Chapter 3 - THE MIRACLE AT THE ALTAR
Panic erupted inside St. Jude’s Chapel.
"Ellie, step back!" Julian shouted, vaulting over the front pew as mourners stood up in total confusion, whispering frantically to one another.
"He moved! I saw his hand!" Clara screamed, her motherly instinct breaking through her shock as she reached into the casket, grabbing Ellie and pulling her back against her chest.
Before Julian could lay a hand on his brother’s shoulder, a raspy, shuddering gasp echoed from inside the mahogany box.
HAHHH!
It was a sharp, terrifying sound—the sound of a drowning man breaking through surface ice. Nathan’s back arched off the white satin cushioning. His eyelids fluttered open, bloodshot and wide with pure terror, his chest violently rising and falling against the tight fabric of his suit.
"CALL AN AMBULANCE! NOW!" Julian screamed toward the funeral director, who stood near the doors, completely paralyzed, holding his clipboard.
The funeral home dissolved into absolute chaos. Women screamed, chairs were knocked over as relatives surged forward, and the priest fell back against the altar, crossing himself in sheer bewilderment.
Nathan’s eyes rolled frantically around the vaulted ceiling of the chapel, unseeing, unfocused. His hands clawed at the edges of his casket, his chest heaving as his body fought to draw oxygen into lungs that had been declared lifeless thirty-six hours prior.
"Nathan! Nathan, look at me!" Clara sobbed, kneeling beside the casket, taking his trembling hand into hers. "You're okay! Mommy's here, Ellie's here! Stay with us!"
Nathan turned his head toward her voice. His dry, cracked lips moved, trying desperately to form words through the agonizing fog of hyperventilation.
"Cla... ra..." he rasped, his voice barely a hollow whisper. "...they... they put me under..."
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Before he could finish the sentence, his eyes rolled back, and he went limp once more—but this time, a steady, faint pulse throbbed distinctly against Clara’s fingers on his wrist.
Within seven minutes, the blaring sirens of Chicago Paramedic Unit 14 cut through the rainy afternoon. What had started as a solemn funeral turned into a desperate, high-speed race to save a man everyone had already given up on.
