The Fault in Our Stars: How It Should Have Ended

Chapter 19

I was tossing salad when it happened.

I felt a burning pain in my chest, and felt light-headed. I sat down, coughing, in the middle of my kitchen floor.

The words my parents spoke were a blur.

"Call an ambulance!"

"Hazel...with me. Don't give... You...close to going to Paris."

I strained to listen to the encouraging chants of my parents, but slowly, ever so slowly, my vision became rimmed with blackness.

I fought. I fought. I really did.

But eventually, about halfway to the hospital, my world went black.

~~~~~

My eyes are glued shut. I hear so many unfamiliar and familiar voices coming from all around me. I hear Augustus begging for answers that he can't have.

Though my eyes are stuck, I try to speak. But my mouth has a tube in it.

I silently prayed someone, anyone, would take my hand so I could squeeze it, let them know I was alive, but no one did.

And although I knew that my loved ones surrounded me with worried expressions lining their faces, and at one point in my life I had no friends and just read the same book over and over again, and even though I had Gus in my life now, I have never felt so alone.

~~

"I think she's awake." A male voice said. He sounded kinda like my dad...maybe he was. My eyes were still shut.

But then I realized, there was warmth in my hand. Someone had answered my prayer.

I squeezed with the little amount of strength I could muster, and I felt them squeeze back.

"She just squeezed my hand!" A teenager, Gus, said.

"Take out her tube!" The previous male voice ordered.

As they removed my tube, my eyes willed themselves to open. I was met with a white room and at least 4 doctors by my side. Gus was there, too, and I didn't feel alone anymore.