As he rested in his hospital bed, Christian couldn't help but worry. He almost hated himself for his own behavior. He should have been the one to keep themselves calm and take care of their situation, not Lydia. He wanted to slap himself for panicking so badly, especially since he wasn't as badly injured as she was. Looking out of the dimly lit hospital room, Christian let out a sigh as the sky began to change colors with sunrise. Lydia was definitely his new hero.

They'd gone to a graduation party together; it was a one of those events where you had to bring a date, so they chose to go together since they were best friends and neither one of them had a real date. The party took place in a small vacation house out in the woods that belonged to their friend. As the night rolled on, Lydia got a call from her father.

"What?" she asked, bewildered into the phone. After a long pause where she listened, she turned her back and went to walk away from the party so she could talk to her dad without the noise. Christian knew that Lydia didn't really get along with her father all that well, so he followed her to make sure she was all right.

"No, Daddy, I-" she'd said, but he'd apparently cut her off. Glaring off into the night, she slapped her phone shut and crossed her arms. "I really don't know what I always do to piss him off so bad!" she exclaimed.

"No one does," Christian said, giving her a small hug. "He's a really confusing person. You haven't done anything wrong. He doesn't deserve to have you in his life. Some people just shouldn't be parents," he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets with a disgruntled sigh. Lydia's father had always confused everyone. No one understood why he treated her the way he did. She was the ideal daughter who made good grades and stayed away from most bad influences. Well, she didn't stay away from them; her friends liked to drink, but she never did and was always the one to take their keys and make sure everyone was okay. Lydia had a good head on her shoulders and knew exactly where she wanted to go in life. It drove everyone crazy that her dad felt like she was terrible and worthless.

"Do you want to go for a walk and talk things out?" Christian asked her, knowing from past experiences that Lydia didn't want to go back to the party upset because she didn't want anyone else to worry about her mood.

"Yeah, sure," she said quietly, which meant that they were just going to walk in silence for a little while because she honestly didn't want to talk about it, and Christian knew that.

Once the sound of the bass from the music playing at the party was barely detectable over the buzz of the crickets and the sound of the wind, Christian glanced over at Lydia.

"Hey... You hear that?" he asked, getting a wicked grin on his face.

"Hear what?" she demanded, her expression became annoyed. Christian knew she hated it when he did this to her, but he loved it so much!

"That sound... Listen."

"I don't hear anything," she said in a curt tone.

"You're telling me that you didn't realize that we're out in the woods at night, and you don't here all of the bugs squirming around you?"

"Oh! Christian, you jerk!" Lydia yelled, punching his arm before she ran off farther along the path. With a satisfied laugh, he chased after her.

"Don't leave me alone out here, I'm scared!" he teased.

"Good, I hope you get eaten alive by locusts!" she yelled back at him, stopping to wait for him to catch up.

As he caught up to her, he let out a soft laugh.

"Aw, come on, you know I'm just messing with you," he said, reaching out to hug her.

"Yeah, yeah," she said, pretending to still be mad as she playfully pulled away from him. Refusing to give up, Christian gave her a huge bear hug from behind, making them both burst out into laughter. That's how things had always been since they met. Neither one of them could stay upset while the other one was around and they always laughed about nothing. They were voted best couple in the senior class for the year book, even though they had never dated.

Linking arms as they walked, Lydia let out a happy sigh.

"Can you believe we actually made it?" she asked, staring at the ground as they walked down the moonlit path.

"What?" he asked, not sure what she was talking about.

"Graduation! It feels so crazy to actually finish. Twelve years of fighting to reach a goal... It just seemed like we'd never get here, but now it's all over."

"Yeah... I know what you mean. Are you still planning on moving?" he asked her, glancing down at her as he did so.

"Mmhm, I need to move back home and take care of my grandmother. My family really needs me right now, and I've put off going back long enough. You still plan on staying here?" she asked, looking up at him with a raised brow.

"Yup, I've got a career to chase after and the only place for me to do it would be here," he said with an exasperated sigh. He wasn't really happy about the two of them getting split apart. They'd been through so much together during their high school years; it just seemed weird to him that she wouldn't be around anymore.

"Well, we've got to keep in touch," she said, giving his arm a small squeeze.

"Oh, like I was really going to forget you," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Come on, I'm being serious!" she said as she let go of his arm to push him a little. "It's going to be so weird not being able to see you every day! You have to promise me that you'll call me... at least three times a week!" As she said this, she crossed her arms in a way that told Christian he had no choice but to comply.

"Okay, okay! I promise... four times a week," he said with a big grin.

"Sounds like a deal!" she said, laughing at him for trying to out-do her. Then, her face twisted into confusion. "Did you hear that?" she asked, looking around quietly for a moment.

"No, what is it?" he asked, walking closer to her as they both began to look around.

"It sounded like cracking wood," she whispered. Christian felt her tense up as she started to get scared, even if she wouldn't admit it.

"It was probably just a coyote or something," he said, trying to comfort her a little.

"Yeah... Probab-" Lydia began to say, but stopped as the ground below her began to sink in. With the sounds of boards moaning and then a crack echoing in the silence of the night, Lydia let out a scream as she fell into the ground, Christian gasping as he fell with her.

It took a moment for him to realize what had happened. The air was filled with dust as he waved his hand in front of him, body pulsating in pain as he coughed and looked up at the beams of moon light roughly fifteen feet above his head. Squinting through the dust and darkness, he realized that they'd fallen into some sort of old abandoned mine. The dirt walls were held back by old corroded wooden beams and cobwebs stretched across the corners of the room.

Then a cry broke the silence as everything settled. The cry, which came from Lydia, was more of a groan, and Christian could tell that she had been trying to hold it in.

"Lydia!? Are you okay?" Christian called out in alarm. He was banged up from the fall- maybe he hit his head and his leg didn't feel too great, but she was probably hurt a lot worse.

"Christian?" her voice rang out in the darkness, sounding strained and scared. "Something fell on top of me, I can't feel my legs," she said, voice shaking as Christian barely made out her shadowy figure in the darkness and crawled over to her with a moan from the pain he was in. "What is it? Where are we?" she asked, looking up towards the opening they had fallen through.

"I think we fell in a mine," he said roughly, trying to see what was laying across her lap as he did so. "Ugh, it looks like one of the support beams fell on you," he said, running his fingers through his hair as he tried to think of what to do. "I could try and move it," he said, not sure if that was a good idea or not. He'd seen in movies that sometimes removing things like this could cause more damage.

"Yeah... do that," Lydia said, panting almost breathlessly after a moment of silence. "It's hurts so bad," she said weakly, but it was obvious to Christian that she was doing her best not to give into the pain, unlike him. He was groaning and staggering about, panting as he rose to prepare himself to lift the beam.

"Are you going to be all right?" Lydia asked him quietly.

"Let's hope so. Are you ready for this?" he asked, taking a deep breath as he lowered himself, slipping his hands under the beam.

"Mmhm," she hummed gently as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Alright, here goes nothing," Christian mumbled, letting out a grunt as he tried with all of his might to lift the heavy wooden beam away from Lydia's waist. He could barely raise it off of her, and after a few moments of trying, he stopped as Lydia jerked forward, and then threw herself back, a small yelp forming in the back of her throat that she wouldn't let escape her.

"Lydia! I'm sorry!" he said, letting go of the unmoved beam to kneel next to her. "I can't do it," he said in a panic. "I can't move the beam, I'm so sorry!"

"It's... all right," she said weakly, reaching out to take his hand. "Don't worry about it, it doesn't hurt that bad," she said, running a hand affectionately down the side of his face to comfort him.

"It's not all right!" he said, taking her into a hug. As he did so, he felt the sweat on her face. She was hurting a lot worse than she was leading on to. "I should be able to do something! You shouldn't have to lay there like that-"

"Christian, where's my phone?" she asked as she squeezed his hand again.

"Um, I don't know. Don't you have it?" he asked, sitting up to look around as a small whimper fled from him.

"It was in my hand before we fell, I think I dropped it somewhere," Lydia said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "I feel so tired," she added in a faint voice.

"Look, I'll find the phone, just stay awake, okay?" he said, feeling himself get more and more worked up. Tears formed in his eyes as he got up, realizing that blood was running down the side of his head. There was hardly any light in the mine and Lydia's phone was black. It was going to be hell trying to find it.

"All right... It'll be okay, Christian. Don't worry," she said, the sound of her voice fading.

The sound of her voice getting farther and farther from consciousness only made him feel worse, despite her efforts to encourage him to stay calm. Christian was anything but calm. He felt himself break down as he stumbled forward in the darkness, feeling around for the phone in the dark damp debris of wood and stone. It was no good, though, he couldn't find it. Throwing himself back down next to Lydia, he rubbed his face in the palms of his hands as he cried. The sharp breathing of his best friend next to him only made him feel worse.

After a moment, when he'd calmed enough to hear her fragile tone, she reached over and touched his arm.

"Can I tell you a story?" she asked, her eyes closed as she laid back on the cold wet stone, legs still pinned under the beam.

"Yeah," he said, sniffling as he did so. "Yeah, tell me a story." His voice squeaked as he spoke. He reached out and took her hand in his and held in tightly as he fought tears. How could she lay there so calmly? He just didn't understand!

"Once upon a time, there were two friends- the best of friends, that is. They cared about each other very much..."

Things carried on like that for hours, it seemed. Christian was about ready to give up hope, and it was almost impossible to keep Lydia awake at this point. He was afraid she was going to die or suffer from a concussion. The last thing he needed was her going into a coma and him being totally helpless to save her. He was feeling completely hopeless at that point, but then it was almost as if his prayers had been answered after hours of praying.

A rhythmic buzzing sound filled the mine.

"Bzzzzzt... Bzzzzzt..." and a small orange light lit up across the room. It was Lydia's cell phone! Jumping up, Christian grunted in pain again but dived for the phone. After fumbling it around in his hands for a moment, he answered the persistent buzzing of the small device.

"Hello?? Hey, it's Christian- look, we need help!" It was their friend calling to tease them about disappearing from the party together.

Within the next hour, an ambulance was called and another hour after that, they were finally laying next to each other safely inside of one of the speeding vehicles, both covered in dirt and dried blood from the hours of sitting alone in the mine. Reaching out, Lydia took Christian's hand and smiled faintly.

"Told you so," she said quietly as paramedics tended to her legs as the sirens wailed above them.

"Told me what?" he asked, tears forming in his eyes again as he held her hand tightly.

"That everything would be okay..." she said, closing her eyes.

As the sun rose, Christian laid in his hospital bed with a smile on his face, tears in his eyes. Again, he prayed as a golden haze filled his room from the rising sun. He prayed that Lydia would be all right and he vowed, from that day forth, that he would be strong, just for her.