Chapter 3

Sora didn't think. When she saw Rosetta slip from the trapeze she just reacted. Leaping from the catwalk and tackling her in midair. She managed to grab Rosetta before she forced her body to turn.

Just then the lights turned off. Ken must've hit the lights.

Still reacting, Sora reached up to one of the pulley ropes and latched on with her free hand. The pull of their combined weight tore the rope through her fingers. Still plummeting towards the ground she forced her hand to hold tighter ignoring the friction burn eating through her palm.

Slowly she felt them come to a stop. Her hand throbbed painfully but with the lights off she couldn't risk letting go of either the rope or Rosetta. She wasn't sure how far off the ground they still were so she held on. The screams and cries from the audience hurting her heart.

Sora felt a warm trickle down her arm and started to panic. She held her voice in though, waiting for the children to be evacuated from the stands before she called out for help. They hung there for what seemed like hours, the voices slowly dieing down. Flashlight lights started to scan the stage set looking for Rosetta, stage hands and performers alike calling out to Rosetta, but Sora still couldn't bring herself to open her mouth. She knew she'd have to, to alert her friends they were alright but she couldn't force herself to call out.

"Sora!"

She saw light behind her closed eyes. She hadn't realized she'd closed them but she opened them now to see the worried brown of Ken's eyes.

"K-ken!" Sora sobbed out his name. Now that she'd spoken the pain intensified and she cried while holding on for dear life. They were still about ten feet off the ground and she couldn't let either of them fall and get hurt.

"It's okay! You're doing amazing, just hold on for one more minute…" Kens voice shook as he turned the light down and called to Jean to bring a ladder as quickly as possible. He brought the light back up to Sora. "Sora?" he called softly, "Can you tell me how bad you're hurt?"

She didn't answer, just continued to cry quietly, the pain in her hand radiating down her arm and into her shoulder. It felt like hot embers being pushed into her hand, the throbbing coming in time with her heartbeat.

She heard Kens voice call, then Jeans, then a clatter. Soon hands were reaching for Rosetta. "Sora? You can let her go…I have her."

Sora whimpered, "I can't Jean."

"Of course you can, you're both safe now."

"N-no…I can't"

Jean reached for Sora's hand that was gripping onto Rosetta's costume. Slowly, he pried her fingers open and took the smaller girls weight. He edged down the ladder and laid her flat as the paramedics started up the stage. He turned back to go back up the ladder but Ken was already heading up.

"Sora?" Ken looked at the girl who held his heart. Her face was pale, streaked with tears, blood trickled down her arm and smeared lightly on her right cheek and turned her dark blue costume darker with the stain. When she opened her eyes he felt fear take hold. They were blank. Like a dolls eyes there was none of what made Sora her normal self in those eyes. Ken stood up on the very top of the ladder to help brace Sora against him as he reached up with a knife that all stage hands carried.

As carefully as he could he sawed through the rope. She whimpered at the movement but soon enough she was slumping in his arms, still holding the lower part of the rope. He took her weight and awkwardly lowered them down.

She trembled when he set her down on the floor. He shifted around to her right hand to hold it up as he gathered the rope. The paramedics came over and started hurtling questions at her but Sora couldn't focus on the words.

Sounds, ringing, yelling, crying, they all sounded loudly in her head. The overrode all coherent thought. All except for one thing.

"Rosetta?" She whispered her friends name and when she didn't hear her friends name or voice back she whispered it again and again until everything went dark.