Seven Steps Down
an excerpt

The water was smokey blue and fathomless. There was no sign of any of the vehicles though she thought she could see a taillight. A fireman appeared beside her and tied a gray safety line to his belt. It looked like a seat belt strap. Before she could say anything the fireman dove into the frigid water. Her words and her breath seemed to freeze in the night air as soon as it was out of her mouth.

She noticed he hadn't tide the safety line to anything on the bridge and reached out to do so. Her arms look sickly gray and dead, and she felt as though she were watching a movie in which someone else was tying the line to the remains of the guardrail. The belt stretched tight and snapped out of her hands. She looked down and could see through her misty breath, the firemen had someone in his arms and was swimming up from the depths.

Her dead arms reached out and pulled them up by the safety line. "We need to get you to the ambulance." Her voice sounded hollow in the still night. She was aware of the the ambulance siren pierceing the cold night but she heard it only as a distant peeling.

"One more." The firemen told her. His eyes were as dark as the haunted water." I have to get one more." He seemed to be on autopilot as though he too was as lifeless as a robot. He dove back into the water.

She reached out for his wide gray seatbelt safety strap... His haunted gray eyes swam in her memory. “One more” she heard his voice say. Had it been long enough? Too long? She leaned over the edge of the bridge deck and tried to see in the solid deep blue, but there was nothing.

She imagined him cold and frozen in the depths, reaching out to her, reaching up for help.. how long had it been? Worry flooded her mind and her dead arms reached out to grasp his safety strap and began pulling him up. Finally she saw something coming towards her, she reached into the water and grabbed his coat and struggled to get him out. Slowly, inch by water soaked inch she pulled him out drenching herself in the process.

The only icy breath freezing in the night air was her own. She rolled him over and looked into his dead accusing eyes that asked why she had taken so long, too long.