It was a dim and foggy day... (for Harry)

[polly_okeefe]

 My day started normally. I woke up in my bed, stretched, then got up and splashed water on my face at the basin. Then I dressed, slipped on sandals, and stepped out to face the day.

I stood outside my front door, a little bit surprised to find that the world had disappeared. Then, as my eyes got used to the low light, I realized that a fog had

Comments

[shot_my_shoes]

Harry woke up early, which meant he was still a bit drunk from the previous night, but nothing that would hinder him teaching his rugby class. Normally at this time of day he'd got for a swim, but his right arm still wasn't quite up to that and he didn't actually want to drown

[polly_okeefe]

It had been maybe an hour since I'd fallen into the grave. Or maybe it had felt like an hour. Certainly, I'd spent far too long shouting for help and trying -- and spectacularly failing -- to climb out on my own. And my imagination wasn't helping one bit.

When I heard someone shout back, I half thought that it was my own imagination playing tricks, but another call confirmed it. I pounced on the shout like a lifeline.

"I'm here!" I shouted. "Down here! Help me! I'm stuck!"

[shot_my_shoes]

Harry wasn't quite sure where down was from here, although the grave stone he walked into gave him an idea. "Ow." He rubbed his knee, but it didn't hurt all that much.

"Where exactly?" he asked, treading more cautiously now. It didn't do him a bit of good, though, because after a few steps the ground disappeared out from under one foot. His balance was a bit precarious to begin with and his right arm wasn't strong enough to hold onto the edge, even if it hadn't crumbled away beneath his fingers.

He landed on his bum with an "Oof," and didn't bother standing up. "Hullo Polly," he said cheerfully when he spotted her in the grave with him.

[polly_okeefe]

I wasn't in a good mood. This was why, when my would-be rescuer shouted 'where, exactly?" I muttered, "How am I supposed to know? I didn't bring a compass!" But that wasn't fair. So, instead, I opened my mouth to shout to him, helping him echo-locate me, when the man fell to earth right in front of me.

"Dr. Sullivan?!" I exclaimed. I reached down to help him to his feet. I was glad to see him, but I couldn't help but think that this meant that the task of rescue had just been doubled.

[shot_my_shoes]

"Thank you." He took her hand and smiled at her in appreciation. "It's very dark for the day time, isn't it?" It was light enough to see at close range, though, and he frowned down at his hand, since it had mud on it from levering himself up. "Where are we?" He wondered if they hadn't just fallen down a hole, but had ended up on another planet or something. The island never changed quite this much.

[polly_okeefe]

"Did you miss the gravestones on the way here?" I said, shortly. I know it was unfair. The truth was, being stuck down here so long was getting to me. As rational as I was, it was only so long before being trapped in a grave on a dark and spooky night chipped away at my resolve. I was a little freaked.

"We're in an open grave," I added, in case Harry hadn't guessed.

[shot_my_shoes]

"I didn't miss the gravestones, I walked into one." Harry completely missed anything in Polly's tone. "Are we still on the island?" It was a possibility, and quite a pleasant one too, once they got out of the open grave.

He looked down at the ground. "There's no coffin in it."

[polly_okeefe]

I frowned at Harry. There was something off about him. It was as though he wasn't taking this situation wholly seriously. "It hasn't arrived yet," I said. "Or, more likely, the coffin's not the point. Yes, I think we're still on the Island. Didn't you catch the date before you got here? The Island's changed before, and the graveyard makes it obvious." I waited for him to get it, but I wasn't feeling particularly patient, so I added, "It's a halloween theme! Bats and fog and strange noises. It's all intended to just creep us out. In fact, there wouldn't be a coffin in here, there'd be a..."

Something draped itself casually around my shoulder. Which was odd because Harry was standing in front of me. I stood for a long moment, frozen, my hand raised in mid point, before I gathered up enough courage to look at what was on my shoulder.

I saw bony fingers.

I screamed. Loudly.

[shot_my_shoes]

Harry wasn't really getting it until Polly mentioned halloween. "Oh, so it's supposed to be spooky," he said. That explained the fog and the graveyard and the empty grave. Although he wondered what had been here before this appeared - he was disoriented as to where on the island he was now. And he was a bit disappointed to hear that he was still on the island.

He frowned, realising that Polly had stopped talking, then took an involuntary step back when she screamed. It was either very loud or sounded louder in this small space. He could see a hand on her shoulder and a grinning skeleton behind her. It looked familiar and he said, "Hullo, Gordon." He remembered spending time with it in medical school.

[polly_okeefe]

I screamed. "Get this off me!!" Then there was a flurry of bones as I struggled with the skeleton hugging me.

Suddenly, the thing just fell away and lay sprawled in a corner. I stared at it, breathing heavily. It was... just a skeleton. It had dropped, not fallen. The eye sockets were lifeless, and now that I really looked at it, I could see the wires holding the bones together. It was a prop. A Halloween prop. My fear gave way to anger.

"Oh, that's great! That's just great! It's not enough that I have to spend a morning at the bottom of a muddy grave, now the Island sees fit to drop skeletons on me!" Harry, I noticed, had hardly moved while the skeleton had groped me, and he became a convenient target for my rising anger. "A fat lot of good--" Then I stopped, staring at him.

"Gordon?!"

[shot_my_shoes]

Harry frowned down at the skeleton, wondering how it had become animated enough to stand up on its own. Mind you, there was suddenly a graveyard where there hadn't been before, so anything was possible.

"He looks like Gordon," he replied to Polly's question, and shrugged. Given how upset she now was he wondered if he should have made an effort to extricate her from the skeleton, but she hadn't looked like she was in any danger.

He took a step back. The cold air was starting to sober him up a little and it occurred to him that he wasn't helping Polly get out of her predicament, however dangerous it might not be.

"I don't suppose I can offer you a leg up?" he suggested.

[polly_okeefe]

I continued to stare for a long moment, until the rational part of my brain wrestled back control. There was a bigger problem here, and Dr. Sullivan had offered a practical way out of it. I nodded. "Yes, a leg up would be a good idea," I said.

[shot_my_shoes]

Harry wasn't entirely certain that his right arm was strong enough to do this, but he wasn't going to tell Polly that. Besides, he couldn't think of any other way of getting her out of here now he was down here with her. So he said, "We'll have you out of here in no time," in a confident tone and smiled at her before bending down and cupping his hands.

[polly_okeefe]

At that moment, I was hit with the smell of alcohol. I frowned at Harry as an image of Max flashed through my head. Harry seemed happy enough; he didn't appear to be an angry drunk. But still... it was a little early in the morning, wasn't it?

But, still, he was offering. So, breathing through my mouth, I braced myself against the side of the grave and put my foot in Harry's cupped hands. I gave myself a heave.

[shot_my_shoes]

Harry didn't know what Polly was frowning at, but since she put her foot in his hands anyway he assumed it was nothing important. As she heaved herself up he pushed and hoped it was enough.

[polly_okeefe]

As I put my full weight on his hands, a part of me remembered that he'd had a cast on recently. Had his arm fully heeled? I'd hoped so.

But with his help, I was able to grab the edge of the grave, and haul myself up to my elbows. "Almost there!" I grunted.