Sam and Colby: The Asylum

94

"No! Stop!" I yelled.

"You'll break her fucking arm, man," said Sam.

"It's better than her dying!" Colby said back.

"Not if her fucking bone snaps and we can't pull her up or her shoulder pops out of its socket and tears her muscles from us holding her like this!" Sam argued. I closed my eyes for a second and thought. I took a deep breath and blocked out the sound of the four voices that were now yelling in a panic. There had to be some way out of this that wouldn't result in a major injury. But what the hell was it?

I was pulled from my thoughts when I felt someone wrap their hands around my knees, supporting me enough to nor fall if Sam and Colby let go. Jake must have run downstairs and climbed up the bricks somehow to reach me. Except if the pile of bricks went that far up, I would have been able to jump down at a relatively safe distance.

I looked down to see absolutely nothing. I felt a pair of arms holding me tightly in a way that seemed like they were trying to help. Like they knew what they were doing. I felt the arms bend my knees up and set my thighs on what had to be a shoulder. I was so petrified with horror and amazement that I stopped moving, stopped breathing, stopped thinking.

Suddenly, something in my brain told me to let go. To take my fingers off of the edge and pull my arm away from Colby's grasp, as Sam had let go since Colby was fully capable of holding me up on his own. I knew I could do it if I wanted to. But why did I suddenly want to? I felt the grip on my legs tighten as my brain told me louder to let go. It was my own voice, the one in the back of my head, but it didn't align with my thoughts.

Let go. You're okay, you'll be safe. You can let go. You will not fall down.

I was freaked out by the fact that the voice only ever said 'you', not anything about someone saying 'I will catch you, I'll keep you safe, I won't let you fall'.

But it was just saying that I'd be alright, not explaining how or why that was true. The voice didn't stop. It got louder, but never angry or upset. Just calmly saying that I was just fine. I don't know why, but I decided to trust it. I didn't give Colby a warning because I knew he'd tighten his grip if he did. I let myself relax onto whatever invisible force was holding me, and it held strong.

I waited for Colby's grip to falter for a second when he repositioned his hands and jerked my arm back.

"VANESSA!" Colby screamed. I looked up to see him almost falling out of the window himself, but just for a split second before someone yanked him back inside. I heard him continue to scream my name, his voice breaking and cracking. Except I was fine. I was gently lowered down onto the ground and set softly on my feet. I tried to reach out to feel whatever had helped me, but nothing was there.

Thank you, I thought.

I said help and you helped. I flinched when I heard those words in my mind, the thing finally acknowledging itself.

I suddenly had a sort of flashback to the Ouija board spelling out help, and then to me looking for Henny's file, explaining to the guys what had happened after I figured it out, and having the thought that the bite mark on my neck meant that I was supposed to come back.

Had Henny just saved me because I'd finally, like, laid his spirit to rest or something? I didn't have much time to think about it because as suddenly as those images had formed in my mind, they were gone, along with the presence of the thing that had saved me.

"No, no, no, no," I heard someone muttering to themselves as their footsteps ran from the side of the house to the back.

"No. I can't, dude. I can't fucking look. I'm literally," Corey yelled up to the house before gagging. "I'm going to fucking throw up," he said from behind the corner. I could hear Sam upstairs, trying to yell at Colby to combat Colby's screaming. I didn't want to know what things he was screaming, I didn't want to hear the pain in his voice.

"Colby!" I screamed up.

All of the noises stopped. The air around the house froze. There was no more yelling from Sam and Colby, no more footsteps walking down the stairs from Jake, no more coughing from Corey.

"I'm okay!" I yelled. Simultaneously, Corey's head popped out from the side of the house and Sam and Colby's heads stuck out of the window upstairs and were shortly joined by Jake's. They all stared at me, their mouths wide open and eyes wide. "I'm okay," I said again.

"Wh—bu—ho—," Corey stuttered, backing away from me.

"I'm not a ghost, Corey. You can come over here," I said with a laugh.

"You, you're okay? She's okay?" Sam yelled down.

"My face fucking hurts from being nailed with a goddamn brick, but yeah I'm okay," I yelled up.

"She's okay?" Jake yelled, like he didn't believe it was me standing there talking to them.

"Apparently!" Corey yelled back up. He looked at me and reluctantly walked over. He looked like he wanted to reach out and poke me to see if I was even real.

"Corey, I'm fine," I said stepping forward and giving him a hug. He tensed up when I touched him but quickly hugged me back when he accepted that there was no danger.

"Oh my god," he said into the side of my head. He pulled back and grabbed my face. "You're, like, alive. You're standing here. I didn't have to walk around the corner and see you impaled by a bunch of broken rocks and bricks," he said.

"Yes, I'm alive," I chuckled.

"Thank fucking God!" he exclaimed, hugging me again. He picked me up off the ground and swung me back and forth in short movements. I heard the other guys' feet thundering down the stairs and out onto the concrete of the sidewalk. They ran around the corner of the house and froze when they saw Corey tightly holding me in a hug.

"Holy fuck," Jake said, breaking their spell of stillness. They all ran over and Corey set me down so that they could all pull me into a hug together. We stood there for at least two minutes, all of them mumbling their 'thank god's and 'holy shit's and 'what the fuck's.

Colby eventually stepped in closer to me, telling the other guys to let go. He put his arms around my shoulders and I wrapped mine around his waist.

"You're okay," he said again, like he still didn't believe it. He kissed the top of my head twice before he stopped hugging me. He put his hand under my chin and lifted my face up toward his. I saw that his eyes were red and tears were still falling out of them.

"Aw, baby. I'm okay. I told you," I said, reaching up to wipe them off of his face.

"I know, I just thought...," he said, his voice catching in his throat. Since his words had failed him, he leaned down and kissed me. This kiss was so, very different than the rest. This was him kissing me when he thought he would never be able to again. He was certain I was dead not even five minutes ago, but here I was, in his arms with my lips pressed against his.