Chapter 6 - The Bleeding
I lay on my back, staring up at the bright blue summer sky.
The world around me sounded muffled, like I was submerged at the bottom of the swimming pool.
I could hear the chaotic shouting of police officers, the clinking of metal handcuffs, and the heavy thud of someone being slammed against the ground.
Uncle Richard was screaming curses, but his voice was fading away.
A warm, wet sensation spread rapidly across the right side of my chest, seeping into the thick scars that already covered my collarbone.
A shadow fell over my face, blocking out the sun.
It was Chloe.
She fell to her knees beside me, her bright pink bikini covered in dirt and scratched from her fall into the metal chairs.
“Maya! Maya, please look at me!” she begged, her voice tearing with raw, unfiltered agony.
She pressed her trembling hands tightly over the gunshot wound on my shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding.
I blinked up at her, my vision starting to blur at the edges.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, my voice sounding incredibly weak.
Chloe let out a gut-wrenching sob, tears dripping from her chin onto my face.
“Why did you do that?” she cried out, rocking back and forth.
“I’ve been so awful to you, I’ve been a monster to you our whole lives!”
I tried to reach up and touch her face, but my arm wouldn't move.
“You’re my sister,” I managed to say, forcing a tiny smile.
My father dropped to his knees on my other side, his hands quickly replacing Chloe’s to apply stronger pressure to the wound.
“Hold on, sweetheart, the ambulance is right out front,” my father pleaded, his face pale with terror.
“You are not leaving me, do you hear me?”
The heavy boots of paramedics pounded against the patio stones, pushing through the crowd of horrified teenagers.
They dropped their medical bags beside me and immediately started shouting medical terms I couldn't understand.
Someone placed an oxygen mask over my face.
Another paramedic quickly slid a backboard underneath my body.
Chloe grabbed my left hand, squeezing it so tightly it hurt.
“I love you, Maya, I’m so sorry, please don't die,” she chanted over and over.
The edges of my vision turned black, closing in like a camera lens shutting down.
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The last thing I heard before the darkness took me completely was the sharp, terrifying sound of the paramedic’s heart monitor.
It was a long, continuous, flat beep.
