The Deep End

I felt a hand in mine. A warm, living hand, the complete opposite of the hand that was on my ankle.

"You have to let him go. That's the rule and even you can't break it."

Slowly I felt the hand on my ankle let go, releasing me only because it had no other choice. It no longer held me down and I felt myself beginning to drift. Up and up, higher and higher, until the only thing keeping me from floating away was his hand in mine.

"Do you really want to go back there?"

I didn't answer because I didn't know what he meant. He seemed to take my silence as an agreement and started leading me.

But he led me down.

Down through my ashes, through the embers of the fire I had passed through earlier. The heat seeped away and it grew colder and colder. Ice swirled in flurries around us, yet we were untouched.

Untouched by the ice itself, but the cold ate into my bones. I couldn't move. My joints were frozen, unable to bend.

But his hand was still warm.

We went down and down until we seemed to be going up.

It began to grow warmer. It happened so slowly that I couldn't tell when it started, but slowly my bones began to thaw. A warm breeze blew around us. I felt air against the face that I thought was gone. I felt my hair move in the wind. I felt my skin stretch over my bent knuckles where I gripped his hand.

The darkness that had surrounded me started to give way. Light, only noticeable because of the total darkness, started to appear. Dim streaks rippled in and out, as if we were surrounded by a curtain that had started to wear through. It grew brighter and brighter and I could see my arm stretching up to meet his hand. I could see his hand. I could see him.

Then I noticed there were things around us, but we were moving so fast I could barely see it before it was gone.

We slowed down, no longer floating through the air. We were on a dusty road, and even though I would have followed him anyway he kept my hand in his.

I whipped my head around, trying to take in everything, but I could only catch snatches of things at first. A splash of brown that turned into the wall of a building. Yellow words on a sign outside a shop. Red flowers on a windowsill. But slowly, slower than the slowest sunrise, I started to see everything. The world around me, people going back and forth like well-oiled gears. Voices hung in the air, coloring the sky the deepest shade of blue I'd ever seen.

I didn't notice he had stopped until my arm, still attached to his, stretched out behind me and pulled me back. I turned to face him, only to find him staring at me. Or through me.

I'd never seen him before, but I felt like I had. He looked exactly the way he sounded. On the shorter side, with piercing eyes drifting somewhere between blue and gray. Light brown hair and a key hanging around his neck. Blue with some hard spots of red. That's what he was.

I don't know how long we stood there. It could have been for a few seconds or hours. But it didn't matter. I wasn't scared. I, who had spent all my life that I could remember being terrified, was not afraid.

And I didn't know why.

When he saw me looking at him, his eyes returned to my face, no longer looking inside me. He gave a little smile, crinkling the corners of his eyes, and asked if I was feeling better.

I said I was, thanks.


AN: I'd just like to thank you all for reading and being patient with my slowness. But I really want to get things right. And if I mess something up here, then the rest of the story won't make sense. This chapter was really hard to write andthere are still parts I don't like, but I couldn't figure out how to make it so I did...so I updated anyway.

madmbutterfly713- I know you think he's crazy, but I'm pretty sure I'll be calling you Bob pretty soon.

hobbit1400- It's not exactly soon…but better late than never, right?

Silky Conlon- Yes, the main character is Race, but that's only been mention once. Thanks for reviewing!

Pussycat- Thank you for reading it and I'm glad you like it.

Liams Kitten- I'm glad you like it, despite it's confusing-ness. I promise almost everything will get explained eventually. It's not exactly soon, but I hope you're still happy.

Corpus Conlon- Thanks for reading and I hope it isn't too confusing. It makes sense to me, but I'm the one writing it, so I'm not the best judge.

christianrockstar- Thank you! I'm glad you like it.

Kid Blink's Dreamer- Thanks! Updatedness is goodness…even if I'm really slow about it.