Rescue team

I knew it took a lot of effort for him as I watched Blaine turn his head so he could stare at me, but he did it. 

His eyes looked drowsy and unfocused, and his brow was wet with sweat, but his finger in mine caressed the pendant and his head collapsed again.

I told him about the comment I heard from one of his family members that afternoon, and how my mother stepped out to get some things I might need that night but never came back. 

I described the taste of the liquid in the bottle Ophelia handed to me, and how white the face of the maid who walked into us was.

Then I told him how the last thing I remembered that night was staring into Kan’s face. 

Even as I spoke, I knew the man on top of me was slipping away, but he waited till the end, and when I stopped speaking I was hit by the silence in the car.

I was already weeping from having to recount the story and relive that horrible day, but I wept harder now. 

I could not dare move or touch him even, but I knew Blaine was gone as he seemed heavier on my chest.

I wondered how much longer it would take me to die too, crushed by his weight. 

Would it not have been better if that crusher just flattened us both? 

It would have been horribly painful, but it would have been quick.

I was still crying, with Blaine’s body limp on mine when I heard shouts. 

I stopped. Was I this desperate that I was hearing things now?

There was silence again, and I began laughing and crying at the same time at my stupidity when I heard a voice clearly.

“Ariel, Ariel, is that you?” Kan’s voice was in such a panic, “Ariel, please be there.” He was tapping the body of the car desperately and my voice was quickly screaming out a warning.

“You’ll send us over. Kan. Can you hear me?” I raised my head to shout, and felt Blaine’s hair brush against my chin, “Stop hitting the car.”

“Sweetheart. Oh God, sweetheart.” he said, his voice feverish with the urgency I knew he must feel to see me and check that I was fine.

“Kan.” I called back.

“I am here. I am right here.” He said, his voice so close, “Are you hurt, my love?”

And my hand went to my mouth, pressing down to hold back most of my tears. 

Was I hurt? My body felt fine, but my heart was shredding. 

“We will pull your car back down now. Don’t be scared.” Kan’s voice returned. “We’ll bring you down and get you out,” he said just before I heard the sound of a machine starting up, and in no time I felt the car moving.

I subconsciously wrapped my arms around Blaine’s body as the car moved, and I felt us descending. 

The sound was barely turned off when I heard a hand beating around the car and running around, “Ariel, where are you, where is it safe to break the car open from?”

“Who would do this kind of thing?” I heard another emotional voice not very far off that I recognized as my father’s.

“I’m on the floor in the backseat, honey.” I called back. “Try the truck?” 

I heard the sound of an ambulance approaching, closely followed by the police siren.

“You could have waited just a moment longer,” I said, caressing Blaine’s hair back. “You should have waited.” 

My eyes were blind with tears now, even as I felt something hacking into the car, and then pieces and chunks of things clanging to the floor.

Finally, light appeared, and after having spent some time in darkness, I closed my eyes at the sharpness of it.

“Sweetheart?” I heard Kan’s voice.

“I am here.”

“Please don’t cry. You are safe now. You are safe.”

“Blaine is gone.” I managed to say through my clogged throat, and I felt all the movement around me stop. 

I wondered if the guards did not tell Kan that Blaine had been in the car with me at the time of the accident. 

I did not hear anymore from Kan, and then I felt the roof begin to pull back, the mangled, squeezed metal soon disappeared from above us, and everyone was looking down at us under the bright light.

I could only imagine what sight we must have made, his body still on mine, our suits over him and blood everywhere. 

The lights were too bright to see, so I could not search out Kan, but I knew he would be less than pleased with all this.

Paramedics appeared and asked how hurt I was and if there was something they should know.

“We’re cuffed,” I said, and the cuffs sparkled as even brighter lights fell on it. “And a piece of glass stabbed his side.”

“He may just be unconscious, ma’am,” the nearest paramedic said, and my eyes followed her voice. 

My hopes soared a little till I remembered his chest was on mine and that I had not felt his heartbeat since he stopped speaking.

“Get them out already!” Kan barked out, and I confirmed my suspicion that he was livid now.

In a few minutes, I was out of the car, and Kan grabbed me, squeezing me to himself in a crushing hug as I looked behind him at the paramedic who was checking Blaine’s vitals on the stretcher.

“His pulse is very weak.” I heard the man look up and quickly strapped an oxygen mask around Blaine’s nose.

“Ariel. Are you OK?” Kan was muzzling my hair and kissing my cheek again and again. I held him tightly, my whole body shaking.

“He needs blood too.” I heard the paramedic near us say. “We might not be able to get him to the hospital quickly enough.”

“Kan,” I squeezed him, and pushed away from the embrace, running towards the stretcher. “I have an O-negative blood type. Use mine.” I said, looking at them. 

Although I had no idea what Blaine’s blood type was, with a universal donor blood type I knew I could give him mine.

“Ok. You’re not injured anywhere, are you?” The paramedic turned to me. 

“What are you doing, Ariel?” Kan was standing before me and the paramedic in a flash. “I won’t let you do that.”