Debby woke up not because her seven-year-old daughter was begging her and Josh to get up to go open presents. No. She woke up because Maggie wasn't begging her to get up to go open Christmas presents.
Jim was pawing at the bedroom door. Debby figured he had to go out.
"Josh, get up. Jim needs to go outside and Maggie hasn't woken up yet," Debby said.
"What time is it?" He mumbled from, seemingly, under his pillow.
"9:30," Debby said, realizing the time for the first time. What kid sleeps to 9:30 on Christmas?!
"It's 9:30 and Maggie isn't here begging us to get up for presents? Did she go downstairs without us?" Josh said, sitting up.
"I don't know. I'm going to go check on her."
Josh nodded as he made his way to their shared bathroom.
Debby made her way down the hallway expecting Jim to run to the stairs. He stopped at Maggie's room and whined at her door.
"Okay, Jim. You can go wake her up," Debby smiled, opening Maggie's bedroom door.
The room was cold. Freezing cold. Debby looked around the room. The window was open, and Debby started to panic. She ran to Maggie's bed and saw her daughter, lying on her bed, her eyes rolled back in her head showing only the whites of her eyes. Her back was arched and her hands were in claws. Drool was pooling below her cheek, her head turned to the side.
"Josh!" Debby screamed, shaking Maggie to try and wake her up. A low, guttural moan came from Maggie. "JOSH!"
Josh came tearing into the room wondering why Debby was screaming so loudly. He felt the cold and saw the window open, thinking Maggie had been taken, before even looking at the bed where Debby was holding the stiff body of their seven-year-old.
"I can't get her to wake up," Debby sobbed. "She's not responding. She's - I don't know. I don't know what this is!"
Josh called 911. He didn't know what else to do. While Debby took care of Maggie, he threw on sweat pants and a t-shirt. He ran back to Maggie's room and told Debby to go get dressed while they waited for the ambulance.
Maggie's contorted body looked painful. But they couldn't get her body to relax.
Both parents implored Maggie to wake up.
"Unghhhhhhhhhhh," Maggie groaned.
"Is she waking up?" Debby asked.
"Bug? You awake? Huh?"
Maggie did not respond. Instead, her body started shaking.
"Is she having a seizure?" Debby asked.
"I don't know," Josh said. "I don't know what's happening. And who opened the window?"
"I don't know," Debby said. "I didn't. Maggie can't reach the latch, I'm assuming you didn't."
"I did not," Josh said, trying to hold Maggie's shaking body on her side.
Jim was pawing at Maggie's bed and whining. He'd run to the window and back. Josh looked outside. He didn't see any footprints in the yard. He couldn't figure out how the window got opened, but he had far more pressing matters.
The paramedics had arrived and Debby had run down to let them in.
"What have we got here?" The first paramedic asked as he came to Maggie's bedside. Josh and Debby explained what they could, which was not a lot.
"Alright. Let's let us take a look," the paramedic said, looking over at the small girl, her back arched in a painful contortion, her eyes rolled up, her hands in claws. "What's her name?"
"Maggie," Josh said.
"Maggie! Hi there!" The paramedic said loudly. "Maggie, can you hear me? Maggie? Can you look at me?"
"Unghhhhhh," Maggie groaned.
"Is she responding? Is that what that is?" Josh asked.
"I'm not sure," the paramedic said. He rubbed Maggie's sternum to see if she reacted to the discomfort.
"Maggie!?" The paramedic tried again. He did other things that looked somewhat painful to get Maggie to react.
Suddenly, Maggie sat up, looked straight ahead and screamed. It was loud. It was ear piercing. And then, she dropped back on her pillow, her eyes open, staring straight ahead.
"Maggie?" Debby asked, putting her hand on Maggie's chest. It was then she noticed it wasn't moving. "I don't think she's breathing!"
The paramedic returned with his stethoscope and listened.
"It's very shallow. Let's get her loaded up," he said to his partner.
The two paramedics asked questions of Josh and Debby. They answered as best they could. They only had so much of Maggie's medical history.
The paramedics started a I.V., put an oxygen mask on Maggie's little face, and got all sorts of monitors attached. Debby went with the paramedics in the ambulance, holding Maggie's hand and stroking her hair. Maggie still stared straight ahead. She hadn't blinked. Not once.
"Maggie?" Debby cried. "What's happening, baby? Where are you?"
But Maggie couldn't answer.
At the hospital, Maggie was rushed to the back. Doctors and nurses surrounded her as her mama waited off to the side. Maggie's papa rushed in a few minutes later and hugged his wife as they watched doctors and nurses poke and prod at their daughter.
They said they wanted to do a bunch of tests. Blood work, CT scan, MRI, test after test was discussed and either added or rejected.
Josh and Debby didn't care. Whatever it took to find out what was happening to Maggie. Anything to get their daughter back.
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Magnolia Blooms
FanfictionMagnolia (known to family and friends as Maggie) is seven years old. Two years ago, her life was changed when she was tossed out of her parents car, in a garbage bag. She was found by none other than Josh Dun of the band twentyone pilots. She was a...
