Not-So-Sweet Treat

Me? Posting content twice in one week? It’s about as unlikely as you’d think, but I just finished a bunch of stuff so I had free time, and here we are.

So this idea came to me in a dream a while ago. I started to work on it, but then I got into the international science and engineering fair, so I had other things I needed to focus on. Anyway, the story. It’s an RSS story about, well, I am not going to spoil it.

Trigger Warnings – also tagged: ambulances, attempted kidnapping

WC: 1434

—————

Maria climbed out of her Uber, slamming the blue car door as she stepped onto the sidewalk. She opened a text to Chaia and typed a puppy emoji, their code for a safe arrival. As she stumbled over the curb, Maria switched her phone off before she could hit send.

On a frosted glass window, burgundy letters spelled out “The Cinnamon Room.” At the door, Maria was greeted by two men in white aprons.

The red-haired man on the right stuck out his hand. “Gideon. Nice to meet you. This is Chase.” Gideon motioned to the black-haired man standing to his right.

“Maria. I hope I’m not too late for the class.” There’d been more traffic than Maria was expecting. She was about 6 minutes late.

“Actually,” Chase said, “you’re the first to show up.” He and Gideon cleared the doorway to allow Maria into the bakery. Cookies, danishes, rugelach, muffins, and pastries galore lined a display cabinet in front of the kitchen. To the right of the counter, a long hallway stretched to the back of the shop, connecting the front kitchen to the back ovens and pantry. Chase unlocked the gate to the back and showed Maria to a station in the kitchen.

“We need to grab some ingredients from the back. We will be right with you.” Chase started down the long hallway, and Gideon quickly followed suit.

Upon their return, Gideon and Chase were not carrying as many ingredients as Maria had anticipated. Each only carried a couple sticks of butter in one hand. What was in their other hands was more curious. Gideon and Chase both held a gas mask in their non-butter hand.

Maria, however, did not notice the masks. After seeing the butter, she simply turned around and began to wash her hands in preparation for the baking ahead. She didn’t notice as Gideon and Chase pulled the gas masks over their faces or when Gideon kicked a bright red switch under a cabinet. By the time she had finished washing her hands, Maria was too loopy to notice that Gideon and Chase were dragging her down the hall to a sealed closet.

Chase dragged Maria’s practically limp body onto a pile of hay while Gideon released the valve on a gas canister in the back corner of the room. “That should do it,” Gideon said, slamming the door as he exited the closet.

Back in the closet, Maria’s phone vibrated in her pocket as it received a text from Chaia. With an unsent message, it could only return a bubble with three dots. Moments later, the phone cried out a klezmer tune as Chaia called. Maria could not respond, so the phone just rang. And rang. And rang. And rang.

————————————————————————————————————–

Thirty minutes later, Maria still hadn’t picked up the phone. Or answered Chaia’s texts. Or even read Chaia’s texts. Chaia dialed her wife’s number into her cell phone again. On speaker, the phone rang. After three unanswered rings, she shifted her attention to the landline on the other side of her computer; Maria always picked up by the third ring. Chaia called 911.

Victor’s headset beeped to indicate the incoming call. He clicked on the large “ANSWER CALL” button in the middle of his screen. “9-1-1, what is your emergency?”

“My wife took a pastry workshop at this bakery on Appleton and she isn’t answering her phone. I think something has happened. She has complex medical needs and-”

“Chaia, it’s Victor, take a deep breath with me.” Victor inhaled and exhaled forcefully, being sure to be loud enough for Chaia to hear through the phone. “This isn’t your cell number; where is your phone?”

“It’s right next to me. I’m still trying to reach Maria.” Chaia replied, a slight twinge of panic rising through her voice.

“Okay. I need you to do two things for me. First, I need the name of the bakery she went to.”

“The Cinnamon Room.”

“Okay. I am dispatching police, but they’re a bit busy with the protests downtown today. Do you have Kai’s number? He should be able to get down there pretty quickly and start to investigate.”

“Yes. I can call him.”

“Okay. Do you want me to stay on the line with you? They’ve just diverted all available units to crowd control at the protests. It might be a while to get the police.”

“I think I’ve got it from here. I’m heading down there right now. I’ll text with any updates.”

“Okay. I will keep you updated as well. Bye.” Victor terminates the call.

Five minutes later, Chaia’s phone buzzes with a text from Kai. “Frontman at the bakery says Maria went to grab a coffee. Heading down to Hazel Flower to check. Justin is staying at the ambo to monitor the door.”

————————————————————————————————————–

Kai parked the ambulance block down the street from The Cinnamon Room. He turned to his partner, Justin, and told him, “If I am not back in 30 minutes, get backup.” He hopped out and walked down the street.

He strolled up to a red-haired man in a white apron. “Hi, I’m Kai. My friend is here for a pastry class and I need to drop off something for her. Her name is Maria Glassman.”

The red-haired man paid no attention to Kai. “She went out to get a coffee down the street.”

The coffee shop down the street was empty, so Kai headed back. This time, there was no one behind the counter when he arrived. Sitting amidst floured rolling pins were 2 gas masks. He texted Victor, “They’ve got gas masks. Send cops.”

The red-haired man appeared from down the hall. “I see you’ve come back,” he sneered. He planted a punch in Kai’s face and dragged Kai down the hall to the storeroom. He slumped Kai right next to Maria.

————————————————————————————————————–

Chaia pulled up to the bakery, which was now surrounded by vehicles with flashing lights. She jumped out of her car and approached the first person in uniform she could find, which happened to be Justin. “Where’s my wife?” she asked.

Justin took a deep breath and made eye contact with Chaia. “You must be Chaia. My name is Justin. I work with Kai.” He offered Chaia his hand, which she begrudgingly shook. “The cops are still searching inside, but it may not be pretty. On the way over, Kai briefed me on your, uh, Maria’s situation. I think it prudent that you meet the other on-site EMS crew.” He led Chaia to the ambulance at the other end of the bakery facade. Motioning to the two paramedics leaning against the back of the ambulance, Justin said, “That’s Eaton and Sienna. I’ve filled them in.”

Chaia nodded at the pair. “Nice to meet you.”

Right then, a police officer ran out the door of the bakery. “I’ve found them! They’re gonna need oxygen.” The officer held the door as Justin, Sienna, and Eaton rushed in, bringing two stretchers and supplies into the bakery. Another officer grabbed Chaia’s arm to keep her outside.

“I need to see her!” Chaia cried, tears beginning to slide out of her eyes.

“You can see her when they bring her outside,” the officer told Chaia, shifting their hand from gripping Chaia’s forearm to holding her hand.

Kai was the first to be wheeled out of the bakery. He was semi-conscious. He could almost react to questions and occasionally twitch his face in response to the Oxygen cannula resting in his nostrils. He was brought out by only Eaton.

Justin and Sienna wheeled Maria out a minute later. Chaia couldn’t see the readings on the pulse oximeter but the ambu bag over Maria’s nose and mouth indicated that it couldn’t be good.

“Chaia, over here! Walk with me,” Justin called out.

Chaia joined him at her wife’s side.

“We’re about two to four minutes out from the hospital,” Justin told Chaia. “We’ve got two patients, two ambulances, and only three functional paramedics. Can you bag Maria until we get to the hospital?”

“You want me to be in charge of keeping my wife alive?”

“You are qualified and trained to do so.”

Chaia sniffled. “I–”
“Chaia.” Justin locked eyes with Chaia.

She sighed. “Fine.” Chaia climbed into the back of the ambulance with Justin. Justin handed Chaia the blue bag mask and hopped out the back to run around to the driver’s seat.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Chaia responded weakly. She took a deep breath as she squeezed the plastic bulb at the end of the bad mask and let it go to supplement her wife’s weak breaths.

Plant Day

This is, of course, a RSS story for @brutal-nemesis’s Plant Day 2021.

And please don’t kill me, but I kinda feel like I bent the rules here. The assailant here is not a fungus or protist. It is a part of the plant kingdom, but not like that.Anyway, on to the story part of this.

Trigger Warnings – also tagged: choking, alcohol, knives, blood, surgery

WC: 897

———-

“911, what is your emergency?”

A panicked voice came from the other end of the phone. “My boyfriend is choking and we can’t get it out!”

“Okay. Where are you?”

“Middle of the quad at OakU.”

“Any landmarks nearby?”
“Across the street from the ADG house.”

Victor entered the location into his computer and pulled up a map of the OakU campus. “Okay, help is on the way. My name is Victor. And you are?”
“Raegan.”
“Okay, Raegan. You said that your boyfriend is choking?”

“Yeah,” Raegan said, panic once again rising in her voice.

“And you tried the heimlich?” Victor asked.

“Yeah. It didn’t work. One of my friends tried that and they tried smacking his back. Nothing helped.”

“Okay. What is his name?”

“Hugo.”

“Raegan, put me on speaker.” Victor paused briefly as he waited for Raegan to oblige. “Okay, Hugo, if you can hear me, please give Raegan a thumbs up.”

Hugo barely moved. He was rocking back and forth, his arms slowly reaching at his neck, but his hands made no attempt to show Raegan a thumbs up. His olive skin slowly grew bluer.

On the other end of the phone, a message popped up on Victor’s computer. EMS was on the way, but Raegan and Hugo were not accessible by road. It would be at least 15 minutes until help could arrive.

Victor’s attention was pulled back to the call when Raegan began screaming.

“Victor, he’s not moving anymore! How much longer?”

“Your location is pretty far from any roads, so it’ll be 15-20 minutes. Can you try the heimlich again?” Victor pulled out his phone and texted Kai.

“I know you’re off, but I need help. College age male choking. Heimlich not helping. EMS 15-20 out. I am conferencing you in.”

Kai responded with a thumbs up and Victor entered his number into the console. “Raegan,” Victor said, “this is my friend Kai. He is a paramedic. He is going to help you.”

Kai cleared his throat into the phone. “Raegan, can you tell me exactly what happened?”

Raegan sighed as tears made their way from her eyes to her chin. “I was working on a project for my photography class. It was, uh, humans in nature. We were doing a shoot and Hugo decided he wanted a picture biting an acorn. I got a couple shots and then he tripped over a tree root. He must’ve swallowed the acorn and it got stuck because he can’t breathe and it’s not between his teeth anymore.”

Kai took a deep breath. “I am going to recommend something crazy, but it should save Hugo, alright? I think that you should attempt a field cricothyrotomy.”

“You want me to cut open my boyfriend’s neck?”
“Raegan, it will save his life,” Victor said. “Now, before I ask you this, I want to remind you that these calls are recorded, but I do want to help.” He paused. “Does someone over the age of 21 in the ADG house have alcohol, a knife, and a straw?”

“Yeah,” Raegan responded, but it wasn’t entirely true. She always carried a pocket knife and metal straw, and she had filled her water bottle with vodka at a party the night before. Victor didn’t need to know where it came from.

“Raegan, I need you to sterilize everything. Dump the alcohol on your hands, his neck, the knife, and the straw,” Victor commanded.

Raegan carefully poured the alcohol out of her bottle, through the straw, and onto her hands, her knife, and Hugo’s neck. “Done,” she said, putting her phone on speaker and placing next to Hugo’s short, scruffy black hair.

Kai took a breath and began to instruct Raegan. “Raegan, you are going to find the cricothyroid membrane, it is–”

“In that indentation below the Adam’s Apple,” Raegan finished.

“Yes,” Kai said with a slight bit of surprise in his voice.

“You sound surprised,” Raegan responded. “I find that knowing human anatomy is incredibly important to my art.”

“Alright then,” Kai continued, “You are going to make a 1-inch long incision. You are going to drive your knife in until you feel a bit of a pop. That means you are in the trachea.”

Raegan squeezed her eyes shut before busting them open again. She grasped the handle of her pocket knife and slid the blade across her boyfriend’s olive-colored skin. Dark red blood oozed from the opening. At the center of the incision, Raegan pushed down on the knife until she felt something different than the feeling of slicing through fascia and muscle. She slid her finger into the cavity and there certainly was a hole in something. “Done,” she informed Kai and Victor as she pulled her finger out of Hugo’s neck.

“Slip the straw into the hole in the trachea and take a breath into it,” Kai instructed.

Raegan slid her metal straw into the hole that had just held her finger. She wrapped her lips around her purple silicone straw topper. She gently exhaled through the straw. Surprised, she pulled back when she saw Hugo’s chest rise in his green hoodie. “He is breathing!” she exclaimed.

“Good,” Victor said. “Paramedics are about 5 minutes out. I can stay with you until they get there, okay?”
“Thank you,” Raegan replied softly. She buried her face into Hugo’s shoulder. Her tears joined the bloodstains on his hoodie.

The Flash S01E03
↳RFW’s Favorite Flash Whump Moments

Supernatural S02E01
↳RFW’s Favorite SPN Whump Moments

Supernatural S02E01
↳RFW’s Favorite SPN Whump Moments

Why so pretty?!?!?

The O.C

3x1

Always fun to remember just how long this whump obsession has been going on.

I remember watching this video when I was 4 maybe 5 and thinking “Who is he?? Why does he look so cute? Why do I like this? And why the fuck am I so jealous of her??”

Stay - shakespears sister 1992

The O.C

Trey has just been shot 3x1