Admiring the Light

Ep 23 (Asthma attack)

"What did he say? Is she healthy?" Jacklyn turned the knob to quiet her car's radio. "Of course, they found some scars on her, but she was a stray before."

"Yeah? How'd you adopt her then?"

"Uh- i'm not exactly sure, Natalie brought her home one day." Guinevere laughed, her eyes flicking up to the rearview mirror to make sure Night was still asleep.

"Ah crap- Gwen-" Jacklyn sighed, the headlights flickering in front until they burnt out.

"Hey, you asked me over your sister, Gwen. Your specific words, can you bring me to this vet thing?"

"Fuck- Jackie, when was the last time this even got checked out?" Guinevere flipped the little switch next to the wheel for headlights, but the beams couldn't even light 5 feet in front of them. "Ah- yeahhh- I kind of... skipped the last inspection I was supposed to get. Heh-"

"Girl, you can't just do that! Then this stuff happens! Your brakes barely work too!" She hadn't asked, she knew she should have, but she trusted Jacklyn's judgement. And when she claimed her little Corolla was fine, Guinevere had taken her word for it. "Hey, Gwen, I don't drive a lot! I walk everywhere, unless it rains and my parents drive me."

"So how long was this car sitting here?! What?!" More details were being dropped now, it really didn't seem like Jacklyn had needed to maintain her car. "Uh... Maybe a month and a half?"

"Jackie! Why?!"

The inside was too dark for either of the girls could see Nightwhisper rising. Sitting up to glare at their argument. "Shit, Gwen- then I'll drive! Pull over-"

As told, Guinevere went to press the brake. Until the faint radius of light they had lit up the deer right in front of them.

...

No other cars on the road to help them, the deer corpse right in front. "Oh fuck... holy-" Guinevere's ears continued ringing, everything felt like she was watching a movie through a pair of broken earbuds that could only get faint audio, over a camera that only focused in the middle of the lens.

Her face felt fine, but she'd paid enough attention in Biology to know that probably meant nothing. And burning continued flashing up her arm in waves, caught in between her arm and the door of the car.

Jacklyn- her mind finally remembered that her girlfriend was in here too. Wrenching herself free from the tightened seatbelt, she could see Night gently nosing the hyperventilating girl. And it didn't register with her for a minute, but Jacklyn's breathing got more intense. Not just a flare up, she realized.

"Gwen... Gwen- inhaler- it's in there..."

Of course, this was her girlfriend she was talking to. Why wouldn't the inhaler be exactly where it shouldn't?

Guinevere went into the box on the other side of the front anyway, scrambling for her phone in her other hand. But she had to hold back a scream as she found the little tube was crushed.

"HELLO?!" If her panic had died down, everything flowed right back in. "Gwen... what's wrong..." Jacklyn spoke anyway, her breathing only growing faster through coughing.

"Asthma attack or something... I'm not sure... please..." Guinevere couldn't do anything about it, and that just made this exponentially worse. The helpless feeling as she could just watch her girlfriend slowly spiral down.

...

"Get in, get the fuck in."

Natalie did what she was told. Her mother came by the house in uniform, she could tell this was serious. "What... happened?"