Carry On

Chapter one: The

Josh

"P-Promise me that when I die, y-you'll carry on..." Josh's chapped lips could barely force out the words. Lilly's eyes filled with tears. She wanted so badly to tell Josh to stop thinking like that. She wanted to tell him not to give up hope.

But she couldn't.

Because Lilly had given up hope a long time ago.
Josh could see the dull, lifeless look in her eyes. It'd been there for almost a year. Ever since she'd received that call from Josh's parents.

The call that had quietly informed her that her boyfriend was going to die.

After that, slowly but surely, the happy, carefree, go-lucky girl that had been Lilly drained away, and was replaced with a newer version.

The new Lilly who was extremely unhappy, although she hid it well. The new Lilly that cried herself to sleep at night. The Lilly who no longer cracked random, funny jokes when Josh was feeling down. The broken Lilly.

And it was all Josh's fault...

And he hated himself for it. He hated himself for doing this to Lilly; for getting goddamn cancer. He hated himself for not faking a smile convincingly enough, and telling her that he was fine. He hated himself for something that hadn't even happened yet. He hated himself for dying.
Dying and leave his completely shattered girlfriend to fend for herself again in a cold, unforgiving world.
Maybe he should break up with her now and save her the inevitable pain that comes with someone you love passing away...

Any traces of that kind of thought were washed away as Lilly absentmindedly reached out and brushed her hand against Josh's cheek, and although she had done with thousands of times before, Josh could still feel his face reddening at her touch, and Lilly smiled as she saw this.
"I love you," she blurted without a hint of regret, "You know that, right?"
"I know Lilly, I love you too," Josh gave her what he hoped was a contented smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace, because there was an entire section of his side that had suddenly gone numb.
Josh bit his lip nervously, and then the pain started.

"Josh... Are you okay?" Lilly pulled back and frowned concernedly at him. Josh took a deep breath in and tried to explain that this was to be expected, that he felt fine, aside from the dying part- but his words twisted and changed into a string of curses as the burning became more and more painful.

Electricity shot up his spine, black spots danced behind his eyes when he blinked, and he could physically feel the pain spreading like wildfire around his body.

Josh couldn't collect his thoughts into anything organised enough to form a sentence- or even open his mouth, so he pointed to a small button next to his bed, and Lilly pressed it, frantically calling for a nurse to come in as she did so.

He couldn't breathe, he was panicking too much, all he could do was lie there and gasp for air like a fish. It was as if his lungs were caving in, crumpling like balls of paper.

Within the next few seconds, a nurse rushed in and gave Josh some sort of drug that settled the blinding agony down into a dull ache. After that, it didn't take long for Josh to fall into a dreamless sleep with Lilly sat loyally by his unnaturally skinny frame, stroking his hair and murmuring something softly.