Instinct

I gingerly placed the small first aid kit bag, the rope, helmet, gloves, nuts, boots and cams on the counter in front of the very bewildered Karl.

"You really going for this, Kid?" He asked incredulously, " I mean, the weather doesn't seem to promising."

"Karl," I whined," I just need a break, you know. I need some time to myself and this is it. Besides, I checked and the weather forecast said it wouldn't rain until 6pm and it's only 2pm. I still have some time." I reassured.

"If you're sure," Karl simply sighed," Is this all? Where's the water, thermos and food?" He quirked an eyebrow.

"Don't worry Karl, I have everything else ready for me in the car." I said pointing in the direction of the entrance.

"Alright then." He shrugged with a sigh, running all my new equipment through the scanner and putting them in a thick, plastic bag.

I have known Karl since I started rock climbing six years ago and most times than none, he worries about me like a mother would her child every time I go climbing simply because I always go solo. He's just a huge softie with a heart of gold I guess.

When I saw him scan the last item, I wordlessly gave him my card which he tapped on the card machine before handing both items back to me so I could punch in my code. I wordlessly handed it back to him so he could print out the slip which he did and handed it to me along with the plastic.

"Be careful up there, Annabelle," He sighed," I heard that the rocks up there can be very slippery during rainy days especially on the North which is why I would recommend that you just avoid the North entirely."

"I'll be okay, Karl." I said with a reassuring smile, or rather with something that I hoped was a reassuring smile.

"I'm serious, Annabelle. No North, rather go towards the East. It still gives you the same experience." He chastised while folding his hands to his chest and leaning against the wall, giving me a pointed look.

"I'll be back before it rains, so everything will be okay," I shook my head as I grabbed the plastic and started towards the door,"See you later." I waved, just to receive a small wave in response.

"Be careful." He sternly said.

"No enjoy this time?" I teased.

"I'm not joking, Annabelle," He groaned, running his hand through his graying hair," Just be careful, Squirt."

"I will." I responded as I pushed open the door.

"And no going towards the North!" He called out after me while pushing himself off of the wall.

"No promises!" I cheerfully smiled at him before slipping out of the store to avoid knowing that if I stayed for even a second longer I probably would end up not going. Time was not entirely on my side after all.

I've been climbing on the North side ever since I could properly rock climb so I was pretty comfortable with it. I have a path I always use and as far as I know, it's not extremely rocky so I should be fine, besides, the plan was to be back way before it started pouring.

A smile graced my lips in excitement as I looked up at the partially cloudy sky that promised rain later in the evening, but for now, it promised me enough time to climb and I wasn't going to waste that time when I needed the relief.

I climbed into my car and began the short drive over to the park at the foot of the mountain.

I parked my car under one of the shelters, took my rope bag making sure to only put in the necessary things and then I took my new mini First aid kit with me just incase. With that all done I began the five minute walk up the path that led to the climbing site. The site was a pretty old site, it was long and steep and what kept me coming here besides all the scenery was the fact that I had still not managed to get to the top yet, even after a year of trying but today I felt confident. I was optimistic that I could do it.

I stared at the steep in front me and did a quick overview before I clipped my first aid kit on to my harness, feeling relieved that it felt lighter than I had expected, I set up my anchors, and began the climb up the slightly slippery mountain.

I let out a gasp as I felt my foot slip from crack that I had put it in, luckily the rope helped to stabilize me enough to be able to secure myself back into place. I felt a gust of air blow against the side of my face and rustle up the trees lining up the cliff, in fact the whole mountain was beautiful because of the amount of nature that it had, it's one of the things that always brought me back.

I looked up and felt pride swell up inside of my heart as I noticed that I was almost at the top, I was about to beat this challenging mountain that I've been trying to climb for the past eight months, climbing alone had made it even more challenging for me to get to where I was right now, but it couldn't be helped since my climbing partner had left to go to a new city ten months ago and I wasn't really in the mood to look for a new one yet.

As I stood taking a short break I felt a droplet of water fall onto my uncovered hand and looked up to take note of the gray sky that promised us heavy rain. I knew that the best thing to do right now would be to climb back down and drive my way to safety, but at the same time the urge to get up there was just as strong, especially when I looked up to the small amount of climbing that was left to be done, only two nuts or cams would be needed before I could successfully finish this climb. After all this time and all those slips that I've faced I was close to my end goal.

If I turned back now then who knows how long it will take for me to able to reach this place again, so going against my better sense of judgment I put a nut into the small crack in front me and gave it a forceful tug after making sure that it was nicely secured in the crack I clipped on the quick draw and passed my rope through before before I continued on my climb, the howling wind being more apparent and aggressive as more droplets of water continued to fall on me making the mountain even more slippery than before. I continued climbing pushing through the exhaustion that was now wrecking through my body, determination coursing through my veins as the end came even closer to my view than before.

This was it.

A smile lit up on my face upon reaching the top as I hoisted myself up onto the ledge with all my strength. A far sound of thunder rumbled up in the sky as rain began relentlessly pouring with force.

I looked down at the shiny and slippery looking cliff that I had climbed on, the feeling of regret now starting to settle in as I realized that I was potentially stuck up here for a bit. This mountain was known for being slippery even hikers that hiked up here always advised against hiking on this mountain after it had rained because of how slippery and muddy the trail turned out to be. I unclipped myself from the rope and stood up to take in the full view of the mountain, trying to find anything that I could use to shelter me from the pouring rain.

I could feel myself getting drenched as I stood on the cliff and looked around for a place of shelter not feeling too worried about my rope bag or anything else in the bag that I had left all the way at the bottom of the cliff. It was a waterproof bag and I was hopeful that it would be able to keep all the contents that were in safe and hopefully dry, plus I had hope that the little arc like rock or should I rather say boulder that I had placed it under would provide some sort of shelter for it.

Looking around I was met with tree after tree of forest and now that I was just standing I could feel the temperature drop making me feel chilly in the wet clothes that now adorned my body.

I knew that if I stayed out here for much longer I was going to get sick so with nothing for me to lose I made my way into the forest and began my search for shelter. In many movies forests were shown to have caves or abandoned houses and at this moment any one of those would have been way better than just standing and getting rained on. I had a feeling that somewhere in there, the would be a cave or something and my gut was almost always right. I slowly trudged into the forest and was surrounded by rows and rows of tall trees.

As I continued my walk deeper and deeper into the forest with the wind howling and the rain still heavily falling I heard what sounded like a voice from somewhere ahead of me causing a shiver of fear to run down my spine. For all I knew this could be some serial killer because no normal person would be out here at this moment, unless that normal person happened to be me of course.

The voice called out again stopping me dead in my tracks. As much as I would have liked to ignore whoever was calling out to me something me just urged me to go and do a bit of investigation, what if whoever it was that was calling out needed helpjust to find out who it was that was out here and why, besides maybe this person would be able to help me find shelter, two is always better than one right.

"You've got this Annabelle." I mumbled to myself as I followed after the voice that seemed to be getting closer and closer as I followed it, not knowing what I was going to find ahead but hoping that whatever or whoever it was, was not going to kill me.

"Please help." I heard the sound of what sounded like a weak scream as I pushed away some branches that were blocking my view of whoever was on the other side. I could feel nausea climb up to my throat as I came face to face with a sight that almost made me collapse right on the spot.