Chapter 96: When the Lights Go Down
Author's Note: This chapter contains a depiction of drug abuse. Reader discretion is advised.
"Ohmygods, Ranko! Somebody HELP!" Akane cradled the inert form of her lover, slowly lowering her to the ground. She was barely breathing, and her skin was a pallid color with a bluish tint.
Mei skittered to her knees next to her sister. "Come here, Ran-chan, I've got…" With every passing second she looked at her, her face contorted more into a portrait of sheer panic. She placed her first and second finger on the side of Ranko's neck, and whatever she was feeling for, she was struggling to find it. "Help me roll her on her side." The girls did so as Yui approached.
As Ranko's body rolled on the asphalt, something fell out of the pocket of her gi pants, making a hollow sound as it bounced. Mei snatched up the white plastic bottle, and Akane watched the light drain from her eyes as she read the label.
"No… nonono… Gods, Ranko, what did you do?"
Akane looked desperately up at Mei. "What is it?!"
Mei looked up at her. "When was she alone last?!"
Akane shrugged. "Before the fight started?"
"WHEN!?"
Akane rocked back from Mei's desperate scream. "Maybe half an hour?"
Mei turned to Yui frantically. "Call an ambulance, right now! Tell them they're dealing with an oral opioid OD, thirty to forty minutes out. Hurry!" The blonde ran toward the bar.
The blue-haired girl cradled Ranko's head in her hands. She rubbed hard between her sister's breasts with her knuckles. "Come on, Ranko, stay with us! Help's coming, honey. Just hold on for me, okay? Just a few more minutes, baby sister. I've got you." Tears flooded her face as she rocked her little sister's lifeless body in her lap.
Akane sat frozen on her knees, watching in horror.
Mei slid her finger under Ranko's nose. "Okay, you're still breathing. Good girl! Fight for me, Ranko!"
The loud woooo of a siren coming to a stop startled Akane out of her terrified stupor. Two paramedics leapt from the back of the white van, rushing to Mei and Ranko's side. "How long has she been down?"
Mei looked up. "Six minutes, give or take. Eighteen-year-old female, maybe fifty kilograms. Breathing's shallow, but it's there. Pulse is weak and erratic."
One of the paramedics took her own reading of Ranko's pulse at her wrist. "Okay. Let's push 2 milligrams of naloxone, and bag her." Another of the medics injected the contents of a syringe into Ranko's left arm, while the third, who had come from the driver's seat of the ambulance, placed a triangular plastic apparatus over her nose and mouth with a plastic bag dangling from it. It inflated and deflated slowly. Very slowly.
After the longest three minutes of her life, Akane gasped as Ranko opened one of her eyes.
The lead paramedic looked down into her eyes, pulling the plastic mask from her face. "Miss, I'm Captain Ji. I'm a paramedic. Do you know where you are?"
Ranko nodded weakly.
"Okay, then. We're gonna take you to the hospital and get you fixed up. Come on." Ranko looked around, struggling to keep her eyes open. The two male paramedics lifted her onto a wheeled gurney, pulling it toward the van. "Are any of you family? I can take one of you."
Mei looked up at Akane. "Go."
Akane, still shell-shocked, nodded and climbed into the back of the ambulance alongside the wheeled gurney, and the doors slammed. The sirens whirred to life and the vehicle sped off.
Mei stood, snatching up the empty bottle, her eyes wild with fear and rage. She stalked over to where Yui stood with Crash and the other members of Ranko's band, and threw the bottle at the men's feet. It bounced with a hollow sound across the asphalt. She screamed hysterically, her face awash in tears. "WHICH ONE OF YOU GAVE IT TO HER!?"
Crash put up his hands defensively. "Mei, hold on. You don't know it was one of us. Take a breath."
"SHE DOESN'T KNOW ANYBODY ELSE! WHO DID IT?!"
A hand went up behind Crash, and he turned to face its owner. "Damn it, Kaz! She's a kid, for gods' sakes!"
"Look, man," Kazuki said. "She asked for it, okay?"
Mei closed on him. "HOW MANY?"
The bald man shrugged. "I don't know, I didn't count. Eight? Ten maybe?"
Despite being a full half-meter taller than her, Kazuki staggered back when Mei's tear-slick palm came crashing across his cheek.
"YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER!"
She cocked her arm back to hit him again, but Yui caught her, wrapping her arms tight around her sister. "Come on, Mei. Let's get out of here. We need to call Mama, and he's not worth it."
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