The Cabin

Chapter 43

Sam stood at the doorway with his phone to his ear, speaking solemnly with an emergency operator. He watched as Simon desperately performed CPR, wiping his tears away on his shoulder and begging Melanie to breathe. He had been going from the second they had gotten Melanie down and he refused to stop, but at no point was he able to get a pulse from her. He gently tipped her head back, pinching her nose and pressing his lips to hers, then forcing air into her lungs. As soon as he released his hold on her, her head would drop limply to the side at an awkward angle, her neck clearly broken. Her glassy, empty eyes were open and fixed blindly into the space in front of her.

There was no saving her.

Sam winced as he heard Melanie's rib crack, the second one since Simon had started. He knelt next to Simon and Melanie, taking Melanie's wrist in his free hand and feeling for a pulse for the dozenth time, instantly noticing how cold her skin had become. Even with Simon attempting to force her heart to beat, Sam couldn't feel anything close to a pulse. He gently set her arm back on the floor, letting the emergency operator know there was still no sign of life. Just looking at Melanie's face, he could tell she was no longer there. Her lips were blue, there was no colour left to her skin, and her eyes were beginning to glaze over. Simon had been trying to bring her back for nearly half an hour and nothing had changed. The emergency operator gently gave Sam permission to stop CPR. He sighed and nodded, passing along the message, but Simon refused to quit.

"You did everything you could, buddy," Sam breathed sympathetically, placing his hand on Simon's shoulder. "She's gone."

"She's not!" Simon grunted, aggressively thrusting his weight through his arms and into Melanie's fragile, little body. "I can get her back."

Another rib snapped.

Sam stepped away, letting Simon do what he needed to do, the minutes slowly ticking by. Finally, knocking could be heard at the door. He quietly slipped out of the room and ran upstairs to let the paramedics in. They rushed downstairs, defibrillator in hand, and they gently coaxed Simon out of the way so they could try to help Melanie. Sam disconnected his call with emergency operator and wrapped his arm around Simon, pulling him off to the side to keep out of the paramedics' way. He looked at Simon sympathetically, seeing the look of desperation on his face as he stared at the paramedics. They injected Melanie with epinephrine and tried to bring her back, but it was more of a formality. As soon as they'd seen her, they knew there would be no reviving her.

"I'm really sorry," one of the paramedics apologized regretfully, looking back at the two men as they stopped working on Melanie.

Simon broke down, turning away as Melanie's time of death was called and the paramedics stepped away from her body.

Sam coaxed Simon upstairs to the kitchen, sitting him at the table and doing what he could to console the man while the paramedics organized for a coroner to attend to the scene. One of the paramedics stayed with Melanie while the other joined the men in the kitchen to be a sympathetic ear until they could remove Melanie's body.

---

Physically and emotionally exhausted after a long day of rehearsals, the musicians were silent on the ride back to the cabin. Emma was dropped off at her hotel first, then the van continued on its way up the mountain through snow that seemed to float heavily through the air. Geri had her head resting against the window next to her, staring absently through the dark at the road ahead as she listened to the song playing softly on the radio. She watched as headlights from an oncoming vehicle pierced through the abyss of black ahead and made their way toward them. No one apart from themselves and the cooking and maintenance staff traveled that private road. The staff all left long before the sun set, so she expected it was either Simon or Sam heading back to their hotel for the night. She frowned and sat up as the vehicle got close enough for her to make it out. Her heart began to race as she realized it was an emergency van. She grabbed Mel's hand, squeezing it tightly to get her attention. She needn't have bothered. Everyone had noticed it.