"Focus on your breathing, Will. In and out. Keep her safe until they arrive."
"Safe?" he spat out bitterly, one hand pressed to Angela's icy cheek. "How is this safe?"
"Your strength is what she needs right now. You're her lifeline."
"Strength?" The word felt foreign, hollow. "I'm falling apart here!"
"Will, you are her rock. Hold on. They are close."
In the distance, faint but growing steadily louder, sirens wailed—a harbinger of hope or doom, he couldn't tell. Each moment stretched into eternity, each second a lifetime as the high-pitched keen drew nearer.
"Can you hear that, Will? That's them. They’re coming for Angela."
"God, let them be quick," he murmured, almost to himself, his gaze fixed on the stairwell, willing the flashing lights to appear.
"Keep talking to me. What are you seeing right now?"
"Nothing. Nothing’s changed." His voice was a frayed rope, fibers snapping one by one.
"Stay with me, Will. Stay with her. It's what you do best."
The sirens grew louder, a clarion call piercing the fog of despair. He strained his ears, the sound promising action, demanding urgency.
"Almost there, Will. Any moment now."
"Please…." His plea was simple, a singular word carrying the weight of his world. "Hurry."
"Stay strong. For Angela."
"Angela…." Her name was a prayer on his lips as the sirens reached a crescendo outside, announcing the arrival of salvation.
"Her chest… it's not moving. It stopped, " Will's voice broke over the line, fingers trembling as he pressed two fingertips to Angela's neck. The stillness under his touch was a void, screaming silence.
"Keep trying, Will. Sometimes it's faint," the dispatcher’s steady voice instructed through the phone.
"Nothing," he gasped, the word searing his throat, tasting of panic. "I can't feel anything. There’s no pulse!"
"Stay calm. Paramedics are entering your neighborhood now."
"Angela, please…." His plea was a whisper as he began CPR, his cries for help drowned by the crescendo of sirens outside. He pressed, breathed, then leaned closer, his breath hitching, a prayer for a sign of life.
"Will, talk to me. What can you do right now?"
"Angela, come on!" He shook her gently, a man roused from reason by fear. His heart thundered, a wild drumbeat against his ribs.
"Will, focus on my voice. You're doing great. Help is seconds away."
"Seconds? She doesn't have seconds!" Desperation clawed at his words, raw and edging into hysteria.
"Take a deep breath. They’re at your door."
"Please, just—Hurry!" His voice cracked, shattered like glass under the strain. "She’s… she’s everything."
"Help has arrived, Will. Let them take over."
"Angela!"
His call was a lifeline thrown into the abyss as the front door burst open, the sound of boots on hardwood flooring a staccatorhythm to the symphony of urgency that had taken over his home.
