Chapter 6 #2
My stomach twists, the thought of someone dying because of me, making my anxiety flare in a way that has me pausing, pressing a hand to my chest. Ace notices, and turns, glancing down at me.
He’s got blood on his face, and it makes him look wilder and more dangerous than he already did.
I try to take a deep breath, but no air will enter my lungs, it’s as if they have shut down. I gasp, trying again, but with no luck.
“Hey,” Ace says, hand on my shoulder, his voice so firm it has my eyes swinging up to meet his. “Take a breath.”
“I can’t,” I gasp. “It won’t...I can’t get it in.”
“Look at me, Grace,” he orders. “You’re goin’ to have a panic attack if you don’t calm yourself down.”
“It’s my fault,” I wail, completely losing it. Tears burst forth, rolling down my cheeks.
I shake, hard enough to make my teeth chatter, and Ace’s hands move from my shoulders to the sides of my face. “Look at me, Grace,” he orders.
I try, but my vision is blurring with tears.
His fingers dig into the side of my face, enough to get my focus back. “Look, you can’t change it. You hear me? It’s fuckin’ done. Was it the right choice? Probably not, but you did what you thought you had to do.”
“No, I—I didn’t have to—”
“You made the choice, and we’re here now. You gotta own it because it can’t be undone.”
I close my eyes, try to force air in, but it’s just high-pitched panic squeaking out. The kind that makes the world shrink to the size of a bead and press into my skull. I want to scream or run, but there’s no place for either, so I just stand there, locked in his hands, unable to move.
“You can’t change it,” Ace says, his voice so low I feel it in my bones. “None of us can. Only thing you can do is survive. You hear me?”
I nod, fast, but it isn’t enough to loosen the vice on my chest.
He brings his forehead to mine, and it causes the breath I couldn’t take before, to suck deep into my lungs.
“Breathe with me.”
His voice, husky and deep, soft but firm, comforting in a way I didn’t know I needed.
He takes a deep breath, slow enough that I can track it, his chest expanding with the pace I should be matching. I try, but it’s a stutter, a hiccup, not a breath at all.
“Again,” he says, voice a command. “You’re a dancer. You control your body better than anyone. Do it like you mean it.”
I drag in air, it sticks, but I force it down. Again, slower. My legs start to tremble, not from fear, but from the shock of oxygen. Ace keeps his hands on either side of my face, and every time I gasp, I see the storm in his eyes shift, softening.
“Good girl,” he murmurs. “There you go.”
My breathing becomes a little easier with every passing second.
“Can’t melt down now, Gracie. We need you. The girls need you.”
Gracie.
That softens my heart in a way I haven’t felt before.
“I don’t know, I don’t know if I can...” I manage.
“Yeah, you can. You already did the impossible, survived.”
I nod.
He’s right.
We survived. I can’t give up on them now. They’re my team, and we have to stick together.
“You’re right,” I croak. “I got this.”
“Yeah, you do. Now come on, let’s find us some water, so we can make it through another night.”
Another nod.
We got this.
We do.
We have to.
WE FIND WATER.
Well, Adrian finds the water and yells until we find him.
It is a decent hike into the middle of the island, so it won’t be easy to get, but it’s here and that’s something.
We will have to fill every water container we have on the boat and probably take turns coming to get it.
Ace, Adrian and I fill what we have, which is three water containers in his backpack.
I am thankful, at the very least, that we packed some essentials.
If we hadn’t, this would be a very different story.
“Do you think there will be food?” I ask him, squatting down beside the water, which is a fairly decent size, with a small waterfall trickling, meaning it probably comes from above the cliffs somewhere.
It’s mostly clean, but we will have to boil it. We can’t risk getting sick out here. Thankfully, one of the water containers is stainless steel, so we are able to put it on the fire. It’s the small things I am starting to realise are the most meaningful.
“Where there is water, there are animals, and where there are animals, there is food,” Adrian points out.
I press my lips together.
The thought of hunting animals does not make me happy.
“What about fish?” I ask, screwing the tap on my water container.
“If we can find any of the lines on the lifeboat, we should be able to catch enough to get us through while we’re here.”
A small glimmer of hope washes through me.
“Before we go, I’m washing off. The salt water and blood needs to go,” he murmurs, standing and reaching for the hem of his shirt.
I watch, trying not to stare too intensely as he pulls it over his head.
Oh my word.
Here we are, stuck on an island, and I’m gawking at a man.
Maybe I have lost it.