I opened my eyes to the silver moon again, although I could have sworn I'd slept for a lot longer than a few hours. I then noticed that it was slightly less of the full moon than it was yesterday. I had been passed out for an entire day. I moved my body a little and could hardly quiet my groan. My body was sore, like it had been moving for hours. What the hell had I been doing last night?... oh... right.
I slowly, ever so slowly, rose up and looked around me, propped on my elbows and hands that, god damn it, were still tied behind me. I need to get out of these. They weren't so tight that they restricted blood flow, but I wanted to actually use my hands for something productive, like climbing out of here. First, I had to find Katie.
I looked around me and noticed two more things. One, I was wrapped up in a silken blanket of web that had kept me warm while I slept. Next, I noticed the girl I was looking for was right next to me, wrapped in her own blanket. We looked like children tucked in for bed. Or snacks wrapped up like delicious burritos. No, if he had wanted to... Wait when did I stop thinking "it" and started saying "he?" How was I sure he was even a "he?"
Never mind. It's probably better to trust my instincts on that one. Anyway, if he had wanted to eat us (as food) he would have done it already and he definitely wouldn't have tried so hard to keep us warm. I think the web came from his tail, if my memories are any hint, but I'd really rather not think about that too much right now. I'm still trying to escape here, so I can't get distracted... or I may want to stay forever...
ANYWAY! I need to wake Katie up. She had the most time to rest, so she will probably be the best fit right now. I try to shake her, but got nowhere. She was always a heavy sleeper and I'd usually have some morning fun before waking her up like a mewling kitten... calm down Sarah, you have more important things, like your sore body and a molesting monster around the corner.
"Katie. Katie! Wake up already." I give her an unceremonious kick to her thigh. Apparently she was just as beat up as me because she groaned from the hit to her aching lower body. Her eyes slowly opened to look right at my own, unfocused and half asleep. Suddenly, her eyes shone with hope and gratitude, like I was her lifeline from some terrible nightmare. She lunged for me, letting the blanket fly to one side, wrapping her tied arms around my neck and started crying out in a panic.
"OH GOD, SARAH! I just had the worst dream!" she was desperately hugging me with her own tied hands and I supported her while she let it all out.
"We were on a boat, and then it exploded, and then we were swimming, and... and then there was this terrible creature that just..." She had stopped midway in her blind cry, looking around us at the cave walls, my topless body and at her own torn swimsuit, and finally the webs that tied her arms together.
"Oh no... it wasn't a dream was it Sarah?" all the energy that was left in her drained away, forcing her to almost hang on me as she sagged back. Her body was finally remembering what she had gone through, and she looked at me with desperate eyes, like she was about to lose herself to her fear. I knew some of that fear, and I knew she couldn't go down that road. Not when we needed each other as desperately as we did now. I gently hugged her with my neck and tried my best to calm her shivering shoulders.
"It's all right, everything's okay now. He's gone right now, so I need your help... Katie! Look at me!" Her teary eyes came to look at my own, hope delicately placed on a cliff of total despair.
"All right then. Here's what we know: We are alive right now. We are safe right now. Only think about right now, okay? We also know that he... it won't eat us," I saw her tremble at the thought of the kind of devouring she had already felt. "and we know it isn't here right now. Lastly, I know that we probably won't be able to run away from it if we can't tell where we are."
I look meaningfully at her and then at the sky above us, until I saw her eyes shine in understanding and she concentrated hard on the sky above us. She had taken a major in astronomy in college, and I had taken marine biology. I liked dolphins and she liked the stars. She could get a good enough idea of where we were in the world if she could see the clear night sky and I was counting on her to figure out our location, maybe even a direction for civilization.
"Sarah, we need to get out of this cave. I can't get a good enough look at the sky from that hole... Do you think we can get out?"
"Maybe if we could figure out a way to cut these threads, but I don't see anything sharp enough around... what are you doing?" I ask as she slowly reaches around her head to pull out the hairpin from her hair.
I could do nothing but stare as she flipped out a small knife from the thing like some kind of switchblade... This angel has a few tricks up her sleeve apparently, though it wouldn't have done a thing for self-defense. I didn't say a word as she proceeded to cut away the thread tying my hands behind my back. Letting me loose first allowed me to quickly get at her bonds. After that was done, we both stood up on weak knees, and her eyes shot to the dried wetness of my bikini bottom that had nothing to do with water. Then she noticed I wasn't wearing the rest.
"Um, Sarah?"