Chapter 5 - Sarah Went All Sleeping Beauty on Me

199K 3.2K 728
                                    

You left me with goodbye and open arms,

A cut so deep I don't deserve

Chapter 5 – Sarah Went All Sleeping Beauty on Me

“Call nine-one-one!” A hotel crew yelled to the front desk lady.

Things happened so fast. My heart raced madly as I sprinted and knelt down beside Sarah. I checked her pulse. Nothing. Her chest wasn’t moving either. Blood dripped from the deep wound on the side of her head. I cursed in panic, starting to do thirty chest compressions before blowing twice on her mouth. Her mouth tasted of blood but I kept doing CPR. Cold sweat trickled from my temples.

“Sarah… Come on!” I yelled angrily after the third cycle. I pressed my fingers on the side of her neck. Still no pulse. “Damn  it, Sarah! Wake up!” I kept compressing and blowing onto her mouth, knowing I won’t stop until I revive her.

“We’ll take it from here,” said a middle-aged woman wearing a gray and blue scrub suit with Medic printed on the left breast pocket. A couple more in the same uniform came running to us carrying an emergency kit.

“She got no pulse!” I told the woman feverishly as she pressed a stethoscope against Sarah’s chest. My whole body was trembling. Something barbed stuck in my throat. “Sarah,” I choked.

The medic lifted her gaze to me and removed the stethoscope from her ears. “There is now,” she said before placing resuscitating mask on Sarah’s face and started pumping the bag attached to it. “Keep talking to her.”

I nodded. At this point, I’d do a cartwheel if she asked me to.

“Sarah! Wake up, please.” My voice started to break with the lump in my throat. In the corner of my eye, I saw Freddy and Emma rush to the street. “Sarah, listen to me. You can do this, okay? Please… breathe.”

As if she heard me, Sarah’s chest rose and fell. I waited for her to open her eyes but she didn’t. Soon, I heard the wail of the ambulance. People rushed into the street.

One of the medics who emerged from the ambulance shouted, “Clear the area, please!” as they carried a stretcher to our direction and transferred Sarah onto it.

“Oh God!” It was Emma who came rushing towards us, her wedding gown a tangle behind her. “What happened?” She was crying. So was I.

When I turned to face her, no words came from my mouth. Instead, I caught up with the medics carrying Sarah to the ambulance. “I’m coming with her!” I said.

“Are you a family member?” A male medic in his late twenties asked.

“I am!” Freddy jogged to the ambulance. He looked pale. And dead scared. “I’m her father.”

“I’m coming too!” I argued in panic when Dad caught my shoulders and pulled me back from the ambulance. “She needs me, Dad!” I yelled thrashing away from Arthur. Freddy talked to the medic for a little while then hauled himself into the vehicle.

“Leon, calm down for a minute,” Arthur said, preventing me from vaulting into the van.

“I can’t, Dad! Sarah!” I shouted as the hatch closed before the ambulance disappeared into the road, taking Sarah away from me. Dad finally let me go. I sagged on the sidewalk, cursing at myself as people began to go back inside the hotel.

A police car came. Two cops forced me into the hotel lobby. Dad was trying to calm Emma who was crying in a corner. As if he understood the graveness of the situation, Jer cried like a possessed demon baby in his stroller, banging his SpongeBob rattle against the harness buckle. One of the police men took my statement and asked me over and over again. I tried to give them all the details but honestly, I just couldn’t see the point. Sarah needed me. Now.

How to Date a NerdWhere stories live. Discover now