Mistake
At first only vibration was felt hitting against the surface, the echo of the heartbeats began to be heard closer and closer, and the pulse of everything to accelerate expanding like waves through the body, destroying one by one the layers that enveloped them, thus gradually awakening from a deep slumber. The beats persist with such force that it pushes forward like the current of a river. Muffled voices can be heard in the distance, shouting. The cold invades the body like needles and through eyes that are not their own only darkness can be seen.
Marc desperately advanced among the rocks looking for Randall, listening to the echo of his footsteps hitting the water. Everything had happened so fast, Marc was ahead, making his way through, securing the path and his brother followed behind him, always careful and giving little comments. While Marc answered him, he also analyzed the walls as if he were reading symbols of a secret language indicating the treasure’s location. The descent was accompanied by childish murmurs that dreamed of adventures.
Marc had already gone a long way when silence fell upon him, he quickly turned around in confusion but there was no sign of Randall, so he retraced his steps in fear, as he shouted his name. His brother's voice grew progressively closer and when he finally found him, a large wall of stone separated them. Randall frightened told him he had slipped and fallen there, Marc was shouting to him, assuring him they were together, trying to calm him down
"Roro listen to me, I'm here with you, don't worry".
Marc's eyes quickly scanned the cave in search of the exit, now that they were separated he had noticed that the water was rising much faster than before, so there was no time to lose. After a couple of seconds, the solution appeared in front of him, he thought that if they both matched their pace and climbed high enough, Randall would be able to find the exact spot where he had fallen and they both would return together through the main entrance. With this in mind he shouted again:
"Roro we must go up, follow my voice, let's go together."
As they advanced, Marc felt the cold current sliding through him and rising faster and faster reaching his knees, making it more difficult to move forward. The noise of the water and his own heartbeat began to overwhelm him, but in his racing mind the only thought occupying him was to get his brother out as quickly as possible. They kept moving forward, stepping hard and holding on to the rocks, staring straight ahead, until a piercing cry stopped him. Randall was crying and calling for his mother. They were both tired from the effort, the water was rising dangerously in their stomachs, Marc knew that every second they stopped would make everything more dangerous so he shouted again:
"Roro keep going don't stop".
"I want my Mommy !"
"Roro!"
"I'm scared !".
Marc's feet were now struggling to stay on the ground, the water was already starting to rise up his chest, Randall was smaller than him, and if he was already having a hard time moving forward, surely his brother would have it much worse. Desperately, Marc shouted his name, trying to bring him to his senses, to make him move forward despite his fear. But Randall was still crying and begging for someone to help him.
The sensations overwhelmed him, Randall's screams, the noise of the water filling the space, the cold enveloping his body, the beating of his heart and his own agitated breathing began to mix like a whirlwind in his head, paralyzing him. Marc with his eyes tightly shut, screamed with all his strength trying to silence his mind and clinging to the rocks tried to focus on moving forward. He called again to his brother, but this time there was no answer.
Marc stopped dead in his tracks,Randall had stopped crying and was no longer calling out to anyone.
For a moment everything seemed to stop and sink into total silence.
Marc slowly turned his head towards the wall, fixing his gaze on the exact spot, a couple of inches further back, where Randall had last cried out.
"Roro?" he whispered fearfully, but only silence was his answer.
Panic seized his body, the sound of water rushing up the walls and the rumble of thunder suddenly returned to his ears, like a punch forcing him back to reality. With water now reaching his neck, Marc shouted his brother's name over and over again, desperately refusing to believe that he had lost him.
With his blurred eyesight he managed to focus on what was left of the path, a faint ray of light could barely be seen at the end, his outstretched arms still trying to move forward clung to the walls to avoid sinking.
His breathing quickened, Marc gasped and was forced to raise his head towards the ceiling to avoid swallowing water, his pulse soared to the point where he began to feel the vibrations spread through his body, his eyes frantically wandered across the rocky surface.
"I'm going to die" he thought as he felt everything become enveloped in darkness.
Marc Spector woke up on the wet grass, with the cold seeping into his bones and a horrible pain gnawing every muscle in his body. With his eyesight blurred and still trying to get used to the light, the boy got up with the help of his arms and laboriously managed to stay on his knees, but a burning sensation forced him to change position and sit. It was then that he discovered the scrapes on his knees and legs and the cuts on his hands and arms.
There, under the rain that slid gently washing away the mud and blood, Marc stared at his wounds in confusion.
Muffled voices made their way through the rain, a body crashed against his but he quickly recognized the scent. It was his mother wrapping her arms around him, with an embrace that delivered some warmth to his shivering body. Behind her he recognized the blurred figure of his father with an umbrella.
"Elias, call an ambulance now!"
Wendy Spector held her son's face in her hands seeking his gaze, but the little boy was still disoriented, Wendy repeated his name calling him, even patting his cheek a couple of times, trying to get his attention.
When Marc was finally able to meet his mother's eyes, all he saw was concern.
Wendy fixed her eyes on Marc and with a trembling voice asked:
"Marc...where is your brother?"
Marc couldn’t remember well how they arrived home, but he could remember the sound of the sirens and the hurried voices that put him on a white stretcher to take and measure his vital signs. When they finished, his father arrived with a change of dry clothes and helped him get dressed inside the ambulance, once they finished they offered him a hot drink and wrapped him with a thermal blanket to finally let him rest on the couch at home. The paramedic gave some recommendations to his father, she told him that in case of any emergency she would be near the car, and to focus for now on keeping his son as calm as possible without pestering him with questions.
Elias sitting to the side, gently and carefully strokes his son's head, who remains silent.
The only sound that interrupts the tense calm is the ticking of the clock on the wall in front of them. Wendy is outside the house, her silent presence lingering near the ambulance or fire personnel who are working on the rescue, awaiting any information. Several hours pass, the sun about to disappear directs its last rays to the windows of the house, Elias then gets up carefully from the couch, careful not to wake his son, and approaches the small lamp on the table to try to turn it on. At that exact moment one of the firemen opens the door, Elias turns towards him, the man with a serious voice but with an extremely sad expression says
"Sir...I need you to come outside with me".
His father freezes for a few seconds, the man walks away leaving the door slightly open. Marc straightens up and looks at his father, who now kneels in front of him taking Marc's hands in his own, trembling. "Son, I need you to stay here, ok? W-we just got called so...please stay here" Marc nods wordlessly and watches as his father heads for the door to leave.
Without knowing why he also gets up and slowly moves towards the window.
In the distance he sees his father hugging his mother as a fire crew approaches carrying an orange litter with a bag,which they place on top of the white stretcher from the ambulance where he had been before. Someone unzips the bag,and a heart wrenching scream escapes from his mother’s lips, Marc sees her figure collapse in front of the stretcher, Wendy kneeling clutches her hands to the metal of the structure, crying her heart out, his father at the side reaches with one of his hands the bottom of the bag, while shaking his head from one side to the other in pain and crying.
Marc began to tremble, as if his body was finally released from that numb state.
Suddenly hearing his mother's desperate cries or seeing their bodies collapse under the weight of grief became too much, and he only managed to crouch down trying to contract his body to make himself as small as possible.
Marc wept silently while covering his ears with his hands, the lump in his throat blocked the words almost suffocating him, but in his guilt filled mind, his voice screamed apologies.
"I shouldn't have taken him there."
He repeated over and over as the house grew dark.
The night had come.