Chapter 76
Sean picked up the pace as he sprinted toward the atrium, hoping to reach Karla before she was completely out of oxygen. Rivers was standing there, looking under each rose bed, but Sean pointed to the dirt.
“She’s buried!” Sean said. “Start digging!”
The pair worked quickly, thrusting their hands into the nearest rose bed. They tossed dirt out, ripping up roses and stems and throwing them on the floor. Each rose bed was big enough for Karla to be hidden inside, and there were dozens of them throughout the atrium.
But if Karla’s oxygen had run out at five o’clock, then she had been without air for almost twenty minutes. Every empty bed Sean dug up was more wasted time. And every second counted. And that was when he saw it.
The Angel’s Kiss had bloomed. The translucent petals glowed like stars. It was unlike anything Sean had seen before, and he suddenly knew that was where Karla was buried.
Sean thrust his hands into the soil, then quickly pulled the dirt away, letting the white roses fall to the wayside. This bed was deeper than the others, but after scooping out two massive handfuls, he saw an arm in the dirt.
Sean grabbed the arm and quickly hoisted Karla’s body out of the soil. She had a mask around her face, hooked up to the oxygen tank that was buried next to her. It was empty.
Sean ripped off Karla’s oxygen mask and set her on the floor. He checked her pulse. Nothing. No breathing, either. He removed his phone and put it on speakerphone, calling the local hospital, which he already had on speed dial.
“This is Sheriff Callahan. I have an unresponsive girl at The Bonnie, and I need medical personnel on scene ASAP!” Sean shouted as he put the girl in position to receive CPR.
“Sheriff, we will try to get an ambulance there as fast as possible, but with the storm from last night, we are struggling to get our vehicles out onto the roads,” the receptionist said.
Sean started chest compressions and puffed air into Karla’s mouth as he tried to resuscitate her. “Get here as fast as you can,” Sean said.
“We have a unit heading your way as we speak.
Sean continued the CPR compressions, but after three rounds, he checked her pulse again, and there was nothing. Sean feared it was too late and that the girl would need more than the manual compressions he could provide.
“Rivers! Get the defibrillator!” Sean shouted.
Sean had no idea how long Karla’s oxygen had been out, or how Stephen had managed to measure the tanks used to keep her breathing under the soil. He prayed there had been extra and the tank had only recently emptied.
After all the death Sean had seen and experienced firsthand, he refused to give up on this girl.
He thought of the hospital visit when both he and Jennie were in the room for the sonogram.
He remembered the way the woman had continued to rub the device over Jennie’s stomach, but there was still no heartbeat.
Up until that point, Sean had never realized how deafening silence could be. He had never heard a heart physically break until Jennie squeezed his hand so hard he winced.
And as the nurse shook her head, even before saying anything, Jennie began to cry.
Sean had never had a problem with silence, but after that moment last week, he didn’t want to sit in silence again.
So, he started to talk. “Karla,” Sean said, still doing compressions. “My name is Sean. I want you to know that I’ve been looking for you and so have your parents. They miss you.”
Sean paused and puffed breaths into her mouth, then started the compressions again. He looked to the rose that had bloomed, the Angel’s Kiss that Karla had been so excited to see.
“I’m sorry it took so long for me to find you,” Sean said.
“But I need you to do me a favor and stay with me. Please keep fighting and follow the sound of my voice. Your rose bloomed. It’s gorgeous, and I want you to see it.
I need you to remember that you have your entire life ahead of you, a life that will be big and beautiful and wonderful.
But you need to stay with me, Karla. I need you to come back, and I need you to do it now. ”
Rivers finally returned to the atrium with the defibrillator. She was breathless as she cracked it open. Everything was user-friendly and self-explanatory, but both Rivers and Sean had done so much training that she didn’t need to read the instructions.
Rivers pressed the button to warm up the machine, waiting for the green light to say that it was charged. While they waited, Sean ripped open Karla’s shirt and then placed the adhesive pad on her chest.
The machine light turned green, and Sean pressed the button.
Karla’s body was shocked, and she twitched from the pulse of electricity pumped through her to restart her heart.
Sean stared at the screen, waiting for a signal that her heartbeat was detected, but still got nothing.
Sean hit the button again, and Karla’s body once more convulsed from the powerful shock of electricity.
“C’mon, Karla,” Sean said, whispering, and he kept his eyes glued to the little girl, waiting for the machine to tell him that there was a heartbeat.
And the longer Sean had to wait, the more he couldn’t help but feel he was once again waiting for a heartbeat that he wouldn’t hear.