Ducky Love

Chapter 9: Answers

Sqaishey's POV

"What symptoms are you having?" the doctor asks me as I sit back in the chair.

"A bad cough, night sweats, and I just coughed blood. It might be just a cold... But I wanted to check."

The doctor uses a few instruments on me before talking again.

"Night sweats are usually caused by infection, and there is one disease that matches all the symptoms..."

I lean in slightly, to signal that I'm listening.

"It is an infection called tuberculosis; a chest infection, and it has all of the symptoms you have described. But it is very rare... It usually is caught in undeveloped countries though...

I realise a few weeks before I came to visit Stampy, I had been to an undeveloped part of Africa. Great.

"Yeah, I have been in an undeveloped country."

"Has anyone there coughed or sneezed on you?"

"Yes." I say, remembering when a woman coughed on me by accident. She apologised, but rushed away. Now I think I know why.

There is a bit of a pause before I ask the question that has been looming over my head for the whole time.

"Is it life-threatening?"

"Well..." sighs the doctor, not sounding reassuring.

"Is it?" I say, a little angrily, losing my temper.

"On the scale of deadly diseases... It falls just under Ebola.

That's bad. Really bad.

*Time Skip*

I sit on the spare bed in Squid's room, Stampy and Squid still asleep, as it's 4 in the morning.

I don't stop the tears that run down my face.

There's a good chance I'll die. Actually, I will die.

I can't believe it. Apparently I only have about 2 years to live. I can't even stop it.

I thought it might have been just a cold.

But there you go.

I was wrong.

My thoughts are interrupted by a vibration in my pocket.

I had turned my phone on silent. I take it out and answer the call as I walk out of Squid's room.

"Hello?" the doctor's voice says at the end of the phone, as I walk out if the apartment.

"Hi." I say, very unenthusiastically.

"We would like to do some scans on you, are you free sometime today?"

"Yes."

"What time?"

"Any is fine." I say, wondering how I'm going to keep this from Stampy and Squid.

"1:30?"

"That sounds good."

It sounds horrible, but anyways.

"See you soon." the doctor says before I hang up.

I sigh as I look out at the busy streets, still busy at this time of the morning. I realise I only have 730 more days to look out at the world.

And I don't want to tell Stampy or Squid.

My phone buzzes again and I answer the call. Why at 4 in the morning?

I don't immediately recognise the caller, but after a few words I do.

"Hello?" I say.

"It's Joanne from the Police Station. I'm just ringing to let you know what we have found from your suspicions."

"Oh, ok."

"There are two Johns we found who went to your high school and who are around your age.

There is John Wilcox, who lives in America with a wife and two kids, and there is one called John Spencer. We think this one is closer to being the suspect as he has moved here. He is single and he changed his name when he was 19."

"What did he change his name to?" I say nervously.

"David."