Finding Home (Zak Bagans Daughter)

Chapter Six

Yvonne said nothing as she passed us. She looked straight ahead and ran as fast as she could toward the elevator.

"Stay here," I told Zak.

Before he could say a word I followed Yvonne up the stairway and into the cancer ward, little did I know Zak was right behind me.

The speakers screamed the words "code blue" as I chased Yvonne through the narrow hallways. I stopped dead in my tracks as soon as I saw her run into my mother's room.

Good thing Zak didn't listen to me.

I ran into my mother's room. Nurses and doctors were running on top of each other as the intercom still rang its alarms throughout the ward over and over again. That was when my heart dropped. Fear raced through my veins as I avoided Zak's grasps to hold me before I could get close to her, but it was too late.

All I could see were doctors pushing on her chest with the defibrillator and yelling, so much yelling. I watched as she came back to life and die again, over and over. It was like I was rewinding and re-watching a scene of a horror movie as it repeated itself in front of me.

Then it stopped. The halls were silent, the only thing you could hear was the heavy breaths of the hospital staff. Everyone stood frozen as if time had decided to stop itself. Then, the sound of a short and small heartbeat filled the room. Everybody took a deep breath and sighed in a slight victory that they pulled a dying woman from the black and greedy hands of death.

I walked toward her bed with caution. She looked so much closer to death than before, something I didn't think was possible. I delicately lifted her arm and brought her hand to my cheek, making sure to cup it just like I did the day before. Her eyes rolled from the back of her head, for a moment it seemed her irises were as blank as a sheet of paper.

She looked into my eyes as hers started to fade once more. I squeezed her hand tighter and pushed it harder against my face. Her mouth started to open. She was trying to tell me something, but she couldn't get the words out.

"I-I would- wouldn't l-let them." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Who? Wouldn't let who? Mom?"

"I-I wouldn't let them ta-take me. I h-had to say good-goodbye, t-they're letting me s-say goodbye."

"What? Mom!?"

Mom. The word sounded foreign as I said it.

She slowly caressed my face with her cold, damp hand. She blinked, and not soon after a tear was forced out, falling down her cheek with ease.

"I'm- I'm" She took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry, baby" She whispered.

Baby. I repeated that word in my head. She hadn't called me that in years.

"Mama!" I cried. Her eyes were slowly rolling to the back of her head, but she seemed to be fighting it. She pulled my head to her face, using all the force she could, and whispered into my ear.

"Let-Let him ta-take care of yo-you. Tru-trust him for m-me. Pro-promise? He w-will be a gr-great father."

"I promise" I whispered.

"That's m-my g-girl." She leaned her head back into her pillow. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and her body began to convulse.

Her white-walled room began to alarm as her heart began to slow once more. People in blue ran in; pushing me out of the way as they held her body down with all their might as she seized. Then her body stopped. They tried to start her heart just one more time. She only came back because she needed to say goodbye, she was leaving for good this time. I watched in a fuzzy haze as all the doctors and nurses tried to resuscitate her, but it was too late. She was gone, and no one could bring her back.