The Artist - Embry Call

Chapter 3

Graciela's POV:

We could've had it all
Rolling in the deep
You had my heart inside of your hands
And you played it
To the beat

The words played in my ears as something violently woke me up. At first I couldn't place it, but then I recognized the feeling. My blood's oxygen levels (and/or glucose levels, iron levels, or blood pressure) had gone down.

There ain't no gold in this river
That I've been washing my hand in forever
I know there is hope in these waters
But I can't bring myself to swim
When I am drowning in this silence
Baby, let me in

The song changed, and my thoughts became even more panicked. I was going to have an episode in the middle of Starbucks. No one was going to know what to do. How could they? I was going to die.

I couldn't even open my eyes. I could barely breathe. All of this was because of the company my mother kept. Well, I had also always been fragile, but the gods tipped me over the edge.

When I was thirteen, my mother was dating Ares, the god of war. Ever since Calliope visited her and offered her me, she's been hanging out with immortals way too much. Ares was over one afternoon, and he made a comment about how much I ate. I didn't actually eat very much at all. I was just never hungry. I came home and ate an apple and a handful of almonds, and he said, "Slow down there, tiger. You'll get round as a pregnant woman if you keep eating that much. Didn't you have two cinnamon rolls this morning?" I pretended like it didn't bother me, but that night, I weighed myself, and was unhappy with the results. Ninety-five pounds. I didn't like it. After that, I stopped eating, I exercised all the time, and was very self-conscious about my weight. A few months later, I was sixty pounds, and unable to walk. My mom took me to the doctor, and ever since then, I've been taking supplements. And prescription medication.

I should've brought my oxygen tank with me this morning. I should've eaten more today. I should've drank more water. Did I remember to take my pills? Gracious. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Now I was going to die.

Go easy on me, baby
I was still a child
I didn't get the chance to
Feel the world around me
I had no time to choose
What I chose to do
So go easy on me

###

Embry's POV:

"Go talk to her." Quil encouraged.

"Pff. What am I going to say? 'Hey girl, I'm a werewolf and I just imprinted on you, we're soulmates and we're supposed to produce a bunch of wolf babies together. Wanna leave everything you know and come to Washington with me?' She'd probably run away screaming."

"Good point." Quil blew air out through pursed lips.

At that moment, the girl collapsed out of her chair.

All I can say to describe what happened, is that instinct took over. I saw her lying there crumpled on the floor, and I just had to do something. I got up and sprinted over to her (only about ten feet, so someone could've blinked and thought I teleported). I picked her up as Quil dialed 911. She was cold as ice, and her breaths were short and quick. She seemed to be close to unconsciousness, and virtually unable to move.

(Sidebar: People with deoxygenated blood tend to have cold skin.)

***

I heard the sirens screaming down the street, carrying my fragile soulmate off. It physically pained me to be separated from her... But, I had just been shaming Jacob for ditching all his friends for his imprint. I wasn't gonna do that to Quil. Especially since he was hours away from Claire just to hang out with me.

I bit my lip, fighting the string that pulled on my chest, tugging my heart towards the girl I still didn't know the name of.

"The ambulance's got her." I informed my best friend, "They're taking her to the emergency room. Said something about a repeat patient and deoxygenated blood. I'm sure she'll be fine."

Quil stared at me, surely sensing that I was lying through my teeth for that last sentence. "And why aren't you in the ER with her?"

"I didn't wanna ditch you, like Jacob. Dude's a really good example of what not to do."

He chuckled. "You wanna be there with her. It's painful being away."

"No..." I bit my lip again. "How do you stand it, being away from Claire? This is torture!"

He closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were full of pain. "I feel the torture every second I'm not around her. Not knowing if she's okay... Well, I'm sure it's worse now for you, because you know she's in danger, but you haven't ever even had a conversation with her, so I don't know. Anyways, imprinting is great, but also horribly painful. And... we all know Jake doesn't have a very high pain tolerance. There's no excuse for totally abandoning your life-long friends for a freaky mutant leech baby, but I can kind of understand where he's coming from. The big difference is, everyone else can handle the pain. You've just gotta learn how. But, today's your first day, she is decidedly in life-threatening danger, and you're still trying to include me. Go. I know you want to."

"But what about you?"

"I'll come with. I don't mind being a third wheel sometimes."

***

I walked into the hospital, Quil trailing close behind me. We walked up to the desk, and requested to see a patient.

"What's the patient's name?" Asked the kindly woman sitting at the desk.

"Oh, um." I didn't think about this part.

"Graciela Caterina." Quil said.

I looked back at him. "How did you...?"

He pointed to a nearby room. "I saw her get wheeled into that room just now, with a hospital tag that said her name."

"Oh."

"And are you two family members?" The secretary looked at us skeptically, probably trying to think of ways someone of our dark coloring could be related to someone so fair-skinned.

Once again, Quil saved me. "She and I are cousins by marriage, and this is a very close family friend." He gestured towards me.

"Okay. You can go right in. She's in room 19B."

I thanked her, and we walked away.

"Way to think on your feet, man." I fist-bumped Quil.

"I have my moments." 

I stopped dead in the doorway. She was unconscious and stuck with hundreds of different needles. It didn't look healthy, it looked to chemical. A tube that made her breathe, an IV that pumped liquid into her veins, a machine that tracked her heartbeat, a tube into her side that was pumping out some sort of something... ugh. It made me sick just looking at it.

I read the paper by her bed that listed everything that was wrong with her in a doctor or nurse's neat script.

𝓖𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓲𝓮𝓵𝓪 𝓒. 𝓒𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓪
𝓟𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓽 𝓱𝓪𝓼 𝓪𝓼 𝓯𝓸𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓼:
𝓓𝓮𝓸𝔁𝔂𝓰𝓮𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓭
𝓘𝓻𝓸𝓷 𝓭𝓮𝓯𝓲𝓬𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓬𝔂
𝓐𝓫𝓷𝓸𝓻𝓶𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓵𝓸𝔀 𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓭 𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓾𝓻𝓮
𝓛𝓸𝔀 𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓭 𝓼𝓾𝓰𝓪𝓻 (𝓭𝓲𝓪𝓫𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓬)
𝓐𝓼𝓽𝓱𝓶𝓪
𝓜𝓲𝓵𝓭 𝓵𝓾𝓷𝓰 𝓬𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮𝓻

I nearly fell to the floor. How could one person function with so many things wrong with them? How could I function when it felt like my life would end when hers did? What was I going to do? I couldn't ask her to come to Forks with me, her home was Chicago. And I couldn't stay there, I was duty-bound to protect people from vampires.

I was stuck, and the anguish of it all was tearing me apart.

Happy Mother's day!