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“You can enter rehab or the police are going to show up and arrest you so they can begin proceedings to charge you with grand larceny. This is your choice. Figure it out.”
After grabbing all the alcohol and over-the-counter drugs I have in the house, I walk to my bedroom and slam the door. I’m done. Freya was right, I didn’t set the boundary and now everything is falling apart.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Iwake up to a strange noise, but immediately am distracted by a horrible smell. What is that? It smells like sulfur or... it’s gas.
Shit.
When I open my bedroom door and step into the hallway, the heavy smell gets stronger. What the fuck is going on? I’m so disoriented. Where is it coming from? Top Shelf? It’s barely light outside, it must be the early-morning hours. After nightfall but before dawn. Between my grogginess and the weird sensation, my brain is in a fog.Focus, where is the smell coming from?It’s everywhere.Where’s Anna?
I find her down on the floor with an empty bottle of cough medicine clutched loosely in her hand. Eyes seem half open or rolled back. Or both. I quickly slap the plastic bottle away and pick up her tiny body.Where did she find this? How much was in it before she got a hold of it?Jesus Christ. I might be sick. Not only from the image of her sitting there but my own exposure. I tap her face a little rough, her eyes blink and eyeballs roll back to face me.Goddamnit, Anna. How could you be so fucking stupid?
After dropping her in the outside hall, I go back inside to check the stove. Beneath an empty pot is the hushed hiss of gas coming from the burner. I reach to turn the knob, but snatch back my hand. To turn off the gas, the knob must pass over the igniter again, which could cause a spark, right?
Freya.
I forget the stove and open the nearest window and the door to the balcony and shut the door behind me.
There’s no answer when I pound on Freya’s door. If I wasn’t such a fucking idiot, I’d still have her key. I’m going to have to break down the door.Never missing leg day is about to pay off.Luckily there’s a pair of my shoes still outside the door, I slip them on, then turn around and donkey kick, hitting just under the doorknob. I hear a pop, but the door doesn’t open. I repeat the move, this time it bursts open wide.
Not wasting time calling out her name, I run to the bedroom. She’s still sleeping. I grab her up, and it instantly pulls her from her slumber. She kicks and flails, trying to attack me—as she should.
“Stop! It’s me! I’m not going to hurt you, chill out.”
“The fuck are you doing? Put me down!”
“There’s a gas leak, we gotta go.” She’s only in boxers and a camisole.
I grab the two coats off the hook next to the door before leaving and set her down in the hallway. I shove the coat into her hands.
“Put this on. Go,” I command, nodding toward the exterior doors below.
Hoisting my barely conscious sister over my shoulder, I follow behind her. When we make it outside, I can literally and figuratively breathe again.
Fuck, I don’t have my phone on me. There aren’t any businesses open at this hour nearby. Pretty sure there’s no where Freya could hide a phone in what she’s wearing, and I smashed Anna’s yesterday.
My eye catches movement across the street where an early-morning jogger in a reflective running jacket is out on their morning route.Cupping my hands over my mouth, I yell to flag them down. The runner is unsure of me when I hustle over to meet them in the road. Makes sense, I’m half naked and yelling at God only knows what time. The orange-tinged city streetlamps reflect off the small piles of dirty snow along the sidewalk. It’s early.
“Do you have a phone on you?” I throw my thumb over my shoulder. “There’s a gas leak and we need to call 911.” I didn’t have time to grab a shirt or jacket when we ran out. I’m thankful I had enough sense to grab Freya’s for her. I work in the cold, I’m at least somewhat used to the temperature, she’s not. It takes the guy a minute to process what I’m saying.
“Oh, shit, yeah, one sec.” He pulls the cell phone from his running jacket and unlocks it, tapping the screen and dialing for me. He fumbles handing the phone over. At least he understands the sense of urgency here. He looks down at my sweatpants with a Minnesota Lakes logo on the pocket, and I see him make the connection.
“You’re Rhys Kucera. You play for the Lakes.”
I nod. The dispatcher answers, and I rattle off our address, reporting a gas leak and letting them know the gas is still on. We’ll need at least one ambulance, possibly two. I need to have Freya checked out to make sure she hasn’t been affected. I was so focused on getting her out of there, I can’t remember if I smelled it in her apartment or not. My brain is so hazy and tired it’s hard to think. The jogger stays with me as I walk back to the sidewalk by the girls. I button the extra jacket I grabbed around Anna’s zonked-out body. She’s still fully dressed from earlier, silver lining.
Freya is sitting on the curb, trying to tuck her legs into her long winter coat. Unlike the rest of us, she doesn’t even have fucking shoes on, the soles of her feet are going get frostbite from the frozen sidewalk.
“Here, let me.” I circle her ankles and help bring her feet up under her knee-length parka, at least this will keep them off the icy concrete until I can get her somewhere warm.
All I can hear are Freya’s words.
Someday she’s going to take more than your stuff.
She almost took the woman I love. If Anna had accidentally hit the igniter, or hell, even flipped a light switch, the building could have exploded. I shudder at the thought. How could I have let this get so out of control? I never imagined Anna would do something so dangerous.
It only takes a couple minutes before we hear the loud blare from fire trucks and ambulances. My new jogger buddy is more than happy to accommodate us and be part of the action. I’m thankful that the ambulance is the first one to pull up, two paramedics tend to Anna. She’s breathing, but her O2 levels are dangerously low, her heart is racing, and oh, she’s all fucked up on DXM. They explain where they are taking her and ask if I want to ride along to the hospital with them. I’m faced with the decision to go with Anna or stay with Freya. I shake my head, and they shut the doors, taking off down the road. From the corner of my eye, I see Freya’s head snap up, confused.
