Craving For Her

Kiss of Death

Zoe's POV
"We found it," The men were back. "We took a picture. We figured it would suffice."
"Let me see it," I said, ignoring the man berating me.
"Here," He brought his phone closer and allowed Sandra and me to have a look. It had diamond patterns on its back.
"God!" The girl named Lucy exclaimed clasping her hand over her mouth. "It is a diamondback!"
I looked up at Lucy and asked. "How deadly is its venom."
"Extremely," She told me.
Luck was nowhere near our side.
"How long did they say they will get here?" I asked the driver.
"Twenty minutes," He answered, looking as panicked as everyone else.
About five minutes had passed already. I examined Sarah again. She was slowly losing consciousness, her eyes fluttering. They would not be able to get here in time to save her leg or her.
"How will the ambulance make it here on time?" Someone finally asked the obvious question.
"Why don't we go and see what the problem is all about first?" The two men once again sprint towards the road.
Sandra raised her head, her eyes were bloodshot and swollen. "What do you mean?" She turned to look at the road and gasped. "No," She whispered, her voice, so course. I could almost not recognize it.
I touched her shoulder and she flinched. She turned to look at me, "Will she be fine?" She asked.
Being negative would only make her hysterical so I refrained from it. "Hopefully," I replied with an uncertain smile.
"No," She whispered again. "She has to be okay, Zoe." She cried. "I can't lose her too."
The irony was so glaring and to think that she was just sending the little girl away from their picnic spot a while ago. I held my breath as I brainstormed for a solution.
"She will be fine," The grating man said again with a hint of irritation in his voice. "Stop making a fucking scene." He screamed like a man who had put his job in jeopardy.
I got up, having enough. "And you had one fucking job!" I yelled back against my better judgement. "You are going to get fired anyway, so why don't you just can it?"
"Zoe..." Sandra was tugging at the dress I was wearing. "Sarah is..."
My eyes fell on Sarah. She was convulsing with foam in her mouth. I knelt beside her again. It was too early for this reaction to the venom but putting her age and body mass into consideration, it was plausible. "Hang in there, Sarah,"
"What about sucking it out?" Lucy suggested.
"Do you think it can work?" Sandra asked me, hope rising in her voice.
It was unlikely. Venom travelled very fast once it reaches the bloodstream, sucking it out of her leg could cause an infection. It could also possibly cause harm to the person doing the sucking if it turned out they had a cut in their mouth. I kept quiet because I did not want to get anyone panicking any further, especially Sandra who seemed out of it a second ago.
"let us wait for the ambulance," I cautioned against the drastic idea.
"But the pile-up..." Sandra groaned. We looked at the street again, there was still no improvement in sight.
I looked at Sarah again. "Sarah, Sarah can you hear me?" I asked her shaking her, more vigorously than I intended. There was no response, she was limp.
"We have to try it..." Lucy insisted.
"Shut up! this is all your fault," The man said. No one gave him any cognizance.
"I will try it," I volunteered. If things end up going south, I wanted to make sure that we did all we could. I started to unwrap the bandage around her leg. The skin under the bandage was already swelling and darkening. It was now or never.
I lowered my head face and covered the bite opening with my lips and sucked until I felt my face go numb. I raised my head and spat on the ground and dipped my head again and continued the process. Seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours. Sarah did not stir, which was expected.
Twenty minutes had long passed, well that was according to me. I had already lost my sense of time. By the time I believed I was done, I was exhausted and sweating. It did not matter if it did not perform a miracle, all it had to do was buy us time.
I sat down, something did not feel right. Was I dizzy because I was tired or because the venom had found some way into my bloodstream? They let me catch my breath.
"Look!" Sandra exclaimed, pointing at something. "The road is clearing. They will be here soon."
That was good news but I felt sick for some reason. Things around me were getting blurred. I could not focus.
"You don't look so good," Lucy said, worriedly. At least I could still tell voices apart. That was a good sign but something told me I was being overly optimistic.
Then we heard the ambulance sirens.
"They are here," Sandra carried her sister, bridal style. I lay down for a bit, voices started to sound muffled. Then it clicked, the punch I got from the drunk shitbag. There was no way in hell, it would have not left a cut in my mouth. Even a little cut would be detrimental. My mouth was closer to my heart and that was why the effects of the venom were faster.
"Are you sure you are okay," Lucy asked again but this time I gave her no reply. I wanted to nod but I did not have the strength.
The ambulance got closer, the sirens inflicting upon me a splitting headache. Then if stopped. I heard people talking, I heard snippets of Sandra and the man's voice. I heard Sandra say. "My friend sucked the ve..." I could not hear the rest of it before I blacked out.
****
Louis' POV
"Finally!" I let out, relieved. We were moving again after almost an hour. What was I thinking following the bitch anywhere? An ambulance sped past us, its sirens only increasing my irritation.
"Where to now?" The driver asked. "The car is parked and there is no one in it now."
"Forget about it, Henry," I dismissed with a shrug. "Take me back home."
"Will do," He replied as he put the car into the ignition.
I found myself looking for any sign of Zoe but nothing came up. I noticed the ambulance at the parks and wondered briefly what that was about. Before I could turn away from the park, I caught a glimpse of Zoe. On a stretcher.