SOTM – My New Years Eve Almost Ended In Tragedy! – Story Of The Day!

I nodded, but it wasn’t even a full nod. The air felt thin. My lips tingled. My hands started to shake.

“Okay. We’re going. Right now.”

She grabbed her keys, shoved my coat into my hands, and guided me to the SUV like she’d done it a hundred times. Outside, the cold hit my face, but it didn’t help. It only made the tightness in my chest feel heavier.

She drove like the road belonged to her. Snow swirled in the headlights. Fireworks popped in the distance, people celebrating while my body quietly tried to betray me.

The hospital doors opened and everything moved fast. Bright lights. Questions. A nurse’s calm voice. The sting of a needle. Epinephrine. Oxygen. IV fluids. Monitors beeping a rhythm I couldn’t control.

I remember Nora standing beside the bed, one hand on the rail, the other gripping her phone like she could will it to fix everything. Her face was composed, but her eyes were too wide. She wasn’t just scared. She was furious at how quickly a normal night had become a crisis.

Hours passed in fragments. The swelling slowly eased. My breathing steadied. The burning faded into a sore, exhausted ache.

By the time a doctor said the words “You’re stable,” the world had regained its shape.

That’s when Nora glanced at the clock.

It was almost 11 p.m.

Her expression shifted again—this time into something sharp and sick.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

“What?” I croaked, my throat still raw.

“Buster,” she said. “I let him out earlier.”

I blinked, trying to catch up.

“I didn’t check the gate,” she continued, voice shaking now. “And in the rush… I didn’t lock the back door. I didn’t call him in. I didn’t—”

She stopped, like the rest of the sentence couldn’t fit in her mouth.

Outside, the snow was falling harder. The temperature had dropped below freezing. Buster was old for a golden retriever. His joints were stiff in the mornings. He loved the cold for about five minutes, then he’d start doing that little shiver that made you want to scoop him up like a puppy again.

He wasn’t built to be forgotten in the dark.

“Nora,” I said, forcing my voice to stay steady, “go. I’m fine. I’m here. I’m being watched. Go get him.”

She hesitated for half a second, torn between staying beside my bed and running back to the one thing we’d accidentally left vulnerable.

Then she kissed my forehead, hard and fast, and left.