The harsh metal bit into her skin painfully and she felt an iron flower piercing her cheek.
In mindless panic, Josie began kicking and thrashing her feet, her mouth pressed against Dana's belly in a silent scream. The hanging metal vibrated cruelly.
"Josie, for God's sake, be still!" She could vaguely make out shouting and the sounds of confusion somewhere underneath them. "Somebody help us!"
"Oh, God, I'm slipping!" Fear giving her strength, Josie's arms tightened around Dana's middle, making it harder to breathe.
She didn't know how long they hung there. Time seemed to stretch on endlessly. Then Rose's voice, as calm and as unruffled as if she'd been asking for the salt, sailed up to surround them with sanity. "All right, Josie, we're going to catch you now. You can let go."
The terrified girl sucked in her breath and let it out in a single sob. "I can't."
Oscar's voice, only slightly less calm than Rose's had been, followed. "Yes, you can. Josie. Please, you have to trust us. We'll catch you. Let go."
Dana couldn't see what was happening below her. The metal against her face and the blue Sky behind it took up her whole field of vision. Her senses had heightened painfully. The Sky seemed too bright to her eyes, the smell of rust in her nostrils too pungent, and Rose's voice was too clear in her ears.
Josie was gasping huge painful breaths now and if possible was squeezing her even tighter. "Josie, please,”she cried. "My arm feels like it's breaking. I can't hold us anymore." Josie released her hold.
The sudden shift in weight, easing the tension on the rail, caused it to relax and swing, and the metal bolts holding it protested shrilly from the abuse. Dana felt a violent trembling, but she couldn't tell if it was her or the metal she clung to. Her heart pounded and her head felt tight as she waited to fall.
"Okay, Dana, now you," Rose said, calmly.
"I'm not sure I can." The arm she'd been hanging from felt numb and locked into position. Trying her best to support her weight with her left hand she painfully began extracting her right arm from the twisted design. Finally, once her wrist was free, she let go, falling backward into space.
She felt air rushing past her ears and then a cottony softness broke her fall, a softness that flung her body back up ever so slightly before she was gently lowered to the ground.
Jack and Noah were around her in an instant, holding her, kissing her, and crying over her. Their voices were a babbling roar in her head.
"Boys, give her room, let her breathe." Rose pulled them apart and helped Dana to her feet, her eyes searching Dana's face. "Girl, you scared the pee-wonky-doodle out of us."
Dana shocked everyone, herself most of all, when she dissolved into a fit of giggles at the bizarre choice of words. Jack moved towards her, fearing an onset of hysteria. But Rose waved him off, nodding in satisfaction. "She'll be all right."
The reason for their ordeal snapped back into her mind and Dana looked around her, searching for a missing face. Where’s Brett? Wait, there he was leaning against a tree, looking as white and shaken as everyone else. Even Austin, glowering as usual, was at the edge of the group clustered around her. While it had felt like a lifetime, she knew they couldn't have been hanging off of the widow's walk for more than a minute. Could their pursuer have gotten out here so quickly?
"Has everyone been out here the whole time?" Dana asked.
Puzzled faces greeted what seemed like a strange question, but Josie, who had been weeping softly in the warm circle of her uncle's arms, finally came to life. "That's right." She looked around accusingly. "Somebody chased us." Then with a broken sob, she threw herself into Dana's arms knocking her backwards into Jack, who grasped her tightly by the shoulders. Clutching Dana's shirt, Josie cried, "But you saved us. You held on and on, I was so scared, you didn't let go... you didn't let go."
Dana held her tightly and tried to offer comfort to the crying girl. "Hey, that's enough of that; you're going to make yourself sick." She pulled Josie away slightly and smiled gently. "Actually, I think it was they," she said with a nod at the others around them, "who saved us."
"It was Rose,”Henry said admiringly, speaking up for the first time. "Wow, I've never seen anyone better in a