Shock-doc-cpr - Shock Doc CPR

I miss @delicious-beats

Bite Back

Pt 1/3

Original concept from @delicious-beats. Contains F resus, M rescuer, LUCAS thumper, automated CPR, mouth to intubation tube, depictions of gore, trying to resuscitate a zombie

Blackened veins ran in a spiderweb from the holes in Luffy’s shoulder. She shouldn’t have even been out, Elijah had told her again and again, the fucking news had told her, the trucks with megaphones and military personnel blaring up and down her street for the past ten hours had told her. But she needed to know he was okay. She was always trying to look out for him. He’d never hated her selflessness more than right now. 

Her skin was bloodless, her usual dark brown hue sapped until she was completely ashen, the circular row of splotchy red teeth marks and black fissures of veins the only real color left to her body. Her heart was beating arrhythmic on the monitors as the ambulance tried to find a path forward through the streets choked with people fleeing. Her head rolled back on her neck and she looked up with bleary eyes towards him. 

“Eli,” she choked out, her throat tight to the point of almost closing up. 

They’d dealt with bite victims all day. They’d lost all of them, and then had to cut it and run when the old woman or the jogger or, worst, the fucking ten year old who had been playing soccer, reared back up and tried to take a bite out of them. Elijah cradled her head, his mind racing. The symptoms presented differently with everyone they’d encountered. One spewed blood, one just bottomed out and died, but so far complete cardiac arrest had occurred within the first twenty minutes of contact. His eyes darted to his watch. It had been fifteen since she’d screamed over the phone and he had raced to come find her.

He pressed a square of gauze against the wound, his breath shaking. “Okay,” he said, “Okay, Lu? I need you to look at me, focus on me, hey-“ He held her face with one hand and snapped his fingers near her ear with the other. It lolled like a doll with loose joints. “We’ve got a couple minutes before… b-before the first real symptoms kick in, the really bad ones. But I’m gonna get you to the hospital, alright?” He added in an aside to his partner in the front, “How long you think until we get there?” 

“Fuck man,” Jonas spat, “Every street is clogged, the military is setting up choke points on every major road. They’re not gonna let us even through if she’s infected.” 

“I didn’t fucking ask about the stupid fucking military, I asked how long until we get there,” Elijah replied in a tone that warned the other man he would not be accepting any other outcome but Luffy making it to the front doors of Saint Edward’s.

“Twenty minutes, if I can find a decent backstreet. Probably forty if I can’t.”

He nearly sobbed. The air left his body in a rush with a stricken noise he couldn’t hold back. Luffy’s hand reached out and grabbed at his shirt. 

“Eli,” she sputtered again, but there were tears in her voice this time. “I don’t … I d-don’t wanna die…”

Twenty minutes. Probably over that, but he couldn’t think about that. His eyes snapped to his watch again. Three minutes left. He could keep her heart going. If she wasn’t really dead then she couldn’t be undead. He would keep her alive, and they would cure her, and she would live. There was no other option. Not for him.

Spittle dried white at the corner of her lips as he stared down into her face, those lips he had kissed until they were swollen now trembling and pale. He smoothed hair back from her forehead and leaned in close. 

“You’re gonna be okay,” he promised in a low voice, cupping her head with both hands. “You’re gonna be alright. You trust me?” She nodded, even as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and slid into the pillow beneath her. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. We take care of each other, right? It’s what we do.” 

Two minutes. Elijah kissed her sweaty forehead and drew back, collecting everything he’d need for an arrest as the ambulance swayed and bounced over uneven terrain. He snatched out epinephrine, pulled out the AED, strapped her to the gurney, all with an efficiency he didn’t even know he was capable of. Already her heart was beginning to skip, throwing out PVCs on the monitor as her jagged heart rate either spiked above the line or dipped far below it. He eyed the restraints they had on hand, the brace boards for trauma victims and cuffs meant for psych patients. As he drew the LUCAS out, he tested the straps on the sides of the large, crescent moon shaped piece of equipment. There was no telling if they’d hold if she tried to take a swipe at him, but maybe. 

Twenty seconds. Elijah gripped the neckline of Luffy’s shirt and tore it down the middle, sweat beginning to drip down the back of his neck and back. She was hardly moving, her bare chest glistening with sweat. Her nipples had lost their color too, and her breasts swayed jerkily with every short, halting breath she managed in. Her eyes were drooping closed. Her jaw twitched open a little and slackened back as she took one more shallow sip of air. Then it left her lungs in a quiet sigh as her chest deflated for the final time. There was one more quick flutter on the monitors, her heart clawing for the last few quivering beats it could manage. Then it stopped. 

Elijah clamped down on the welling nausea to tap the timer on his digital watch. Jonas cursed up front as the EKG hummed a flatline. Wasting no time, he slid the curved backboard under her limp body, lifting the LUCAS and clicking it into place above her. The thing settled between her breasts, the flexible rubber plunger flush against her sternum. One of her arms hung limp off the side of the gurney and he took it by the wrist, fixing it in the straps on one side of the machine, then the other. Her fingers curled against the motor case. Elijah jabbed at the controls and turned it on. 

The machine jabbed the plunger down into her chest with all the force of a trained EMT. It cratered into her heart, the force displacing through the rest of her body so her belly rolled out, her shoulders rippling with the force of a robot that didn’t care if it felt her ribs pulp under its hands. It had never held her. It had never known the warmth of her. The thing pistoned and made a noise far too loud for the cramped space. Zip, zip, zip, zip, zip.

Luffy’s eyes were half mast and empty, lips parted. Elijah checked the timer. A little over a minute had passed since the start of the arrest. Maybe there was still time for intubation. He snatched the laryngoscope and tilted her head back by the jaw, sliding the metal blade past her bloodless lips and over her tongue. The curved blade made an easy track down her throat, bulging it slightly as he maneuvered an intubation tube down the tunnel of her trachea. He slid it home with one hand, the other resting at the pulse point in her neck to feel the blood being forced to circulate. He knew he couldn’t look at her face. He had to focus on her tongue, her mouth, her teeth, the hard bone of her jaw under his fingers. If he looked at her face, he would lose any shred of sanity he had left. But his eyes slid anyway. They moved down to her eyes- only they weren’t half lidded anymore. 

They bore into him, the pupils grey discs in the center of her dark eyes. The whites of her eyes were shot through with red veins. Her jaw clicked as it moved around the intubation tube, her lips peeling back, exposing her teeth.

“Fuck!” Elijah exclaimed and jerked back, his back hitting the wall of the ambulance. 

“What, what?” Jonas shouted from the front seat.

Luffy’s body moved, her arms tugging at the restraints, her legs shifting underneath her. They curled up and kicked out, but the belts around her waist held her down. Her back arched against the LUCAS even as it slammed down against her sternum. Elijah heard something shift sickeningly under the skin. A guttural growl rose up from the tube and she thrashed, shaking her head, rolling back as her teeth gnashed against the tube poking from her mouth. She gargled and sputtered and he realized with a jolt that she was tearing up her throat with her bucking and shaking. 

“Luffy,” he breathed. “Lu… Lu, stop, stop it-“ He lurched forward, grabbing her jaw, but she snapped her head to the side and clicked her teeth within a hairs breadth of his hand. "Fuck, fuck!"

"Eli! What the hell-"

"Focus on the road!" As he snapped this at Jonas, Luffy burbled a mouthful of blood from around the tube in her throat. He managed to throw his arms in front of his face just in time before it might have splattered in his eyes or mouth. The last thing poor Jonas needed was another flesh crazed cannibal in his ambulance. Elijah had already decided he was saving the woman he loved, and he was going to keep that promise; he just needed to stay warm and breathing to do it.

He lunged for her again, clapping his hands on both sides of her head, just out of reach over her bared teeth. "This is definitely not how you're supposed to intubate someone," he panted, already out of breath, "But I know very well you're not breathing for yourself right now." As if in agreement, Luffy gurgled with a throat full of blood, already darkened by the virus until it was almost black. He wrapped his lips around the opening of the tube and forced a breath into it. Might as well, things definitely couldn't get any worse. His eyes flicked to her chest as the LUCAS did its thing, bowing her ribs in against her spine with ruthless efficacy, and blew another breath into her oxygen starved lungs, even as she fought against it. Six minutes in arrest.

Her arms strained against the bindings and he heard the velcro straps start to go, but she was just mindless and angry enough she didn't seem to understand what was keeping her stuck. She twisted her wrists and struggled until the skin was bruised and raw, but the straps held. They'd hold until they couldn't anymore. He considered a neck brace to try and hold her still enough to attach an ambu bag and actually intube her properly, but if he lessened his hold on her for even a moment, she'd snap and flounder, teeth chomping as they lunged for his flesh. The LUCAS had to be good enough. It was all he had. He stood there, bowed over her, filling her lungs. Each breath forced her chest to rise before it was again crushed under the LUCAS as it beat her heart over and over again. Every time he gave her oxygen, she made a wretched wheezing noise and used the breath as fuel to snarl wordlessly at him. Her legs kicked out, banging against the walls of the truck, scattering supplies tucked into corners. Her body tried to roll up and fight the machine as it relentlessly battered her dead heart.

"Please, stay still, Lu." He stroked his thumb against her cheek, trying to suppress the sobs he felt building behind his eyes. Every time the LUCAS pounded against her sternum, it forced what little air was left in her lungs out, often in a grunt or a a hollow rasp in the back of her poor, abused throat. “I got you, baby. I’m not giving up, not until I get you back.”

She snarled again, but the thumper kept cutting into her displeased noises. “Haaar-huk, graa-ack, huk-“

Ten minutes in arrest. Elijah looped his arm under her chin, pinning her in his bicep to keep her head still, and punched the pause button on the LUCAS. He slipped two fingers under his headlock to feel for her pulse, but the monitor returned to a flatline the moment the automatic compressions stopped. She was still dead even as she squirmed under the restraints.

“Come on, fucks sake, Lu. Give me something,” he muttered, slapping the resume button to once more fill the ambulance with the rhythmic zip, zip, zip noise. Her breasts bounced with the force, her hardened nipples drawing lines back and forth in the air. He breathed once more into the intubation tube. The machine forced the breath back out as soon as he’d given it. She didn’t stop her struggles, trying to fight the thing assaulting her motionless heart. He had to wonder if she felt it pushing stale blood through the chambers and ventricles. He could only imagine how much it must hurt to be conscious during CPR. Her ribcage had probably already been rendered into pudding by now. He could see the bruise where the plunger knocked again and again into her. “I’m sorry,” he found himself whispering.

Thirteen minutes in arrest.

He didn’t know how much more he could take. Seeing Luffy’s face contorted, empty even as it moved and made noise, was starting to break Elijah. Or at the very least break some vital piece of him. He ran his thumbs over her temples as tears silently slipped down the bridge of his nose and patted wetly on her face. She didn’t even flinch. There was nothing left of her in those diseased eyes. He held her still enough in another headlock to check her pupil reactivity, but they were fixed and blown wide with dilation. He didn’t know if that meant the virus was doing its job, or if she was beyond saving. Luffy rattled the gurney as she kicked again, thrashing her body as much as she could while being pinned down by the machine punching into her sternum over and over. Sixteen minutes. Sixteen minutes and absolutely zero electrical activity: her heart hadn’t even quivered. It simply lay silent and still while the rest of her kept moving.

Elijah sank into a crouch, holding onto the edge of her bed to keep himself from collapsing utterly. He heard Jonas radioing into the hospital, but he couldn’t focus on anything but the pitiful gasps and grunts Luffy made as the thumper pinned her beneath it. “Stay still, please God just stay still,” he begged her and felt tears spilling over. He couldn’t hold it back any longer. All he could do was sit there and shake with silent sobs. He couldn’t even focus enough to breathe for her. “Baby,” he rasped in a hoarse whisper, “Please… Jesus Christ, please…. Come back…”

“Eli,” Jonas called again for what had been the third time, but was the first time Elijah had heard him. “They say they’ve got some kind of antidote, they’ve tried it on a few of the infected.”

Elijah wiped tears and snot off in his upper arm. “Any results?” he asked, warbling. The greater part of him wanted to tell Jonas not to bother, that it was too late. That she was gone. The most an antidote would do would maybe put her down peacefully so she could rest easy. But there was that little kernel, that one errant thought that said maybe, maybe she could come back.

“A couple people have come back. Not totally, they think it might be brain damage from the time they spent without circulation. But they stop trying to rip people’s faces off.”

They’d been her life support since the moment she turned. Her heart had barely even been given a chance to stop in her chest. The LUCAS had good rates of spontaneous return of circulation; if anyone could come back, Luffy had been given the best chance.

“They know we’re coming?”

“They’re gonna meet us the second we pull in.”

He stared down into the silver discs of her eyes. She was still in there, somewhere. She had to be. “Hold on, Lu. I’m gonna get you back.”

Wanting chicken nuggets while watching the burger show is a dirty thought you’re cheating on the burgers

Does anyone else write smutty thoughts or say dirty things on here, when in reality you’re laying in bed watching Bob’s Burgers wanting chicken nuggets?

Or is that just me? 😂

A warmup drawing from the sketchbook I've been putting together for a while. Basically a collection of drawings like these that i haven't uploaded here for one reason or another

Micro-Story: Faulty

Story Content and Summary: 1,750 words. Micah's wife succumbs to a fault in a futuristic prosthetic heart. No EMS. On-site resuscitation.

--

Fuck!

The way she fell, first stiffening, then going boneless and collapsing in a heap before he could reach her. The way she fell, her face slack and her eyes rolling back. The way she fell pulled a silent curse from him, one he kept repeating as he skidded to his knees beside her, the accidental impact of his body rocking hers in the dirt.

“FUCK!” Micah finally shouted, losing control, his hands shaking as he reached for her, already knowing what was wrong as his fingers pressed into her neck.

Goddamn artificial heart. First mass-produced cardiac replacement piece of shit!

The artery beneath his fingers lay still, and her light eyes stared half-lidded up at him, even as her mouth slanted open and her lungs stuttered air.

Recalled.

He unzipped her coat and spread it wide, then dug in his pocket for his knife, flipping it open. Her hands curled, body shaking as her brain freaked the fuck out at the sudden lack of oxygenated blood. Micah sliced his blade through the collar of her t-shirt, then tossed his knife to the side and gripped her shirt with both hands. The shirt tore down to her navel and he spread the fabric wide open, reaching next for the small, rectangular lump just below her collarbone and above the cups of her lavender bra.

Recalled, and a fucking waiting list…

He pressed the center of the implant, just like he’d pantomimed with her before, when he’d printed the reset instructions from the manufacturer’s website. This time, he felt a button click, depressing firmly and then popping back up beneath his fingers.

“Come on, Gretchen,” he breathed, quiet now as he reached for the butterfly clasp of her bra. He popped it open as she gave another rattling agonal breath, quickly spreading the cups and sliding his fingers down to the tiny display implanted laterally. The miniature monitor glowed red, awakening with the activation of her reset button. He pressed the center of the glowing light three times, initiating the reset sequence.

Stay calm! the instructions had advised. The heart WILL restart!

“I’ve got you,” Micah gasped, his hands skimming over her chest and settling low on her sternum, along the line of her first surgery scar.

Okay. I have to be her heart and lungs until the device restarts. 

He linked his fingers, rolled his shoulders over his hands, and started pumping.

“One, two, three…”

His mind flashed back to the little practice mannequin he’d bought and subsequently worn out in the basement where she couldn’t see him desperately trying to learn. Terrified that one day, before she could get in to surgery, her replacement heart would glitch out and take Gretchen away from him forever. 

What good is a heart that resumes beating ten, twenty, forty-five minutes later if her brain is dead?

“…thirty!” Micah leaned down and quickly tipped her head back before pinching her nose closed and drawing a deep breath. Strands of her silken hair clung to her face and his fingers as he gripped her jaw with his other hand. He held her mouth open and covered her lips with his, exhaling, watching her chest rise out of the corner of his eye. Micah broke the seal and felt his recycled air waft over his face before giving her a second.

He returned to her chest, his voice shaking as he started counting. Gretchen’s ribcage sank and her breasts wobbled as he worked, the force rocking her head from side to side. Each time he pressed down, her navel popped up in a harsh seesaw motion. Her shoulders shrugged rhythmically, body bending to the force of his love.

“Huh, huh, huh…” Breathless sounds slipped from her parted lips as he reached thirty again.

Her soft mouth beneath his felt lifeless, already cool to the touch of his overheated skin. Another breath, her cheeks rounding out, neck swelling slightly as the breath made its way down her airway. Micah turned, quickly getting back into position for compressions, his hands skimming her smooth skin as he found his landmark.

“One, two, three…” Her breast felt soft under his fingers as the heel of his stacked hands thrust into her. Her nipples, erect in the cool autumn air, pointed briefly inward with each hard compression. Oblong tracks appeared in the dirt beneath her slim-fingered as her body danced to the rhythm of his thrusts.

“…twelve, thirteen…”

Her brainstem stopped trying to make her breathe as her eyes locked on nothing, already glassy with death. Shadows gathered beneath her eyes.

“…eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one…”

A glance down toward her feet showed him that her entire body twitched with each thrust, legs rocking, toes drawing little circles in the air.

“Please, Gretchen!” he begged, before giving her another deep breath. Her breasts swelled once, twice. His eyes darted to the illuminated display in her side as he resumed chest compressions. One line, regular and jagged, represented his chest compressions. The second line, however, lay flat. Asystole.

“…nine, ten, eleven, twelve…”

Micah rocked into her chest, forcing himself to work as perfectly as he was capable, judging his compression depth with a critical eye and keeping the rhythm going as he counted. Each harsh thrust forced her sternum to squeeze blood from the useless artificial organ. As he pressed, her belly rounded against the waistband of her leggings, the hollow of her navel riding the crest of each wave. Sunlight stretching through the canopy dappled her body, leaves rustling as he shifted on his knees. A snoring sound abruptly emitted from Gretchen’s throat.

“…Christ! Thirty!” He sucked in a breath and covered her mouth with his, closing her nostrils just in time. Again, the air puffed out her cheeks and throat visibly. A thin string of saliva pulled between them as he broke the seal long enough to let her body exhale. Micah pressed his lips to hers again and gave her another breath. Then his hands slammed back into the center of her chest, fingers quickly linking. “One, two, three, four…”

“Hurk, huh, huh, hurk…”

“…nine, ten…” Her chest popped, the sensation crackling under his palm. He kept at it, watching her sternum and ribcage sink and bob beneath the strength of his pumping arms as he hoped, begged, that his effort was good enough.

“…sixteen, seventeen, eighteen…” Watching the wave of force ripple down her abdomen, eyes burning, he choked back the tears that threatened to fall.

Let this be enough. Let me be enough…

As he bent for mouth-to-mouth, he thought of her that morning, legs spread wide beneath him, mouth ripe for the taking, skin so soft as he stroked her. Now, she lay lifeless beneath him, her mouth slack and her eyes staring as he forced air into her silent lungs. The flat line on her prosthetic monitor haunted him as he shifted back over her bruised, motionless chest. Panic threatened to overwhelm him, even as the sensation of her body softening under his hands sent a wave of nausea rolling through him.

“…nine, please just start beating, fuck, come on! PLEASE! Fifteen, sixteen…” Micah worked desperately, letting his weight fall into his hands. She made abortive grunts as he thrust down into her chest, air escaping her lungs in harsh wheezes. “…twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty—”

BEEEEEEEP! An artificial sound cut through his panic.

“Gretchen?!” Micah leaned closer, hands shifting to frame the heart prosthesis screen. The chest compression line disappeared, but beneath it, where the flatline had been…

A rhythm!

“Gretchen!” Micah lunged, planting his hands to either side of her head. Her face tipped slightly to the side, skin ashen, eyelids slightly lifted. He moved one hand to her face, patting her cheek gently at first, then harder. “Honey? Gretchen!” Micah’s eyes trailed over her mottled chest, looking for signs of life. Despite her beating heart, Gretchen remained completely still. 

He moved a hand over her mouth, suspicion leading him to feel for breath that apparently wasn’t coming. Fear made him shiver as he bent to open her airway and tip his ear close to her pale lips. He hovered there, silently counting out the seconds as the dead air spread between them. 

With a groan of anguish, Micah crashed his mouth into hers, the angle of his face blocking her nostrils as he filled her lungs, pressure forcing a buzz of air out of the corners of their mouths. He pulled back enough to feel the air drift across his face, remembering then to pinch her nose. His eyes grazed the display embedded into her side, reassuring himself that the artificial heart still beat. Then he gave her another breath, the fingers of his other hand gently stroking the soft skin of her throat as it expanded beneath his fingertips.

“Please, Gretchen…” His plea came out quiet and broken. “I was right here. I helped you. Please!”

Another breath. His mind filled with awful thoughts. Gretchen dead, Marcus forced to sign paperwork to remove the heart surgically prior to her burial. Gretchen in long-term care, unable to recognize him or care for herself. His Gretchen, dead as her body lived. His eyes grew wet as he exhaled a fourth breath. 

As he broke the seal, Gretchen flinched beneath him and sucked in a shallow, ragged breath. Micah gasped and cupped her face with both hands, watching as her eyelids fluttered. “That’s it, Gretchen! Just breathe! You’re okay. I love you, you’re okay!” He shook with relief, his eyes blurring with tears as she coughed and gasped and moved her hands weakly. She curled them onto her chest, covering the redness there and letting out a soft groan.

Micah brushed her hair back from her face and then covered her hands with his. “I’m sorry. I know you’re in pain. Just open your eyes for me so I know you’re alright.”

Gretchen complied, her eyelids peeling open. She blinked several times before her eyes focused, latching on to his own. “Micah,” she whispered, barely audible. 

Micah shuddered and curled over her, pressing his forehead to hers and choking out: “Thank you… Thank you! Oh, I love you…”

“Love you…” she wheezed. “S’okay…”

His fingers threading in her hair, Micah wept.

I still think about you guys sometimes

Here’s to all of my online friends who suddenly vanished

I hope you all are ok, I miss you guys and hope we meet again.

Something to tide you over til I make something brand new for you guys 😏

Liric and Quinn - Fairy Resus

Inspired by some wonderful art from my new friend @saphicresus, my first story. I may come back to this some day and re-write it to be a bit better, but I wanted to go ahead and get something published. I hope you like it!

Liric’s tail flicked in frustration as she paused- focusing her breath as she tried to stay quiet. To stay hidden. Her wings pulled in closer to her tiny frame, pointed ears able to pick up even the slightest of sounds but yet she didn’t hear a thing. She could feel her tiny heart racing in her chest, adrenaline rushing through, making every movement shaky and uncoordinated.

Quinn was after her. An enemy she had became under circumstances that weren't her own. She’d ventured into her families territory whenever her familiar, a large cane toad named Hieff, had went missing late in the night. The Brabblefern family was known to be skilled hunters, and vicious to their enemies. Where as Liric, the only daughter to the head of the Lotusfeet family, had a lot more peace and understanding to anybody who accidentally came around.

And now, she was in a situation she’d never been in. She was trapped in a Twoleg’s house. She hadn’t realized when she was flying- but had flown straight through an open window. They had both scrambled to hide whenever they heard the Twoleg enter, but now- she didn’t know where Quinn was, or the Twoleg that she couldn’t hear anymore. The tiny fairy moved some of her blonde strands from in front of her face before she heard shuffling- and her wings expanded, taking off quickly and darting out from the cupboard she was in.

“Get back here, you coward!” Quinn screamed angrily. Her features were much different then Lirics. She had the same body type, but her bare body was adorned with swirls of pigment that almost appeared as tattoos. It provided essential camouflage to her enemies. Her skin was much darker, and hair more coarse, currently in tight, firm dreads that had adorations of beads and small animal bones. They were successful, brutal, ruthless hunters. Deep scars showed just how brave she was- and she was quickly catching up to Liric.

“Please- just- leave me alone! Please!” Liric cried out, darting around a corner and ducking under a cabinet. Her eyes quickly scanned in any place that she could hide, she could see freshly cut vegetables on the counter, jars prepared with their lids off setting on the table. She was familiar with this kind of food preservation from her studies, but she didn’t know yet what to do- until she heard the sound of Quinn screaming in pain as she flew over a boiling pot of hot water, the steam having made her dip down into the floor. Liric looked behind her, her wings flapping quickly, still racing to find another open window- deep down, she was afraid that Quinn was hurt. ⁃ THUD! Liric slammed roughly into the wall, not having been watching where she was going. The small fairly fell down, falling into one of the open jars with a hazy thud, stars in her vision as she tried to regain her composure. She didn’t even realize she’d blacked out until she heard something rustling just above the jar, the sound of metal on glass.

Her dark eyes opend in time to see that Quinn had managed to pick up the lightweight lid to the old jar and began to screw it on the top. Liric flew up quickly, shoving her hands against the top- but she was no match. The lid was already screwed, she was just tightening it. She began to beat against the lid. “Quinn! Please- please! Let me out! Let me out!” She screamed frantically, trying to fly against the side of the jar to knock it over. But Quinn flew down, looking at the struggle as Liric began to tire out.

But Liric couldn’t understand why she was getting tired until it dawned on her… she was running out of oxygen, and fast. She slowed down even more, her body feeling heavier then it ever had as she crumbled down to the bottom of the jar, her tail swishing slowly as she looked at the way Quinn smirked at her. The fairy’s long nails slowly tapped against the jar teasingly, her own tail swishing with something that resembled delight as she watched Liric try to gasp. But every breath she took seemed to starve her body further of the oxygen it needed, her heart beating wildly in her ears as if it would jump out of her chest all together. Liric’s hands clawed against the glass, trying to find anything to hold onto- anything to try and convince Quinn that she’d stay away from her territory. She understood why the other fairy was so violent, with how scarse food was, with some other fairies stealing and killing- she wasn’t mad at her… but she knew she didn’t deserve to be killed for her simple mistake. Quinn was several moons older then she was, she had more expirence, more skill, a bigger clan.

Her head began to pound, a headache like she’d never felt before aching through her body. Her vision was blurring even more, and she was getting disoriented, unable to speak. She was suffocating, and her body was starting to go through cyanosis. Her pale skin was turning blue around her lips and her face, the red that had washed over her was fading as her heart stopped trying to uselessly pump blood. Her tiny frame jerked invoulntarily as she slid further, her back hitting the back of the glass as she began to feel more tired.

She couldn’t explain the sense of.. calmness that she felt. Her tired, tiny heart was slowing it’s beats down. The tips of her fingers, and her toes were slowly turning blue, a paleness that was racing to her limbs. Quinn laid her hands on her hips in a satisfied huff. “You’ll never steal from us again, will you Lotusfeet?” She cackled, before jumping up- her wings splaying out and starting to flutter as she took flight again. Liric’s hand reached weakly out twoards the figure as one last plea before everything darkend within her vision, and Quinn flew out the still-open window, just narrowly avoiding the Twoleg as she walked back inside. Liric’s body had gone limp at the bottom of the jar.

Briela looked curiously out her window, her long brown hair dusting over her shoulders, the smell of fresh dirt on her knees as she took off her gardening gloves, setting the basket of herbs down on the small table that she’d collected. “Oh, butterflies this time of year already? I really need to plant those flowers..” She murmured to herself as she looked for the ‘butterfly’ she’d seen fly out her window. She shrugged it off, and moved to kick off her dirty shoes before going over to the sink to start washing her hands. She did so, patting her hands dry on the small towel as blue eyes glanced over to the pot of boiling water.

“Oh! I forgot about canning!” She cried out in surprise at the boiling water, moving to turn down the water a bit before looking at her jars, noticing the metal lid on one. Her head tilted in surprise before she saw it- the tiny, blue fairy within the jar. “O-Oh my! Oh my! Shit, shit shit shit!” She yelped as she quickly lifted up the jar, unscrewing it with ease as she looked into it. “Oh! Hey, hey- holy shit! Are you okay!?” She cried out as she dumped the fairy hap-hazardly onto the tea towel she’d just used to dry her hands, setting the jar back down quickly as she hovered over the tiny frame. Then it dawned on her- this wasn’t her skin color.. whatever this little, magical being was- this was the appearance of suffocating.

“Oh SHIT!” She yelled once she realized, lifting the tiny frame into her palms carefully. Liric’s body shifted coldly in her palm, her wings limp and splayed out, her tail draping past her palm, arms outstretched and hair messily covering her face from being dropped onto the tea towel. Briela quickly moved to turn off the stove with her free hand before running to her kitchen table, taking a quick seat as her thumb rubbed over the tiny fairy’s chest. “Oh come on, breathe! Breathe! You’re out of the jar now you’re okay! You’re okay!” She pleaded quickly, her own hands starting to shake before she rested her thumb over the tiny fairy’s bare chest, inbetween her breasts. She paused, trying to feel for anything. She moved to lay the fairy’s back flat against her palm, moving her fingers against her chest- trying to feel again.

Nothing… Liric’s body had given up it’s fight. It had been too long, her heart had beat so fast and she’d panicked so badly she had only sped up her demise. But Briela wasn’t a stranger to an emergency… but on something this small? She had to think fast, or else the fairy wouldn’t have a chance at all.

Briela quickly brought the small frame up to her mouth, sealing her warm pink lips against the tiny fairy’s face, trying to puff a breath of air into her useless lungs. She pulled back, and didn’t see a downfall, or hear one. “Okay- just hold on honey- just hold on.” She begged, trying again as she repositioned the tiny frame, letting her head tilt back in-between her thumb and index finger, right in the soft crook, and sealed her lips again, giving a bit fuller of a breath- this time she kept her other hand on the tiny fairy’s chest.

A slow rise. Air was going in now. She pulled back, letting the fairy’s chest fall- before lowering again, delivering another breath. Rise… fall.

“Come on..” She whined, pulling back and moving her thumb into the center of the tiny fairy’s chest, pushing down awkwardly. The angle didn’t do her much of a favor, but she gained a small ‘huff’ from the fairy’s agape mouth. Briela moved to set her against the cold wooden kitchen table, her head lolling to the side, wings splayed under her and her tail in-between her legs as Briela tried another angle with her thumb- another useless huff. She was growing frustrated, but tried again. This time, she used two fingers, both on her sternum, before she pressed down.

Now that felt like a compression. Her body responded just as a human’s would, and she set her pace. “One… two… three… four!” She counted, Liric’s body shifting under each thrust into her still heart. Briela had calmed down- and now she had deep focus, her other hand carefully ready to scoop the tiny fairy up when she needed to give breaths again, resting against the kitchen table. Each thrust made her feel that more scared that maybe she was too late.

“hu-huh-huh-huh-huh” Liric’s body responded in small, quiet huffs with each compression, limbs failing slightly as she was picked back up off the table, Briela sealing her mouth against the fairies once more. She puffed out a small breath of air, causing Liric’s cheeks to expand fully, her lungs expanding quickly, huffing out air as the Twoleg pulled away. Another breath, rise, and fall- and then another.. just for good measure. She didn’t hesitate, carefully lowering Liric back down, her fingers finding their place again as she began to compress.

“huh! huh! huh!” her body responded more defiantly, as Briela didn’t worry as much about the depth- she worried that if she went too soft she wouldn’t be able to save the fairy. She counted softly under her breath, legs shaking with each thrust as her ribs flared out with each deep, methodical compression that was slammed into her unmoving muscle. Another round, and another set of breaths. She could see that some of the blueness had faded from the fairy’s body but she wasn’t yet responding to her- a quick feel against her chest gave her nothing in return, but Briela took the small frame from her table and back into her palm, her fingers moving to rub her sternum desperately.

“Come on, little one- please take in a breath!” She quietly whispered, deeply rubbing her sternum- trying to get any response, before using her thumb, cupping the tiny fairy in her hands as she began to deliver compressions again. These were harder, deeper into her chest- crushing her heart with each beat as she squeezed the tiny form. Her breasts jiggled with the movement, ribs flaring out- open mouth huffing out the air that kept seeping into her lungs. Her legs and arms shook with each beat, the warmness from Briela’s palms starting to take away the coldness that the kitchen table had only caused to get worse. She was desperate, her mouth sealing again over the tiny fairy’s face, forcing in air even as her thumb continued to press, feeling the way her chest rose up and huffed out quickly with the next beat. Her belly jiggled with each compression, expanding and shifting under the weight until- a tiny gasp echoed.

Briela paused for a moment, her thumb resting over Liric’s sternum. The marbling of bruises and redness made her feel horrible, but Liric tried to gasp again, but her eyes weren't opening. Each gasp was deep, struggled. Agonal. “Come on honey…” Briela pleaded as she rubbed against her sternum firmly, not getting any kind of a reaction before she began to compress again. She knew that this breathing wasn’t a real sign of life- and even though she wished she had a AED , she knew there was no such thing for something so small.

Each thump against the sloshing muscle further pushed blood throughout her system that was trying so hard to fight. Briela’s careful grip, and thumb centered square in her sternum- didn’t give her heart any choice. It would beat, and it would beat to the rhythm that it was set to. Briela moved back down after only fifteen, bringing the tiny fairy up to her mouth once more, sealing over her face and blowing quick breaths of air- over and over again, her tiny chest expanding quickly as her thumb rubbed against Liric’s chest, making her chest shift and bounce before her limbs came up suddenly, starting to move and gasp.

“Oh! Oh my goodness, you’re alive! Okay, it’s okay little one- breathe for me, just breathe!” She guided softly as she pulled back, feeling the quick thudding of Liric’s heart as she regained consciousness, the tiny fairy looking terrified as she realized what was going on. “I-It’s okay, it’s okay, I saw you got trapped in a jar- I saved you, you’re okay.” She pleaded, hoping that the fairy understood what she was saying. Liric didn’t have the energy to move, yet, but Briela was already standing, looking through a pile of sewing supplies on her kitchen table until she found a small square of soft fabric, wrapping the tiny frame in it, and laying her down carefully on a old plushie. The tiny fairy’s body rested against the softness and warmth, and Briela didn’t take her eyes off of her.

She’d done it. She’d saved the fairy!

Becca's roommate comes home to find her choked on the kitchen floor!