“Hello, Mr. August. What the hell’s happened? Where’s Chelsea?”
“Chelsea’s in a medically-induced coma. She, uh… came to the stables in town and Bradley set her up on a ride.”
“Why is she in a coma!?” I roared into the phone. I unlocked my truck and ripped my door open, and it was then my neighbor came running up to me. News traveled fast in a small town, and she mouthed something about going inside and taking care of the dog while I was away. I nodded quickly and unwound the key to my house from my key ring and sent her on her merry way while Barber continued talking into my ear.
“The horse got spooked by a snake and started buckin’ her every which way. Bradley heard the commotion and got on his horse and went runnin’ towards her, but by the time he got there, she’d already been thrown. The snake that spooked the horse bit her neck, and then the horse came down onto her shoulder.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered to myself. I sped down the road and ignored the stop sign at the intersection before I got on the main road into town. Of all the times, I had to be fifteen minutes outside of town, this had to be it.
My parent’s home would’ve been a hell of a lot closer…
“When did this happen?” I asked as I took a hard-right turn.
“‘Bout three hours ago. They set her shoulder, but the venom from the snake is taking a while to work through her system. No one saw the snake, so a basic anti-venom is all they got until they pinpoint what’s in her system. They are doing tests on her now.”
“And it’s been three hours since the doctors did that!?” I exclaimed. What the fuck were these doctors doing?! Standing around with their thumbs up their asses!?
“Chelsea’s mom told me she’d seen you at the rodeo, and when we found your number in her phone, we figured y’all had reconnected.”
I’m still not sure how she got my phone number or why she would’ve needed it, but if she was at the stables Bradley was still running, then there was a good chance she asked him for it. I’m not sure why, and right now I didn’t care. All I knew was I was still eight minutes away from the hospital, and Chelsea was unconscious and alone in a hospital bed.
“Thank you for callin’ me, Barber. I’m eight minutes away. Get a doctor. I wanna talk to one when I get up there.”
“See ya soon, son.”
That was the thing about Barber, it was always so comforting when he called me son. Even though I hadn’t seen or spoken to them since Chelsea up and left, I still considered them family. They were just those types of people: they imprinted on your life, and they just didn’t leave. Throughout the whole conversation, I could hear Mrs. Mrs. August sobbing in the background, and something told me I was walking into a very dark scenario that would shock Chelsea when she came to.
If she was ever gonna come to.
I sped into the hospital parking lot and whizzed by a police officer. He whipped on his lights and followed me to the spot I picked, and when I got out of my truck, he paused when he realized who I was.
“I’m so sorry, Flynn,” he offered.
That’s when you know it’s bad. When a police officer won’t arrest you for buzzin’ around in a hospital parking lot, things are never as good as you want them to be.
I busted through the hospital doors and made my way over to the nurse’s desk. I rattled off Chelsea’s name, and their faces got dark, and my stomach began to churn and the bile I was trying so hard to fight off rose to the top of my throat. I sprinted to the stairs and took them two by two, and when I shoved the door to the fifth-floor open, I started looking around frantically for the room numbers.
But a familiar voice caught my ear, and when I whirled around, I saw Mrs. August runnin’ to me down the hallway.
“Oh, Flynn,” she breathed. I cloaked my arms around her trembling body and slowly walked her back into the waiting room, and that was when I saw Barber. His pale face was in his hands, and I could tell by the way his shoulders were shaking that something had happened. Between the time I cut that phone call ten minutes ago and now, the doctor had news I hadn’t been privy to yet.
“Where the hell is the doctor?” I glowered.
“Right here, Bullhead.”
I held Mrs. August close to me while I turned towards the familiar sound, and I recognized the woman walking towards me. Ashley Lawson, a girl I attended high school with, had a smile on her face that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Hey, Ash,” I breathed.
“We got her venom tests back, and it’s not good. A rattlesnake got hold of her and bit her right in her main artery. She’s got a great deal of brain swelling, so we’ve just got done inserting a tube underneath her skull to help drain off some of the fluid while the anti-venom takes hold in her system.”
“Her… her brain is…”
I couldn’t think straight. Just last night I was thrusting into those beautiful hips and dreaming of her juices on my tongue. Just this morning I cursed her for leaving her scent behind without her body, and all day I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind that maybe-- just maybe-- if I tracked her down I could have her thighs squeeze around my hips one last time before she left.
Because we all knew she’d eventually leave and go back to wherever she came from.
“We have her in a medically-induced coma to try and reduce the amount of stress her body is under, and she’ll be like that for the next few days. She’s had that venom in her system for a while, so leeching it from her muscle tissue is gonna take some time, and her body needs to rest, so she had the energy for it.”