Snippet #2129165

Amnell wasn't sure where her umbrella went, but she had managed to hang onto the flashlight because of its little loop, which she had wrapped around her wrist. Unfortunately when she attempted to use it, the blasted thing sputtered and died, leaving her completely in the dark. Chilled to the bone and cursing her own stupidity, she struggled to climb up out of the trench, but the sides were too wet and slippery. In the end she gave up and banged her fists against the earthen barrier, calling out "HELP!" periodically so that someone might find and rescue her. Her fear was full blown now. There could be all sorts of things lurking in the murky water, and she swore the mud around her feet was slowly sucking her in.

It wasn't long before she heard a faint noise --- the slope claiming another victim --- and a figure dropped into the water a few feet from her. As it coughed and stood up, Amnell caught the familiar sight of a drenched but visible three-quarter sleeve shirt on a rail thin frame. "Alex?" she whispered incredulously, inconceivably happy that she was not shivering in the dark alone. "Is that you? Are you hu--?" At that point she trailed off, because her flashlight, which she was pointing upward, had decided to start working again.

There, illuminated in the patchy circle of its weak beam, was an impossibly tall figure. She almost mistook it for a tree, it was so dark and slender. A sudden spike of paranoia and fear rocketed through her system, and she began shivering even more fiercely, backing away into the side of the trench and feeling trapped. She could not see any eyes, but she knew for certain that it was looking at her.

A few more seconds passed, and then her flashlight died again.

She heard footsteps above them, and then a quiet, female voice murmured, "Hang on." At this point Amnell was freaked out enough that when a hand closed around her shoulder she immediately reached both of her arms upward and frantically hurled herself at the source, thrashed violently and probably unhelpfully. Another pair of hands soon reached down for her, a much stronger pair that wrenched her from the mud and lifted her to safety. A flash of lightening revealed that the two people who had come to her aid were none other than Seth, who lay panting on the slope beside her with his joking smile ("It was dark!" she huffed defensively to his suggestion), and... Enid? Amnell did a double take, hardly willing to believe that the young woman had actually come to her rescue (though Seth had done most of the work, truth be told). Still, Cardiff had somehow been able to navigate the dark woods without a flashlight and find her. Maybe there was more to her than Amnell had previously thought. However, she did not devote much time to think about it, for there was still one person in trouble.

"Alex is down there too," she informed both of her rescuers coolly. Seth looked a bit exhausted, so she nodded at Enid before leaning over the edge to grab the young man's arms. "Help me bring him up."