Carry You Back Home

Drowning

Prologue Izzie's POV:
When I stand up and look in the mirror, for half a second I see my mother looking back at me. I open the medicine cabinet and stare at the bottle of medication Elsa had just refilled for me. I look at the glass of water sitting on the counter.

I open the bottle and dump the pills into my mouth. All of them. I use the water to try to get the pills down, but there are so many I'm almost choking on them. I refill the glass and finally manage to swallow the rest of the pills, tears streaming down my face from the exertion swallowing so many pills at once took.

I sit back down on the bathroom floor, and regret my decision almost instantly. I try desperately to make myself throw up, but I can't. I feel the edges of my vision start to grey. I'm so sorry Casey, I didn't mean it. That's the last thing I think to myself before everything goes black.
******
Casey's POV

I turn down the my street and pull into my driveway. I park and head inside, spotting Sam sitting at the table. "Hey what's up?" I say as I plop down from across him. Sam glances up. "I was going to look in my old closet for some old sketches, but I decided to draw first since it was so nice and quiet here. Zahid has been playing a lot of music since he broke up with that girl." He says before looking back down at what he's working on. "Okay, have you seen Izzie at all? She should have been home like two hours ago?" I ask, as I stand up to grab myself some string cheese and apple juice from the refrigerator.

"No, but I haven't been upstairs yet." Sam says without looking up, looking annoyed at the interruption. I shrug and finish my delicious snack.

After I put my glass in the sink, I head upstairs to bother my beloved girlfriend. As I walk in my room, the light is on. Her mint green backpack is on our bed. I see that the bathroom door is closed. I drop my backpack next to Izzie's and go to knock on the door. "Izzie, I'm home." I say to let her know.

I wait a beat but she doesn't reply. "Izzie? You okay? If you're pooping you can tell me. Everybody does it." I say through the door trying to get her to laugh. Nothing. Silence is all that answers me. I'm starting to get worried. I knock again, harder this time. "Izzie?" I yell through the door. The silence that answers me is deafening. I try the door, but find it locked. "Shit." I say, before running through the hall into Sam's room to try the other door. It opens.

My heart drops. Izzie. I drop to my knees and lift her, cradling her head against my chest. She is completely limp, she feels lifeless. It feels like the earth is opening up and swallowing me whole. I can barely breath. I feel her throat to try to find a pulse. I find one, but I can just barley feel it. I lower my ear to her mouth, trying to see if I can see or hear her breathing. I can, but it seems far too slow and shallow.

I begin to scream. "Help! I need help! Somebody!" I scream so loudly my throat burns. I hear a pounding on the stairs before Sam runs in through his bedroom. He looks from me to Izzie, before he pulls his cellphone out of his pocket. "Hello I need an ambulance.." I hear him begin to say to the other person on the line, before I can no longer understand him. It feels like time is frozen. Like I'm underwater, drowning, and Sam is simply too far away for me to understand him. All that matters is Izzie.

The love of my life, who I'm holding in my arms. Who is barley breathing, her heart barely beating. "Come on baby, you can't leave me. I need you." I whisper to her as I cradle her to my chest, rocking her lightly, waiting for the paramedics to get here. "I can't live without you baby. You can't do this to me. Please. Please. I'm begging you." I whisper, feeling wetness dripping from my cheeks into her hair.

As the paramedics come in, I let her go. They take her from my arms. There is a bustling of movement. They are lifting her. Carrying her away from me on a stretcher.

I am still on the floor. I can't seem to get my legs to work. I hear an odd wailing sound. What an odd siren. As the wailing continues I realize that it's not the siren making that noise, it's me. The broken, high pitched noise is coming from me. I feel Sam behind me, trying to lift me to my feet. When he finally manages, I feel him hugging me tightly.

"I've got you. I've got you." I hear him say into my ear, and he holds me as I sob.

Than I feel him guiding me down the stairs, out the door, and into the passenger seat of my car.

He drives painfully slowly. He pulls up to the ER and let's me out. I run inside, asking the busy looking woman at the front desk for any information she has about Isabel Taylor.

"They just brought her in like twenty minutes ago. There is no information to give you." She says, before directing me, and Sam who had parked the car and joined me, to a waiting area.

We sit and we wait. Sam calls Izzie's grandmother for me, as well as Elsa. Slowly everybody starts to trickle in. Izzie's grandmother, Alice, and Izzie's three younger siblings. Luca, Gabi, and Charlie. Charlie is barely three, and confused by how sad everyone seems around her. I lift her into my arms, and she cuddles into my lap. I am grateful to get to hold any piece of Izzie, even if it's her baby sister.

My dad and Evan join us, Evan keeps insisting that we need to have faith, the doctors will do everything they can to help Izzie. My mom wanders in, followed a few minutes later by Zahid.

Everyone looks sad, and most of us are either currently crying, just stopped crying, or look like we are about to cry.

Minutes turn into an hour. An hour turns to two.

Please be okay Izzie. I need you. I don't want a year and a half with you, I want an entire lifetime. Don't leave me. Please. I pray silently in my head, trying to will Izzie to hear me. Please.