Chapter 4 - Survive
Peridot whimpered as she followed Amethyst through the trees and fog. Her bag was securely strapped to her back as they limped their way back to the road that they plummeted from. The luggage was heavy, but she refused Amethyst who offered to carry the thing. It was hers... and she could at least disguise her low level of fitness with it now that she thought about it.
The bag was filled with whatever they could scavenge from the car, like food, medicine and water. It's not like they could leave it now that...
Peridot grimaced and Amethyst noticed.
"Hey… um… Are you alright?" Amethyst glanced back at her as Peridot climbed over a fallen tree,
"I'm… Better…" Peridot replied, appreciating her concern, "It's just… Lapis… and Pearl…" Her eyes started to well up and her throat clenched painfully,
"Y-yeah," Peridot could see Amethyst holding back her tears, the way her face contorted and her quivering lip was all she needed as proof of that fact.
"Why- Why does it happen to the best people?" Peridot spluttered out with a sniff, "I- I don't-"
"Hey, hey…" Amethyst put a hand onto her back as they continued walking, "it's okay… We're fine right?"
Peridot sniffed and nodded, she used her long hoodie sleeves to wipe her eyes.
She was trying so hard to be strong.
"I'm… I'm just so unlucky."
"What makes you say that?" Amethyst asked, but the small gasp she let out soon after was enough for Peridot to recognise that Amethyst knew what she was talking about.
She looked down to her legs momentarily, 'no…' Peridot corrected her thoughts, 'they aren't my legs…'
The smell of burnt rubber, taste of metal in the air. It was all too familiar to her, the first time she survived a car-crash she was only ten years old and it cost her the legs that she used to climb trees with… Now it's stolen her friends…
Peridot grumbled, she had to think of something else… Something less distressing.
Trees.
Peridot looked round as they continued to walk. 'Trees are a good memory.'
There used to be a young girl by the name of Peridot that loved to climb trees. She remembered the times she would fall because of how clumsy she was, it used to make her laugh even when she got that small un-noticeable scar on her forehead due to a bad fall.
But that little girl is no longer here and she's no longer that little girl. Now she was a girl invested in tech that couldn't bear to look at trees, Peridot didn't even know if she could climb a tree now.
'Way to go Peridot,' She grumbled sardonically, 'you are the definition of happy and optimism.'
"Hey…" Amethyst interrupted her monologue, "I- I'm sorry…"
"You don't have to be." Peridot put a hand onto her shoulder and stepped down a rock carefully, "we both lost someone important…"
"But…" Amethyst huffed, "It's unfair… Why you had to go through this again… Why Pearl and Lapis had to…" She whimpered,
Peridot felt bad for Amethyst. That was what she felt in a summary right now anyway.
It was scary how much a confident individual could change in the space of a few hours. She liked the confident Amethyst, despite the teasing remarks she would get and the constant dirty jokes… But she guessed that she liked this Amethyst too, the Amethyst that was honest with her feelings and in a way was being strong by telling her and showing her how affected she was.
If only she met this Amethyst without the tragedy.
They kept their eyes ahead of them, the forest was dark, yes, but the moon and the distant lights were enough to keep them walking. The grumbling sky also had a part in their hike, motivating them to keep going before they were struck by a storm. The wind ruffled Amethysts hair and Peridot pulled her hood up to stop herself from shivering.
"Look!" Amethyst said with an attempt of a happy or optimistic tone one they got to the familiar broken road that they drove off of, "there's the house up there!"
'It must have been what Pearl seen when the accident happened...' Peridot sighed.
They ran up to the front door and knocked several times desperately.
No answer.
Amethyst tried the handle and the door opened without much effort. Peridot would have complained about breaking and entering, but the forest was already terrifying and she wanted to get into shelter as quickly as possible before the clouds rolled in and the rain started.
"Hello?" They called into the darkness inquisitively and walked slowly inside,
No answer.
The house was tiny, a bed sat in the corner beside a small chest of drawers. A set of chairs and a table with some matches and candles decorating its surface were located in the other corner. There was also a warm wooden rug on the floor and a wooden couch in the middle. It looked… Abandoned.
Peridot did not like the looks of the place at all, but a flash of light that came from behind them made her jump, followed by a loud bang.
The storm had started outside, making them have no choice other than stay inside the house.
They closed the door behind them and sat down on the small wooden couch. Eventually they bothered to light a small candle on the table, but they were still slowly processing what happened.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they broke down and they coughed out sobs as they hugged each other for comfort. Peridot gripped onto Amethyst's shirt tightly as the events flooded into her head, she felt the other girl hug her back just as tightly.
But it didn't stop her pain.
—
"Brace Yourselves!" She barely heard Pearl yell as they began tumbling down the hill. Peridot grabbed onto her bag tightly, using it as a cushion and preventing it from hurting anyone. She closed her eyes tightly and wished that it wasn't happening, she wished that they could have just returned home and forgotten all about the meet-up in Beach City.
But there they where, probably going to die by the hands of a branch.
She hoped she was having a nightmare like always, it felt like a nightmare. Peridot just wanted the car to stop.
Then as if her prayers were heard the car suddenly stopped with a crash, it was violent and if it wasn't for her seatbelt she would have died by now. Peridot checked herself through cracked glasses, she sighed in relief as she was uninjured, despite the rough scratches and bruises. She looked down to her legs, like a sick joke there was a tree branch jammed in one of her prosthetics. She was happy that she didn't feel that at least. All she felt was some warm droplets of what had to be water on her cheek.
"Is everyone okay?" she heard Amethyst groan,
"I- I'm fine surprisingly." Peridot sighed, "Lapis?" She looked to the side…
She wasn't prepared for the horror she witnessed.
Lapis was limp in the seat, a large branch had punctured into her side and blood coated her seat. There was a large cut on her neck and her jacket was torn, there the technician could see the remains of a smashed phone in her pocket. Peridot brought a hand up to her face, the warm droplets of water were sticky and an odd colour of dark red.
It wasn't water at all.
"Pearl? Pearl!" She heard Amethyst cough and splutter, "Come on P! Open you're eyes! Say something!" Peridot looked ahead, Amethyst had some blood on her cheek and Peridot could see one of Pearl's limp hands hanging off the drivers seat. Unmoving, cold and lifeless.
"Ame… Ame…" Peridot's voice was weak but she still managed to catch the attention of the girl in the front passenger seat.
Amethyst looked back at Peridot, then her eyes landed onto Lapis with horror, her face went paler than before and her eyes went wide.
"Oh… Oh god." Amethyst brought a hands up to her head, she shuddered.
Their eyes caught each others again and they stared at each other in disbelief, their mouths opened and closed almost like a fish out of water but no sounds came out.
They simply can't say anything…
Couldn't say anything.
—
"Are we dead?" Peridot asked suddenly as her head rested on Amethyst's shoulder and the other girl's rested on top of her head,
"I don't think so…" She replied hesitantly,
"They why are we okay?" Peridot added, "Why don't we have some sort of injury?"
"I guess we're just unlucky…" Amethyst grumbled,
"Yeah… I guess so…"
They spent an hour or so like this. Just silently listening to each other breathe or ask little questions just to prove to themselves that they are alive. Peridot then heard a familiar beeping coming from her green bag, she pulled away from Amethyst a little hesitantly and pulled her beeping phone, surprisingly undamaged by the crash but sitting at 2% battery wise.
Peridot read the name on the screen
It was Garnet.
Peridot answered the call with hurried digits and brought the phone up to her ear.
"Garnet!"
"Hello Peridot." The cool accented voice replied, "Pearl isn't answering her phone."
Peridot whimpered, "Garnet… We need help. Pearl… and Lapis… They aren't here anymore."
"I need more information than that," Garnet replied on the other end of the phone,
"The road got cut off… We crashed the car in a forest and-"
A familiar grumbling came from outside and they gasped falling flat like a pancake onto the floor behind the couch. Peridot could hear Garnet on the phone but she couldn't make any sound. Whatever was outside wasn't human, it wasn't a machine and it wasn't an animal… It was a monster.
"Garnet," Peridot whispered into her phone, "you need to get us out of here. There's something in this forest and we can't get out!"
"I'll be there-"
"It's a forest… Near Ocean Town… Hurry!" Peridot's phone then ran out of charge. But she wasn't too concerned as she never really could care about something so trivial when there was something outside that most likely wanted to kill them, so she held her breath.
She watched the lumbering figure outside look into the window with beady eyes. Amethyst pulled her down and covered her mouth before she could gasp, they listened as the creature growled and then lumbered away with the familiar grumble and shifting.
"What is that?" Amethyst whispered into her ear,
"How would I know?" Peridot whispered back,
"Listen, you're like the smartest person I know, I thought you might know at least something." Amethyst peeked out, there still wasn't anything there and Peridot knew it.
"Oh, well as much as I'm flattered. No, I have no clue what that thing is and no, I don't want to find out." Peridot blushed slightly.
Their hearts were still in their throats as they waited out the creature to pass by again, eventually they hid under the bed and cuddled up to each other.
Slowly waiting for the detective to arrive.
