Love Triangle [Taejenkook]

Chapter 21: Parallel Lives

Did mum commit suicide?

I gasp and throw the container on the floor. I stand up and grab my phone with shaky hands and dial the emergency number. Not able to talk or move, or even breathe, I struggle to respond to "Hello, may I help you?".
Yet, I find the courage and ask for an ambulance. I give the address and the lady from the other line assures me that an ambulance would be there in ten minutes. Ten minutes.
Is ten minutes going to be enough for her to stay alive? Am I too late? What if she has taken those pills hours ago?
I realize I didn't check the most important thing. Is she still alive?
I go back and kneel in front of her. I place my trembling fingers on her neck, hopeful I will sense a pulse or anything.

At first, I feel nothing. My heart stops to beat for a whole second and a chill overruns my body making me flinch. Then I feel a small, weak beat and relief soothes my anxiety and panic. She's still alive but I don't know for how much longer.
I want to help her, I want to do something but I can't. Checking the time, it reveals that only five minutes have passed and I run a hand through my hair, impatient. Tears rolling down my cheeks, my eyes are burning and my heart aches.
I start feeling dizzy, my head still hurts and my senses are leaving my body. Hold on Jennie, you can't pass out too.

I take a seat at the couch and lean my head back. Seeing my mother in this situation makes me feel paralysed and my soul hurts. Why did she do this?
Why would she ever hurt herself?
She would never abandon me.
Guilt overtakes and I feel horrible. This is the worst day ever, I can't take it anymore. This week was a disaster and I feel like this hell won't ever end.
Why can't I have a normal life? After everything that they've done to me, after everything I've been through, I thought that I deserve something better than this. I'm tired of crying and I'm tired of waking up every morning, afraid of what will happen during the day.

I hear sirens and my body stretches up automatically. I stand up and open the door quickly. A tall, handsome man with a uniform comes in and behind him are other two, rolling a gurney.

"Hello miss, can you tell me a bit of the situation?" the tall man asks me while the other two lift my mother and place her gently on the stretcher.

"I j-just came in a-and I found her on the ground." I stutter, trying to calm down as the men walk outside the door and drag my mother into the ambulance.

"Did you find anything? A bottle?Something?" the man looks down at me with compassion in his eyes, while he really seems to be willing to help and do his job.
I go back to the place where my mother was lying down at, and pick up the empty container.
I walk back to him and hand it to him.

"I guess she took these pills." I gasp in the thought of her swallowing the pills and fear overwhelms my body.
His expression changes as he looks down at the container.

"I see..." his voice is lower and raspy,
and I feel the blood in my veins becoming thicker.

"Please follow me." he walks out the door and I follow him, with only taking my phone with me. I close the door behind me and lock it.
I follow the man and get in the ambulance. We leave, and I take a seat near the bed. My mother is laying on the trolley bed, with an oxygen mask covering her nose and mouth and the two men attach her to IV. Monitors, intravenous drips, chemicals. I take a better look at the interior of the ambulance.
The roof lights were on a board, anchored with old ropes and three of the four headlamps were in working order, bright and blinding. Chemicals, first-aid kits, masks, gloves, needles, syringes, bandages and gauze were placed up on a big counter.
Seeing my mother strapped in to the stretcher, I knew it was just the beginning. I take a look at the monitor
beside her. She is alive, her heart is beating, but is so weak that you can barely hear it. The lines are tracing small waves, confirming her heartbeat.