair whipping around her face, she opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out.

             “No!” I shouted, a roar bursting from my chest.

               A fall from this height was not something anyone would be able to walk away from alive. She would not die, I could not let that happen. As if in slow motion, I saw myself leap away from my secure niche; one hand wrapping around her arm as she fell, the other barely latching onto one of the poles that flew past.

               The sharp and sudden wrench of Randi’s free-fall coming to a stop nearly yanked me away from the pole I’d managed to hold onto. We dangled, hands gripped tight, and for a moment I couldn’t help but compare it to the old game I’d used to play as a child; hanging by a hand and supporting her with the other, we were the literal representation of a barrel of monkeys, though this was anything but comical. Even though she was slight, Randi’s weight tortured my left arm when I tried to pull her up; I must’ve pulled something, I was sure of it.

              “Don’t let go,” I growled, my right hand gripping the beam tighter. “I’m going to swing you ok? I’m going to swing you and I want you to reach that pole next to you.”

            Her eyes widened and I saw her head already shaking no before she’d even spoken.

               “No, no, just-no, I won’t, no,” she stammered.