The sight that greets them is wrong.
Horribly—viscerally—wrong. Habeel is not swimming.
He is not bathing or playing one of his ridiculous jokes.
He is not playing one of his ridiculous jokes. He is—On the ground. Flat on his back, half-hidden by the grass, dressed in the clean clothes he must've pulled on minutes ago. His legs kick weakly, aimlessly, like a child drowning not in water, but in air. His boots scuff the dirt with desperate, frantic scrapes. His hands claw at the earth, fingers digging so hard they leave grooves. His neck is flushed—dark red, swelling, tightening as though invisible hands are squeezing the life out of him. Every breath that leaves him is a broken, choking hitch.
A sound that isn't quite a breath and isn't quite silence.
A sound that should never come out of a living man. Ababeel's world collapses into a single point of terror. "HABEEL!!"The scream rips out of her throat raw, scraping her lungs. She throws herself to her knees so hard the impact vibrates up her bones, but she doesn't feel it. Not compared to the sight in front of her. Habeel's eyes are wide—wild—glassy with pure suffocation. His pupils flick aimlessly like he's searching for her, but cannot stay. He tries to inhale—Nothing. His throat spasms, convulses.
His lips tremble against the air that refuses to meet him. "No no—HEY—no-HEY-HEY—stay with me!"
Her voice bends, cracks, breaks. She grabs his face in both hands, tapping his cheeks—first gently, then harder, then desperately.
"Look at me! LOOK at me, dammit!" His palms tremble uncontrollably.
His whole body shakes as though the ground beneath him is quaking, as though the earth itself is rejecting him. Janneh collapses beside him, tiny hands patting his cheeks with frantic, trembling taps. "Beelel—Ha—Habeel—" she babbles, her voice high, thin, terrified. He tries to speak—
But only a strangled croak slips out, a broken noise stuck between a gasp and a plea. Ababeel leans closer, her breath shaking, her hands shaking, every part of her shaking. "What is happening—what is happening—WHAT IS HAPPENING—just tell me WHAT TO DO!" She grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him—not out of anger, but out of panic so sharp it feels like her ribs are cracking. "HOW DO I HELP YOU, YOU STUPID, STUBBORN—!"Habeel's mouth works—
choking—gasping—fighting for a sliver of air—
Then a whisper slips out, soft as a dying ember:"...ep… i…"Her heart stops. The collapsed pharmacy.
The mould-heavy air.
The dust-covered shelves.
His casual shrug.
And the handful of EpiPens he shoved into his bag "just in case." Her mind snaps into place like a trigger pulled. "Epi. EPI. EPI—YES—okay—OKAY—stay with me!" She launches to her feet, almost slipping on the grass, and sprints toward the bags thrown near the tree. The world blurs around her—colours streak, sounds distort, time sharpens into a single, frantic instinct. "WHERE—WHERE—WHERE—!"She tears through the bags, throwing clothes and cans and wires in all directions, her hands trembling so violently she can barely grip anything. Her breath breaks into short, sharp gasps. Then—
There. A single EpiPen. She seizes it like a miracle and bolts back to him. Habeel is barely conscious now.
His breaths are thin—faint—ghostlike.
His eyelids flutter.
The whites of his eyes show. "NO—NO YOU DON'T—DON'T YOU DARE—DON'T YOU DARE GO ANYWHERE!" She tears the cap off with her teeth, drops to her knees, and drives the injector into his thigh with all the force she has left. CLICK.
A hiss follows—sharp, urgent, a sound that fills the silence with raw hope for a heartbeat—
nothing. Then—His body jerks.
A violent, full-body jolt.
Like someone punched air straight back into his lungs. A ragged inhale rips from him—ugly, uneven, desperate.
Then another.
And another.
Each breath is a victory carved out of death's shadow. Colour returns slowly, painfully, like dawn creeping back after a night too long. His chest rises unevenly—
But it rises. Ababeel's breath shatters.
A sob escapes before she can suppress it, before she can swallow the fear still strangling her. Janneh crawls onto his shoulder, pressing her tiny fingers into his shirt as though anchoring him to the world.
"Habeel… Habeel…"His eyes close—
Not the suffocating stillness from before—
but a heavy, exhausted surrender as unconsciousness takes him.Ababeel catches his face again, her palms trembling against his skin.
"Hey—HEY—no—wake up—stay awake—look at me—HEY—"But his lashes sink. He is breathing.
Thank God, he is breathing.
But he has gone into the heart. Ababeel bows her head, her forehead pressing into his chest, her breath trembling against him as she tries to steady herself, suffocate the tremor still rippling through her limbs. Her voice breaks into a whisper. "Don't do that again…"
A hiccup of fear interrupts her words.
"Don't do that again, you absolute—absolute—piece of—stupid—brave—INFURIATING man…"Janneh curls against his side, gripping his sleeve like it's the last thread holding her world together. Behind them, the pond ripples under the quiet breeze—
calm, oblivious, serene. But their little world—
Ababeel's world—
is trembling. Because for one devastating, breathless moment…Habeel just slipped awayAnd she almost lost him.