Writing Championships #5

Sapphire Simps

Prompt: Comfort (Fluff to Angst)

Stress woke up with a sense of dread. She could feel it in the back of her mind, 'death is coming'. It had been coming for a while. Each morning she had woken up slightly weaker than the day before but today, getting out of bed was a struggle.

Her head felt like it was underwater. Things were getting so cloudy.

The eternal plane must have been close because the sun was slightly brighter and the air slightly warmer. It was sickening.

Fear nagged at her but she chose to ignore it. Death was inevitable and that wasn't changing.

When Xisuma had first told her she was dying, she begged for a way to revert it. A way to go back. But there was no way, no cure. She would have to accept that there were only a limited amount of flights left, a set number of conversations with friends. Just a handful of perfect sunsets.

X was the only one who knew about her illness and she had wanted to keep it that way. There was no reason to worry the others, they would only treat her differently. Look at her with pity.

Stress walked outside, suddenly fascinated with the jungle surrounding her base. When had the grass gotten so green? While the sun was brighter, the whole world also had a thin fog covering it. Or maybe it was just her vision. She didn't investigate any further.

Her arms began to feel heavy as she cleaned up her base for the final time. In fact, everything began to feel heavy. Still, she ignored it, hoping maybe it would just go away.

It didn't.

Eventually, she decided to fly to the shopping district, she wanted to see everything one last time. Slowly she equipped her elytra and took off towards the central base of operations. There was still time to marvel at the beauty created by her closest friends.

Stress went about her normal day, fully aware of the limited time she had left. She didn't want to worry the other hermits about her long term illness, there wasn't any cure for it anyways and she was bound to die sooner or later; it was only a matter of time. And so with that in her mind, the girl went about her daily business.

Stress sat down on the ground exhausted. The girl looked up at the sky; the sun was low, about to set and end the day, just like how her life was about to end. Stress coughed into the sleeves of her cardigan and grimaced as she saw specks of blood stuck onto her sleeves. Her death was coming soon, the girl knew it was.

"Stress? Why are you sitting on the floor?" Stress looked up at the voice and her eyes widened as she saw who it was.

"Cleo! I-" Stress started before she coughed harshly into her sleeve again. Cleo crouched down next to her, concerned for her friend. After the coughs subsided, the zombie silently pulled out a bottle of water, holding it out for Stress to drink, which the girl did and gave Cleo a grateful look.

"Are you ok now?"

"Yeah, I think so..." Stress trailed off at the end. 'No I'm not fine, I'm dying and I won't respawn' Stress thought to herself. Cleo gave her an uneasy look before she spotted specks of red on the girls sleeves.

"Stress, what is that?" The zombie pointed to her sleeves.

"O-oh, it's nothing... you don't need to worry about it..." Stress mumbled as she hid her arms behind her back and out of sight from Cleo. Said hermit raised an eyebrow and shot her an unconvinced expression as she gently tugged on Stress' arms, silently asking permission to see. The girl let her, too weak to fight against it.

Cleo's eyes widened at the sight of blood on the sleeve.

"Stress?! There's blood on your sleeves! We need to get you help!" The zombie panicked as she pulled the girl into her lap, cradling Stress in her arms.

"It's no use Cleo, I'm going to die... I've known this for a long time, actually..." The girl murmured. quietly as she let herself relax in her friend's arms.

"Stress, why didn't you tell us about this...?" Cleo mumbled the question as she held the dying brunette in her arms, the sick hermit letting out a few sickly coughs, unprepared to say goodbye to the people that she had grown to love over the years that she had been in hermitcraft. There wasn't much she could say, Stress beginning to regret staying quiet about her deadly illness. Maybe if she had told someone early on, she wouldn't be about to pass on, maybe she would have been okay.

"I didn't want anyone to worry...." Stress mentioned quietly, her voice hoarse and tired. She could barely think right, her body felt like it was on fire as she shook in the zombie's arms.

"Stress if you had told us, we could have helped you with whatever illness this is!" Cleo snapped at the brunette, who nodded weakly. She understood that Stress regretted not telling anyone about her sickness but if X couldn't figure out was wrong, what could anyone do? Stress couldn't bear to see the look in the hermit's eyes if she had told them that she could die from her strange illness and never respawn, it would crush her.

Cleo pulled out her communicator, frantically typing with one hand, while her free arm cradled the pale figure, Stress's eyelids becoming heavy with each passing moment, every ounce of her strength seemed to be gone. She couldn't hold on for any longer.

"I'm here!" False yelled, which snapped Stress out of her partial-sleeping state. The blonde had potions of healing in her arms, but the brunette knew that would do nothing, she had tried it time and time again, and yet no potion ever worked.

"It won't help me I've tried.." Stress coughed as she took False's hands in her own, the blonde shaking her head in denial.

"Stress how long has this been going on for?" False asked quietly, her voice beginning to break as tears ran down her cheeks. "It's....been some time.." She responded after a couple of moments, her eyes looking to the ground as she spoke. Stress took in a deep breath as she looked back to the two Brits that were on their knees, holding the brunette while trying to make the dying hermit feel safe.

"I...I won't respawn, you know.." Stress admitted, Cleo and False looking at one another with tearfilled eyes before the two wrapped their arms around Stress, the three female hermits silent as the time slowly slipped away, and Stress took her final breath.

Score: 9.5