When Rachel left I decided to continue my drawing. I still hadn’t put detail and shading into the trees and their rustling leaves. When I was finished, I hung it proudly on my bedroom wall. What to do next? I went to my whitenight table covered in stickers, and pulled out a book. I hopped onto my uncomfortable bed and continued where I left off on page fifty.

I read for about an hour or so, and then brought my desk chair to the window. The sun was completely covered by clouds, and it casted light shadows all over the street. I watched the cars go by for quite a while. In the end I had counted fourteen black cars, three red cars, two green cars, twenty gray cars, one yellow car, one truck, four motorcycles, and five bicycles. I wish I could go outside and drive around, going wherever I want.

Finally, twelve ‘o’ clock came. Rachel was always there right on time, or early. I walked to the door and peered out the window. Some people I knew waved and gave fake smiles, and then hurried back to what they were doing, probably either feeling pity, or thinking freak. There was no sign of Rachel. I figured there must have been heavy traffic. But when I looked out the window, only eight cars came by. I walked to the door and looked carefully outside. Still no sign of Rachel. It was ten past twelve, and I was getting anxious. Where could she be? Maybe there was a problem at home? Or something came up?

I decided there was no point in worrying, so I went back to my book. What felt like five minutes later, it was one thirty. Where was Rachel? I stood by the door for a few more minutes, and then went to my dresser and took out a puzzle. I shook out all the pieces and began to put them together. When I was about finished the edge pieces, there was a knock on the door. I jumped up, so excited to see Rachel, but when I saw who was at the door, my heart sank. She was wearing a special suit to keep out germs, but she wasn’t Rachel. She was a petite woman, maybe about thirty years old. Her cheeks were flushed red and she was a bit plump. She had bright green eyes and long, flowy blond hair.

The short woman was holding a tray of food wrapped in clear plastic. She knocked, and when she saw me opened the door. Now I could clearly see what was on the tray. A bowl of pasta and tomato sauce, a cup of water, and an apple. A fork, knife and napkin were placed on the side.

“Hi.” the woman said quickly, and put the tray on my neat desk, and was about to head to the door when suddenly I asked:

“Who are you?”

She hesitated, as if thinking whether to talk to a kid who’s been trapped in a room all their life, and after what seemed like a long debate in her head, she responded with “My name’s Lizzy.” Lizzy continued her way to the door, when I continued questioning her.

“Do you know where Rachel is?”

“Rachel? Oh, she’s dead. I thought you would have heard by now.” Lizzy said it like someone would say “I had eggs for breakfast.” with no enthusiasm, no sadness, nothing. Just Rachel’s dead.

I couldn’t believe my ears. Rachel was the only person in the entire world who cared about me. She was the only one who didn’t only care about finding out what was wrong with me. She was the only one who understood that I was also human. Now she was dead. My head was spinning so much I thought it might explode.

“Wh-” I stammered and then everything went black.

I woke up in a hospital room. Well, my whole life I’d lived in a hospital room. But this was an emergency room. I was lying down on a bed, with a perfect view of the door. There was no one but me in the room, so I carefully watched the door to see if anyone was coming in. A few minutes passed by, so I decided to get up and look out into the hallway.

I’d been out of my room a lot, for tests, but I was never put in this part of the hospital. Peering out of the room, I saw doctors and nurses hustling around, running to different rooms with clipboards.

I had never seen this part of the hospital, so this was exciting. I tried to keep myself from jumping around and saying hooray! The excitement quickly ended when I saw someone I recognised in the hallway. Where do I know her from? I asked myself. What had happened before this? And then it hit me. Rachel was dead from who knows what. I had fainted after hearing the news. Rachel had been the only human in the world who had actually cared about me. She hadn’t even gotten paid to go see me. It had been volunteering. The only reason the doctors let me live in the hospital was because they wanted to figure out what was wrong with me.

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It didn’t even come gradually. I started crying hysterically, not even noticing the man who walked in.

“You’re awake.” he noticed. His voice was deep and commanding, butI could tell he had a sense of humour.

I looked up at him. He was all blurry so I wiped my eyes. He was a short man, not much taller than me, and chubby. He had a head full of floppy dark hair, and big curious brown eyes.

He looked uncomfortable as I looked him up and down, and finally I nodded.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“My name is Dr. Dan. I’m assuming you’re Mariel.” he responded.

“Why am I here?” I still had a ball in my throat, and felt like crying again, but I held it in. Dr. Dan didn’t seem to want to see me cry.

“You fainted, and I was the only doctor off duty, so I brought you here.” Dr. Dan explained.

“How long was I out?” I was afraid of what he’d tell me next.

“Just about three and a half hours.”

I sighed in relief. I had thought that maybe I’d been out for a day or two.

Dr. Dan nodded, like he could read my mind, and then continued. “What made you faint?” his eyes said otherwise than a question. He knew why, but he just wanted to see if I would lie.

“Rachel died.” I said quietly, but I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I sobbed into my arms. Tears stung my cheeks. I dug my fingernails into my left arm, but I didn’t stop crying. When I looked up, Dr. Dan hadn’t moved a muscle. He just looked around as if waiting for me to stop crying over a matter like that. I thought that he had a heart, but it turned out like he was just like everyone else. A black hole in his chest.

He saw me looking up at him, and motioned for me to sit on the bed. I followed his orders. What else was I to do? If I ran out I would surely die because of my sickness, and if I just didn’t listen to him, he’d probably call in someone else to help him.

When my head hit the pillow, he immediately did an ordinary checkup on me, and then a brain scan, and some other stuff I wasn’t sure what he was checking.

When I thought he was finished, he told me to wait there and then went out into the hall. He came back a few minutes later with a woman. She was taller than most women, with her bright blond hair tied in a bun so tight it looked like her hair would be ripped out of her head. She had brown glasses that rested on the tip of her nose, she had very dark thin lips, that matched her darkly tanned skin. She looked like a mean librarian.

Dr. Dan and the librarian woman huddled in a corner of the room and whispered. A couple of glances were aimed at me, and a few points, and I heard my name a few times.

After what seemed like forever, they turned around towards me. First, they shared a strange look that I couldn’t define, they walked towards me cautiously, like I was some kind of germ they were going to investigate.

“Hello.” said the woman. She had an accent, maybe from Britain? I wasn’t sure. “My name is Dr. Cornelia.”

“Hey.” I said, trying to not show my anxiousness. “Why am I here? I know I fainted, but, like, why is this such a big deal?”

“Well, we have some not so great news. Your virus, the one we’re still investigating, is spreading faster than we thought it would at this age. We predicted it would eventually, but not this fast, and not this soon.” she said.

The blood drained from my face, and I started to shake. My palms began sweating rapidly. Maybe they were trying to get rid of my virus. I could feel my eyes started to water. It felt like someone was ripping the hair from my head.

“How long do I have left?” I croaked.

“We aren’t sure yet, maybe about two weeks.”

I curled up into a ball on the bed, shivering, the only thing to warm me my own tears. I tucked my head in between my legs, with my arms locked together around my forehead. I sobbed loudly. I felt like I was choking on my own snot. Maybe I would die now due to dry eyes? Was that even a thing? I had no idea.

I’d never been so scared in my life. Now just, POOF! I’m gone! Just like that. I couldn’t believe it, I wouldn’t believe it.

My vision started to blur, maybe from my tears? But it felt different, like my mind was blurring too.

I could hear Dr. Cornelia’s casual voice repeating over and over saying, maybe two weeks. The line haunted me. I tried to take deep breaths, but it was hard while choking on your own tears and snot, and a ball in your throat.

I tried to keep my eyes open, but my brain disobeyed. As I slowly lost consciousness, my last thought was, I’ll be dead in two weeks.

And then everything went black.