The Last Apothecary

It Needs to be Said

I don't feel right starting this story, without telling the story behind it. If I'm to be honest, I probably could have finished this book long ago, but I was unable to. Not because I didn't have the story all figured out. Not because of writer's block, but because this book was not supposed to be written with only one author.

This was a shared project, between a friend and I. We met on a platform called Discord, and he was my age, going to college with one dream: To write and finish a book. Though we lived in different countries, he wanted to collaborate with me, because he didn't think he could do it alone, and wanted to make sure he finished it, and didn't eventually leave it behind like every other attempt and project he'd done before.

So we set up a shared Google Doc, and began to write. We spent a lot of hours on voice chat, sharing ideas back and forth, writing out character ideas and notes. We got about two chapters in...

And then he vanished off the Internet. No contact, he was always offline, and never responded. I had no clue what happened. This was at the end of March, 2020.

I got a text message on Discord, during the month of May that year. It was someone asking if I was a friend of his. I of course replied yes, and they went on to tell me that they were his cousin, and she had just had the heart to go through his computer and reach out to his online friends after he had died of Covid in March.

I couldn't say goodbye, and even if I had known, I never could have gone to his funeral, with him so far away, and the circumstances with Covid. The shock hit me hard.

I didn't have the heart to open the document for months, and when I did, could barely read a sentence before bursting into tears. I honestly considered deleting the document entirely.

But I didn't. I couldn't stop thinking about how often he had said that his one dream was to finish a book someday. And I might be more superstitious than most, but I truly believe that some people have the need to finish a goal before they can move on after dying. So as of today, I'm going to pick up this project again. I can't say if it will be done soon, and I won't be working on it constantly, but I promise I won't leave it behind.

Even if I have to do it alone, I'll get this book out there for you.