Her Deliverance (vol. 2) ON HOLD

Twenty-six

"There's nothing you can do, Harry."

"What?" I say with a shaky voice and he shakes his head at me.

"You were too late."

My forehead creases in confusion but then my head turns abruptly when I hear several other voices surrounding us. I look back to Em to see paramedics aiding her, one of them pushing me back and away from her. I fall back on my hands, my eyes wide as I watched them work on her. They were talking all at once I couldn't catch a word they were saying. It wasn't until one of them ripped her shirt open, pressing a stethoscope to her chest did I finally catch the three horrid words from them.

"There's no pulse."

My heart dropped in the pit of my stomach, my breath hitching at the back of my throat. I couldn't breathe, but despite what I was feeling my eyes darted from each paramedic in a panic and back down to an unmoving Emmeline.

"Use a defibrillator!" I shout, but it's like I'm suddenly invisible to them. No one reacts to my suggestion and it's as if they hadn't heard me at all. "Shock her! Bring her back!" I scream and when they do nothing, I hurriedly stand to my feet and wave my hands around to grasp their attention. It doesn't work. "Hello? Revive her! Do something!"

But they don't. Instead, I watch as the man who held the stethoscope sighs sadly and nods his head to another paramedic. "Call it."

And then, I feel every part of me fall apart when I hear the next thing that is said.

"Time of death; 8:43 pm."

I woke up with a start, body jolting, eyes shooting open as my breath caught in the back of my throat. Subconsciously my arms tightened around the body they were wrapped around and for a moment, my gaze darted at my surroundings to see I was still in my bedroom. Wetness rimmed my eyes and it was enough to tell me I had been crying in my sleep. After staring at the dark corners of my bedroom and glancing at the window to see it was still the middle of the night, my body relaxed against the mattress. Carefully, I turned my head until my nose lightly brushed the bare shoulder of Emmeline. A sigh of relief escaped my mouth to see her lying beside me, her body wrapped up in my arms safely. The dream felt so real my heart pounded viscously in my chest, the fear I felt in the dream still lingering in my veins.

I stared at the back of her head a little longer, seeing the little light of the moon that shined in through the window leaving a shadow of her eyelashes to fall over her cheekbones. She breathed in and out slowly, her pink lips parted slightly and her face completely relaxed. Her skin was its normal color, cheeks flushed from the air conditioning coming from the vents. She looked healthy and alive compared to my dream and I continued to watch her until my heart rate slowed, gauging the slow rise and fall of her chest to see if I had waken her. When it's clear she's still passed out, I slowly pull my arms away from her and detangle my legs from hers. The sheet slips further down her naked body when I roll away from her to stand from the bed, my feet lightly hitting the wooden floor. I turn back to her to pull the covers higher, tucking her in tentatively before bending down to pull my boxers that lied next to my bed back up my legs. Quietly, I opened the drawer in my nightstand and reached for the lighter and pack of cigarettes I hadn't touched in months. I took one out, glancing over my shoulder to make sure Em was still asleep before grabbing my phone and tip toeing across my bedroom.

I slip out of my room, closing the door quietly behind me. My bare feet pad lightly against the wood as I walk down the hallway and into the living room. I move straight to the window, opening it as quietly as I can before dragging the arm chair over in front of it. Plopping myself down on it, I swing my feet up to the window still, crossing one foot over the other. The heat of the small fire hovers against my thumb when I flick the lighter, bringing it up to the end of the cigarette that was between my lips.