I open my eyes to some flickering artificial light, dim yet blinding me. Slowly I adjust and realize I have suffered a head injury which has caused a migraine, an open wound, and –apparently- an inability to rationalize my thoughts properly. Words and phrases swirl around in my subconscious, but they were only fragments and would not fit together properly. I groan, seemingly deafening to my own ears. Perhaps it is just a dream? But this would not describe the pain I was currently sustaining. Imagination? That could be, if I had not turned to my colleague who is currently lying on the cement floor in front of me.
"J…JJ?" Ugh, this migraine is near unbearable! I reach to her, hoping, my god I dare say it, praying that she was alive; I cannot imagine life without her. My hand grazes her forehead, and I bite back a grunt from the pain residing in my left side. She's breathing, thank the god I do not believe in. I whisper, which to me seems like a shout of despair, "J-JJ please…open your eyes…" Slowly but steadily, her lids flutter, and a soft sigh spills from her lips. I'm no longer alone!
"S-Spence? Spencer is that you? Oh god my head!" I silence her, wincing as her voice loudly echoes in my ear canals. "Hush, JJ, I think we're safe now." She stares and shudders, as if close to tears, "W-where are we?" If only I knew what to say that would make her refrain from becoming only more frightened, "Jennifer, I wish I knew." My hand squeezed hers tightly as her tears dripped onto the gray rock below, and I could not help but let a few escape as well.
My mother used to tell me that fear is the idea that the beauty at the end is unreachable for it is obscured by the horror in front of it. Until today, I believed she was right. Or, well, I hope she is correct. I'd like to know how this will end in beauty.