Poisonous

Prologue

“Hello, Nicole.” The doctor approached her in a soft, calm way. “Your test results have returned…” he frowned. It was immediately obvious that he was extremely hesitant to tell Nicole her actual results.

However, by the doctor’s body language, Nicole knew exactly what he wasn’t sharing – but she wanted to hear it anyway. It can’t be real unless you’ve heard it, right? She blinked, tears that had previously been swelling in her eyes, now rolling down her cheek rather quietly. Nicole gave an encouraging “go on”, avoiding his gaze.

The doctor took a deep breath, finding the words to address such a delicate topic. “Nicole, you have been diagnosed with the ‘unknown’ disease. We are not sure –“

Nicole just stared at him blankly, “Unknown disease?” she repeated sharply.

 “Yes, ‘unknown’ disease. We call it this because we only know so little as there has only been one other patient in our records which has been diagnosed.” He had taken up the habit of talking to her in a matter-of-factly voice, rather than the soft approachable and kind voice he usually held. “And all we know is that there is no approximate time of how long you have to live.”

“No approxim-” Nicole’s voice was raising, the less this hospital knew about this disease, only made her angrier and even more upset. How long to live? Nicole only came to the doctors for a local check-up; her and her partner were trying for a baby and she wanted to be completely healthy for conception.

“Please, keep your voice down,” he exhaled softly, apologetically.

“I could die right here, right now?” she questioned, and a soft nod of the head was a reply. Nicole gasped for breath, this couldn’t actually be happening, could it?

“But you cannot really. See, your body will slowly start to degrade, everything will start shutting down. And then, that’s it.” He spoke as if reading a book, like it wasn’t just someone’s life that was going to be ending in this unknown amount of time.

“So it’s going to be slow and painful… And I don’t even know when this is going to happen… And I don’t even know what it is that’s killing me?” Nicole took a seat back down, the tears now gushing down her face as she put all the pieces together to this cruel life that she had been playing. She buried her face in her hands, letting the tears run freely.

“It was an abnormality in your genes, there is nothing we can do about it… because we know so little. But we are doing everything we possibly can at this present time to find a possible cure. Except I don’t think one would be established in your life time.” He took in her appearance, and whispered a soft “is there someone I could call? A parent? Siblings? Partner?”

Nicole nodded slightly, “Harry Styles.” she whispered, passing the doctor her unlocked phone to call her boyfriend.

******

Within a quick 30 minutes or so, Harry was by her side, holding her close to his chest as she cried. A deep, however rather soft, “It’ll be okay” releasing from his lips every so often.

“Harry… Harry…”

“It’s okay, babe. I know, I know.” He stroked her back with his fingertips, slowly and occasionally leaving small circles. It was a comfort mechanism he had always been accompanied with. Apparently it made the girls go crazy. But alongside this, he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want Nicole to repeat what the doctor had told him before he walked in; saying it aloud only made it even more surreal.

 “T-They don’t e-even know how l-long,” she stuttered, taking a deep breath in order to calm herself down. Nicole hadn’t stopped crying; all this information being thrown at her all at once was so overwhelming.