Cream Knows Best - Chapter 29: Chapter 29

Espio's P.O.V
Inner peace... Inner peace... don't think about him... just get over him because it's not going to yourself any good. Get out of my head you stupid crocodile! You adorable, cute, sweet, and strong crocodile! "Ugh!" I snapped, coming out of my trance. I felt tears form in my eyes, stinging them since they were dry for sobbing earlier. I looked down at a picture that I ripped up from earlier and I put the pieces together to make it full again. It was Vector giving me bunny ears while I smiled for the camera. I felt bad for ruining it but, at the same time, it helped. My stress, overwhelming. My head, pounding. My heart... shattered. Everything hurt.
"*Knock knock* Mr. Espio?*Knock knock* Are you there?" The sudden knock startled me. I got up from the mat I was sitting on and went to open my bedroom door.
There at my door, were Charmy, Cream, Tails, and that little Chao named Cheese. "Oh, hello there little ones. May I help you?" I asked, surprised to see them. All of them each had a small pack on their shoulder, seeming to be ready for some sort of trip. "Hey Espio! We knew you'd be home! Or, at least I did! But anyway, we wanted to go on some adventurous expedition and we need someone really cool and brave to protect us from any danger!" Charmy explained to me.
For some reason, I just didn't know what to say. Did I really want to go out and do this? After everything? "N-No one else can go with you?" I asked just to be sure. "No, Mr. Shadow told me he wanted to work on other stuff." Cream replied. "Sonic also said he was busy with a couple of other things, so he couldn't come." Tails replied. I sighed in defeat, knowing there wasn't any way I could avoid this.
"Alright, I'll go with you." I groaned. They cheered happily and were all smile as they raced to the door to head off. I grabbed my katana, a few smoke bombs, and my lucky pendant that was shaped like a dragon. Maybe I'll get lucky today... As I gathered the final items, we all walked off to the forest that they wanted to go to. Everything about the travel was fun. They found a river where they hopped all over the rocks. They even found tadpoles in one part of the lake. We found some wonderful stones in another creek that were all sorts of different colors. The whole setting was peaceful. Just what I've needed lately. I showed them the martial arts I use to defend myself from the rocks on the waterfalls, teaching them anything they might need to defend themselves.
I'm glad they asked me to come, I guess they did know how to help me after all. Suddenly, Cream let out a huge gasp. "WOW! That looks so cool! We have to explore it!" she cheered. "Yeah let's go!" Tails cheered. "Wait up guys! Haha!" Charmy giggled and flew after them. "Chew chew!" the small Chao said, following them.
It was a large underground tunnel that reminded me of those taverns you can find in the mountains. I wondered what might happen if we did go in but, clearly, there wasn't anything I could do to stop these four. I took in a deep breath and followed them into the tavern where everything was pitch black when we walked in. I turned on my flashlight and handed my phone to Tails so they could use the light to see too. Everything about this setting was absolutely beautiful.
Small waterfalls fell through the small cracks inside the tavern. The rocks reflected different colors off when we shined our lights on the rocks. "It's so pretty!" Charmy gasped.
The whole formation of the rocks was amazing! It was as if Mother Nature had a hidden world just for us. Everything was going well. We spent a long time just exploring, looking around at all these formations, and the small waterfalls that were giving us fresh water to fill up our water containers with. It tasted better than the actual bottled water. Who knew. Right as I filled up my container, I looked over to see all four of them playing around in another section. "Ooh! Look at this rock!" Charmy awed, picking one up. "That's so pretty! Check this one!" Tails replied. "Chew Chew! Choo Chew!" Cheese said, holding their rocks for them.
"Did you find one yet Cream?" Tails asked her, she was looking around. "I'm still looking, but I think I'm getting close!" Cream replied, looking through the rubble. I took another sip of water and looked over at them. That's when I saw Cream was getting too close to a ledge, but I wasn't sure how far down the fall was. Suddenly, she started stumbling around the area. I panicked.
I dropped the container and rushed over and grabbed her arm. "Mr. Espio!" she shouted. The minute I did so, I felt my ankle give in, twisting it, making me lose my balance, and falling over the ledge. I knew if I held on, she'd go down with me. I pushed her away, getting her to the safe side where the other three were. Failing to grab onto the ledge in front of me, I continued to fall down into the pit, slamming into what I assume were rocks. Finally, I hit what I thought was the bottom. "OW!" I shouted, pain screaming in my leg. "MR. ESPIO! ARE YOU OKAY?" Cream shouted, panicked by my major fall. After looking around, I looked up where they were. "I... I think so! B-But I hurt my leg! I can't move it!" I cried, painfully trying to move it. "AGH! It hurts! I can't see anything down here either!" I shouted, looking around my side.
A bright light suddenly appeared from above, I saw them pointing a flashlight right down where I was. That's when I was able to see exactly where I had fallen. The four of them flew down towards me. Apparently, I had fallen into a small hole, where rocks surrounded me. Then when I looked behind me, I realized my tail was stuck under a large rock. I guess I was trapped. So much for this lucky charm. "Espio! You okay?" Chamy cried, tears coming from his eyes. "I'm fine! I just can't move my leg! But I'm not sure if anything else is injured. Are you guys okay?" I replied, trying to take deep breaths from the pain in my body.
"We're fine! How can we help you?" Tails cried, looking around. "I'm not sure what you can do. My tail is trapped underneath this huge rock," I said.
All of them tried to push the rock with all their strength, but it didn't budge. Just as I expected, they couldn't move it. I was officially trapped. "We can't move it Mr. Espio!" Cream cried, catching her breath from pushing it.
Think Espio think! What can you do all the way down here?
"Ugh!" I cried, trying to move my leg.
But I must've broken it or something, it was so painful to move it.
"It hurts too much! I can't stand up or anything!" I cried.
I didn't want them to worry, but I couldn't blame them for being so worried. In fact, I was worried about just how injured I was. "We have to get help! Espio can't move and we might hurt him more if we do anything!" Charmy cried. "So who do we go to?" Tails asked. "Vector's the closest to this tavern. We should try him first!" Charmy replied, beginning to fly up, the others followed him up. Well, this is just perfect.
"So we'll go get Mr. Vector and then he can try to get him out of here! Mr. Espio, try not to move, and keep the flashlight close!" Cream said, shouting back to me. I nodded my head and kept a tight grip on the flashlight. "Stay strong Espio, we'll try and hurry!" Tails cried before I heard all of them wander off. Now I was all alone, in a dark pit that was going to be hard to get out of on its own, my tail was stuck under a boulder, and I couldn't move my leg.
I'm a sight for sore eyes. I sighed and fiddled with the necklace I had around my neck. I wished I wasn't alone and someone had stayed with me. But I'd live until they came back to save me.
I sat there in the dark for a long time. I didn't want to use the flashlight power until I knew everything was secure. Unfortunately, it was quite boring since I didn't have anything and I couldn't move to get more comfortable. Right when I thought I'd take a nap in the dark, I felt something cold and wet against my arm. At first, I thought it was the moist and ice against the tavern walls. But suddenly, it was against my legs. I kept moving thinking it was just water dripping around my legs.
Can't I ever get a break? I turned on the flashlight to see how I could get more comfortable. That's when I felt my heart stop. Water was filling up the whole section where I was. There was a medium waterfall in this section, filling up the room at a mild rate. I saw my head was far from the opening where I could possibly breathe. Crap! I tugged on my tail, praying that maybe I could get free from the boulder. So my tail was stuck for good! I tried moving my whole body to try and move. No luck.
I'm trapped. My tail is stuck, I can't move my leg, it's broken, no one is here, it's dark, I can't get to the top, and it's starting to flood in this section! "HELP!" I cried, making one last attempt to try and save myself. For the first time in forever, I was genuinely afraid. A tear fell down my cheek as I tried to grip with everything going on.
The water.
It was already up halfway past my body. I tried tugging on my tail again. I couldn't do anything. I was going to die out here... all alone. With no one here to save me.
Even though I was scared, I felt relieved about one thing.
He knew I loved him. I'll die still loving him.