Yours truly, Azrael

XIII. Countdown

A/N: Kindly listen to the song as you read this chapter. Thank you!

        When Azrael finally woke up, Pierre was so happy. But it seemed like that happiness is just short-lived, because the sudden burst of happiness was smashed by the doctor's diagnosis.

Azrael had leukemia.

Azrael had leukemia.

Azrael had leukemia.

He couldn't believe it.

Azrael was going to die.

Two months quickly passed since Azrael found out that he had leukemia. Two months since the earth-shattering revelation that he had. After that, Azrael just felt numb. At the age of 27, he was dying.

After the numbness wore off, Azrael had been angry. Why him? Why him? What did he do to deserve to die so young? He still wanted to do  a lot of things in his life! He still wanted to do so many, many things with Racel. So many things he wanted to do . . . yet so. . . so little time.

When the anger wore off, despair followed, then self-pity, then back to numbness. After a while though, with the help of Pierre, he achieved acceptance. He was going to die. Three months from then, he was going to die. There was so little time left and he shouldn't waste it with these useless feelings.

So then, he did what he do best: he waited.

But for Pierre, it was another matter altogether. It was just so hard to accept the cold, hard fact that Azrael's life was about to end. How could Azrael die? How could Azrael, the man whom Pierre lived for, breathed for, die? It was just impossible. Unimaginable. Unfathomable.

Azrael was going to die. And karma's payback had already arrived. After years of doing nothing but watch Azrael suffer alone, all he could do now is watch the man he loved die. . . slowly. . .painfully. . . right in front of his very eyes.

When he was finally able to digest the information, Pierre did his best for Azrael. Yes, he did his best to take care o f Azrael and to make sure that Azrael knew that he cared. But God, there was so little time. So very little time.  And he could feel Azrael slowly slip away from his fingers.

And so again, he watched. He watched and waited with Azrael. They waited for the inevitable moment of his death to come. Together, they waited for Azrael's life to end.

And it was hard. It was too hard to bear. Pierre didn't even know how he managed to wake up every day just to watch the life from Azrael's body drain away. It was so painful, so very painful to watch the one you love slowly die before you.

The silence during his visits were unbearable. Azrael had a hard time talking these days. He just stare blankly at a spot, eyes glazed as if he was thinking of something - no, someone. Pierre's heart clenched painfully at the thought. He was jealous. So very jealous. Even when he was already at the brink of death, it was still Racel that filled Azrael's thoughts. And it made Pierre jealous, so painfully jealous.

"Azrael?"

Pierre softly knocked as he slid the door open. Even after two months of being in pain, Azrael was still a sight to behold. He looked like an angel more than ever, with the sun shining brightly on his sitting form. How breathtakingly beautiful.