Sarah looked into his eyes hopefully. Robert leaned towards her.
“I'm sorry,” he whispered lightly into her ear, giving her a gentle hug. He walked away down the long white hallway, exiting dramatically through the double doors, leaving her just another patient who's hopes had just been dashed. Back at the end of the hallway Sarah collapsed to the ground overcome with tears. Life seemed to be just one failure after another. After contracting a rare disease, she searched and searched for the cure. Countless pills were consumed, needles stuck into skin, procedures preformed. None of it worked. All that was left at the end was the bitter taste of disappointment and the knowledge that she was going to die like her mother, and the mother before her, and the mother before her. Sarah had seen the agony in her mothers eyes as she dyed, not because the disease hurt, but because she knew that soon enough her daughter would follow in her footsteps. Sarah herself did not have any kids.
'Maybe it's best,' She thought to herself, lonely and cold on the hard white floor, 'maybe now no one would have to suffer the pain I'm going through. It's a terrible thing to know when you're going to die.'
Picking herself up and dusting herself off, Sarah shook off any thoughts of giving up and walked down the hallway with a firm resolution. She exited through the same double doors Robert had just moments ago, but with less drama. She shoved her hands in her pockets and made her way down the street, head hunched over protecting herself from the people. Everywhere she went is was like this. The people talking and whispering, laughing and pointing. Sarah felt sure that all of it was aimed at her. Of course, she now knew this was only a phase of the disease. When her mom went through it, she locked herself in her room for two months. Two months, five days, and seven hours to be exact. Sarah was on her second month, first day and fifth hour.
Turning the corner, Sarah turned into a rarely used backstreet. The paint peeling off of walls, the distant scratching of rats claws on pavement the overall rundown feel was like a sanctuary to Sarah. Places like these were one of the few (and constantly dwindling) places that she felt safe in. The absence of judgement was paradise and she loved it. She kept trying to remind herself that it was all in her head, that it wasn't real, that it would go away when this phase passed over in a couple days, but it did no good. She was too far gone.
“C'mon Sarah, you can do this,” She mumbled to herself, forcing herself to leave the alley and face the world once more. She walked down the street, constantly checking her hood to make sure it covered her face.
“Excuse me miss, are you okay?” A little boy called out. Sarah spun around in surprise, having passed the boy in her efforts to get back to her hotel as soon as possible.
“Um yeah, I'm fine,” She said, before turning around and attempting to continue on her walk.
“You don't look okay miss,” The boy said. Sarah merely ignored him and slouched down even farther, hoping nobody would notice a thing.
“Would you like some flowers miss?” the child asked, following Sarah down the street, “They were for my mom miss, but she's not available anymore. Dad says she's gone on vacation but she hasn't called. You remind me of mom. You have that same scared look and you both were awfully pretty.”
Touched, Sarah turned around. Hesitantly reaching forward, she took the flowers from the little boy.
“Thank you,” she whispered. They were beautiful flowers indeed, red and orange, and pink. She turned around and almost ran down the street, seeing the painfully bright smile the boy had directed at her. Lifting the flowers to her nose she breathed in the scent, accidentally knocking the hood off of her head in the process. Flinching, she frantically reached behind her head, searching for the hood. Glancing around she noticed that not one person was looking at her. They were laughing and talking as usual but she got this strange feeling that they indeed weren't talking about her. The sun shined above her head and she smiled. And for the first time in two months, one day, and five hours she didn't care who saw.
'It's the end,' she thought happily, starting to skip, successfully ignoring the dark little voice in the deepest corner of her mind, whispering her worst fear constantly.
'Four months and 27 days until the real end Sarah. Four months and 27 days.'
