[ The Administrator ]

Prologue - Rebirth

'So this is the end...'

In a hospital room, a young girl was lying in bed. Around her, alerted by the abnormal signals of the ECG, three nurses were getting restless. One of them was standing beside her, checking her vital signs, while the other two were busy trying to reassure an old couple.

« Has someone called the doctor?! » shouted one of the nurses.

« He is on his way! »

Powerless, the elderly couple was standing a few meters from the bed. They weren't listening to anything, they just stood there. The man was holding his crying wife in his arms. She was screaming all the pain in her heart, burying her head in her husband's chest, unable to watch the scene any longer. Her husband kept telling her that everything was going to be fine, but his voice was shaking. While he was trying to keep his composure, actually he was frightened too. All his limbs were shaking.

Only a few seconds later, a man in his forties barged into the room. He was dressed in a white coat and showed a serious expression. As soon as she saw him, the woman freed herself from her husband's arms and rushed to him. She immediately collapsed in front of him, grabbing his coat.

« D-Doctor... Please... I'm begging you save her! Save my daughter! »

« Someone take the parents out of here! »

Complying with his command, the two nurses lead the couple out of the room. At first, the woman refused to leave her daughter, but her husband managed to convince her that it was for her sake, in order to let the doctor do his job.

Unable to move, the patient, a sixteen years old girl, watched her parents exit the room, as a single tear slowly fell down her cheek. She was dying and she knew it. As someone who had been bed-ridden almost all her life, it wasn't so difficult to accept. She had been prepared for this day for years, for the moment when she would fall asleep and never wake up.

She wasn't crying because she was afraid of dying -actually, she even felt relieved. She was crying because she felt sorry for her parents. Life has always been unfair to her. But at least, all her worries and suffering would end now. But what about her parents? Will they be able to move on after she's gone? She had always been a burden for them alive, she didn't want to be a burden for them even in death. She was sorry for them. Sorry for being a burden, sorry for being sick, sorry for being born. They would have been happier without her.

Her name was Aileen Woods. Her parents were very kind people, everyone loved them. Unable to have a child, they lived just the two of them for years. They were a little disheartened by this, but at least, they weren't unhappy -until she arrived. Aileen was a late surprise. After years of failure in conceiving a child, her parents had already given up and weren't expecting anything anymore. Even the doctors called her a miracle. She was a gift from the gods. At first, the little family couldn't have been happier. As their little miracle, her parents raised her with unconditional love. However, their happiness did not last long.

Aileen started to show symptoms at five. She would often complain of being tired and slowly lost her appetite. It was only a year later that they found out she was sick. After fainting from anemia, her parents took her to the hospital. Noticing the weird symptoms, the doctors decided to take a blood test, just in case... The results were clear: leukemia. The little family's happiness collapsed that day.

At first, the doctors made it sound like it wasn't such a big deal. With nowadays treatments, they said that the success rate among children patients is 80%. Unfortunately, Aileen did not belong to that 80%. The leukemia did not respond well enough to the treatments and came back. After failing a couple of times in her treatments, the doctors finally concluded that a blood and marrow transplantation was the only way to save her. Naturally, her parents were the first to volunteer as donors, but the chances of parents and children being a match were low and they weren't that lucky. They restlessly tried to find a donor without success. They were powerless, they could only wait. But they knew: it was hopeless. The waiting list for a donation was long and the chances of finding a match before it was too late were low.