Three - Day 2
"Evie!" Alarmed, I stood rooted to the spot as I watched my friend sway sickeningly on her feet, face smeared with blood.
"What happened?" From behind me, Austin came forward and reached for his girlfriend. I'd forgotten for a second that he was back there.
Just as Austin reached her side, Evie's eyes rolled back into her head. Crumbling boneless to the carpet, she began to convulse violently. "Evie!" He yelled as he dropped next to her, trying unsuccessfully to support her jerking limbs. Still frozen, I watched a dark puddle grow under her twitching body. "Call for help!"
The order jolted me back to awareness. I bolted back down to the living room. My phone lay where I had dropped it just a minute ago. Fumbling with it, I punched the bottom button. My earlier aborted attempt to call for help lit up the screen. Pushing the final 1, I turned and ran for the stairs.
In my panic, I almost couldn't comprehend the drone of the busy signal.
"They're not answering!" I dropped to my knees next to my seizing friend. Austin had rolled her to her side and was doing his best to support her head. The pungent smell of urine hit my nose at the same time that I registered the warmth seeping into my jeans.
"Try again!"
My shaking hands botched the job. Too many 9s. Hyperventilating, I tried again. The drone of the busy signal was loud in the sudden silence of the hall.
Evie had fallen utterly still, her limbs all falling limply to the floor. The only sounds were my harsh breathing and the frustrating buzz from the phone.
"Evie?" Austin gently allowed her to roll onto her back. "Evie, can you hear me?"
I looked at the chalky complexion of my friend. Her eyes were closed, the streak of blood that had come from her eye had smeared all over her jaw line. Red tinged froth dribbled from her slack mouth.
"She's too still." That last observation was said out loud as I leaned in closer to her chest.
"Evie?" Voice reduced to a near whisper, Austin leaned over her face. Turning his face towards me, he placed his ear close to her nose. I watched as his already wide eyes filled with horror. "I don't think she's breathing."
"What!" It came out as a shriek. Grabbing one of Evie's limp hands, I felt her wrist, looking for a pulse. I couldn't find one. "No no no no," I chanted under my breath as I dialed the phone again.
Screaming in frustration, I threw the useless phone away from me. Even from the far end of the hall, the busy signal mocked me. "We need to give her CPR. "
Looking shell-shocked, Austin had been lightly patting Evie's bloodstained face. Hearing my suggestion, he nodded determinedly and tilted her head into what I hoped was the right position.
It had been a few years since my obligatory high school first aid class. Praying silently that I was remembering correctly, I clambered into position. I waited for Austin to pinch her nose and blow into her mouth before starting compressions.
Beneath my hands, her body still felt alarmingly hot. Somewhere in my fourth set of compressions, I felt the sickening crack of a rib giving way under the force of my hands. Bile rose up the back of my throat, but I forced it back. I didn't have time for any of that now.
Clinging to the faint memory of the first aid instructor telling the class that broken ribs were to be expected when giving CPR, hoping that it meant that I was doing this right, I kept going. I kept going until sweat dripped into my eyes and my arms burned with effort. I kept going even when sobs started to steal my breath.
My quivering arms were verging on collapse when I saw the glimmer of hope that I had been searching for. In my peripheral vision I saw one of Evie's fingers twitch. "There!" I gasped to Austin, who turned his grim gaze in the direction I was looking. I knew the moment he saw it too, because an incredulous grin spread across his face.
"Evie, can you hear me?" We watched as the finger twitched again, followed by the flexing of her whole hand.
"Evie?" Leaning down, Austin pressed his ear close to her nose again. "I still can't tell that she's breathing..." He looked at me with a question in his brown eyes.
Any doubt that we had seen her hand move was erased as Evie's limbs all began to slowly come to life. She drew one leg up, arms searching along the floor until her hand connected with Austin's. Folding her hand in both of his, Austin stayed close to whisper, "Evie, it's ok. Bri and I are both here."
Evie's eyes suddenly snapped open. I sucked back a gasp. They were completely bloodshot, to the point that the whites had been taken over completely by bright red. She rolled her eyes before focusing on Austin hovering over her. Struggling to sit upright, she tugged at the hand held in his grasp, eyes focused on his face with an intensity that sent a tendril of unease down my spine.
"Evie, maybe you shouldn't sit up yet. I think you might have a broken rib." I tried to convince her to stay down, but she gave no indication that she heard what I had said.
Her mouth worked, but no sounds came out. Straining to lean closer to Austin, she finally managed to lever herself higher on her arms that didn't quite want to work. Her lips moved again. "What is it?" Austin leaned down to get his ear closer to her mouth.
Watching the exchange from less than two feet away, that flicker of unease bloomed inside me. The intensity of her gaze locked onto his face, plus the workings of her mouth that were starting to look less like an attempt at talking, reminded me of a dog eyeing a tasty bone. "Austin," a warning tone escaped me. "Something is wrong."
He flicked his eyes in my direction. Just at the moment he was focused on me, Evie made one final lunge. I watched in horror as she sank teeth already stained with traces of her own blood into her boyfriend's face.
Yelping, I shot to my feet as, yelling out at the sudden pain, Austin shoved Evie back to the floor and stood up. "What are you doing?" He looked at the blood that covered the hand that he had swiped across the wound. Still staring with that predatory look in her eyes, Evie scrambled to her feet with none of her usual grace.
Without hesitation, she launched herself at Austin. In the confined space of the hallway, he had nowhere to escape her attack. Evie crashed into Austin, biting into the arm that he had tried to hold up in front of him. Growling an animalistic sound that should never have come from a human throat, she released her bite to his arm. Clinging to his front, she dragged herself closer as he tried to lever her away from his body. Evie proved impossible to dislodge, seeming to not notice what had to be extreme pain as he shoved against her ribs, as she brought her teeth closer to her goal.
Unable to react, either to help Austin, or to run, I watched in shock as Evie bit deeply into her boyfriend's neck. In a trance, I watched the horrific amount of blood that immediately covered both of their fronts. Sinking to the floor under the ferocity of her attack, before long Evie was crouched over the unmoving body of Austin.
Guttural growling broke the silence. Putting one foot behind the other, I started backing away from the scene at the end of the hall. When my foot found the creaky floorboard, I froze.
Hearing the noise, Evie stopped whatever she was doing. Going still for a moment, she slowly turned her body so she could see me standing frozen down the hall. She cocked her head slightly to the side and watched me with dead eyes. Afraid to move for fear of provoking an attack, I stayed perfectly still.
Evie stared at me for the longest seconds of my life before opening her mouth and screaming a scream that raised every hair on my body.
Bolting toward the nearest door, I catapulted myself into the bathroom. The room was not all that large, and offered no escape route, but at that point all I wished for was a closed door in between myself and the creature that Evie had become.
Hitting the tile floor, my feet slipped in something slick. I crashed to my hands and knees hard. Flipping over, the red of Evie's eyes blazed at me from just feet away. Mouth open wide mid scream, blood stained spit flew. Reacting on instinct, I kicked the door shut just in time for Evie to crash headlong into it.
Scrambling around, I slammed up against the door, simultaneously reaching to turn the lock.
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