The Girl With the Half Beating Heart

The piercing wail of an ambulance roars in everyone’s ears at 3 AM, as it zooms quickly down Pryor Lane. This wouldn’t be the first time this has occurred, so everyone isn’t too startled. Some of the neighbors are startled enough to peep out of their windows, or to even step outside into the crisp Baltimore air, as the wind whips stray leaves around in small circles. The loud vehicle pulls into a small driveway in the end of the street, and the neighbors now understand. Some of them shake their heads, and whisper things like ‘poor thing,’ and ‘I can’t believe this happening again.’ Its pretty sad how predictable this predicament is, but its even sadder that its still happening. The paramedics disappear inside the home, and come out about 15 minutes later with a barely conscious teenage boy strapped to a gurney, and his weeping mother by his side. His eyes are fluttering shut, despite the paramedics constant orders to fight his ‘sleepiness.’
His mother is screaming, “My baby! Stay with me please!!” over and over in his ears, but eventually her shrieking sobs turn into ringing in his ears. He feels his blood coursing through his veins, and he hears his heart beating. Lub-dub, lub-dub, plays like a record in his ears, but eventually slowing down. He hears the roaring screams of his mother, along with the paramedic, telling him to stay awake. But that’s his problem, he’s not fighting his ‘sleepiness’, he’s giving into it. He doesn’t want to wake up. If he did, he wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
“Let me go. If you love me let me go. Let me die. I want to die.” He mumbles incoherently, opening his eyes as much as he can to look at his mother. Her face is stained with tears, and she grabs his hand. He grips it back, hoping that this is their final goodbye. She stops crying for only a second, but falls back into her hysteria when his eyes flutter shut again. His monitor starts beeping like crazy, but as if God had another plan for him, they arrive at the hospital just in time.
“Code blue, I’ve got a code blue! Lost a lot of blood, unresponsive, and his heart rate is dropping.” The paramedic yells as the push through the double doors, and a team of doctors in white coats grab his stretcher, sighing once they realize they have seen this face before.
“I need a defibrillator and a few pints of AB blood, stat!” One of them yell, and a few of the other doctors scurry into the distance. His mother appears, and she’s still crying hysterically.
“Is he gonna live?!” She chokes out, gripping onto the side of his stretcher.
“Ma’am, I’m gonna need you to-” The head doctor begins, only to be cut of by his extremely distraught mother.
“Just tell me! Is he gonna make it?!” She screams throughout sobs, her body shaking. The doctor shakes her head, and mumbles, “I don’t know.” His mother starts screaming, and she’s escorted to the side by one of the paramedics. He’s rushed to the nearest trauma room. His eyes open, and he sighs as he recognizes his surroundings, and the fact that he’s still alive.
“Hey, hey are you with me? Stay awake!” The same doctor yells and snaps her fingers in his face, to which he groans and shuts his eyes again.
“I did this on purpose. Don’t save me.” He whispers, gripping onto the metal railings of his gurney.
He’s pushed into the room, and the doctors begin their work. He’s hooked up to a catheter, which vigorously pumps blood through his thick veins. He becomes more aware, but he denies the feeling. The defibrillator is no longer needed, because once his veins are full, his heart rate quickens. He’s not completely fixed, but he’s fixed enough to live. The doctors sigh in relief, but he does the opposite. He throws his head back, and stares at the fluorescent lights lining the ceiling. A voice brings him out of his daze.
“Alex, why are you here again?”

The hospital helicopter lands on the launch pad at exactly 3:38 AM. A young girl, hooked up to a rolling machine, is taken out of it. Her parents follow suit, her mother crying and screaming in Spanish, and her father trying to console her. They’re told to stay back, so that’s exactly what they do, no questions asked.
“Heart is beating too slow, its an arrhythmia!” One of the doctors yells over the roaring wind, and she’s immediately pushed through the doors of the roof. A team of waiting doctors pull her inside, and quickly in the elevator, which shoots down to the 6th floor. She’s rolled out, as another doctor runs by her side doing compressions on her chest, into the nearest operating room. She’s taken of her gurney in a flash, and thrown onto the cold metal table.
“Lets hope the defibrillator gets her back into shape, so we don’t have to do anything intrusive.” A young doctor speaks, and the rest of them nod. The same doctor picks up the two metal plates and rubs them together, creating an electrical charge. “CLEAR!” He yells, and with that he zaps her chest. No change. He sighs, and repeats the action. “CLEAR!” Another zap. Nothing. Her heart rate is dropping quickly, she’s gonna flat line soon. The doctor rubs the plates together, and gets a strong charge. “God, please let this work.” He whispers to himself, before shocking her one last time. “CLEAR!”
The girls eyes fly open, and she shoots up straight on the table, gasping for air. The doctors all sigh in relief, and the doctor in charge of shocking her glances up, giving God his gratitude.
“Calm down, calm down. We almost lost you there. Don’t need you to go into arrest, just breathe.” Another doctor directs and she nods slightly, laying back on the table. She looks back to the bright yellow lights above her, biting her lip. Surprisingly, she’s not scared. This has happened numerous times. She’s not sure why though. She’s been saved plenty of times, even when everyone thought she was too far gone, she came back. What was the point of keeping her alive? To burden the lives of everyone around her? That’s all she saw, anyway.
She paces her breathing, and listens to her heart beating in her chest. Lub-lub-lub-lub-DUB, lub-lub-lub-lub-DUB. She never liked the sound of her heart beat, it was another pestering reminder of the fact that her life was just an endless cycle of needless recitations. Like she was Jesus, except she didn’t have a purpose.
Her heart still was still squirming and jumping in her chest, but that was normal. When she seems to somewhat stabilize, she’s moved back to her gurney, and rolled down a hall, attached to a machine.
The head doctor who brought her back to life looks her in the eyes as they walk. “Hey Acacia, have you been taking your medications?”