With measured steps, I approached her body, the rough ground scraping my knees as I knelt down. She stared off into the distance, her head tilted, mouth agape, with dried blood covering her lips and the earth around her.
“I’m so, so sorry,” I whispered in her ear after leaning down. “So sorry,” I repeated when I placed her back on my knees, her head hanging back on her shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Arianna,” I said when I took her shirt off, keeping one arm around her torso and with the other slowly taking the shirt. I flinched at the coldness of her skin and the rigidness of her body. “I hope you’ll forgive me,” I told her as I gently placed her back on the ground, my eyes fixated on the discolored bruises that marked her skin as I reached to remove her pants.
As I prayed for her soul to find peace, I closed my eyes, and the world faded into a sea of quiet sorrow. There would be no somber music, no mournful speeches, no proper funeral. Aftertaking her clothes, the least I could do was offer a prayer for her. Even if I wasn’t the type to pray, I still sent a silent message toward the heavens.
“May you rest in peace,” I whispered in the darkness, a heaviness weighing on my chest as I broke into a run. I wasn’t sure if I could even call it a run, as my feet barely lifted from the ground. It was alert walking at best. But that was going to have to do. As long as I got back to Georgie.
A headache pressed on my forehead as the memory of my mother lying dead on the floor appeared in front of me. I shook my head, unwilling to go there for now. There was no time for it.
All I needed was to focus on getting to Georgie as fast as possible and getting her out of here.
I forced myself to hurry my pace. I didn’t know how long I could keep going for. I was tired, and I felt like a bomb that was about to explode at any second. But I kept pushing.
This is the simple part, I reminded myself. The hardest task was going to be carrying her down the long, desolate road that led out of the woods. But I was going to figure out a way. I was going to find a way to get there.
I kept moving, ignoring the sting of each fresh cut as I repeatedly fell to the ground. Those faint words, once I heard them, jolted my body, akin to an adrenaline rush. I went faster, my heart pounding as the echoing sounds grew closer.
“Get out. Get out.”
And then I saw her, lying over the same tree I had supported her on. I ran the last few steps and collapsed next to her, pressing a hand on her cheek.
“I’m back, Georgie,” I said, tilting my head to get a better view of her. She was freezing. Her lips were stained the color of plums, and her body would not cease its shivering. “I told you I’d be back.”
Trembling, I stripped off my clothes, the unforgiving cold air biting at my skin as I tore through mine and Arianna’s attire. I had miscalculated. The cloth wouldn’t be sufficient on its own for what I had in mind, so I collected a few branches to use as an extension.
I started off by wrapping strips of the fabric across my chest and shoulders, intertwining them like a baby sling. Two long pieces draped down the back of my shoulders, their ends stopping where I knotted them tightly around sturdy branches. I then spread the leftover clothing on the mud, creating a rough bedding so at least her back wouldn’t scrape on the ground. I reached for Georgie with shaky hands and set her down onto the coarse material that covered the soil.
I took a moment to think. Where was the best place to tie her? Her arms? No, I could dislocate her shoulders and her wrists. Maybe her waist? No, it would pull her clothes higher on her body, leaving her skin exposed.
Under her armpits.
Yes. That way, her clothes wouldn’t ride up as much, and it wouldn’t cause her any pain. After pulling together two sections of the material resting on the soil, I threaded it under her armpits, and finally, I wrapped it around her chest as if it were a strap.
My eyes looked at the knot and the rough fibers biting into the bark, and I hoped it could bear her weight.
Dragging Georgie across the rough ground, like a sack of grain, would surely leave her with ugly scratches, but it was going to keep her alive at least.
“Hang in there,” I told her as I leaned forward and pushed down on my heels. The fabric scraped against the mud and every shift of Georgie’s weight deepened the noise, pressing the cloth harder into the ground.
“Get out,” she quietly whispered.
Rain fell on my naked skin, each drop cool and soothing against my flesh, as if I was part of nature. What unfortunate timing for it to rain—when Georgie was already shivering, close to death, and I was almost naked, dressed in nothing more than my briefs.
The gods definitely had their ways of mocking us.
Ahead, where the trees began to thin, a warm light spilled into the space. The exit. It was right there, the whole time.
If I had pushed myself harder and disregarded the stinging pain in my palms and legs, we would have returned much earlier. We were so close, but I gave up. I had tried to find another solution to help her, unaware that if I could just endure a little longer, the trial would be over.
I let Georgie suffer for God knew how long, alone. I had undressed a dead woman when I could’ve walked less than a mile farther and figured out we were so close to finishing.
Another mistake.
The end was right in front of us and I stopped. I stopped because I was tired. If I had only walked a bit more . . .
I heard Georgie murmur behind me.
My eyes rounded on her. After hearing the same words over and over for hours, even the smallest sound was a blessing to hear.
