"Roxy?" Ronnie's voice was barely audible, like a breeze on a summer's day that rippled through the air; you could almost feel it on your warm skin, but it was gone before contact could be made.
"Ronnie? It's okay, it's okay, it's gonna be okay. Phil! Aunty Peg! Phil! Somebody! Call an ambulance!" Roxy screamed, her fingers tightly clasped around Ronnie's wrist. Tears poured down her cheeks as she wept, her body rigid and set even as she felt the steady stream of blood pulse from her sister's arms.
"What's all the shoutin' for?" Phil asked, coming out of his room bleary eyed and confused. "Roxy – what're you doing-"
"For fuck's sake, Phil – just call the fucking ambulance!" Roxy growled, turning her head to shout at her cousin. As she did so, her right hand slipped from Ronnie's left wrist, blood dully spurted from it. "Oh god," Roxy whimpered, pressing down even harder on Ronnie's arms.
"What's she done?" Phil asked, his eyes wide with shock. "What's she done to herself?"
"Just call the fucking ambulance!" Roxy hollered, prompting Phil to back away from the bathroom and hurry down the stairs to the phone in the hallway.
"No, no," Ronnie moaned, her voice weak, the energy seeping from her with each drop of blood.
"Ron, don't try and talk, okay. Phil's calling the ambulance and everything's going to be okay, okay?" Roxy tried to reassure her, her voice frantic with terror.
"'Ere, what's going on? It's five in the morning, you'll wake Ben- Ronnie?"
"Aunty Peg, not now, can you just-"
"What's happened? Who did this? Who did this to her?" Peggy demanded, standing in the doorway of the bathroom, one hand clutching her throat, the other holding tightly onto the doorframe; almost as though everything would slip away if she didn't hold on to them.
Roxy looked at her aunt, the tears welling in her eyes once again. She shook her head. "Nobody. Nobody did this to her."
"What?" Peggy asked, a mask of horror edging onto her face. "What does that mean?"
Roxy's bottom lip trembled as another cry fell from her lips. "She did it herself."
"Roxy?" Ronnie mumbled, too weak now to even turn her head.
"Ronnie, just hold on, okay? The ambulance is coming and we're gonna get you sorted out and well-"
"No."
"What, Ron? I can't, I can't hear you-"
"Let me go. Please, let go."