Chapter 28: The Fall
Danny’s eyes widened, his whole body jerking forward as his ankle was nearly ripped out from under him.
The thin prisoner’s hand was wrapped tightly around his leg, fingers like frozen iron digging into his skin through the thin wraps. His nails scraped bone.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Danny shouted, panic cracking his voice. He kicked, trying to shake him off. "Let go! You’ll pull me down!"
Danny tried to pull his leg free, planting his other foot against a rock, grabbing at the mountain wall with both hands. But the snow was slick.
But the thin prisoner held on with everything he had. With the strength of a dying man who sees death below him.
"Please!"
His voice trembled, not with cold now, but with pure, animal terror.
"Please don’t let me fall! Please, kid! Please!"
Danny looked down, his heart hammering against his ribs.
The thin prisoner was hanging over the edge of the mountain, his whole body dangling over hundreds of meters of empty air and jagged rock. One hand gripped Danny’s leg as if it were the only thing in the world. His other hand clawed desperately at the snow, at the ice, at anything, fingers scraping, breaking nails, finding no purchase.
Danny’s heart raced so fast he thought it would burst.
"Let go of me! Grab the rock! Grab the wall!"
"I can’t!" The thin prisoner cried out, tears and blood from his broken nose freezing on his face. "If I let go, I’ll die! I can’t reach! I can’t!"
Danny gritted his teeth so hard his jaw hurt.
This bastard... this bastard is going to kill me with him. After everything...
He looked wildly toward the top of the mountain, toward where the path continued.
The grey-haired man had stopped. He had heard the scream.
He was staring at them from ten steps above, his face unreadable. Watching. Not moving to help. Not moving at all.
Danny looked back down at the thin prisoner, his leg starting to slide forward inch by inch toward the drop. The snow under his own body was giving way.
He had no reason to save him. None.
This was the same man who had blamed him for everything since the caravan broke. Who had called him cursed, little [DoD] shit, demon boy so on and so on.
The same man who had refused to become bait when the eyeless wolves came, and had pushed Danny forward instead, saying "he’s the cursed one, use him."
The same man who had tried to steal his water just an hour ago.
Danny could simply shake his leg free. One hard kick to the face. The man would fall. The mountain would take him. One less mouth to feed. One less problem. One less person who wanted to sell him.
It would be easy. No one would blame him. The grey-haired man was watching and doing nothing. It would be self-defense.
Danny’s fingers tightened around the snow, knuckles white.
Why should I save him? Why? Give me one reason.
The thin prisoner looked up at him, eyes red, snot and blood and tears all over his face, completely broken. The tough prisoner mask was gone.
"Please!" His voice cracked into a sob. "I don’t want to die! I’m sorry! I’m sorry about before! I don’t want to die here!"
Danny stared at him. At that pathetic, terrified face.
For a moment, he said nothing. The wind howled between them.
Then he glanced at the grey-haired man again, still just watching, testing him. Judging what kind of [DoD] boy he was.
Danny clicked his tongue, loud, annoyed at himself more than anyone.
"Tch. You’re heavy, you know that?! You eat too much!"
"What?" The thin prisoner blinked through tears, confused.
"I said you’re heavy! Like a damn bear!"
Danny shifted his weight, growling. He planted one foot firmly into a deep crack in the snow and lowered his body, lying flat on his stomach to spread his weight so he wouldn’t be dragged too.
He dug his elbows into the ice.
"Climb. Grab my coat. But don’t you dare pull my leg again."
The thin prisoner’s eyes widened, disbelief and sudden hope lighting up his face.
"You’ll help me? You’ll really...?"
"Just hurry before I change my mind and we both die!" Danny shouted, his voice cracking from strain. "Move!"
Danny dug his fingers into the snow until they bled, his whole body shaking from the strain of holding a grown man with just his leg and his weight.
The thin prisoner began climbing, sobbing now with relief. He pulled himself upward, using Danny’s leg as support, then grabbing at Danny’s coat, at his bag.
Danny gritted his teeth, his face turning red.
"Faster! My leg is breaking!"
"I’m trying! I’m trying! The ice is—"
The thin prisoner reached higher, desperate. His hand grabbed Danny’s waist, then slipped up, flailing for the wall.
Danny’s body jerked forward a few more centimeters toward the edge. Snow fell into the abyss.
"Watch it! Don’t grab there!"
The thin prisoner pulled himself closer, almost chest-to-chest with Danny’s legs now.
Then— in his panic, blinded by tears—
THUD!
His elbow, swinging wildly for balance, smashed directly into Danny’s face, right into his nose and mouth.
Danny’s eyes bulged to twice their size. Stars exploded.
"YOU BASTARD!" he screamed, his voice muffled, head snapping backward.
Snow flew straight into his open mouth from the impact.
He coughed violently, choking.
"BLEGH! PTEW! YOU—!"
The thin prisoner froze, half-on, half-off the ledge, horrified at what he just did.
"Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t see! I’m sorry!"
Danny wiped the snow and blood from his mouth, furious, tears now in his own eyes from pain.
"You hit me! You actually hit me while I’m saving you!"
"I didn’t mean to! It was an accident!"
"You almost knocked me off, you idiot! You’re worse than the wolves!"
"I said I’m sorry! I’m sorry!"
Danny glared at him with a bloody lip, but despite his anger, despite his leg feeling like it was going to snap off, Danny kept his position. He didn’t let go. He pressed his forehead into the snow to anchor himself.
His arms were shaking violently. His legs were trembling uncontrollably. But he refused to move until the man was up.
Finally, with a last desperate heave and a whimper, the thin prisoner managed to pull his upper body onto the ledge, then his waist, then his legs. He collapsed face-first into the snow, breathing heavily, sobbing openly now, safe.
Danny dropped beside him instantly, landing on his back, chest heaving like he had just run ten miles.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
They simply lay there in the snow on the edge of the cliff, two pathetic figures, breathing hard, alive. Two breaths that should have stopped.
The grey-haired man slowly walked toward them, his footsteps crunching. He looked down at the two exhausted survivors tangled in the snow, then he looked at the mountain below, at the long drop that would have been their grave.
One wrong movement. One loose patch of snow. One selfish decision.
And either of them could have died. Both could have died.
Danny sat up slowly, spitting out more snow and blood, his nose throbbing.
He looked at the thin prisoner.
The man was still breathing heavily, lying on his side, staring at the sky, shaking.
Danny frowned, his anger already fading into that tired emptiness again.
_I should’ve just let him fall. It would have been easier. Lighter._
He looked away, toward the peak.
But deep down, he knew why he hadn’t. It wasn’t logic.
Not because he trusted him. He didn’t.
Not because he liked him. He hated him.
And certainly not because he had suddenly become some kind of hero. Heroes didn’t exist in this forest.
He simply didn’t want another death following him. He had seen enough bodies. The little boy in the snow, the caravan drivers, the wolves. He didn’t want to add one more because he chose to let go.
He didn’t want the mountain to have another one.
Danny stood slowly, his legs almost giving out instantly, buckling. He caught himself on the wall before falling again.
The grey-haired man looked at him, and for once, his eyes were not cold.
"Good job." He said it quietly.
Danny said nothing. He didn’t want praise from him.
He simply turned toward the mountain path, toward the top that never seemed to get closer.
They still had to climb. Water was low, legs were dead, and night was coming.
And somewhere behind them, far below but climbing with claws that did not slip on ice...
Something was still following.
And getting closer.