I’m joining in Maura Anderson’s Friday Flash Fiction
Wordpress won’t let me add linkies…so I’ll add you from your comment links *grin*

Runes
(c) Kim Knox

“Which one?”

“How the hell should I know?”

“Maybe because it’s your stupid face pressed up against them?”

“Insults now?”

“Given the situation, it seems appropriate.”

Jake let out a slow breath. “Fine.”

His cheek dragged against the rough stone until he was staring at the row of carved symbols cut into the face of the rock. They still made no sense.

“Can you hurry?”

He held back a curse. “Just hold on.”

“Easier said,” Anna muttered.

Jake forced his gaze away from the wall and stared up into the darkness. The rope snaked down, thin and strained. In the silence of the cave, its stretching groans had his already white knuckles tightening their grip. He twisted his body, trying to support Anna.

Her face had flushed and she had her eyes crushed shut. Words grated out. “I should have done it…”

“You know, that isn’t helping right now—”

“… but you have to think you’re the one. The only one that can solve this. And now we’re hanging from a rope, in a cave with a thousand foot drop.”

“It’s an illusion, Anna. Just…”

“No. Just press the bloody symbols.” She glared at him. “Or I will.”

Anger fired his gut. “We decided—”

“You decided.”

“Anna—”

“No.”

In one slam, her hand impacted the wall.

“You stupid—”

Silence.

Nothing.

Until the rope vanished.