Magnolia Blooms

9. Choker

The circle of light was smaller. The monsters were laughing.

"You didn't think you could get rid of us so easily, did you?"

Maggie looked around for the source of the voice. The darkness outside the circle seemed even darker. And it moved. Maggie noticed the darkness seemed to swirl. Like it was smoke.

She reached her hand out.

A black rope-like thing came out of the dark and wrapped itself around Maggie's arm. She tried to pull it away but the tendril tightened around her arm. Another came out of the dark and took her other arm. More came out and wrapped themselves around her body and forced her to lie down.

The monsters laughed.

Another tendril came out of the dark and wrapped itself around her neck. Maggie started to panic.

"I wouldn't fight it so much. They'll just get tighter," one of the monsters growled.

Maggie got scared. She tried to fight them. They got tighter. The one around her neck made it hard to breathe.

"We should have done this years ago, the other monster said. "Why didn't we think of this?"

Maggie tried to scream but the thing around her neck cut off the sound as it continued to cut off her air supply.

Maggie was panicking now. She couldn't breathe and not moving wasn't helping. The thing around her neck got tighter and tighter.

The darkness was getting closer. Maggie couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. Eventually, the darkness took over.

Jim whined.

"Maggie! Maggie! Wake up! Josh, she's not breathing!"

Debby had heard Maggie's scream that stopped suddenly. She'd heard Jim bark. She ran to Maggie's room and found Jim whining and pawing at her. Maggie was lying on her back, her arms and legs splayed out, her mouth hanging open.

But she wasn't breathing. Why wasn't she breathing?!

Josh ran in and checked Maggie. He grabbed her out of her bed and put her on the floor. Josh knelt over her small body and felt for a pulse. He didn't feel one.

Debby, in a panic, called 911. Josh started CPR. Both of them started crying. Their little girl was in trouble and they didn't know why or what happened.

"Come on, Maggie," Josh said, pressing on her small chest. "Come on!"

Debby ran from the room but was back in a minute with two paramedics who took over CPR from Josh. He sat back and watched as the paramedics tried to revive their little girl.

The paramedics asked questions of Josh and Debby, asking what happened, how, what she'd been doing, if Maggie had any allergies. Questions they couldn't really answer. No, she didn't have any allergies that they were aware of now. Definitely no food allergies. She'd been sleeping in her bed. That's all she'd been doing.

They pulled out a machine that they put near Maggie's head. They cut off her pyjama shirt and placed pads on her small body. The machine shocked Maggie's tiny body.

Josh held Debby as they watched paramedics trying to save their daughter's life.

Finally, they heard a somewhat steady beeping sound. Not quite steady, but not the piercing sound of a heart not beating at all.

The paramedics lifted Maggie onto a stretcher. One of the paramedics put a mask on Maggie's little face and was forcing air into her lungs. She wasn't breathing on her own. Or at least, not well enough.

Debby implored Josh go with Maggie. She'd call Jenna and see if they could take her over to the hospital.

Josh climbed into the back of the ambulance, having run quickly to grab pants and a t shirt and shoes.

The ambulance sped off into the night. Maggie stopped breathing again. The paramedics put a tube down her throat and forced air into her lungs that way.

They were losing her. They were losing their little girl.

At the hospital, Josh was pushed out of the room while they worked on Maggie. He was made to wait in the waiting room.

Tyler and Debby came running in about fifteen minutes later. Josh was in a chair, his head in his hands, crying.

"Josh! Where's Maggie? Where is she? Why aren't you with her?! What happened?" Debby asked, dropping to her knees in front of her husband.

"They wouldn't let me in. They had to intubate her on the way here. She stopped breathing again," he cried. "They made me wait out here."

Tyler walked over to a small desk and spoke to the person there. Debby held her husband as the two of them cried at the thought that they might lose their daughter.

Tyler's face was also wet with tears. Not only was his best friend dealing with something no parent should ever have to worry about, but he'd have to explain to his own daughter why Maggie might never come over to play again.

The three of them sat there waiting for some word as to what happened with Maggie.

Time passed slowly. Josh paced. Tyler paced. Debby sat stoically, tears running down her face that she no longer felt.

"I can't lose her, Ty," Josh said. "I thought Debby took up all the space in my heart. Until Maggie filled all the empty space."

"You're not going to lose her," Tyler said, unconvincingly.

The doors to the emergency room opened and a doctor in scrubs came out. He looked over to Josh and Debby, then slowly walked over to them.

They feared the worst. The doctor looked exhausted and defeated. They'd lost Maggie. Josh just knew that's what he's come to tell them.

Josh didn't want to hear it if that's what they were going to tell him. He sat down beside Debby and took her hand as Tyler sat behind the two of them. The doctor came and sat in front of them.

He sighed.

"I am not sure what happened to cause your daughter to stop breathing in her sleep. It's rare, but there is a condition called "Sudden Childhood Death Syndrome" it's basically SIDS but in older children. That may be what Maggie experienced tonight. Or it may have been some other anomaly."

"She-," Debby said, fresh tears falling from her eyes. "She's gone?"

The doctor looked at Debby and then at Josh.

"We were able to get her heart restarted. But she's not breathing on her own and she's not responding to any stimuli. I'm so sorry. Maggie is in a coma. And we don't really know why."

Josh and Debby sobbed. Tyler couldn't move.