On the Devil's Path {a SOA sequel}

chapter twenty-one

"Baby, come on open the door." I called to her, my voice shaking.

I yanked on the door knob and banged on the door; anything to get McKayla to open it, but she didn't. I took a few steps back and kicked the door as hard as I could. It didn't budge. Something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong.

"Damn it McKayla open the door!" I shouted.

Still nothing. I swore under my breath and backed up again. This time when my foot connected with the door, it burst open. When I skidded into the bathroom, everything came to a screeching halt. All I could see of McKayla was her arm hanging over the side of the overfilled bathtub and the top of her head. There was a broken glass on the floor next to a small plastic bag. God, no.

I snapped myself out of it and ran for the tub.

"McKayla!" I screamed as I reached into the water.

I hauled her out of the water and onto the tile floor. My fingers found her pulse on her neck and I swore. It was barely there. Everything was spinning. I could hardly dial 9-1-1 because of my trembling hands.

"9-1-1, what is your emergency?" The operator said.

"I need an ambulance now!" I yelled.

"Sir, calm down. What's the emergen-"

"My girlfriend overdosed, she's barely breathing. Please hurry." I said, cutting her off.

I gave the operator my address and hung up. My next call was to Gemma.

I kept my fingers pressed to McKayla's neck to make sure she was still breathing. Her pulse was getting weaker by the minute.

"Baby please, please don't do this to me." I whispered to her.

It felt like hours before I could hear the sirens coming down the street.

"It's gonna be alright. You're gonna be alright." I said over and over to her.

I couldn't understand what happened. Where would she get the pills? Why would she want to kill herself? She seemed fine at the party.

The paramedics came in and I called for them.

"What happened?" One of them asked me as he crouched down beside her.

"I don't know, I just found her in the tub." I said.

They put a mask on her and started an I.V.

"What did she take?" The other one asked.

I shook my head.

"I don't know." I said.

They both looked up at me and for the first time noticed my cut. They looked at each other and stopped asking me questions.

"Dammit, we're losing her pulse. Get the defibrillator ready." One of the medics said.

I pulled on my hair and realized that I was crying. They hooked McKayla up to the machine and gave her heart a small shock. My stomach twisted and I felt like I was going to pass out when her body jerked with the current.

"Okay, we've got to take her now." The medics said as they lifted her onto the stretcher and started wheeling her out of the bathroom.

It took all I had to drag myself up off of the bathroom floor. I heard a Harley pull in and seconds later Opie came running in the house.

"Jax!" He shouted.

He saw McKayla being loaded into the ambulance and started asking the medics questions. They shrugged him off and he made his way to me.