Chapter 37
Aubrey
Max’s laughter echoes up the street as he skips ahead of me, and it still rings in my ears as we reach the front porch of my house. He’s been teasing me relentlessly about my fall from the tree.
“I can’t wait to tell her,” he gushes with the unrestrained enthusiasm only a child can muster, barreling up the steps through the door ahead of me.
“Wait up, you little rascal,” I call out after him, but my words are light, devoid of any real scolding. A chuckle escapes me, shaking off the last remnants of embarrassment as I close the door behind us. The comforting familiarity of home wraps around me like a warm blanket–until it doesn’t.
I turn, nearly tripping over Max who has stopped and the atmosphere shifts palpably. Max stands rooted to the spot, his laughter extinguished like a candle snuffed out by an unseen force. His tiny body is rigid, a miniature statue carved from stone, his usual vibrance drained away in an instant.
“Bree?” His voice is a mere whimper now, a thread of sound barely weaving through the air between us. It weaves a knot in my stomach, tight and unforgiving.
“Max, what’s wrong?” A thunderous drumbeat reverberates inside my chest, each pounding rhythm echoing against the walls of my ribs as I cautiously approach him. Max’s face contorted from joy to fear, his eyes wide and unblinking as he
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stares at something ahead.
“What is it?” I inquire desperately, my eyes mirroring his intense gaze fixed on the living room. As I follow his line of sight, a sudden wave of terror washes over me. My eyes land on Granny’s still body, and my heart stops at the sight of her motionless form.
My breath hitches, the very ground beneath me seems to waver, and in that instant, the air escapes my lungs.
“Granny,” I murmur, a solitary word lost in the silence. The pounding of my heart is almost deafening, its rhythm chaotic and panicked. The silence in Granny’s veins is only broken by Max’s labored breaths.
“Bree, is she….” I look at Max whose eyes are wide. My chest tightens, gasping for air in rapid succession, as I dash frantically across the space to where Granny lies motionless. Her once comforting warmth is now replaced by a chilling pallor, drained away by death’s icy grip.
“Get the house phone!” I rasp at Max, my trembling hands hovering over her lifeless form, fearful to acknowledge what my heart already mourns. The floor beneath my feet feels cold and hard, making my already trembling legs shudder. And as I reach out to touch Granny’s lifeless hand, it feels unnaturally cold and stiff, like a mannequin’s instead of a human’s.
“Granny, please,” I plead under my breath, pressing two fingers to the side of her neck, praying for a pulse that refuses to greet me. Nothing. The silence in her veins is deafening, drowning out the chaos that begins to swell within me.
“Granny?” His voice cracks, a mixture of confusion and dawning horror. He’s looking to me for answers, for
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Chapter 37
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reassurance, but all I can offer is the crushing weight of my own dread as tears burn my eyes.
“She’s alright. She just had a fall, isn’t that right Granny,” My words are brittle, shards of hope I desperately cling to even as they cut into me as I tap her face trying to wake her. All sense, all reason leaving me as I try to wake her, though some part of me already knows she is gone, yet my heart refuses to believe what my mind is screaming at me.
Max rushes for the phone, and my hands shake as I punch in the number for emergency services. Yet when they answer I am mute, deaf, as I try to communicate what I’m at loss for words over. Max, however, snatches the phone. I vaguely hear the person ask the address which I fail to communicate. Instead he runs outside reading the letters to the woman on the other end.
Moments later, the paramedics burst through the door, a flurry of navy and fluorescent yellow. They sweep past me, their movements a blur of urgency. “What happened?” one barks out as they kneel beside Granny, unpacking their life- saving equipment with practiced hands.
“She was just there,” I manage to say, my voice a hollow echo in the suddenly too–small room. Max squeezes my hand tighter, reminding me I have him in my care right now. His wide eyes never leave Granny’s still form, his innocence shadowed by the harsh reality unfolding before us.
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