2020-09-22 - No Air

It's late afternoon. The day before, Byron disappeared into a Dream from the apartment. This time, it's Lilith who disappears from there for a while, but he's not home because he's been snared at a different locale. She's in the kitchen when it happens, her phone is playing music on the bar counter, she's starting to pull things out to prepare dinner in advance since it will take a while in the oven with what she's planned. She only really gets the salad stuff out to start chopping for a bowl, though.

In the moment before it happens, Lilith has almost nicked off the tip of her finger while cutting romaine lettuce and just narrowly avoids blood. The knife blade clips the corner of her nail and abruptly she puts the knife down to breathe for a moment, her distraction almost got her all bloodied and sent to a damn doctor for stitches. For just a moment, she closes her eyes and listens to what is playing, thinking how lucky she just was with that knife slip. Maybe today won't suck. The lyrics of the song should really be a warning, though. It's the last thing she hears before she's gone.

Seven devils all around you.
Seven devils in my house.
See, I was dead when I woke up this morning...
And I'll be dead before the day is done.

Thirty-two minutes later, she wakes up on the kitchen floor and it's a very, very hard and rough awakening. She knows what happened, she's oriented enough for that, familiar enough with the way terrible things work from too much experience. It's a passive knowledge at this point unless the Dream is especially traumatizing or jarring. She's had a couple of bad come-to moments, but this one might be the worst because she doesn't even remember getting hurt to explain it.

When Lilith wakes up, she knows something is wrong with her body, violently so, even though there's not really any injury of note to be found. In fact, something is so wrong with her, she's convinced her time has finally run out, she's used up all of her luck, she thinks she's dying. Her air is constricted, her body is so tense and locked up, it's hard to actually move, the panic of intermittent air and pressured choking spasms aside. The more she panics, the worse it gets and for a moment, she tells herself to lie still, maybe it will stop, maybe she can breathe again.

It's different than waking up injured, the woman has no control to stop the way her body is reacting with escalating, torturous symptoms the longer she's awake. Maybe it's just time and this is the end, Lilith dying alone on the kitchen floor for Byron to find as a dead and broken doll. For a moment, she's resigned to this, it's due time, isn't it? They were going to get her in some way at some point, it's inevitable living like this, isn't it? She shouldn't struggle and make it worse, she should just pass out and go because it's her time. Lilith is getting dizzy, she's seeing spots of light and dark in her vision, her heart is racing hard and irregular from reflex survival panic and not enough oxygen.

What finally rouses the brunette to FIGHT is the idea of Byron finding her dead, far more traumatic to her with imagery than the dying itself.

Her muscles aren't cooperating, they're stiff and they keep locking and she's breathing too hard, fast, and desperate with survival instinct, it might be making things worse, whatever this is suddenly infecting her. It makes it very hard to stand up, she has to crawl unevenly and reach up to grip fast on the kitchen counter ledge where her phone is still playing music. The noise of it is a thick, dull roar in her ears and head, not music at all, just cacophony. Her fingers grip the phone right before she collapses with legs giving when her lower muscles start their irregular locks and spasms.

She can't unlock her phone. Lilith can't unlock her goddamn phone. It's trying to face ID her and she can't... type the six digit numbers well enough with her hands shaking and focus waning little by little into wooziness. The digits keep punching wrong on the sensitive screen, she can't coordinate to swipe upward and forgets or just doesn't realize she might still be able to dial 911, she has no clue what the actual emergency features on her phone are. The emergencies in her life generally don't require 911 calls.

Her throat is starting to lock up and hold locked. Curled on her side, she tries to roll on her back while gasping like a fish with the useless lifeline of her phone gripped hard in fingers. Her lips are turning a bluish tinge. Suddenly, Lilith is scared of dying too because it's the human thing to be afraid of from deep down inside. It's only been under three minutes, but for Lilith, it's an eternity.

Byron had texted Lilith, informing her that he was on his way home from the casino. It was your typical day out in public, so there were various moments which near triggers him, but he's been able to keep his cool. He's been kept so busy with meetings and phone calls that he had no time to even send Alexander a message regarding the video game-like adventure they'd gone on, so when he drives down into the parking garage of his building and kills his engine, he decides to do just that.

Sitting in the comfort of his car within the empty garage, he pulls out his phone to tap out a quick text to the detective: Hey, Clayton. Just checking in after our adven--

But before he can even finish his statement, the phone drops, bouncing off from the driver's chair to space on the floor before it. Byron was gone.

---

Thirty-two minutes later and he's brought back to exactly where he was before he vanished, still seated in that Lincoln. They had to get out! That much he remembered. The image of the inky black snake lowering itself down from within the busted ceiling also stirs up a panic in him. Then there was Lilith...

In the first few seconds, his mind is trying to sort out whether that Dream was his alone or if the other players were actual people and not Dream figments. The way that they were fighting against those Dream threats, that's almost enough to tell him that they were rea--

Lilith was there.

The car door swings open and he's hurrying his way to the elevator, impatiently pushing at the button. "We escaped it." The man keeps telling himself. For all he knew, he came out of it unscathed and he was dragging Lilith along behind him. Who else was there? Alexander. de la Vega... He recalls even seeing Nicole. Roen. Cav... Cavanaugh. He's able to go through each of these names with how slowly the elevator car being lowered down to his level. That's when the door opens and he reaches into his pocket to pull out his key to insert into the panel before pressing the PH button at the very top. In fact, he pushes the button a few times.

Maybe he should call her to make sure she was okay and to let her know that he was on the way up. The doors were shutting though and his service would cut out. That doesn't stop him from reaching into his pocket still, only to find that his phone was not there. The next several minutes felt like an eternity. While he may not have paced nervously inside the car, one of his feet kept tapping on the floor as he stared up to watch the ascending digits the higher he got within the building. "C'mon.. C'mon..."

Those doors open once more and he's out. His keys still in hand, he unlocks the door to the apartment and hurries in. He's not even sure what Lilith was doing at the time he was 'taken', but if that was Lilith in his Dream, then she wasn't in the nullified room. He ignores the hallway leading the various other bedrooms in favor for the main living space. At first, he doesn't notice her, but when he sees the chopped up lettuce on the cutting board near the sink. Rounding the island, that's where he finds Lilith lying on the kitchen floor. With worry on his mind, he drops down to one knee to try and help her up, "Lil, hon. You okay?" Byron, himself, felt fine. But how rigid Lilith looked and seeing her wide eyes staring up at him, he quickly inspects her, trying to locate the problem. She was struggling to breathe. Leaning forward to smash his lips against her open mouth, he works to force air into her lungs.

Lilith is just about to lose consciousness when she thinks she hears Byron. It's hard to tell at first, there's music on that's still a blur and muffle of noise in her backdrop. She's in a strange state of limp but.. some of her limbs aren't quite right, it's like she's unwittingly flexing in odd poses, her muscles can practically be seen spasming here and there, especially in her calves while her foot is locked to toe point. He can feel the partial spread out rigidity and seizing up muscles more when he lays hands on her to urge proper breath and suddenly she knows it's him and her eyes start to close.

She can stop fighting now, he's here now, it's fine, isn't it? Lilith doesn't really know, he's leaning in for a kiss while she's still trying to figure out if he's real, but she thinks woozily with limited oxygen. It's like being approached by a Disney prince, isn't it? She can't relax, she can't not panic, she can't stay awake... any...

Byron's breathing push of air into Lilith's lungs with his 'kiss' of aid to bring her much needed oxygen feels like heaven and hell at the same time. But her chest rises in her tank top she's paired with a ruffled mini skirt, feet bare for padding around the house before everything went wrong. He forces air where she can't pull it with constricting spasms limiting her actual airflow. On top of that, she looked clearly mid-throes of panic suffering to stay conscious, it's all pretty horrible and panic is making it twice as hard to even try to breathe properly or tactically.

It's confusing. She's confused. Lilith doesn't understand at all, is this a ghost choking her and searing her lungs? She doesn't realize the burn is oxygen she needs being rushed where it's needed after deprivation. Byron probably doesn't understand what's happening with her either because not many people actually have seen accelerated tetanus in action, for one, but for two... wasn't she okay when they ran? Is something here and hurting her?

She almost breathes on her own, it's a bit like being kickstarted. But she feels the constriction again and starts to panic, one of her hands finally moving into lockdown grip on his near arm. Her knees start to come up, then her legs straighten into different awkward flexes again. Struggle. Not just muscle spasms, struggle to breathe and the panic that comes with it. He knows he can get air into her now and see responsiveness, though, so there's at least that.

All that Byron can see is Lilith having a bad reaction to the Dream they'd just left. That has never happened before. Unless... He can clearly see that something is happening to her, but he can't find the source. His frantic inspection brings up nothing. No wound, or bruise or anything that might tell him what was going on. Not that he had time to look her over as carefully as he wanted. With her lips turning blue, most of his focus is on helping her to breathe.

Resettling carefully back down onto the floor, he forces another breath through her parted lips, before pressing down on her chest with both hands. Somewhere, he'd learned the basics of CPR, but it's not something that he's ever really used. And never in a true emergency. He does this once. Then twice. Cycling between chest compressions and breathing into her mouth, all the while their angry-faced ball of fur is sniffing at Lilith's face each that Byron pulls away.

It wasn't working, he didn't think. His phone was in the car or somewhere, Byron's not sure, but rather than keep this fruitless action up, he grabs her phone which was already unlocked to put in a call to the emergency room. He was afraid to carry her all the way down to the car to drive her to Addington Memorial and he was afraid of sitting here to wait for the ambulance to arrive. "Get them here NOW." There's angry emphasis to his words, before he hangs up and lets his security team know to let the paramedics through.

All that he's willing to do is to try and keep Lilith breathing until then.

There's something that's either good or bad happening the more that Byron pays air and compression into Lilith's chest. While he's yelling into the phone, he can possibly tell her lips are less blue, she's less rigid with panic, and she's starting to drift off and give into wooziness to the rhythm and new flooding of oxygen, hand sliding from the man's arm. With her somewhere between unconscious and waking, he essentially breathes for her to force air where she can't manage to pull much, but he can feel little puffs of exhale that come from the woman herself at some point, not the compressions heaving air back out to make room for more.

It might be a little alarming, seeing her pass out like that in the middle of trying to get her breathing stable on her own again, but if he pulls away to talk to her or try to rouse her or listen in her chest, he can tell she's relaxed enough while passed out to be breathing shallow reflex rhythm of her own.

It really doesn't take long for the paramedics to get to the door considering how small the town is and where exactly they're being rushed to go. Money and a solid name definitely motivates in some situations, to benefit. The security is along with them to rush them up and let them in and from there, it gets a little chaotic. Byron is ushered away from Lilith in a hurry while others take her vitals. Another brings in a stretcher, but she's not moved to it just yet, they're checking for obstructions with pull of her mouth open and feel of her throat.

"We need to intubate until the ER can take over, her throat is spasming closed."

"Mister Thorne. Mister Thorne. Can you tell us what happened? Is she allergic to anything?"

"Intubating, hold her head."

Abruptly, Lilith is awake when she feels the tube starting to shove down her throat and she tries to scream but can't, she's confused again and they're too unaware of what reaction she's having. Sedating her beforehand when she was already unconscious was unsafe, but her consciousness has picked a bad time to return. She gags and tries to sit up and starts to kick at the paramedics, but her movement is furiously stilted.

With her phone resting on the floor, Byron continues with the compressions, followed by forcing air through her lungs, then back again. He'll do this for several moments longer until her eyes suddenly shut. Only then is there a brief pause, before he starts up the compressions a couple more times before, yes, he sets his ear to her chest to hear her heartbeat, all the while grabbing for her wrist to feel her pulse against her skin.

She was still breathing. Thank God. "Lil, hon. Stay with me, alright? The paramedics are on their way." He wants to hold her closely in his arms as they wait, but he's too afraid of moving her and accidentally causing an obstruction to her breathing in the process. Instead, he's forced to kneel there beside her with his wrist in one hand while the other strokes at her air. Every so often, he'll check on her breathing and her pulse.

The only time that he'd left her side was to make sure that the door was wide open, keeping a stopper there, so that incoming help had easy access to them. His heart practically stops once he hears the sound of the elevator alerting him that the car was on his floor. A bustle of paramedics and security come pouring in, some of them dropping down to lend further assistance to Lilith all while shoo-ing Byron away. He's reluctant to move, yet knows that he can't do a damn thing for her.

Smog leaps up onto the island to watch the proceedings with wary eyes.

"I came home and just found her laying on the floor like that. Couldn't have been more than... five minutes. That's the last I'd heard from her. On the phone." It's a lie, but he's basing this time on when they'd returned from their Dream journey. "No-- No allergies that I know of." And no, he did not kill her. If that's anyone's thoughts due to what's been going on around town.

"Lilith!" If allowed, he tries to ease himself into a free space to keep close to her. "I'm here, Lil. We're going to the ER now. The doctor's will take care of you, but I'm not leaving your side."

Lilith has someone pushing oxygen with connect to the tubing that roused her with confused panic and gagging, they've been smart enough to lash her to the stretcher with restraints before moving out now, too. Thankfully, she might be too weak or out of it to really form any power lash responses at the moment, otherwise some people and objects might be in a world of trouble with her like this. Starting to drift again, the woman stays awake as Byron follows alongside to keep talking to her, she likes the sound of his voice, it makes her feel better, it's the only thing that doesn't hurt and makes any kind of sense.

In fact, she even reaches for his hand weakly and vaguely while they're loading into the ambulance for the short transport to hospital. It doesn't look like anyone is about to try and tell Byron Thorne to give them space in the ambulance, they let him ride along. Lilith doesn't have the ability or wits or health or breath to do much more than that reach, in truth. Maybe it's a good sign and she's coming right back out of the woods. Her big eyes are filled with confusion, pain, and fear, though, while she focuses in and out on where the man's voice is, pitifully leaking tears in bulk.

When they arrive at the hospital, they do immediate blood panels on her and symptomatic assessments, as well as a physical assessment. With no marks on the outside, again, they're asking about allergies, but eventually one of the old doctors comes around and starts barking for an antibiotic drip NOW, and good god, someone give that woman a pain medicine and lorazepam push. He's pretty clear in yelling at the staff doing their due diligence that this isn't an allergy. Eventually, after some working, the man comes to make explanation to Byron.

"... she has a very advanced case of tetanus. Her blood is poisoned by bacteria and it's attacking the central nervous system. Her muscular systems are seizing up and it was contracting her throat. We didn't find any markings of injury, but it might have been missed, small wounds can do it if someone isn't booster vaccinated properly. It's rare to see dangerous and advanced cases these days, though. Usually people catch it before it comes to this stage." The silver-haired and thin, matter-of-fact doctor pauses here and looks at Byron levelly, "It was good you didn't waste time. I'll let you know how she's responding to antibiotics and get her in a private room soon, Mister Thorne."

Once the doctor has turned, some people stare suddenly at Byron with the name address, but don't comment or gossip, this is a hospital ER, they're busy.

Byron sticks as closely as he's allowed to the ailing Lilith, once they are physically connected, he does his best to not let go. He holds her hand as she's being lifted into the ambulance, carefully stepping aboard as he does so, before settling down in the tight quarters besides her bed. "I don't know what happened, Lilith, but we'll soon find out. Then you'll be back to your mischievous antics." He hasn't had long to process the events within that last Dream. He remembers that they were in school, but this sheer panic after having found Lilith laid out in the kitchen like that, has completely overshadowed any remnant of his teenage mindset. Or has it? The last thing that teenage Byron did was pull Lilith to safety in his own panic. Was that any different from what was going on here now?

Once at the hospital, however, that's where Byron and Lilith part ways as they keep him on the other side of a glass wall. That's the only comfort that he's given, the fact that he can still watch over her. But in his mind, her condition wasn't getting any better. Then he's bombarded with questions, ones that he's no longer certain that he's able to answer. Did she have any allergies that he didn't know about? His mind races back to their childhood spent together, being unable to find a single one.

Between the pacing and the questions, Byron Thorne was at his wits end. Then he's approached by the doctor, closing the distance, himself, by meeting the man half-way. What he's being told now is something that confuses him. "How?" Obviously, is one of the first things that he asks, but there is no answer. The only thing that Byron can do now is ask himself: How on earth did Lilith get tetanus? When did she have the time to... That entire scenario was pure chaos with furniture flying everywhere, the ceiling above them even collapsed. It could've been anything.

---

After much waiting, Lilith was finally moved to one of the private rooms. As to be expected, Byron walks beside her hospital bed as she's rolled through the hallway before being loaded onto an elevator.

They were finally alone. Rather than hover at her bedside, however, Byron watches the recovering Lilith from afar, with his back leaning against the door. He was emotionally and mentally exhausted and yet he watches her with such intensity, almost as if expecting for her health to take a turn for the worse. He would've reached out to one of the others if he had his phone right now, to question them about what had happened. But right now, Byron Thorne wasn't in the most sociable of moods.

Just on the other side of the door, two of the nurses finally feel like they have the freedom to gossip. They held their tongue this whole time, but now that the gold digger was resting in bed, they just had to explode with conversation, being unable to contain themselves.

"He did it, you know. Tried to kill her. With Byron Thorne out of the way, he didn't need her anymore."
"Of course, he did it. But only to avenge his brother's murder."
"I'm sure that he was a part of his brother's murder. Look at that money that he'll probably inherit."
"Should we contact the cops?"

The conversation outside triggers Byron. The callous words spoken would trigger anyone. But this was different. Somewhere in his mind, he saw himself bound to a chair, a glint of a blade of some sort gliding along his shoulders and chest. It starts out as a sting, which grows even more intense as the slice deepens, cutting through cloth and flesh. Then there's another. And another. Each time, Byron's body tenses, but he's quick to utter this new mantra to keep himself from believing, "That's not real. That's not real. That's not real."

Lilith is blissfully ignorant to the talking outside the door that Byron has to put up with. If the situation were reversed, it might be a murder problem given what's happened and the stress levels involved. The woman has been out since they did the drug push on her and before moving her to the room, they did take the tube and everything off. She does have on of those clear oxygen cup masks on while sleeping, though, to ensure she's getting enough oxygen while taking such shallow or occasionally difficult breaths. She wasn't sedated for surgical procedure or anything, though, so honestly, by the time she's settled, it doesn't take her that long in the grand scheme of it all to wake up.

But part of that is probably the magic of copious antibiotics and modern medicine shot into her at work to make her start feeling human again, though the pain and stiffness and occasional twinges of lockup are still a bit of a thing now and again under the covers. On drowsily opening her eyes, her hand automatically lifts to take the mask off of her face once she's aware enough to realize it's there, but once it's off, she measures her breathing and tests a slow in and out, in and out, in and out.

Then suddenly, she's trying to speak once she notices the man's figure in the room, the noise just barely above a whisper, "Hey you."

"That's not real. That's not real."

Byron continues on in this way, all the while, his eyes remained focused on recovering Lilith. This look of disgust and agitation mars his features as his piercing dark eyes stare out with dangerous intensity. "...Not rea--" His words are cut off when she starts to stir. Pushing himself off from against the door, he takes slow, quiet steps on his approach. "Lil..." Once he reaches her bed, rather than pulling up a chair, he joins her on it, sitting at the side, torso half-turned so that he can better face her.

Extending a hand, he brushes a gentle thumb at the side of her lips, whatever intensity was in his features just earlier, that's gone, being replaced with something far warmer. "Thank God, you're okay, Lilith. I just... I found you on the kitchen floor and.." She looked like she was going to die. She was spasming. Not breathing. And Byron was not a healer the way she was, so there was very little that he could do for her.

That same hand drifts to brush some stray strands from out of her face. "I was thinking of calling Roen. See if there's anything that he can do for you."

"If you think it's necessary. I don't understand what happened... I thought I was..." Dying. Lilith felt like she was dying and the panic compounded the physical issue considerably, lashes briefly dropping down to hold over her eyes. She draws a slow, measured breath again so she doesn't have to put the mask back on yet or go into any of the physical panic that could creep up on recollection. Drugs help with that angle, though, and her voice keeps the same drifting and whispering careful quality.

Trailing off with eyes open again, she turns her head more to regard Byron in closer quarters where he's seated on the edge of the bed, the rest of her body dead weight she's afraid to even try and move. She thinks for a long and sober moment, thoughts a bit sluggish but in working order, "I can't imagine what it looked like... are you okay?"

Her lips are the color they're supposed to be again, that pale petal natural hue she just has as one of the physically blessed. It's a far cry from the bluish tinge and the paling of her flesh, though she's admittedly still somewhat wan. As the strands of hair are brushed away from fall about her cheek and temple, her head scoots a bit more on the pillow his way, a tiny bit like she's trying to lure in more caressing touch, eyes watching the dark-eyed man while he answers.

Lilith probably needed her rest and didn't need him asking her a million questions on what happened. Thus, Byron will keep his inquiries to a minimum. She was probably a little loopy to fully remember what went on to begin with. Just seeing her resting in a hospital, the man should be relieved that she was in good hands now, and a part of him was, but that fearful adrenaline was still coursing through his veins after the scare she'd given him.

"I'm fine. Now." He manages to bring a smile to his eyes to match one forming on his lips as he looks down on her. "You contracted tetanus somehow. I'm not sure where, but I got to you in time before your symptoms worsened." Not wanting to cause her further discomfort, he carefully draws his legs up to stretch out along the length of the bed as he leans back to rest his head at the edge of her pillow. Surely, the hospital staff might have stern words if they walked in right now, especially as she was still in recovery.

Leaning in towards her to gentle nuzzle her face with the soft bristles of his cheek, he murmurs, "You had me so worried, but everything's going to be fine now. Once you've regained some of your energy, they may even discharge you. Then we can go home, alright?"

Lilith takes to staring at Byron for a distracted spell of time, eyes a little hazy while she listens and he gets settled on the bed. Then she slowly breathes out a long and careful gust of sigh, fine features still pretty sober. The dark-haired woman even tries to scoot a little, then grinds the back of her teeth and gives up to let herself be dead weight again, not wanting to tempt more spasms and muscle cramping... even though she's been dosed with various things to combat it at the moment. Once he's finished speaking, though, her silence is thick and hangs there for a few moments before speaking.

"... alright."

Letting her face rest with tilted press against Byron's once he's nuzzled in, she eventually speaks compliance, then seems at a loss for what to actually say or ask or do. Again, she's thick quiet before her head moves with tiny nod of followup agreement, one hand still playing absently with the oxygen mask in her hand.

Was Lilith the only person affected by this? If not, Byron can only hope that anyone else contracting tetanus from that Dream had someone to get them to the hospital in time as well. Normally, Byron would reach out to Tobin during times like these, but now he's found himself relying on Isabella and Alexander whenever these Dreams occur. Very often, he's caught up in these alongside the duo. Leaning on one side, a hand idly strokes down one of Lilith's arms. She seems to be well-rested enough, but again, it's possibly the medication making her groggy.

These hospitals rooms are never silent. The usual beeping sounds heard coming from various machinery helps to cut through the quiet. Brushing his chin against her as he leans further forward, he gives her a soft kiss to the lips, before his head turns to take notice of her playing with that oxygen mask. "Let me know if you want me to put that on you." He does't want to have to go through the panic he felt when she struggled to breathe.

"And let me know if you want me to talk to the nurses so that I can sign your release forms." While she might not be starving so much, depending on how her meds are affecting her, despite the prior stress and the whole Dream thing, he's been growing a little peckish. But this was nice and comforting. Lilith was safe. There's a part of him that wants to nullify this whole room, but who knows how long they'll stay for.

After brushing on return kiss, Lilith is dead silent, giving a little nod of her head for his assisting with the mask-- she doesn't trust her eyes to be closed without it on right now, just in case. Normally, she would throw it, but this is an entirely different situation than a direct injury with a known source. Her eyes roam the room while Byron affixes the oxygen flow in place over her nose and mouth, head lifting up some to help before falling back again. With her brows slightly knit, she stops wandering her gaze and stares at the ceiling with thick distraction while in against the man on the bed.

Her eyes are occasionally weighed down into slow blinks and at some point, they don't open again for a while when the lashes fall.