fragile

15

"I'm sorry, but your mother has been struggling with cancer for a while now. We thought she'd told you but..." the doctor sighed, taking off his glasses. "I'm sorry, but we couldn't help her."

Mira stood frozen as the doctor placed a comforting hand on her shoulder before walking off. They had an easy job - telling the family about the patients they couldn't save and then tending to the next patient to do the same.

They got money from it.

What did people in Mira's situation get?

Pain. Heartbreak.

She didn't know how to feel at that moment, though.

It felt all too surreal.

She was sure her mum would walk out of the ICU room, with a smile on her face. But she didn't.

She wouldn't be seeing the smiling face of her mum again. Not ever.

Without even realising, she had slipped to the floor in a heap, her legs giving away. No one bothered to tend to her.

And she didn't want them to because she didn't know how she would react at that moment.

The one and only person in the world who had loved her...was gone.

Forever.

Her head was hurting but so was her chest. She reached up to scrunch the fabric of her shirt where her heart was.

She wanted it all to stop. The never ending pain that seemed to stir in her heart was becoming too much for her to bear.

Mira was bullied and was a victim of taunts and abuse from people who were supposed to be her classmates.

And now she had to deal with the pain of her mum leaving her as well.

Mira's teeth locked. Her fists were clenched so tight that her palms were burning from the nails digging into the bare skin.

"Honey." Mira slowly looked up, half hoping it was her mum playing a cruel prank on her.

But her hopes were crushed and reality sunk in when her eyes met with a young nurse, instead.

The woman offered a small smile, her eyes downturned and filled with sympathy. "It's getting late and visiting times are over. You should go home and come back again in the morning."

It was those words that caused her whole world that was already broken, to shatter, once again.

Mira couldn't come back again in the morning because her mum wouldn't be there. She would never be coming back.

Ever. 

She was gone from this world to who knew where.

Heaven? Was she happier there?

Suddenly Mira heard a shrill, heart-wrenching scream that echoed throughout the walls of the hospital and seemed to reverberate in her chest and ears.

It was a sound so painful, so angry as if someone's terrified, broken soul had unleashed a demon that was hiding deep within.

It was a scream that seemed to describe how she was feeling at that moment and in every moment from the incidents at school that scarred her.

And then that's when it clicked.

It wasn't someone else.

It was she who was screaming.