Okay so here we go again, the first few chapters will probably be out pretty fast just cuz I kinda want to get it going you know? Anyways, onward to chapter two ; ) Btw Fanfiction kinda deletes words sometimes so I'm gonna edit the last chapter and fix some technical errors.
The next day, Cole woke up early for dance practice. He always spent two hours before school practicing with his class. Next year he would finally graduate dance school which he was more eager to finish than highschool, simply because of how much he hated it.
Quickly he scarfed down breakfast, changed into his dance uniform which was a white dress shirt and black pants, and grabbed his backpack on his way out the door.
"Heya!" Jay called from the sidewalk. Jay was the greatest friend ever because he woke up early just to walk Cole to dance.
"Hi Jay. "Cole said tiredly. "How are you not tired every day?" Cole asked yawning.
"I had three cups of coffee." Jay replied. Cole looked over to see his friend squirming uncomfortably.
"Wanna use the bathroom?" Cole asked.
"Yes!" Jay burst out and ran into Cole's house. Cole chuckled to himself and set down on his porch steps. He tried to think about his day, and prepare himself mentally for dance. However Cole found himself thinking of something else instead.
His mind wandered to the crack in the ground. His ears remembered the cheering that he had heard, and the way he wanted to climb down it with a flashlight, just to see what was down there. Cole always longed for something interest to come along. He loved action, and adventure. Well okay, he was a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
He never told his father. His father would never understand. He would say Cole was careless and putting himself in harm's way.
Jay walked back out, snapping Cole from his fantasy of exploring the crack in the park.
"Doing okay?" Jay asked, seeing Cole's longing face.
"Just. . . wishing I didn't have to go to dance." Cole lied. Jay would probably be too afraid to return to the park and would warn Cole against it. Cole didn't want to worry him by telling him he was going to return.
Wait.
He was going to return?
Now that Cole thought about, he realized nothing was going to stop him from going back. He was too interested. In a small town where nothing happens, well Cole was desperate for anything to happen. Even if it was likely that the crack just ended and he hit dirt about a foot down.
Jay and Cole began walking to Cole's dance school, which was a smallish studio a block down from Jay's choice school. Jay told him more about his trip as they walked, still obsessed about the perfect match console he had tried. He was fantasizing places he might meet her.
"Oh oh maybe she goes to your school." Jay complained suddenly. "Ah no fair." He whined.
"Maybe she doesn't even live here at all, maybe you're going to meet her in some crazy trip around the world." Cole said trying to cheer Jay up. He did brighten at this.
"Hey, yeah." Jay realized nodding excitedly. "That'd be awesome." He agreed grinning.
"We're here." Cole said dully. This was his least favorite part of the day. The moment he entered this building, and he wasn't with Jay anymore, he had to be a different person until the end of the day when Jay met him after school.
"Skip." Jay suggested, just like he did every day.
"I wish. I'll see you a bit later man." Cole said, hugging his friend goodbye.
"Don't die on me." Jay demanded.
"Never." Cole promised, and though there were hardly any ways he could possibly die, he always meant it. So with a final wave, that seemed all too final, he entered his dance recital.
Cole had survived yet another day of school. Now he was just surviving the last few minutes of quartet practice.
"So we've got a gig on Thursday okay, they want us for two hours." Austin read of the schedule sheet.
"Two hours!" Milo complained. "My voice will one hundred percent be completely totaled by the time one hour is up how do you expect us to last two whole hours I mean that's longer than you think, i'm serious how will i last?." He rambled.
"Water." Don mumbled quietly, as an answer to Milo. Cole sat there saying nothing.
"Hey mute, you can make it right." Austin demanded, turning to Cole.
"Sure yeah, Thursdays fine." Cole agreed.
"Great that gives us tomorrow to practice." Austin pointed out. "Don't be late." He growled, then grabbed his backpack and stalked out of the practice room. Milo shrugged on hopped off his seat on the piano, also leaving the room.
"I'll see you tomorrow Don." Cole said with a wave, then also left the room. He made his way out of the building where Jay was supposed to be waiting, but then before walking outside he paused.
If he walked home with Jay, he would have to go straight home, where his father might be. Jay wouldn't want to go back to the park. He decided to shoot his friend a text real quick.
Hey wanna go 2 the park again today?
Hell no, that creepy gap in the ground might still be there.
Oh, good point. Well quartet ran long so I'll be out late. Don't wait up.
Oh. Yeah I've got to get home for like dinner or something anyways.
Sorry man
No problem, I'll see you tomorrow
Yeah, tomorrow.
Cole felt guilty about lying to his friend, but like Jay say, they would see each other tomorrow. Cole sprinted to the back of the school to where there was a side entrance. He burst out the door and ran down the trails to the park.
It was only about three minutes running. When Cole got there, he spotted the crack right away. He dropped his backpack on the ground next to it. It had gotten bigger since he'd been there yesterday, big enough to maybe fit a person. Cole glanced around the park, but like always it was abandoned. Everyone went to the new park down the street. This was old and falling apart.
Cole laid on the ground and peered down into the crack. It was pitch black. He grabbed his phone from his back pocket and switched on the flashlight. Again he looked down into the crack. The light lit up jagged walls and went down, down, down until the light didn't reach any further.
If only Cole had some sort of the rope. He looked up at the swing set suddenly. The old swings were built with rope instead of chain. Cole jumped up and ran over to the swing set. It the ropes were strong enough to support people swinging, they'd be strong enough to support him. He grabbed his pocketknife out of his backpack.
He knew he wasn't supposed to have it, but better safe than sorry. Bad things could happen even in a town like this. Or perhaps he kept it in hopes that something would happen, because nothing ever did.
His knife gnawed at the ropes for a few minutes but pretty soon he had four decent length ropes. Quickly he lashed them together as tight as he possibly could until he had a decent length rope. He ran back to the crack in the ground and tied one end of the rope to a pole on the playground and the other end around his wrist. He gave it a few tugs then walked over to the edge of the crack.
"Not too deep." Cole promised himself. "Just take a quick look." He said, slowly began climbing down the side of one of the walls. Climbing down wasn't relatively hard, there were footholds and handholds nearly everywhere and in the rare occasion that there wasn't, he just held onto the rope.
Every now and again, Cole would stop to take out his phone flashlight and see if he could locate the end from where he was. He never could. Cole moved to put his phone away again when a low rumble made him pause. He glanced upwards for the first time. The sky was much further away that he realized. The rumble sounded again and Cole clung to the wall nervously. Then slowly, the walls began to shift apart again. Cole looked up to see his backpack teetering on the edge as the ground shrank away from it. It was going to fall in a second. Then suddenly the foot hole Cole was using slipped away from him and he fell.
Luckily, or unluckily the rope around his wrist caught him. When the rope went taught he heard a crack and he screamed as his wrist flared in pain. His left had burned then began to immediately go numb. He looked up form where he was hanging in pain. His backpack was finally falling. As if fell by him he reached out his right hand to grab it, and like he expected his backpack was extremely heavy from all his books and it jerked on his right arm, causing his left to flare up again. Biting his lip to stop from himself from yelling in pain, he looked up at his arm once more. Warm liquid was trickling down his arm. The rope was cutting into his skin, and it wasn't stopping. He had to untie his hand, or it was going to be cut off. Cole swallowed and with his right arm he managed to put on one shoulder strap of his backpack. He reached up to his left hand and began picking at the knot.
It sliced further and this time he couldn't hold back a scream, the rope rubbed into the wound, scratching and burning painfully. He tried untying the knot faster. After what seemed like ages, the first part of the knot unraveled. He looked down into the darkness below. If he untied himself, the only chance he had of living was that the end of this thing was close and he just couldn't see it. He looked back up once more at the sky. It was blue, and far away. He glanced down.
"You better end." He told the dark abyss. The reached up, and pulled out the final part of the knot. The tension left his hand and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Then Cole began to fall.
Falling is a weird sensation because it feels like your stomach is falling before anything else. It's also weird because if there isn't an end in sight, every second is full of suspense, just wondering if the ground is going to suddenly come out of nowhere and kill you instantly.
Cole felt like this very much now. His back was to wherever the ground was supposed to be and as he fell, the glimpse of sky above him began to close, like the crack in the ground never existed in the first place. Cole tried not to scream as he fell. Darkness was all he could see, and wind was all he felt.
Jay I'm sorry. He thought, as the earth swallowed him whole.
As darkness settled over Cole for good, he began to hear something.
As he fell he listened as distant cheering grew louder.
And louder.
Well there you have it, chapter two. DUN dun DUN. Hope you liked it. R&R, your support means everything. I'll try to have chp.3 out tomorrow or something.
Keep Writing Keep Reading, Nova out ; )
