He Let My Heart Stop So I Called The Cops

Chapter 4

Early the next morning, just as the sky was starting to turn light, Vanessa wandered around the house in one of Grant's white dress shirts, her legs bare.

She pushed my bedroom door open without knocking. "Nora, don't get the wrong idea. I forgot my pajamas last night, so Grant gave me one of his shirts himself."

She lifted the cuff to her nose and took a sniff, smiling sweetly, but her eyes never left my face. No one answered her, though. I lay perfectly still in bed, the covers pulled up to my chest and my eyes shut tight.

Vanessa frowned and took two steps closer to the bed. "Nora? What's with the silent treatment? Are you mad that Grant stayed with me last night instead of coming back to your room?"

Still, nothing came from the bed. She reached out and gave my shoulder a push. It was ice-cold under her fingers, and she snatched her hand back and turned to the heart monitor beside the bed.

The screen was black. There were no numbers, no waveform, and none of the beeping she'd complained about. The whole room was dead silent.

Vanessa screamed and staggered backward. The coffee mug slipped from her hands, hit the floor, and shattered.

The crash woke Grant, and he stumbled into the room. "It's way too early for this. What's all the..." He broke off when he saw Vanessa slumped on the floor by the door, white as a sheet, pointing a shaking finger at the bed.

"She... she..." was all Vanessa could get out.

Grant stood frozen for a moment, then hurried over to the bed. "Nora, quit it. Get up." He still sounded irritated. "Who are you trying to scare with this act again?

"Vanessa's depression is just starting to get better. If you keep this up, she's gonna have another episode."

No one answered. He held his hand under my nose, but he couldn't feel even a trace of breath.

Grant went rigid, his eyes wide with shock. He ripped the covers back and pressed his fingers to my wrist, but no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find a pulse.

He bent down and pressed his ear to my chest. There was no beeping and no hum from the machine. He couldn't hear a thing.

"Nora? Nora!" Grant's voice cracked, and he shook my shoulders like a madman. "Nora, wake up! Open your eyes and look at me!"

The monitor screen was dark, and he was the one who'd told me to shut it off the night before. "No... no, this can't be happening. No..."

In that moment, only one thought was left in his head. Nora Ellis had died on the very night he'd made her turn off her alarm.