“Clo!” I screamed out at her. “Stop the car!”
But she didn’t seem to notice me. There was a dazed gleam in her eyes and I could tell she was crying.
Suddenly, my chest tightened as I saw her car abruptly swerve to the right, just as we approached the bridge overlooking the lake.
“No!” I yelled out when I watched in horror as her car crashed through the wooden railing and hurled off the edge.
I slammed on my brakes and pulled my car to the side of the road. Pushing my door open, I leaped out of the car and ran to the edge of the bridge. Panic and shock nearly paralyzed me as I leaned over the railing to look for Chloe’s car. I spotted the back half of her silver Volkswagen Beetle jetting up from the water. But there was no sign of her. A lump developed in my throat, knowing that she was completely submerged underwater.
Adrenaline rushed through me as I raced down the slope of the hill that led down to the lake. I could hear several on-lookers calling out to me, but my mind was too frantic to register anything they were saying. There was only one thought I could focus on and one thought that consumed every fiber of my being: I had to save Chloe.
By the time I reached the edge of the lake, I’d already kicked off my sneakers and ripped off my shirt. Without missing a step, I pulled off my jeans and dove into the bitter-cold water. I swam toward the car as fast as my body could take me. When I reached it, I drew in a deep breath of air before plunging under the icy water, swimming toward the front of the car.
I tried to remain calm and forced myself to focus on the task at hand and to not think about Chloe in pain. But any false sense of calm I’d managed to muster immediately abandoned me the second I reached the front of the car—the second I saw her. She was floating lifelessly inside the car, her long, dark chestnut hair swaying with the undercurrent as it hid her face from me.
Clo! I wanted to scream out to her. I tried to pound against the window, but quickly realized I wouldn’t be able to break through it. I reached for the car door handle, and to my surprise, it was unlocked. I pulled against the handle, but the door only opened slightly against the pressure of the water. With some force, I finally pulled opened the car door and pulled myself inside. As soon as I unbuckled the seatbelt from around her, I pulled her limp body out of the car and swam as hard as I could toward the surface of the water.
By the time I pulled Chloe to land, the ambulance had already arrived at the scene. Several EMTs rushed to my side as I tried to perform CPR on Chloe.
“Come on, Clo! Breathe!” I begged as I performed compressions against her chest.
“Sir,” said one of the EMTs who rushed in front of me, “please step aside so we can take over.”
I reluctantly pulled away from Chloe as I watched the EMTs hover over her body, promptly placing her on a stretcher while placing an oxygen mask over her face.
“Her pulse is weak, but there,” one EMT said.
“She may have sustained some head trauma,” another EMT announced.
Their words felt like knives through my chest as I tried to mentally process what had just happened. Lost for words, I followed the EMTs up the hill to the road, my eyes never leaving Chloe’s motionless body.
Once they reached the road, they transferred her to a gurney and pushed her toward the ambulance. Before they rolled the gurney up into the back of the ambulance, I reached over, grabbed Chloe’s cold hand and squeezed it.
“Clo, you’ll be okay. I know you’ll be okay.”
But she didn’t respond.
After she was secured in the ambulance, one of the EMTs looked over at me expectantly. “Sir, are you a family member?”
“I’m…I’m her boyfriend,” I finally managed to croak out.
He gave me an understanding nod. “Okay. We’ll need you to follow us and meet us at the hospital and provide us with her information. Also, if possible, could you inform her family that we’re taking her to the Chester County Hospital?”
“Yeah,” I responded in a low voice. “Will she be okay?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know, but we’ll do everything we can to save her.”
Without another word, the EMT jumped into the back of the ambulance and pulled the back door closed.
And just like that, I watched in silence as the ambulance’s sirens came to life and the flashing red vehicle sped off down the street, taking Chloe away from me.
Save her? I echoed the EMT’s words in my head as I headed toward my car. But she can’t…she just can’t. I can’t lose her now.
CHAPTE
R TWO
Chloe
I couldn’t remember how I got there, or why I was there, or even what I’d been doing before that very moment, but there I was, standing in a long, narrow hallway that seemed to stretch on in front of me with no end in sight. The bright florescent lights overhead made the stark-white walls look sterile and unwelcoming around me.