Page 53 of A Sky Full of Stars
‘I don’t plan to,’ Charlotte hissed. Her gaze shifted from Tristan to Comet. ‘Stay, boy,’ she commanded.
Tristan gave a smile. ‘I said I was coming over.’
‘Not funny!’
The only light he had was the flashes from the storm, but it would have to be enough. Carefully, he edged towards Charlotte. There was one way off the platform, and it was the way they’d both climbed up. If the floor gave way… he tried not to think about it.
‘Charlotte? Tristan? Are you there?’ Tristan froze as Thea’s voice echoed up from the ground floor.
‘We’re up here,’ Tristan called back. ‘Have you got a torch?’
‘I brought the one from my emergency kit in the car,’ Thea replied.
A sickening creak from the board underneath Charlotte’s knee made her cry out. It was a sound that was beyond even fear, and Tristan knew there wasn’t a lot of time.
‘Thea, can you call Comet down to you?’
‘I can try,’ Thea replied, and then she called the dog’s name. For a few seconds, Comet looked in bemusement from Tristan to Charlotte and then back again.
‘Go on, boy,’ Charlotte said. ‘Go and find Thea.’
Giving them both a last glance, and clearly finding the atmosphere as scary and unnerving as they did, Comet scuttled past Tristan, somehow dodged his way to one side of Charlotte and scampered down the rickety staircase.
‘He’s with me,’ Thea called.
Tristan’s shoulders relaxed a fraction. ‘Keep hold of him,’ he said. ‘And point that torch up here. Charlotte’s gone through the floor.’
‘Shit!’ Thea aimed a shaky torch beam at the gantry and, in her haste, dazzled Tristan with the LED bulb.
‘Not in my eyes,’ snapped Tristan.
‘Sorry,’ Thea replied. Tristan looked at the rotting wood of the platform as Thea adjusted where she was pointing.
‘I’m going to come to you,’ Tristan said gently to Charlotte. ‘I’m going to move very slowly. Try not to make any sudden movements yourself. We’re going to get down those steps together.’
After hours of swirling numbness in his mind, he now felt complete clarity. There was one thing he needed to do, and that was get Charlotte back on the ground. Step by slow step, foot by foot, he moved carefully back towards her. At four feet away, the wood splintered and squelched beneath his left boot. He drew in a sharp breath and tried to stop the trembling that was making his whole body shake.
‘All right?’ Charlotte called out to him. She hadn’t taken her eyes off him since he’d stood up.
‘Yeah,’ he murmured. ‘Just got to be careful.’
‘You’re telling me!’ Charlotte gave a nervous and slightly hysterical laugh.
Thea was tracking the torchlight along the floor of the gantry, lighting up a path to lead Tristan to safety. His gaze flickered between Charlotte and the path, and he suddenly felt an incredible gratitude for these two women in his life, who’d found him and brought him back from the brink of something terrible. But there would be plenty of time later to think about that. Focusing back on the immediate task at hand, he moved forward again.
Three feet. Charlotte was almost within touching distance.
‘Nearly there,’ he said, trying to project a calm he didn’t feel. He had no idea if the area she was stuck in would bear his weight as well as hers. ‘Keep still. I’m coming.’
Two feet, and another crack of thunder made them both jump. The lightning flared, and he was progressing forward again.
‘When I get to you, I’m going to move around and behind you,’ he said. ‘Don’t try to grab hold of me until I’m on the other side. I think that’s the best chance I’ve got of pulling you out without the floor disintegrating under both of us.’
‘All right,’ Charlotte said. Her face was so pale it looked almost green in the stark light of Thea’s torch, and Tristan desperately wanted to rush to her, and hold her in his arms. But he couldn’t risk it. He had to stick to his plan. ‘But hurry… please.’
Tristan nodded. ‘It’ll be all over soon, I promise.’
He was a foot away, and he called down to Thea again. ‘Shine the light on Charlotte, but keep it low. I need to see how stable the boards are around her.’
