My slow steps towards my bed became fast and messy as I fell onto my knees beside my mothers pale body. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her, but her face remained the same; monotonous. Dead. "Mum. Mum. Mum." My words started out as a whisper, before they got clearer, faster and louder, "Mum! Mum! MUMMUMUMUM! WAKE UP MUMMY!"
I felt her pulse on her neck and felt nothing, so I ran into the living room and grabbed the phone, dialling 911.
"Hello, this is the emergency service, how can I help you?" A female voice asked calmly.
"H-help! My- my mother, she isn't- isnt breathing!" I gasped, attemping to keep my voice steady but failing as I stuttered and swallowed for nearly every word.
"Alright, stay calm. I'm going to need your address," The lady said, as though she didn't care about the fact my mother was breathless.
"W-what?" I asked. I was too shocked to listen properly.
"I need your address, so I can send over an ambulance."
"Oh, right, it's, um, it's apartment 2-28 on S-s-sined Road," I replied, shaking. I began to feel really sweaty and nausious so I sat down on the couch, my back straight just in case I heared my mother's voice, laughing and telling me that everything was fine; that it was just a joke.
"Okay, I'm sending over an ambulance now," The lady informed me.
"W-what do I do?!" I asked desperately.
"Do you know CPR?" The lady quesioned.
"No, I-I forgot." I said, wanting to beat myself up.
"Just tilt her head back and open her mouth before giving her heavy breaths-" The lady explained before I walked into my bedroom and put down the phone on my bed, next to my mother's hand.
"I can do this, I can do this, I can do this-" I muttered to myself over and over again. "Yes, yes, I remember now."
I tilted mum's head back and blew air into her mouth before pushing on her chest 3 times. I did this over and over again until I heared a crack.
I panicked and grabbed the phone. "Hello!? H-Hello, are you s-still there? I hear-heared a c-c-crack, I think I- I think I cracked a rib!" I said, the sweat dripping off my forehead and onto the ground.
"No need to panick, sweety. Even if you did snap a rib, it doesn't matter. It won't effect anything. Is she breathing now?"
"No... miss, she-she's so cold..." I whimpered.
I was met with a stoney silence.
"Her body is cold?"
"Y-yes."
"Don't worry, honey, an ambulance is on its way."
I teared my eyes away from my mother's lifeless body and looked out of my window when I heared ambulance sirens wailing. The neon yellow vehicle halted outside the building and 2 men ran through the door, holding some medical equipment.
My breathing got heavier and heavier, and I was still too shocked to cry. When I heared a knock on the apartment door, I ran as fast as I could and swooshed open the door to reveal two men wearing scrubs.
"She's-she's in here!" I shouted, running back into my bedroom, the men following.
They looked at her body and got straight to work whilst asking me some questions.
"Did you see how this happened?" The first one asked, checking my mother's pulse.
"No, I-I just came in and found her like this!" I explained quickly, clutching my head.
The second man mumbled something to the first and they continued to work, putting an oxygen mask over mum's face.
I looked over at the pulse detector to see that nothing was happening. "Please! Please you have to try harder!" I pleaded loudly.
"We're doing the best we can, ma'am."
But the pulse meter still wasn't working. Why wasn't it working?
By now, I was shaking extremely violantly and the sweat was running into my eye. I wiped my face with my sleeve and sat, down, my legs now unable to hold me up from the shock.
One of the men sighed and looked at the other, his lips in his mouth as he nodded his head, sadly. The taller of the two packed up his things whilst the other slowly stood up and looked at me with sympathetic eyes. "I'm sorry, ma'am. Your mother's gone."
'Your mother's gone...'
'Your mother's gone...'
'Your mother's gone...'
'Your mother's gone...'
All that I heared was the endless echo of the man's voice. "She's... gone?"
The man nodded his head sympathetically. "You have my condolences."
He watched me carefully as I stood up, using the door frame as a guide to do so, and stared at him in the eye. "Con-Condolences?" I stuttered quietly, my whole body feeling like it was going to collapse into itself.
"And I'm sorry to say this, but we'll have to leave the body here so we can go get some more equipment. I think it'd be best if you try not to move her body. We'll be back in an hour... Is there anybody you can call?" The man asked, his hands held in front of him.
"Y-Yes."
"Alright then. I'm truely sorry, ma'am. We'll be here soon," And with that, the man sighed and left, grabbing his case full of medial equipment.
The shock was still taking over my body as I picked up the phone and dialled Vanessa's number. I held it to my ear, my mouth fallen open a bit and my eyes wide.
"Hello?"
"D-Danielle, come home. N-Now." I whispered.
"Anna?"
"Come... P-P-Please.." I hung up the phone.
Slowly, I turned around to face my mother, who was looking even paler, and more lifeless than she had been when I found her. Subconsciously, I walked slowly into my bathroom, bent over the toilet seat and threw up over and over again. Once all of the food was out of my stomach, I washed out my mouth, and that was when I heared the sound of the apartment door bursting open.
"Anna?" My best friend called. I looked at myself in the mirror instead of replying. I was just as pale as my mum was, maybe paler. The sweat was making my skin shine, and my lips were pale. My eyes, along with the bags underneath them, are more prominant, probably because they were so bloody red. I decided not to clean myself up, knowing that I was still going to look a mess anyway, and I walked outside of my bathroom, so I was standing about a meter away from my bedroom door frame.
Vanessa spotted me and quickly walked over. "Anna? What's wrong!? Are you alright?"
I didn't reply, I just looked over at the dead, dull eyed beauty. Vanessa walked into my room and looked on my bed. "Oh my, God!" She yelled, walking over to the body and shaking my mum.
"No. No, NO! THEY SAID NOT TO TOUCH THE BODY!" I yelled.
Vanessa looked at me with a look I couldn't understand as I cupped my hands over my mouth, the shock leaving me. She was gone. My mother was gone; all was left was an empty shell. A body.
My mother, the lady who had been stuck to my hip for 18 years, was no longer attatched. I couldn't create any more memories with her, I couldn't ever hear her voice, her laugh, couldn't hug her, kiss her cheek, cook for her, joke with her. My mother, my best friend...
The only person that I truely had left was gone.
And I never knew that 8 months back, when I was talking to her casually on the phone, that that'd be the last time I'd ever hear her voice.
I didn't even realise that I was crying until a droplet of water ran into my mouth; followed my a river. "Mummymummymummymummymummymummy-" I continuously repeated as I slid my back down the wall until I tucked my head into my lap. "No, mummy, not you! Please come back, mummy- ANSWER ME MUM!" I screamed, hitting the ground with my fists.
VANESSA'S POV
"No, mummy, not you! Please come back, mummy- ANSWER ME MUM!" Anna screached, hitting the carpet with her fists.
H-Her mother?
I felt a tear run down my own cheek as I saw Anna attacking everything in her reach, like she had done before she told me about her father; but this time worse. Far, far worse. "Oh. My. God..." I mumbled into my shaking hand as she broke a vase, but I didn't try to stop her. I'd do the same thing if I could.
"WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?!" Anna yelled as she punched the wall, leaving a massive hole. As soon as she pulled her hand out and found her knuckles covered in blood, I stepped in.
"A-Anna.. Anna! ANNA!" I yelled, more and more tears on my cheeks. She ignored me and continued to wreck her room, her blood spilling onto ever surface in sight.
"SHE'S GONE, DANIELLE! SHE'S GONE!" She suddenly stopped and looked at me and I saw how her pale face was covered in sweat, her eyes bloodshot, her eye bags purple and her cheeks smothered in blood. "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! SHE WAS THE ONLY PERSON I HAD LEFT! THE ONLY ONE THAT HAD SURVIVED THROUGH OUT MY LIFE! I HAVE SEEN MY BEST FRIENDS, MY FAMILY COME AND GO AND I'M SICK OF IT! I'M ALL ALONE! I-I'm all- I'm all alone!"
Shocked and unable to express myself through words, I began to cry harder. How could somebody live such a life and still stay strong through out it? "You'll always have me though!"
Anna stopped shouting and looked at me with broken eyes. "I will always have you, but what if you decide to leave me? What will I do then? You'll move on with your life and I'll just be the girl who has nobody!" She whimpered, hugging herself.
I ran over to her and gaev her a hug, to which she hugged back, harder, and began to bawl into my shoulder.
"I'll never leave you, Anna. Never."
She pulled away and gave me a tiny smile. "Thank you," She whispered before wiping her tears off of her face, replacing them with streams of blood.
"I-I need some fresh air, could you stay here with- with-" She couldn't find herself to finish the sentance and the tears fell harder down her face, leaving the blood on her face to fall as well.
"Sure," I said, giving her a sad smile.
"Thank you..." she mouthed, unable to say the words due to her croaky voice.
And with that, she left the room, blood dripping on the floor behind her, leaving a trail.