I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

A metronome is all reality leaves behind with its blade scraping the
ground. It pulses in the form of a heart monitor, drawing a steady
string of green mountains on the screen.
We cling to it, to the beat that slows with each passing hour, afraid
that if we let go, it will become lax, and the beat will turn into an
infernal, constant ring.
I sit up in my chair, careful not to make noise. The ICU is loud
outside this room, but with the door shut, you could hear a feather
drop. Neo, C, and Hikari sleep in three chairs on the wall facing the
bed. They fell asleep when the doctors left.
The harsh acceleration of the truck, the horror-stricken yelling,
Sony’s choking–it’s all there–in their dreams, haunting them. We
arrived at the hospital with Sony fading in and out of consciousness.
They rolled out a stretcher and took her from C’s arms.
Despite Hikari’s inability to handle the fear and the panic, she
managed to calm down enough to call Eric in the truck. He was
waiting in the ER, and when they wheeled in Sony, he did something
I’d never seen him do.
He froze.
He saw the blood and heard Sony’s struggles, and he just stopped
moving.
A mass of people surrounded her. They stuck a hole in her chest, a
geyser of liquid spurting out. Then they took her away, yelling one
code after another, sticking her with needles, and disappearing with
our Sony still unable to breathe.
We shook. Hikari buried her face in my chest, hands fisting my shirt
as I held her against me.
Eric tried to run to where they treated her, yelling over nurses and
doctors that didn’t know Sony, about her history, her treatments,