Other Worlds - The Wilds

Chapter 31

  It struck her that of all the people that she could call to help her with this, she was the most qualified to deal with it. She was the only one of her friends that had handled overdoses before. Regardless, she had no idea what Carol had overdosed on, hell it could just be booze for all she knew. But she knew Carol, alcohol was not enough for that lady once she got going. She scoured the house to find what they were using.

  In conclusion, she found pretty much every drug that she knew the name of and a few others that she didn't. But there was pills. Lots of them. Hopefully those were the cause of Carol's overdose.

  Her heart was in her throat when she got back to Carol's room. She was exactly how she left her. Toni knelt over her again and this time, calmed herself enough to listen for breathing. It was faint, but she was breathing. Thank God. Fuck. If you're up there thank you, Toni thought to herself looking up at the sky.

  When Toni looked back down it wasn't Carol. But her mom. "What?" Toni shook her head her heart sinking to her stomach, "This isn't r-" she took a deep shuddering breath and closed her eyes. "This isn't real." When she opened her eyes again it was Carol. This was not the time for her mind to be playing tricks on her. She had dealt with drug overdoses before but, as far as she was aware, never her own mother.

  She stored that hallucination/memory away in her mind to never touch or address again. She had enough fucked up memories for a life time, she didn't need another.

  Looking around Carol's room she eyed a waste-bin under her desk. She grabbed it and brought it over by Carol. She braced herself for one of the most unpleasant things she would ever have to do. She propped Carol up so that she was between her legs and leaning against her torso. A small groan exited Carol's mouth. That's a good sign, Toni thought. "I know, believe me, I do not want to do this either," Toni said softly.

  Toni tried to send her mind anywhere else before shoving her fingers down Carol's throat.

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  Toni sat in Carol's room and watched her.

  After emptying the waste-bin, washing her hands and moving Carol to her bed the only thing Toni could do was wait. She couldn't leave Carol alone to clean the house so she decided to text Shelby whilst intermittently checking that Carol was still breathing. She had never, in her short time living with Carol, been so grateful that it was a weekend.

  Toni stretched out the the weird freudian therapy couch thing that Carol had in her room. It was more comfortable than her own bed.

  She only had one unread text from Shelby.

Shelby: Tell me you got home okay please!

  The message was only sent about half an hour ago. Toni looked at the clock and realised that that would have been when she got home. Even though it felt like hours the whole ordeal really only lasted 30 minutes.

Toni: I'm home. Carol was sick so I was helping her out. She's fine now though. What are you up to today?

  Toni opened instagram and scrolled. There were tons of posts from her teammates about the last game which was on yesterday. Toni didn't go because she couldn't bare to watch her team play without her. They lost. Shelby replied after a few minutes of torturing herself wishing she had been on the court.

Shelby: I feel like 'sick' does not actually mean sick but as long as you're okay I don't mind. My dad is taking me dress shopping for the pageant next week. Yay

  The yay was followed by an emoji that definitely indicated the opposite of 'yay.' There was something that Toni always wondered about Shelby. Well, wondered after she got to know her properly.