"There is no antidote... no nothing." A doctor inside a hospital said, comforting the guardians of the child.
"No! How can there not be anything?! I refuse to believe it... Tell me, how much, how much does it cost!" A desperate figure answered desperately the doctor.
He seemed anxious, on the verge of tears, till he heard... "1 million... experimental drug..." then he went limp.
Tears overcame his face, letting despair consume him, as he went to visit his son...
...
Inside a luxurious hospital room, with all kinds of 'strange' devices he stood in front of a 13 or 14 year old child stood... his child.
"Dad..." The kid spoke weakly, as silence befell the room. "I know... No need to worry about it anymore. All they are chasing is money... You've done enough. Now it is my fight, after all, my death isn't certain, there have been people to survive this on their own!" The kid said still with a weakness in his voice, but now much less visible, as he tried to reassure his father. But he knew, he knew it was just a dream.
His father eye's tearing up, "I- I can't abandon you... It's just 1 million, isn't it? Easy to get, a small loan for now, and I will repay it gradually." He said, even though he knew, they wouldn't give him more... he already owned huge amounts to the bank for various 'other' treatments, that did nothing but eat away his money like drinking water.
Loan sharks was an even worse idea.
Selling some of his organs was impossible as well... he didn't have anything else to sell...
His expenditures the past year were easily more than the million they required now, but alas...
After talking for a while with his son, and seeing how he was trying to cheer him up, he decided... to sell his own heart for money, and whatever else he had.
He was left with no other options.
He discussed it with his wife, and although she tried to convince him to stop... he didn't.
1 week later, 1.2 million made their way into this family's hands.
The now widow, hated her son... Instead of respecting her husband's wishes, she left with the money, leaving her past behind, as well as her son.
She already had grown tired of her husband's reckless actions, and that was the tip of the iceberg. At the end, she couldn't help but feel how stupid her husband must have been, doing all of that for their son, going so far to give his life for it... He wasn't worth it. And so he wouldn't get it.
"Goodbye."
...
The son with no money to sustain his living, or even his staying in the hospital, was now 'gently' kicked out, homeless and weak.
The state couldn't supervise everything, and so he basically became non-existent... and with only one distant relative he had few options.
He remembered him, a kind old man... He couldn't bear bringing his troubles to him. He ran away...
He sucked it up, and although very weak, he learned how to survive. He pick pocketed others, despite the dangers of getting caught, and his illness. He build connections. He found a place to live for some time.
His illness was strong, but he didn't let it get the better of him. He fought, he fought and won!
...
3 years after being abandoned, he was still alive, he had surpassed the illness which was almost bound to kill him.
His father had died needlessly... he cried.
"No, he didn't, he died following his own beliefs... getting betrayed at the end." A kind person can never survive in this world.
The way he saw the world had changed.
Cold, heartless, ruthless... lonely.
"Hey... How's the boss going?" A cheery figure spoke to him.
"I told you not to call me a 'boss'..." He answered with coldness in his eyes, something which the last 3 years of torture beat into him.
"Ooh, as cold as ever I see... sometimes I wonder if I will catch a cold from watching you..." The other figure mused loudly. "So, Koru... any plans for tonight?" He asked for a change of topic.
With the same cold eyes as ever he answered "Yes, I'm planning to roam a bit around the bars, hoping for some easy prey... if I find any drunkards all the better."
"Koru bro, you're no fun at all... How do you expect to find anyone to love you like that. Hookers are no fun at all, right? You have made so much, you could as well as stop right now and live a normal and peaceful life..." He cheerfully mentioned.
The temperature seemingly dropping in the room, Koru said "Don't know, or care...", and with that he left.
His luck was bad this time, since it started raining soon after he left. He didn't use to see the weather reports, and this time he ended up drawing the short end of the stick.
"Ooh, I can even hear the rambling of the thunders... best I find a place to wait out the rain.", But even as he said that, he continued walking normally in the midst of the rain, not trying to hide himself from the rain.
As he walked and the rain got worse and worse, he took a coin and said "Tails." As he flipped the coin in the air, the rumblings continued, and suddenly the whole sky and his surroundings brightened to the point of blindness.
*Bang!*
A lightning hit the coin he flipped, propelling it with a huge force down, millimeters away from his hands.
His eyes were fine, he had reflexively closed them.
"Heads I see..." He said, as he looked at himself and the ground.
He had been struck a bit by the lighting, but since the place where the lighting hit was the coin, which now half melted and could hardly resemble a coin now... he was mostly fine.
He had been blasted away, he didn't have any burns, or bones broken, but if it wasn't raining his clothes would have caught on fire... he wasn't wearing any easily flammable clothes either, else it would have been much worse.
The only problem was the constant ringing.. "Sigh... Don't, please just don't tell me I lost my hearing..."
Saying that, he woke up and started running for cover.
He went somewhere to hide from rain. Because the ringing was still there, and he realised he couldn't quite hear the rain, he panicked.
He knew a doctor's house near this place, someone who had taken care of him in the past... but in this huge city, he would still need a taxi if he wanted to get there fast.
He called a taxi to come where he was, repeating himself once, because he didn't know if they heard him, and closed it.
From the whole ordeal, he took almost 20 minutes to reach him.
After paying the taxi driver, and getting however many change the driver gave, he headed towards that doctor.
He didn't have many hopes of him remembering him, or recognising a 'ghost' as no one expected he would survive, but he was a good person, that knew many things... he didn't quite know his specialization, or cared. As long as he could solve the problem...
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
...
Koru rang the bell and waited... and waited, till a kid's voice sounded "Who are you, and what do you want?" The voice sounded perfectly fine, but Koru couldn't hear it, so he just spoke, wishing something would happen... "I'm Koru... remember me? I can't hear you well... I had a small accident, and I... well..." he tried to continue speaking, but at the end he didn't need to. The door opened at the moment he mentioned his name.
He had some changes during the last 3 years, but his face remained mostly the same, albeit more mature.
As soon as the door opened, he saw a kid with tears on his eyes, a kid whom visited him a lot of times during his stay in the hospital, Aron, and despite being years younger than him, he stayed and had even played a bit with him... It made his stay in the hospital less boring and lonely. He never imagined he would meet him here. It was the doctor's son... he never bothered asking for his parent's name, or seen his father together with him, so he never knew.
'If only Aron's father was the one who took care of me in that hospital... but even so, him mentioning an expensive 'experimental' drug sooner would have been one thing, but even if he informed us of it, I was in a very bad situation then, and suppose I took any drugs, of any kind, the most probable thing would be to find me in a graveyard...' The problem wasn't with the doctors, the problem was with money, and he knew it was it who made the world go round.
Koru shaked his head, banishing those thoughts. He smiled and hugged the kid, whom he remembered so small, yet now grew up.
At the same time, his parents woke up, and saw their kid being held by a stranger. They screamed, but Koru couldn't hear it... he did realize they were there though, and saw their expressions.
He was a tad bit embarrassed, but still said with a straight face "Acquaintances..." eliciting a laugh from Aron, as the father pieced the pieces of the puzzle together. At the end the 'Doctor' stood with the mouth agape. He seemed like he remembered him from the past. He one day moved to another hospital, and didn't see Koru again.
He said something Koru couldn't hear, but he could more or less read his lips.
"Yes, yes I'm still alive and well, I have however a small problem... I didn't know to whom else I could go, so I went here, hehe." Koru said with a laugh.
After some awkward silence, and a few hushed talks between the couple, the man beckoned him to follow, after giving him a towel to wipe himself. He found a few clothes to Koru's size, pointed to the bathroom, and told him to go there and change to them. Koru couldn't hear him of course, but he could infer what he wanted from his actions, and so the man got an even greater position in his heart.
After changing clothes, Koru followed him to a room.
As soon as the man went to speak, Koru suddenly interjected "The problem I have is a hearing one... a lighting strike hit close to my face, and I can't seem to be able to hear much..."
The man frowned. He stood up, and left the room for a while, before returning with a pen and a notepad.
It shouldn't have been his expertise, but he could still help him, and point him to the right direction. Of course, he was amazed by how calm he was for a kid who just lost his hearing, but ignored it.
He wrote him a lot of stuff, and checked both of Koru's ears.
Telling him that the damage shouldn't be too extensive, and that with a proper surgery it could be solved.
Of course that required money. Not that Koru didn't have, but it reminded him of the cruelty in this world.
A person could might as well die from an ordinary severe disease without medication... some people would know of his situation, but still no one would go out of his place to give him medicines for free, even more so if those medicines were expensive...
He stayed and talked with the family for a bit, but at the end, he couldn't stay the whole night. It was already very late, and he was being a burden to them... The kid looked at him, reluctant to see him leaving.
Seeing this, even he thought it wasn't a very nice separation, more so because they hadn't met for years, so Koru said with a merry smile "I won't just disappear, and next time I visit, I I'll make sure to bring something for you, hehe..." and with that he left.
...
As months passed, he took the surgery, and could hear once again.
He also started visiting his lost and found friend every once and a while, bringing various gifts with him. They seemed like they didn't know of the situation with his family, and he reaffirmed it when they once asked if they could visit him one day, and maybe say a hi to his parents.
Koru laughed and said 'someday yea', hiding it, he continued by saying they currently were on a long vocation, and they had left money for him... He made them look irresponsible, but still, he wanted only a few people to know of his situation...
Koru could be said to have turned over a new leaf, and even stopped stealing. He had enough money to last him for quite a while even without needing to 'work'.
The following year was the happiest moments Koru ever felt, for it is when you truly loose something, you realize it's absence.
He didn't cut off all of his connections he had built, but he indeed stated he would stop stealing.
As years passed, he studied long and hard to get into a university, something that fell behind when he fell down with that debilitating sickness.
He was almost a prodigy, and with 4 years of hard study and tutoring, he managed to get in a university.
At that place, he met a girl, and despite him thinking he would never fall in love with anyone... he did.
That girl, Liana already had a boyfriend, but their relationship ship seemed forced. She too, was too kind for her own good, and didn't want to end it.
At the end, he got together with Liana, and finished college albeit 3 years after she did.
They spent their time hapily, and 2 years later they married. Afterwards Koru even got a job, realizing he couldn't support his family with what he currently had.
His life could be compared to heaven and hell with his past.
...
At the end... the calm might had stayed for a bit too long... and decided to leave...
On day like any other one, the doctor's family, and Koru with his wife Liana were in a café, laughing, and chatting. Time passed like running water. Neither slow, nor fast, but still enjoyably... Till Koru went home.
"Look, we have a letter." Koru's wife noted sweetly. She took the letter, and saw it was for him. She knew what his letters usually meant .... It was no secret from Liana, what he had done to survive in his earlier years, nor his hardships, and to this day, thieves and many others have been asking him back, realizing the loss of a gem. This time however, it was different.
Koru's face paled at the moment he saw it. It was from his mother... In a heat of anger he almost tore it up without even reading it, but he took a few deep breaths and calmed down.
Slowly opening the letter, as if there was a curse, something waiting to eat him the moment he opened it.
Quickly skimming through the contents, from pale face, he went to angry, to silent...
When his wife asked him what was on the letter, he responded by throwing it to her, and letting her read.
The contents surprised her. His mother wanted to come and visit them?!? She was quite thick skinned to propose this... She even stated she was sorry, and that she was trying to apologize for all the mistakes she did all those years ago, even give what money remained from his father sacrifice back to him...
Well her intentions were good, the decision ultimately depended on Koru...
He stayed silent for a good 10 minutes, before suddenly getting up with a bright smile "Let's not let my past hunt me. I am accepting her apology... With the money of course, lessons have to be taught properly."
With that said, Liana smiled too. She knew why she loved him, despite his faults, he was a good man.
The days passed, and when his mother came, she told him... She was infected by the same desease as him.
A torture hunting everyone in this family. Koru didn't have the required money to help her, and it was already too late. Knowing that, his mother decided to come back, face her son and do what she had to do from the second she abandoned him... apologize. She didn't know what to do if he rejected her, but gladly he did not.
Koru, despite hating her for so long, despite being the most prideful man Liana had ever met, he cried. He cursed. There was little they could do at this time...
Maybe if he had returned back to thievery, maybe if he had amassed enough money, maybe if he was willing to search for her... Too many maybes in life, but nothing done. He knew he wouldn't have returned back to his old life ever since he met his wife. He knew his hatred was too big to search for her...
He let her stay in their home, and took care of her, till the day came... and then? Silence.
Everyone of his close friends of his were present in the funeral.
Although he was saddened by the event, his joyful self came back as time passed.
...
"Koru, come on, you promised to be there when doctor's family welcomed the new addition to their family... We're going to be late." Koru's wife said with a sort breath, hurrying to get ready, and look good.
"Trust me, we're not going to be late." He sweetly replied, lazily almost, as if wanting to annoy his wife.
True to his words, they weren't late, although they had to hurry up a bit. They wished well and happiness to the newborn, whom his parents aparently wanted to name after their grandfather. Juan.
Everyone was happy, and joyful. It seemed that no matter what life threw on him, nothing would shake him, and some months later, as if jealous, his wife became pregnant.
After many hours of silly fights, and brainstorms, the baby was decided to be named Siron
Koru and his wife went through the hells and pleasures of being a parent, but still smiling no matter what.
As time passed, he laughed and cried, he got angry and happy... Doctor's wife passed away, and soon followed the doctor himself, both having lived their lives. It wasn't a sad death, but their absence was felt.
...
At the end, one could say that Koru lived a life of bad luck, fighting his way towards happiness?
But from what he saw, he just lived his life, and that's how things came... he lived a fulfilled life at the end, and for that, he had no regrets.
Both he and his wife grew up to see their kids become successful.
Aron one day became heavily sick, and Koru practically run the whole way there the moment he heard the news. It was a friendship that lasted until death.
And when death came to take him and his wife away, they didn't resist, and spent their days happily till their end came.
Wether it wasn't the end and just a new beginning, no one knew.
Their kid Juan ended up becoming great friends with Siron, and even successfully created a megamoth company with him.
What happened next, is another story, their fight, and their life.