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il_mio_capitanoMod day time and for three days we are playing Pass the Prompt. To play along, you only need to respond to a given prompt with a drabble or ficlet and then give your own prompt for the next person to pick up.
Prompts can be used multiple times and anyone can play any number of turns. This game ends officially after Wednesday so please don’t post any more until the Free For All Days (next week).
Fics, ficlets or drabbles of any length are welcome. I was prompted by littleotter73 with ‘Life flashing before his eyes’. This prompt is still open to anyone else to use of course, or my new prompt at the bottom.
Title: What Friends Are For
Author: il-mio-capitano
Prompt: Life flashing before his eyes.
Length: 340
Rating: FRT
The fall had felt endless and terrifying but the physical impact on the water, twisted and painful, was so much worse. Giles’ glasses ripped from his face and his jacket rose up over his head, but not enough to slow his descent deep into the abyss. He panicked at the intense pressure on his ears and lungs, kept his eyes tightly shut and tried to thrash and kick out.
There had been someone else with him, but he couldn’t remember who. He was going to die and his friend, yes, it was a friend, had been pushed off the bridge too and he had to save them. Bloody biker demons! Giles wildly toed off his shoes and wriggled somehow out of his jacket. The dying part he was at peace with, but not losing someone else too. He kicked his legs and started to rise upwards, but he knew he’d sunk too far and that the urge to breathe would overcome him before he reached the surface.
Who had been with him? Were they safe? He hoped so. He thought of his life, his mistakes, his triumphs and his friends, especially his friends. He was lightheaded with fatigue by now, his muscles cramped by the physical effort and he knew he wasn’t going to make it. Oddly, he was OK with that. The rest would be nice and peaceful. Rest in Peace.
He almost giggled at that thought when something kicked him in the ribs and a hand bunched the back of his shirt, pulling him upwards until he breached the surface of the river. Instinctively he took a huge gulp of air but spat water as he bobbed briefly under again. Strong arms were holding him, and he heard the most welcome voice in the world.
“Giles, Giles, are you OK?”
“Never better,” he croaked.
“Good to hear that, big guy, because I’m going need you to swim with me back to the bank. Can you do that?”
Giles smiled.
“Yes, Xander. I can do that.”
Pass the Prompt: First pair of glasses.
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