Page 16 of Punishing Penelope

How can I?

We work frantically, taking turns. Silent. The air filled with horror. All I hear are the sobs from Penelope and Lexi.

Then finally, sirens. From afar. Getting closer. Cops. An ambulance right behind. Blue and red lights.

People in uniforms swarm the lawn, taking over saving Savannah’s life. I think we breathe a collective sigh of relief. It feels oddly safe seeing them, as if it’s all going to be all right now.

I crawl over to Penelope. “She’ll be okay,” I say moronically, even though I know she won’t.

But what can I say?

What do you say to someone who’s experiencing the greatest loss of their life?

I pull her to me and hug her tight, thinking about how happy and carefree we were a few hours ago. Think about how nothing will be the same. There will be a before and after, and I don’t know if I want to know the after.

“One of you can come in the ambulance,” a paramedic says.

The cops are talking to us, and the lights are on in the house again after having been turned off a while ago.

Savannah is in the ambulance, still getting chest compressions. The backdoors close.

“This is her sister.” Helping her up, I follow her to the passenger seat. Then they’re off, with wailing sirens and flashing lights, and disappear down the street.

Liam, Sandra, Lexi, and I hop into one of the cars and speed after them. Fuck it if the cops allow us. The last thing I see is the huge pool of blood.

Too much.

Way too much.

In the ER, we find Penelope sitting on a couch with a nurse by her side. I take her in my arms, but she’s stiff. She lets me pull her to me but doesn’t respond.

“She’ll be all right, Pen. They know what they’re doing.”

“She… she didn't move… didn’t move.” Her voice is broken, fragmented.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilder hurry in through the sliding doors, their faces frozen, eyes scanning the room. When they see us, they dart to where we sit.

The nurse gets up and talks to them. Mrs. Wilder wails wordlessly and tries to charge toward the room where they’re working on her daughter, but the nurse and Mr. Wilder hold her back. She screams again, and it’s terrifying, like something out of a movie, but it’s real.

This is real.

They’re led away, a broken family.

My eyes follow the hunched-over Penelope until she’s out of sight.

At first, we sit numb, quiet. What’s there to say?

Sandra breaks the silence. “She’ll be all right, right?”

“No, she won’t,” I say. “She’s dead, Sandra.”

A sob rises in her throat.

“We shouldn’t have gone there,” she whimpers. “I knew something was off. Why didn’t anyone say something?”

The door opens, and Cole appears. His face is grim, pale, almost gray, despite the tan. His hands are bloody. One look at Sandra and he’s by her side.

“Cops’ll wanna talk to all of you. Think they’re coming here.”