Life by Chance

Back to the Dark

The first thing Tana noticed was the cold, wet floor. It was hard and painful to lay on; concrete. The second thing was the darkness. she couldn't see anything around her. She could hear the soft hum of what was probably the air unit and the sound of footsteps overhead. She quickly realized where she was; a basement.

Cutting through the silence came the sound of a door opening, and light poured in from the top of the staircase. Tana prepared herself for men like the ones who jumped her and cut her stomach to come down the steps. She was not prepared for a teenage boy.

He didn't look like a teenager from the neck down. Worn, faded jeans covered him from the waist down. He had on a white t-shirt that tightly framed his muscular abdomen. The shirts sleeves had been cut of to fully reveal the two full sleeves of tattoos going from shoulder to wrist. Right above the shirt's neckline was a tattooed pair of crossed daggers with writing in another language lining the bottom. It was his face that gave away his age. There were no lines suggesting years of doing the same facial expression. The dark circles didn't resemble those of adult. Just the face of a teen who had seen too many horrors in his short life.

He started to carefully approach that suggest no harm was to come to her. In his arms was a wide variety of supplies, showing that he came to help. There was a first aid kit, two bottles of water, some protein bars, and a blanket. He knelt beside Tana and got to work. He started to clean the long open wound that ran down her stomach to prevent infection. He then wrapped gauze around to make sure it stayed clean. Next, he helped Tana to sit up so she could eat  and rehydrate. He was careful to not let her have too much water at once, considering he didn't know how long she'd been down there. Lastly, he wrapped the blanket around her to keep hypothermia from coming to visit.

He then leaned in close and whispered, "Help's coming."

As he he was about to leave, Tana mustered enough energy to ask one question, "Who are you?"

The boy stopped and turned around to face Tana. He stood there silently for a long moment, weighing the idea of telling her. Finally coming to the conclusion that it wouldn't hurt, he quietly whispered, "Donathan." With that said, he turned around and left.

A few hours later, Tana heard sirens, shouting, footsteps, and through the whirlwind of action, she silently said thank you to Donathan.