Three Weeks [COMPLETED]

Last Moments

Don't read this. It won't make you happy.
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Edison slammed his hand on the horn, yelling as he did, "Move!"

The driver in front of him threw up a hand, confused as Edison's impatience. Edison gripped his steering wheel, how did this man not sense what was happening?

Pressing down on the accelerator, Edison cut into the bike lane and darted around the car. Blood roared in his ears, his heart screaming for him to go faster, to make it in time. The car ate up the distance, but still, it wasn't fast enough.

Edison careened into the hospital parking lot and jerked the car into a parking space. He sprinted a few steps before he realized he left the keys in the ignition. Swearing, he returned, yanked them out and slammed the door shut. He ran. He ran like he was on the field and everything depended on his speed.

He jolted to a stop before the hospital doors, nearly colliding with the too slow sliding doors. He shoved his body through the first gap in the doors and took off once inside, twisting around a nurse wheeling an elderly man.

Someone shouted at him, but he didn't care. Nothing mattered but getting there. Ignoring the elevator, he charged up the stairs, using the railing to launch himself upward.

"Please, please, please, God, please, please, please."

The plea ran an anthem in his head as he pounded up floor after floor. He tripped out of the stairwell and sprinted towards her room, his breath burning in his lungs.

"Please, God, please."

At the doorway, he stumbled to a halt, heart freezing in his chest. He stood looking in on a demented dream. Streamers hung in strips from the ceiling. Clusters of balloons nestled in corners. Pointed party hats sat atop heads.

All the happy colors contrasted the stricken faces beneath the paper hats.

And in the bed, lay Kit. Small, fragile, boisterous, infuriating, wild Kit, delicate as a doll.

She met his gaze and smiled.

He felt as if it were his heart that was broken because when he saw the glow of mischief in her eyes, his heart forgot its rhythm.

"The lifeguard is here to save me," she said.

Edison couldn't move, couldn't bring himself to put one foot in front of the other. He wanted to run away from this nightmare. Before he could act on the impulse, Jaxon stood before him, clasping Edison's shoulder.

"If you leave now, you'll never forgive yourself," he said.

Edison balled his hands into fists, almost shaking with the force of his emotions.

"It's not..." He swallowed hard, his tongue lead. "It's not a false alarm?"

Jaxon didn't need to answer, the truth lay in the tinge of red in his eyes. Instead of speaking, Jaxon squeezed Edison's shoulder, pulling him further into the room. Kit's parents sat on one side of her bed, huddled together, leaning on each other as they held their daughter's hand. On the other side sat Kit's aunt and uncle. Breaking the solemn silence was the constant beep beep of the heart monitor.

"Edison," Kit said, her voice deceptively strong. "Why do you look so down, it's not like anyone's dying."

He hated her. He hated her so much he feared he would walk away and never look back. Before he could, Kit took his hand, shaking it weakly.

"It's a joke," she said. "You're supposed to laugh."

He tried to smile but his face wouldn't listen to his command, a heavy sadness dragged it down.