One True Bond (COMPLETE)

Rani Mukerji

"Kajol?" I open the door to her apartment, it's a good job she told me where the spare key was else I'd be stuck knocking on her door for ages. I know she's still here because her car is parked downstairs but she's not answering her mobile or the house phone. There's no answer.
"Kajol?" I shout again but my voice just echoes off the walls. Then I notice Kajol's bag on the sofa, packed ready to leave. She's not going on a holiday though, and she's not signed up for a film since Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
"Kads?" I'm worried now. Why would she have packed a bag? She's happy with Shah Rukh, isn't she? She wouldn't be getting back with Ajay, especially not after the way he treated her at the premiere. God it was like Kajol was a piece of meay the way he kept leaning on her and then he even had the nerve to kiss her! If I was Shah Rukh I'd have given him what for with a punch to the face.
"Kads?" I shout again noticing the door to the nursery ajar. Kajol hadn't been in that room since she gave birth to her son. She always avoided it and even tried to get Shah Rukh to redecorate it and put Aryan in it so it didn't have this weird sad aura around it.
"Kajol?" I say pushing the door open. There she is slumped against the wall blood pooling around her wrists and a piece of mirror lying on her lap like a trophy. I rush over to her and see that the blood is still dripping from the cuts she made. If only I could remember back to that first aid thing Kajol and Tanishaa had made me go too! They had said it would be fun so I had agreed and then the first aider guy had been so fit that I hadn't taken notice to anything he'd said until I noticed the ring on his finger. Kajol had remembered everything, she could even reel it off now and we went over five years ago to the stupid class. I scrunch my eyes and try to think back. What had he said about wounds? How do you stop them bleeding?
"Apply pressure to the wound," I can remember Kajol squirting ketchup onto Tanishaa's arm and wrapping some tissue around it squeezing hard. Pressure. I open my eyes and look for something to put on the slashes. I reach for a felt blanket and tear it into two pieces, placing one around her left wrist and one around her right wrist tying a knot in the material to keep the pressure.
"Kajol?" I whisper, I need to check whether she's conscious but there is no reply. I reach for my phone and dial the emergency number. I sandwich my mobile between my ear and shoulder so I can tend to Kajol. 'Think Rani!' I say to myself. There's still blood oozing out of the cut and congealing on the blanket.
"Hold up the wound, above the heart, to stem the flow of blood," Tanishaa's voice echoes in my head and I remember her holding her ketchuped arm up above her head.
"What's your emergency?" A kind voice says down the phone. I grab each of Kajol's wrists and hold them above her head with my right hand.

"Ambulance, urgently," I say, obviously it's an emergency else I wouldn't be calling!
"Okay and why do you need an ambulance?" The lady says calmly.
"My cousin's slit her wrists," I shiver as I say it. Shit. What could make you want to do that?
"Okay and is she conscious?" The lady questions.
"No but she's breathing very shallow," I watch as Kajol's chest moves up and down.

"Okay and what's the address?" I tell the woman the address and tell her the door is open.
"Right and have you steamed the flow of blood?" I look up at Kajol's wrists. I dunno whether I've 'steamed the flow of blood' I'm not a frigging doctor.
"Um yeah, no, I dunno," I reel off all the possible answers to the question.
"Okay can you check for your cousins pulse?" The woman asks. I lift my left arm and place two of my fingers on her neck. Is she dead?
"Weak, a really weak pulse," I shout, oh mi God Kajol is not going to die on my watch! What would I say to her parents, to Tanishaa... To Shah Rukh?!
"Okay well the emergency team should be with you now," the woman sounds hopeful as I thank her. I feel two strong hands take over the holding up of Kajol's arms and I fall backwards onto the floor cutting off the phone call.

"We'll need to take her in straight away," a male paramedic smiles at me and I nod, "is this what she used?" The guy holds up the piece of mirror. It's so dusty seen as Kajol refuses to come into this room. I nod again.
"Weak pulse, shallow breathing and possible risk of pathogen's in the blood," his colleague says and with that Kajol is put onto a board and carried out of the apartment to the ambulance below and I follow.