CYOA Page 114
Sep. 13th, 2013 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12"Hang on, Joel! I'll be right back!"
You run as fast as your legs will carry you back to your horse to fetch the rope. You probably should've slowed down a smidge earlier, though, as you're freaking him out a little. "Whoa, Lucky, it's okay, it's just me," you pant, willing the horse to read your intentions via eye contact. "Joel -- he's in trouble -- okay?" You don't have time to make nice for too long, so that will have to do. You've calmed him enough that you're able to retrieve the rope.
Come on come on come ON, you groan inwardly as you fumble with the fastenings. You manage to keep the rope mostly coiled over your shoulder as you take off running again. HOLD ON, Joel, I'm coming!
"Joel!" you call to him breathlessly as you near the end of the tunnel, where you think you might be close enough for him to hear you. "Hang on!"
You get there just in time...
...to see the look of terror on his normally-stoic face as he finally loses his grip--
"JOEL!" you scream. No no no NOOOO -- this can't be --
You uncoil the rope as fast as you can and sling it over the cliff. ...because it hasn't yet registered that it's too late. You're too late.
You can't fucking watch... yet you can't look away. Without a doubt, it's the worst thing you've ever seen in your life.
"Hang on, Joel, I'm coming down!" you call to him frantically. As if he can hear you. As if it will make one iota of difference to him if you're there or not. As if you can do anything at all to fix his mangled, broken body.
Yet you go ahead and knot the rope securely around the railing and fling the remainder of it over the cliff. It goes down pretty far... but you can tell it's nowhere near long enough to get you all the way down.
You sit on the edge with your knees pulled up to your chest, staring down at the person you love most in this world. It hasn't even quite hit you yet that--
And then it hits you. You start to bawl your fucking eyes out. Big, heaving sobs that wrack your body -- you feel yourself sliding a little, and realize you're too close to the edge...
Instinctively, you scoot back.
...Then you wonder why you bothered to do that. Joel is dead... I should be dead, too.
The thought is horrifying... yet oddly calming at the same time.
If you jump off the cliff and join Joel at the bottom, turn to page 194.
If you have no idea how you can possibly bear the pain of losing him, but you realize Joel would hate that his death led to yours, and you figure you'd better at least fucking TRY, turn to page 198.
Carlos
Date: 2020-11-30 04:14 am (UTC)