Aiden Harper was numb. She couldn’t feel the sharp rock that sliced into her hip, the icy waves of the ocean that splashed against her face and caused her wild red hair to stick to her skin. She was just numb.
She swallowed through her dry throat, unable to think. Her heart was racing, her mind was reeling, and she was treading water. It was an involuntary action, really.
The instinct to survive had come over her and now the only thing she could try to do was not drown.
Her lips began to turn blue, her cheeks hollowed, and she struggled to keep her head above the water. She couldn’t focus, couldn’t breath, and her heart was pounding out of her chest. And then she somehow became aware of everything all at once. She noticed the dark clouds above her, the tremble of her breath, and then she realized that she was drowning. She was going to die, which was unfortunately ironic considering the fact that this, what she had meant to do, was a rescue mission.
She caught sight of a place where the rocky cliff walls that lined the ocean concaved into a small opening. This place, this cave, was where he was, and she knew it. Aiden forced her hands against the icy current as she pushed herself towards the cliff in front of her. She couldn’t die, not now, because she had to save him. She had to save Nathan.
Her hands grabbed the shelf of a thick rock and she pulled herself up, ignoring the stinging pain as the thick element cut its way into her palms. She sputtered, coughing up water, her chest heaving. She didn’t know if she could move. She was frozen, freezing, and so relieved to have finally escaped the water. She wanted to collapse, to give up, but then her eyes focused and she saw him. Nathan was sitting, his back against the rock wall of the cave, and his hands were pressed around the thick, metal bars that contained him. He was looking at her, his eyes hollow. He had been praying she wouldn’t come.
“Nathan…” Aiden’s voice trailed off into a whisper. She didn’t know what to say, because this boy in front of her looked so hurt, so worn. The scrapes on his face and the drips of salt water that lined his clothes, it all made him look so vulnerable, so childlike. But, somehow, he looked more like a man than he ever had before.
She crawled towards him and their eyes swept over each other. It killed him that she was here, that she would risk her life for him.
He swallowed heavily and gripped the metal bars that surrounded him. He was trapped; he knew he was trapped, and above all he knew there was no escape. Aiden rushed towards him in a rugged crawl, the ceiling wasn’t even tall enough for the small teenager to stand. Her breath was shaky and her hands scrounged for help. They brushed over the cave walls, searching for something, anything, but coming up empty handed. She grabbed at the thick, metal bars and gripped them tightly. She knew she wasn’t strong enough to break them, but nonetheless she frantically pulled at the restraints.
She looked, trying to find an escape from an inescapable situation. She was panicking, still gasping for breath, when Nathan put his hands over hers. Aiden then stopped. She stopped panicking or being frantic or searching, and she just looked at him and the grim expression on his face. “Aiden, stop.” His low words caused her breath hitch and her feet to fall from beneath her.
She was sitting now, in front of him, with his hands placed over both of hers. Nathan tried to push out a smile, but the small smile turned into a broken sob of laughter. His grip on her hands tightened as Aiden spoke. “Nathan, it’s okay. We’ll get you out, and- and we’ll be okay. We’ll be okay…right?”
“Aiden…” His voice trailed off, because he couldn’t bear to tell her the truth. The words were stuck in his throat, because everything wasn’t going to be okay. She could see the look on his face, and her breath became struggled again. She spoke, her words begging. “We’ll be okay. We’ll be fine, and we’ll get out, and you and I- you and I will be fine.”
And that’s when he decided to pretend, for the sake of Aiden, the love of his life. He would pretend for the sake of her soul- for her heart.
“Aiden, of course we’ll be fine.” He tried to make his voice steady and then his eyes flickered to the water that had begun to make its way into the small cave. The tide was rising.
Aiden’s lip twitched and she let out a broken sob, because even as she was lied to she knew the truth. “I love you.” Her broken words reached him and he leaned towards her, still separated by bars, but together. “As I love you.”
He rubbed his fingers over her palms as she rested her head against the metal. She shivered and closed her eyes, it was almost peaceful, and she just so tired. “Aiden, don’t fall asleep. Come on, just stay awake for me.” Nathan’s words were gentle as they drifted her way. She nodded, wordlessly, before speaking. “Tell me about us, about our future.”
Nathan swallowed. It was something they did often. They would fantasize and talk about their plans for the years to come, but he didn’t know if he could say them right now. It would hurt too much.
But then he saw the broken look on her face, the one that was surrounded by wet scrapes that burned from the salt of the ocean. His voice began softly, “Some day we will get out of here. We will leave this place and we’ll go off together. We’ll get married and do what we love, and love what we do, and always be together. We can get a house on the coast, somewhere far away, and be together. We can live there with our children and take pictures on the beach, and laugh together. We’ll be a family.”
He wasn’t sure at what point in his speech that he’d started crying. He supposed it was sometime in the middle that a few tears had begun to make their way down his cheeks, rolling over the small smile that cursed his lips. They were both crying and smiling, together.
Nathan’s eyes looked out to the sea and legs had become cold in the cave floor that was now a small pool of salty water. The tide was rising.
Aiden didn’t notice the water until it had reached her waist. She had been so numb, so blind to anything but him that she had forgotten, well, everything else. Her head jerked up and her eyes met his. He had prepared himself for this moment, but the stab of pain that came didn’t seem at all prepared for.
“Aiden…” He started in his low voice, “I need you to go.”
Her breath hitched and she looked at him, frozen, and then her head shook and her wet eyes became drowned with tears. She began mumbling incoherent words like “No.” and “Together.”
And then she stopped and clutched his hand under hers. “But I love you…” She didn’t understand this, what was happening. Because two people who loved each other this much should never be separated. Not this young, and definitely not like this.
Nathan couldn’t make himself smile through his tears anymore, so he let out his soft words for her. “As I love you.”
Aiden was done panicking, and instead she was just gripping his hand, holding on for dear life. She wouldn’t go. She wouldn’t leave him. Ever.
Nathan knew this the second she had taken his hand that in order to save her he would need to be completely selfless. He had to let her go, but he couldn’t. No matter how hard he tried to be selfless, he was only human, and the nature of his programming sat in the midst of selfishness.
This time it was Nathan who spoke first, as the water reached their chins. “I love you.” The vow was short but gave comfort to the doubtless girl.
“As I love you.” She said, a small smile on her face, and then she continued, “And we’ll be okay. We’ll be together.”
He nodded and, as his last breath came rushing into his hollow lungs, he took his final glimpse out at the sea. The tide was rising.