The Bloody Red River

As we approached the river I noticed something was off about it, It was blood red. As I stared at the river it felt as if it was staring back at me but then I heard Amida, “This River looks wild!” she said excited just looking at it. “Yeah, but something just doesn’t feel right about it,” I said looking down, staring into the bloody depths. “What could possibly be wrong with it?” she asked curious of what I was going to say next. “I mean, all it is, is a river that so happens to be red,” she said, not really worried. “I guess you’re right, I’m just being paranoid,” I said. “Well the only question left is, how are we going to cross it?” she asked me. “We can use those planks of wood over there to make a raft,” I said. “Oh, Good idea, Jack,” she said in a rather light voice. For the next hour or so we built the raft, it took longer than expected but the results were better than I expected. Neither of us are carpenters, so we did the best we could with what we had. “Well at least it looks sturdy enough, right?” Amida asked nervously. “It’s fine, let’s just hope we don’t run into anything that will cause it too much damage,” I said.

We carefully lowered our raft into the Bloody Red River and we set sail, hopefully with our raft intact through the whole journey. “Looks like smooth sailing ahead captain,” Amida said jokingly. “Uh Amida, don’t jinx us before we even get a mile up the river,” I said jokingly as well. “Oh, right,” she said embarrassed. I sat down on the raft and Amida sat next to me and I could feel the warmth radiating off of her as she laid her head on my shoulder. I started to get a little flustered even if it was a small amount of contact, “Uh, Amid, what are you doing?” I asked nervously. “Well, we didn’t bring pillows, so your shoulder seemed the next best thing,” she said in a faster voice than usual. “Oh, okay, that’s cool,” I said, trying to be cool.

I ended up falling asleep, my head resting on top of hers, until the raft shook violently and woke us both up. “What was that?” she asked me, a little startled by the sudden movement. “I’m not sure, but whatever it was, it was big,” I said back, which only seemed to scare her more. So I get on one knee and bring her into a hug, slowly patting her back as she falls into it peacefully. BOOM. That was the sound I heard as lightning clouds began to form above us and I knew our peaceful ride was now at a sudden stop. “It’s a storm, we need to get off the raft and back to land!” she yelled. “You’re right, but the current is too strong so we’d just be pulled down if we get off of the raft,” I said back to her calmly. She starts to stand but only for a second before the river makes us crash into a rock and make her fall onto her ass. I looked forward and saw that more rocks were coming up and coming faster with each second that passed. “We have to steer!” I said while grabbing an oar. “What?” she said while yelling. “We have to steer, otherwise we’re going to crash into those rocks!” I said while pointing in their direction. “Alright, let’s do this!” she yelled trying to psyche herself up for the up-coming events. The first rock approaches and we hit a hard right turn, making us wobble. The next rock is coming even faster so we hit a left turn, which knocks a piece of our boat off.

We kept dodging rock as best we could until there was only one left, but the current was too strong for us to drift away from this time. “The current’s too strong, we’re going to crash!” I yelled, getting her attention. “Oh, shit,” was all she said before we hit the rock and I jumped to grab a hold of her. It was a successful grab but we both hit the water and the feeling was different inside. It felt warm instead of cold and it felt more slimy than regular water, but I didn’t have time to think as the water felt like it was trying to pull us apart. I kept a hold of her until I eventually couldn’t breathe anymore and I passed out. There was a bright light inside my head and I started to watch my memories like a movie or T.V show. As I watched It started to get brighter and brighter, until I woke up on a beach. “Shit!” I said as I sat up looking around, trying to find out where I was until I noticed Amida wasn't around me. “Damn it, what happened?” I said to myself. “Last thing I remember was holding onto Amida and then,” I started to think but couldn’t remember anything. I looked around and finally found Amida.

I ran over to her and placed her in a big hug, “I’m so glad you’re okay,” I said quietly before releasing her from our hug. “What happened?” she asked me as I let go. “Well, as soon as we hit the rock, I grabbed a hold of you and held on for as long as I could until I blacked out,” I told her and she just smiled afterwards. “Thank you,” she said to me, which confused me. “Why are you thanking me?” I asked her, still confused. “Because you risked your life to save someone you barely know,” she said. “Of course I would, because you’re someone who means a lot to me,” I said which made her smile and get flustered. “Really?” she asked again. “Yes, really,” I said softly and I pulled her to her feet. “Well, looks like we made and mostly in one piece,” I said jokingly, which she giggled.