Time to Think
KuzAnn
The argument had been over something stupid.
It started with Max’s plan to prank David backfiring spectacularly, and then the whole day had gone downhill from there. Max had been venting his frustration by giving Space Kid a hard time for his mere existence when Neil told him to knock it off and that he’d done enough for the day. The shouting match that resulted from that wasn’t something that Max was proud of, but he wasn’t ready to go back and make anything close to an apology yet. He had his image to think about, after all.
Instead Max stomped onward, hands shoved in his hoodie pocket as he followed the trail he’d picked at random when he and Neil parted ways. He needed time alone for now, without Nikki or—heaven forbid—one of the counselors trying to talk him into apologizing.
There was a noticeable incline to the trail he was using now. Large boulders peppered the hillside on either side of him, a few of them split into massive pieces by particularly industrious pine trees. He couldn’t remember if David had taken them on this trail before but carried on regardless. It wasn’t like it mattered where he went, David would be along to grab him sooner or later.
“Maybe if you actually focused on doing something nice for a change you wouldn’t be so pissy all the time.” Max scowled as Neil’s words started to replay themselves in his head and stamped down on the rest. He kicked a pebble off the trail and paused to listen to it hitting boulders and tree trunks on its descent down the slope, then continued on his way. What the fuck did Neil know anyway? He was complicit in Max’s schemes most of the time, so who the fuck was he to talk?
Max was well away from the camp at this point. No sounds other than those from insects, birds, and other animals reached his ears at this point, not that he cared. He could almost imagine David starting the frantic search once he found out that Max had walked off without telling anyone where he was going. Maybe it would give Neil a good scare, make him realize how boring his time at camp would be without Max to liven things up. Yeah, that was it. Let them scurry around searching while Max cooled his head, only to stroll back into camp looking calm and collected at the end of the day. That would show them.
With such a strong focus on his thoughts Max failed to realize that his route was taking him dangerously close to the edge of the path and the steep slope beyond. He could almost hear David freaking out now, asking Neil where he’d last seen Max and the panic growing when Neil—
The thought was cut short when Max’s foot hit a patch of particularly loose gravel at the path’s margin and slid to the side. Max struggled to get his hands out of his hoodie pocket so he could use them to balance, but too late. His foot started down the slope, and the rest of him followed.
Time slowed as the world spun around him, those panicked seconds as he tumbled down the hill seeming to crawl on for minutes instead. Max came to rest halfway down the slope when a small bush caught him. He stared up at the trail, fighting to catch his breath in the wake of that terror, and tried to focus on how badly he was hurt. Various bruises and nothing worse, as far as Max could tell, hopefully he wouldn’t find out later that he’d done worse. He was dimly aware of his throat feeling raw and scratchy, as if he’d been screaming; he probably had been, though this was news to him.
Max slowly started to sit up, and was greeted by a chorus of snaps from the small bush that was the only thing standing between him and yet more falling. He froze, but the cracking continued, and within moments the bush collapsed under him and tipped him down the rest of the slope. Max clawed at the dirt, flung around for anything to stop his fall. There was nothing strong enough in reach, and Max kept tumbling until he hit something solid. He bounced off a boulder, rolled once across stone—and plummeted down a crevasse that opened like a portal into the abyss just beside it.
