“… because of the radiation therapy…”
“Stomach ulcers…”
“She’s dying…”
Voices drifted through Luna’s head as she breathed through the tube that was shoved up her nose. She shifted under the hospital sheets, and a series of pain went through her.
The pain was worse than she’d ever know; worse than when she broke her arm falling from a tree. Brilliant colors flashed behind her closed eyelids and she found the strength to let out a moan.
Then, Dad’s hand was gripping her small hand. “Luna? Honey, I’m here; don’t worry, everything’s going to be fine.”
He was probably just reassuring himself but she didn’t feel in the mood to point that out to him. Instead, she opened her eyes to the dark hospital room that she was so used to seeing. Moonlight shinned through the draped curtains that held her window.
Luna stared at Dad, memories coming back to her in a bleary dream. She looked around the room again, taking in more details. That’s where she saw him.
Simon sat down in a chair, in the small corner of the room, glowering at me. He was angry at… what? Luna? What was there to be angry about? Her muggy mind tried to think of a reason but couldn’t.
Doctors stood by the bed, looking at her with that look that she knew so well. They were trying to figure out what was wrong with her this time.
“Since you’re awake, Ms. Moon, would you mind if we took a look at your stomach?” a doctor asked.
Hazily, she nodded her head, not caring anymore. What else can go wrong in my life?, she thought.
Simon watched as the doctors looked at Luna, watching them lift up the bed sheets and the sight made him lose all of the air in his lungs. The sight made him retch at the thought of all the pain that she had gone through.
Her stomach was covered in splotches of purple and blue bruises that looked like someone had beaten her with a club.
Her Dad gasped, audibly.
“It’s just her leukemia that made those bruises, since was straining so hard.” a doctor soothed him, quietly.
Leukemia. There was that damn word again. The word had been drifting around school and the hospital room for a while, now.
Simon felt stupid for asking but he was tired of being left out. “Um… what’s leukemia?”
Eyes turned towards him; even Luna who had closed her eyes, stared at him with conflict on her face.
So he still didn’t know, the idiot. Luna stared at him, her emotions battling inside her.
“Leukemia is cancer, son.” said a doctor. “A cancer that makes this young lady weak, vulnerable.”
Luna noticed that he didn’t say the part where she would be dead in two years or less. She was grateful for that, because then he’d treat her differently, just like everyone else.
She didn’t say anything as the scowl that was directed at her deepen. Luna closed her eyes, as if to shut him out, the world, everything.
The pain seemed to throb along with her headache that seemed to be growing larger by the second. Simon fell silent and the doctors continued to prod and poke at her, making her wince.
Dad was just putting his head in his hands and somewhere, Luna drifted off, making some of the jabs to her stomach lessen. Before she knew it, she was being pulled back under and some more medicine was being shot into her tubes. Gratefully, she slid into it.
YOU ARE READING
Heavenly Refuge
RomanceShe's told she would die. A disease that takes away every breath. What would you do if you were in her shoes? Luna Moon, a girl who's fate is to die by cancer's hands, is lost. She doesn't know where to turn. Until a strange guy saves her from drown...
