"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8" Umi shouted. She stood at the front of the trope as they practiced on the roof for their upcoming show. It was quite close so Umi was pushing them extra hard. Even Eli was struggling to maintain the strong pace that Umi enforced. She looked around as she continued the dance. Everyone was red and sweating heavily despite the cool blow of wind.
She looked to her right as she continued to move, she saw her girlfriend move, slightly out of time, too fast, but Rin always had been fast moving. Momentarily distracted, she stepped out of time, a move that was slightly out of place caught the eyes of Umi instantly and she pounced on it. "STOP" she barked. Everyone clattered to the floor, surprised at the instant stop.
Eli picked herself up and she felt Umi bore holes into her as she walked over towards her, the others just lay on the floor, enjoying the break from the relentless work. "what happened? Why did you step out of time?" Umi asked, clearly agitated. "Because I'm shattered, like everyone else, we've been going nonstop at this for hours!" Eli shot back. "The show is in just over a week, we need to work now harder than before" Umi responded blankly.
Eli looked down, she didn't mean to seem so mad at Umi, she was just tired. Everyone around her started to get up slowly, ready to continue their practise. "Rin-chan?" Eli heard hanayo say. She turned and saw rin lying face down on the floor, Maki and hanayo kneeling next to her, looks of concern on their face. Eli Walks over to see what's wrong with Rin and crouches down with Maki and Hanayo.
"Rin?" She asked, taking charge of the situation, trying to mask any concern in her voice. "Rin?" She repeated, reaching for the girl to roll her onto her back. She pulled the girl over and fell back screaming in horror, the rest of μ's all move back, shocked faces all around, cries of horror fill the air. Maki and Hanayo fall silently backwards, not making a sound. Eli had pulled Rin out of a puddle of her own blood, that leaked out of her nose and mouth.
It still rolled out and down her ashen face onto her clothes. Eli was the fastest to recover from the horror of what was happening and moved through Hanayo and Maki to next to Rins chest. She reached for Rins neck checking how her pulse was. She pressed her fingers into the side of her neck. She then moved her fingers searching for a heart beat. After 30 seconds she looked at the girls face, it was stained with blood, but the skin she could see was pale.
Much to everyones surprise, she placed her hand one atop the other planted them squarely on Rins chest and started to press heavily, in a continuous beat. She counted off to herself as she continued to pump her chest. The blood flow from Rins mouth and nose quickened as Eli pumped the heart, flowing onto Elis hands. She didn't register and just kept going, unthinking.
She kept at it for over 10 minutes, the members of μ's all looking quietly at Eli, already having give up hope. It was Nozomi, Elis best friend who managed to recover her senses, and move to Elis side. "Eli" she said gently, making barely a whisper. "Eli" she said again, forcing herself to be a bit louder, trying to gain her attention. Eli just kept going.
Nozomi, stopped speaking, and just placed her arms around Eli in a hug, pulling Eli away, tears rolling down her cheeks. Eli, realising what was happening struggled, and resisted Nozomis pull. "NO" Eli shouted, startling everyone. "NO, LET ME GO, I CAN SAVE HER." She cried, breaking free of Nozomi, and resumed her beat, harder than before. "I'm so close, just a bit more". Others came, Hanayo and Maki, the joined Nozomi and all pulled Eli off of Rin.
Eli couldn't pull free this time, and tears flowed from her eyes. Everyone stared at the lifeless corpse of the girl before them, as Elis agonised cries filled the otherwise silenced roof. Though, that too stopped, as Eli had no more tears left to cry, she just stared blankly into her hands, which were stained red, from Rins blood.
They told her that Rins family had a history of heart conditions and that Rins heart was damaged from birth but no one ever noticed. They told her that in doing such strenuous activity caused her heart to rupture, killing her instantly. They told her that there was nothing she could have done. But Eli heard none of it. All she knew was Rin was dead, and her heart was broken.