Page 60 of Prophet
Zed grunted as he lifted me up. I waited until I was close enough to reach and then I saw my hands, they were smeared with blood. “Oh, no… Zed!” I just remembered what I’d seen when they fought, that man had sliced Zed’s chest. “Y-you’re bleeding!”
“Never mind that, it’s just a scrape.”
“Like father, like son,” I told him. That had been what Prophet had said after he fought Talon.
Zed said nothing as if he hadn’t heard me. “You close to it yet?”
I focused on the vent and set both hands on it. Pushing with all my might, it actually slid open an inch or so. I swallowed heavily but found I couldn’t as my throat was all dried up. I wanted to cry, an inch wouldn’t help.
“Ok, listen to me,” Zed urged softly. “Tell me when you are ready then brace your hands. I will push you further up and propel you. Make your hands flat, I don’t want you breaking anything.”
I slowly nodded and raised my hands again, palms up. “Go,” I whispered.
He lunged me up and my hands pushed the vent off. I felt like I’d just run a race and won. YES! My arms shook badly though.
“Ok, we have no time, so I’m gonna push you higher.” His breathing sounded really heavy as he spoke.
“Are you, okay?” I asked.
“Fine, fine,” he answered. “Ready?”
“Yes,” I said. My body was then propelled up through the vent and I was caught halfway in with my stomach on the lip of the vent edge. I struggled as I felt Zed’s hands slip away from my legs. I panicked and climbed in as best as I could, I was crawling and then my body slumped onto the floor. Gasping for breath, all I could do was lay there.
“You okay, Jewel?” Zed called up.
I couldn’t answer just yet, it took me a minute then I gasped out one word, “Yes…”
“Ok, what do you see up there?” he asked.
I had trouble moving but I managed to turn my head. It seemed dim in here at best. I gazed at the area I could see. Pink floors. I knew this room, the girl’s Pink dressing room. “Dress…” I tried again, “...room.”
“Ok, ok,” he replied from below. “Do you see anything we can use for me to climb up?”
I stilled. I never thought about how he would get up. My heart was already pounding fast, I could feel it with my chest pressed against the floor. He had got me in but he couldn’t get himself in! I raised my head a bit and saw racks of clothing, yes...I knew where everything was in this room.Think Jewel, think!I stared hard at the rack and there it was. The tip of it was lying on the floor. The Magic Trick we had called it, a costume adorned with longs scarves of all colors hanging from it.
I didn’t think I could actually stand up, let alone walk but I realized we had no time for me to lay here and go to sleep. I crawled along on my stomach and it seemed to take forever. Reaching out to grasp the edge of the costume, I tugged. Nothing…I tried it a second time and part of it came down...If I didn’t do this, we were both gonna die. I didn’t know how long we had now since...I had no time is all I knew. I grabbed the scarf and yanked it a third time. It finally came off the hangar. Again, I felt a brief sense of victory.
“Jewel!” Zed shouted from below.
I heard some panic in his voice, but I didn’t answer as I was forced to think about what to tie this thing to. Something heavy, so he could climb. I looked around and fought panic. My brain was still fuzzy. Spotting the large sofa, I started into another crawl, I could barely do it, but death was literally whispering at my neck. I finally got there and tied an end around the large pedestal leg of the couch.
If I remembered right, these scarves were all velcro attached for easy removal, the whole point to the outfit in the first place. I pulled several off, and began tying each one together with shaky, blood stained fingers. They were long, so I accomplished a good length quickly. “I am coming!” I yelled but it came out as anything but a yell, maybe a volume above a whisper.
Now for the hard part, the crawl back over as I huffed and puffed the whole way. To me, it took an eternity. Finally, I was at the vent and I tossed the scarf-rope down.
“Dang Missy, I thought you had passed out again.” Zed peered up at me as he looked relieved to see me. He raised the scarf end. “You got this tied to something?”
All I could do was nod, speech seemed elusive.
Peering up at me with those familiar looking eyes, Zed looked doubtful.
I knew why, he believed I was too out of it to know what was happening. “Sofa.”
Zed nodded and did something awful, but maybe necessary. He stepped up onto the back of the man he’d scalpeled and it gave him a little more height. Then he actually climbed up hand over hand, the man seemed to be in as good of shape as Prophet, despite his age. Finally, he did manage to get up to the vent. It seemed to be just large enough for him to pull himself up and through. Breathing heavily, he sat up immediately.
I then saw the blood all over his chest. I stared at it and whimpered. I’d become so weak that I couldn’t do much else.
Zed came over and scooped me up into a fireman carry again as he rushed through the doorway out of the pink room. I weakly pointed down the hall.
