On a summery day in Lavenders Crescent, a small town Westside of North Carolina. Jean, George, and Scarlett were going paragliding on the hills, we were too young so we had the gliders strung to a belt to avoid any accidents with a supervisor nearby.
Summer was ending in three days and she was dreading going back to school, the teachers would be flocking them with schoolwork after their last semester was cut short when a terminal disease broke out and the students were sent home to avoid any transmission.
Scarlet frowned when George and Jean hung on to the rails of the glider.
"Hey, I don't have a partner" She complained but the supervisor signaled them to move on.
"Sorry, I'll ride with you next time," Jean said to her on the edge of the cliff. She turned to George and was starstruck by his tender blue eyes, she was having mixed feelings because they had to jump over five hundred feet.
"Ready when you are" He nodded, she took a deep breath and they jumped simultaneously, the wind automatically synced to the glider and hoisted them.
George laughed as it heaved them into the air, they overlooked a creek that was shaped like a crescent. Daylight fell on the leaves painting them, it was a spectrum of purple and pink, and red. That was how the town was named.
A few people were by the creek throwing a party to conclude, the summer vacation.
They looked ahead at the horizon as the wind thrust them forward in the air, her hair wafted in the wind but she was too afraid to brush it back even if she had a belt strapped to her midriff. She was afraid to take risks.
The rope jerked behind them a little too hard, the rope had reached its limit but the wind was pushing on.
"George!"
The wind gliding wonder turned into a nightmare. Jean felt her stomach flip over, the belt tightened on their waistline.
"Oh, shit" he swore.
The cable tightened consequently the glider tilted to the left.
Spectators detected that something was wrong looking upward.
Jean screamed as the impact forced her hands to let go grabbing George by his collar, he reached out to yank her wrist.
"Hold on!"
"No kidding!"
It tilted again, it was a battle against nature and unfortunately, they lost when the cable snapped leaving them at the wrath of the turbulent wind.
They screamed as the glider plummeted, Jean cried nauseous and afraid. George cursed several times trying to unclasp the belts, the belt zipped through the buckle and he was holding on to the rails.
"Jean, take off your leash"
She was still hedged between the fear of death and the fear of leaving so early, she shut her eyes as the glider ricocheted a few unfortunate birds, the other flock collided into them, she cried out when a bird hit her snapping her out of her panic attack.
His hair drifted violently as he hung on for his dear life, the glider was progressing toward the trees as they were losing altitude.
"Take off your leash!" He screamed with wild blue eyes, Jean's hands shook as she worked on the first strap, and they gasped as the trees were getting closer with leaves and branches sticking out.
"Okay don't, stop_stop!" He cautioned and they yelled as the glider grazed through the canopy of trees.
Their bodies jerked as a branch caught the fabric in its traction, they were over the edge of the lake.
"We're gonna have to jump" George mumbled with his legs dangling, Jean was shaking terribly.
"Oh dear God no_" She screamed as the wind tugged at the glider. She got to removing the leash.
George worked as quickly as fear could permit him, the wind overwhelmed them again, just as he was about to unclasp the last one, the fabric escaped with a big rip and George tumbled falling into the lake from the great height.
"George!"
Jean's eyes rounded as the glider wafted and dropped, she pulled at the belt until she slipped through screaming as she fell into the lake in a big splash.
...
Dylan sat back on the docks, he tossed a pebble across and it bounced off the water at least three times before it sank. Times had been traumatic, his dad had failed to get relief from jail time again, he sat here to pass the time away from the hurricane.
He looked ahead at a log drifting in the water, it appeared that algae had clung to it on the way, strange-looking log, he stood up to get a better look, a branch extended and it moved.
"Huh?"
The water around it stirred and the algae moved as well, what in the living hell was that? His vision adjusted and he realized that the algae were human hair and the human stopped moving.
Without thinking twice, he dived in and paddled taking air in gasps, trying to get closer, he grabbed the girl by her waistline swimming toward the docks, he hung on and grit his teeth as he tried to hurl her over the boards and rolled up pulling her on it. Then placing her on her back.
Pumping her chest, he dipped his head to blow air into her mouth to resuscitate her, there was no sign of revival.
"Come on"
She stirred and coughed out water, turning over as it spilled, she was too weak to stand up and fell over.
He breathed harshly gathering her, how in the world did she end up here? She looked dizzy and clung to him.
"You're okay"
She bent over regurgitating, he deduced it to vertigo and carried on his back, the houses weren't remote from here, he would call 911 as soon as he got there.
"George" She crooned, her voice was raspy as though she had been screaming for a long time.
"Don't worry, I'll get help"
He reached the frontier of the creek where a group of people was speculating, he saw that there was an ambulance around. Relieved, they were also attending to a boy who had nasty scratch marks
They saw him coming through and a girl with sandy hair bolted toward him.
"Jean! Thank God"
"I found her drifting by the moors" he reported quickly when two paramedic staff came to her aid.
She paled "That far?"
"She's got vertigo," One of the staff said wrapping her with a blanket and they examined her, she was out of balance.
He nodded
"Thanks, this might have been the worst summer ever"
Curious to know what happened to the poor duo. "How did this happen?"
"They were paragliding and the cable cut loose"
"Jesus"
"Yeah, you're a lifesaver"
...
George looked in Jean's direction, glad she was safe, the rescuers had pulled him out despite his rants about losing her. His heart nearly gave out, he had scratch marks from grazing against the trees but those were the least of his worries.
Up ahead, he saw a tall guy with raven black hair talking to Scarlett, from time to time, his eyes drifted to Jean, he looked drenched all the same and he nodded when a staff handed him a blanket shaking his hand.
"Who's that?"
He asked the lady who was done dabbing his wounds.
"He prefers to remain anonymous but he saved the young lady's life. Come on, we have to stitch up those deep cuts."