Take This To Heart || ImmortalFox

12. Everything's An Illusion.

"Rest in pieces, I can't believe this. A mother shouldn't witness her son die at twenty-four. I will hold my tongue for the rest of my life. I can't keep this up anymore.

Sleep well, my friend. There will be another moment we'll meet again. Just let it go.

Sleep well, goodnight. You're something to remember. I wish that you were here by my side."

---

Eddie's Point of View

Those words were seven bullets that were sent straight into my skull. They pierced my brain and caused my head to pound.

"The test results don't bring good news."

Just like that, my fate has been decided. Those words that spilled from the nurse's lips were the silver bullets and her mouth was the gun. She'd basically shot me, as well as everyone in the room piled around me. My fate was decided and I knew that I was dead. 

My brains are on the wall; I will not listen to another word she says. It isn't real. At least, that was what I had convinced myself to think.

Aleks was sitting by my side and his head was clenched tightly around mine. In the past week, he's become bedridden and all he ever does was sleep nowadays. I guess that's how he interpret his therapists' words. 

He didn't look me in the eye. His face was straining and eyes attached to the slick floor. I noticed that his face had twitched and his eyes fluttered to a close after this was said. God, I regretted bringing him with me this morning. I assumed my results would have passed with flying colors - as they have been doing for two years. 

This was my wake-up call. The results were something that should have given my boyfriend hope; and instead, it just made the weight on his back pull him down further. He must have been drowning in his deepest thoughts.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Cardona," she says softly. My mother is rubbing circles on the top of my palm again. It seems like she does this most of the time, normally when she's anxious. Right now, everyone in the room had a right to be. 

"Just say it." I breathe through gritted teeth. "Please."

Nodding, she glances at the clipboard. "Your recent test results. They show that your Lymphoma is spreading throughout your blood, much quicker than we intended." She lowers the board and sighs. Bad news is never a very good thing to report, it seems. I can't blame her, and right now, I'm not sure who has it worse.

On one side of me, my mother is breathing rapidly and my sister has one leg crossed over her thigh. On the other side, Aleks is burying his face in his palms. She reveals photos from the exam I'd participated in before he even arrived at the hospital. There were dark spots in my veins that tainted the coloring, smudging the crimson liquid. The white blood cells in my body are quickly reproducing.

Eventually, their numbers will grow and they will outweigh the rest of the cells in my body so much that it will kill me.

"Is there anything we can do to stop it?" My sister finally speaks. 

"Well, there is the option of surgery. For now, we're placing him on separate medication." 

"Oh, no!" I say over-dramatically while placing a hand on my chest and over my withered heart. I could care less about what happens to me, I just what her to shut the fuck up. She arches a brow and sends me a glare to indicate that I stop the sarcasm immediately. Sighing, I tell her to continue since she obviously thinks that I'm not very funny. From what I've seen, I think she wants me to die.