"Hey, Harp, can you come see me today?" said Victoria over the phone.
"I don't know if I can. How about tomorrow?" she said shakily.
"I want to see my best friend before I go," Victoria replied desperately. "I need to have just one more conversation with you before I go."
"Don't speak like that."
"Why not it's the truth and everyone knows it, but nobody accepts it."
"You're not going to die, so just stop it."
"I have blood poisoning from that cut..." Victoria said trailing off after a burst of pain ran through her body.
"How?"
"The bandaging wasn't changed enough. The nurses wouldn't check on if the bandage needed to be changed."
"You're getting treated for it right?"
"No, because they said there was nothing that they could do for me."
"I will come to see you as soon as I can, so please hang in there until I can show up."
Harper remembered the day when Victoria had received that cut. They had been separated at the time. Victoria had gone hiking a mountain trail with a group of her friends, while she had chosen to go to the movies by herself. On the hiking trip, Victoria had fallen and cut her leg on one of the jagged rocks. Victoria had been rushed to the hospital by the those friends and was kept there for a time. Harper had gone to see her, but at the time Victoria had told her to go home. The pair hadn't spoken that much since the accident. Harper knew that she needed to get to the hospital immediately if Victoria wanted her there.
"Hey," said Harper as she arrived at her friend's room, "How is the pain?"
"It's...better...than usual."
"Isn't that a good sign?"
"Why?"
"Why what, Vic?"
"Why...do you keep...hoping?"
She glared at Victoria. "I have to have hope for the both of us that you will make it, because you obviously don't have any."
"You're delusional."
"How can you say that?"
"I'm dead, you need to accept that. You need to wake up from this dream."
"Wh..." Just as she was about to respond, there was a splash of cold water. Harper realized that she had dreamed the whole thing. She looked up at her brother who had thrown the water and glared.
"Couldn't you have left me alone?"
"No, I couldn't. You were talking about her again."
"So?"
"Just get ready."
"No."
"She's been dead for a whole decade, so just get over it already."
"I'm sorry. I can't."
