Chapter Ten

“Look at me baby girl. Keep your eyes on me and do not look down. I've got you, okay?”

Randy speaks to me in a calm, reassuring manner that I'm not sure if I'd be capable of if the roles were reversed in this type of situation. The situation in particular is that I am currently dangling forty feet above several sinkholes in the floors below the abandoned insane asylum we were scouting out.

The tearing sound of my hoodie sleeve clenched in Randy's hand peels my eyes away from his.

“Randy!” I screamed, my voice shrill with terror, tears streaming down my face.

Mere moments ago, I was walking behind Randy down the decrepit patient ward hallway on the fourth floor of the massive Victorian-period asylum. The walls and floors were littered with graffiti, garbage and chunks of the decaying fallen pieces of the ceiling and walls.

His long legs and strides stepped over the rotten, sinking section of the floor hidden beneath an empty torn black garbage bag spread over the floor. My shorter legs and subsequently smaller stride landed my foot right in the middle of the weak, crumbling black and white linoleum tiled floor. It didn't help that I wasn't paying close enough attention to my footing because I was too engrossed with taking in the ornate details of the stunning aged brass light fixtures and what was left of the hand painted foliage and cherub border on the bottom edge of the arched ceiling. I am always stunned at the details and craftsmanship of architecture from times long past whenever we scope out these old buildings. Apparently, even the insane asylums were made to be beautiful and regal.

As soon as my full weight came down on the garbage bag, my leg sank through the floor with a crunch. I knew our evening of spelunking in the abandoned building had instantly taken a dire turn. The ground is literally swept from underneath me, and I fell over the collapsing floor in a blur. Screaming Randy's name, I flailed my arms out in a desperate attempt to snatch hold of something to stop myself from plummeting down to the level below.

Miraculously, Randy whirls around and lunges for me in the nick of time, reaching out to grab hold of my outstretched hand. That's what he was aiming for at least, but since I was wearing one of his over-sized hoodies where the sleeves hung down past my hands, he instead acquired a death grip around the cuff of my empty sleeve. Pure dread falls over his face when he realizes he only has hold of my sleeve.

Nearly sliding out of the hoodie as I fell, I instinctively grabbed hold of the collar with my free hand, hanging on for dear life. Laying on his belly on the creaking, groaning floor, leaning over the newly formed sinkhole, Randy stretches his other arm as far as he's able to, frantically trying to grab me anywhere he can. But I'm hanging too far for him to reach me.

A snap in the floorboards draws my attention beneath me where, to my horror, I discover the two floors directly below me have also given away. Instead of falling twelve or so feet and sustaining broken bones at worst, there's over forty feet of open space down to the first floor under my dangling feet. If I fall from this height, I die.

"I'm going to start crawling backwards and pull you up. No matter what, do not let go of the hoodie." Randy calmly informs me with a grunt as he begins to scoot himself backwards. Treating the faltering ground in a manner similar as one would to avoid falling through thin ice on a body of water, Randy remains flat on his stomach to evenly distribute his weight.

“Look at me baby girl. Keep your eyes on me and do not look down. I've got you, okay?”

The tearing sound of my hoodie sleeve clenched in Randy's hand peels my eyes away from his.

“Randy!” I screamed, my voice shrill with terror. Hot, panic-induced tears stream down both sides of my face, blurring my vision. "Please don't let me fall." I whimpered in a trembling voice. I'm utterly helpless right now.

"I'll never let go of you, Leslie. Now hang on." he reassured calmly. With a growl, Randy leans dangerously deeper into the hole, snatching the hoodie fabric above my shoulder, raising me up by one arm. Carefully, he curls his arm up, bringing me close enough for him to release my tearing sleeve and grabs the hoodie on my other shoulder. Fisting my hand around the sleeve of his long sleeve t-shirt, Randy raised himself up on his knees, pulling me out of the hole and enveloping me in the safety of his arms.

Rocking me gently back and forth with both of us standing on our knees while tightly embraced, Randy whispers hoarsely into my ear. "Shhhh. It's alright. I got you, baby girl. I told you I'd never let you go...."

***

I don't see the raised tree root sticking up from the ground that hooks around the top of my foot, launching me ass over applecart with a yelp down the steep hillside because they're obscured under the pouring rain and mud. The rain has caused the ground to become slipperier than a slip and slide slicked with dawn dish soap and water. I try to blindly claw at the slimy ground or grab for anything within reach in a vain attempt to stop myself from uncontrollably careening down the slope.

The world becomes a spinning disoriented kaleidoscope of pine trees, flying mud, and ground, as I tumble uncontrollably down the slope. This is bad. This is how solo hikers end up in the evening news when discovered dead days or weeks after being reported missing. Their bodies are found at the bottom of a ravine or in scattered pieces due to the wildlife taking advantage of a free, easy meal.

My fingers slip away from everything I try and fail to grab at, wet from the rain. What does eventually stop me, is a large boulder when the side of my head smacks into it, knocking me unconscious. The sickening ‘crack’ sound of my skull connecting with the edge of the massive rock jutting from the earth shoots through every bone in my body accompanied by blinding pain. That's the last thing I remember before the world sinks away into darkness.