1 Prologue Of The End

'So this is the end.'

In a hospital room, a young girl lay in bed. Around her, three nurses grew restless, alerted by the abnormal signals of the ECG. One nurse stood beside her, checking her vital signs, while the other two tried to reassure an old couple.

"Has someone called the doctor?" shouted one of the nurses.

"He is on his way!"

Powerless, the elderly couple stood a few meters from the bed, not listening to anything, just standing there. The man held his crying wife in his arms as she screamed in pain, burying her head in his chest. She couldn't bear to watch the scene any longer. Her husband tried to reassure her, but his voice shook. He too was frightened, despite his attempts to remain composed. His limbs trembled.

Only a few seconds later, a man in his forties burst into the room. He wore a white coat and a serious expression. As soon as the woman saw him, she broke free from her husband's arms and rushed to him. She collapsed in front of him, grabbing his coat.

"Doctor, please, I'm begging you, save her! Save my daughter!"

"Someone take the parents out of here!"

Following his command, the two nurses led 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, to let the doctor do his job.

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

She wasn't crying because she was afraid of dying; in fact, she felt relieved. She cried because she felt sorry for her parents. Life had always been unfair to her. But at least, all her worries and suffering would end now. But what about her parents? Would they be able to move on after she was gone? She had always been a burden to them alive, and she didn't want to be a burden to 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 kind people, loved by everyone. Unable to have a child, they had 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 failed attempts to conceive, her parents had 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. Her parents raised her with unconditional love, their little miracle. However, their happiness did not last long.

Aileen started showing symptoms at five years old. She often complained of being tired and slowly lost her appetite. A year later, they found out she was sick. After fainting from anemia, her parents took her to the hospital. Noticing the strange 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 modern treatments, they said the success rate among child patients was 80%. Unfortunately, Aileen did not belong to that 80%. The leukemia did not respond well enough to the treatments and came back. After several failed attempts, the doctors 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 luck was not on their side. They tirelessly searched for a donor, but without success. They were powerless, left only to 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.

The doctors gave her a year, but once again, a miracle happened. A year became two, two years became four, and in the end, she managed to survive until her sixteenth birthday. To others, she was truly a miracle child, favored by the gods. "Miracle my ass," Aileen thought. If the gods truly existed, she cursed them. It wasn't a gift; it was a curse. The gods didn't protect her; they mocked her. If they were going to take her away from her parents like this, they shouldn't have given her to them in the first place. At least then, they wouldn't have had to suffer as they did. If the gods were going to kill her, they should have done it then, instead of keeping her half-alive, bedridden her whole life.

For Aileen, the worst part was watching her parents change. Her parents were no longer young. She was born when they were both in their forties, but they still did everything they could to give the best to their daughter. They were a modest family, living just the three of them in a small house. They weren't rich, but they had everything they needed. However, when Aileen got sick, everything changed. Her hospitalization and treatments were expensive, and they couldn't afford it. Money became an issue. They borrowed money from the bank, but Aileen's hospitalization lasted longer than expected. To repay the loan and cover the treatment costs, her parents had to sell the house and get second part-time jobs. They tried not to show it to her, but she could see how exhausting it was for them. Over the years, they aged even faster and lost a lot of weight. Aileen couldn't bear it. She had ruined their lives.

Life was truly unfair. She started to resent everything and everyone.

The only thing that kept her from depression was her little hobby. Aileen had always had a vivid imagination. As a child, she enjoyed inventing stories and drawing new things. Being stuck in the hospital all year long, she had a lot of free time, so she decided to spend it creating a whole new world. At first, she only drew fantastic creatures: dragons, unicorns, anything a child would dream of. Then she started drawing cities: a city in the sky, a city under the ocean, a city hidden in a dense forest. Once she was done, she added descriptions and details to everything. In a few weeks, there were mountains of paper everywhere in her hospital room. Every month, her parents would take them to put them in the small flat they rented since she didn't want to throw them away. Every sheet was full of information.

Aileen also studied during her free time. At first, she thought she would only stay at the hospital for a few days, maybe a few weeks, and didn't want to fall behind once she recovered. But she soon realized something was wrong and understood she would probably never recover. Still, she kept studying on her own. It made her parents happy, and besides, she had always been a curious child who liked learning new things. It also allowed her to understand the world better and elaborate on her own.

After a few years locked in her hospital room, Aileen had created a real encyclopedia, a whole new world with its own ecosystem and governed by new laws. She had drawn thousands of creatures, cities, landscapes. Everything was so detailed that every country had its own culture, its own legends, and every creature had its own description. She named her world Erthia, and it was her proudest creation. This little hobby allowed her not to be bored and to escape her cruel reality.

Then, a glimmer of hope began to dawn. A few months ago, the doctors announced the big surprise for her sixteenth birthday: they had finally found a donor. At first, Aileen thought they were joking, as she had stopped believing in miracles. But she soon realized it was unlikely. What kind of sick person would joke like that to a nearly dead patient? Still, she couldn't believe it. It took her a while to grasp the situation. The happiest ones about the news were, of course, her parents. They cried so much that day, maybe even more than the day they learned about her leukemia. Their little girl, who had struggled for so many years to stay alive, would finally be saved.

Yet, once again, the gods mocked her.

Even though she was supposed to be fine now, even though she was supposed to be saved, she was now dying. Only a few weeks after the operation, something went wrong. She had recurrent abdominal pain, weakness, and nausea. The doctors detected problems with her liver and intestine.

Aileen was showing symptoms of transplant rejection.

"Haha, of course. I should have known. Until the very end, the gods won't stop toying with my life. Ah, life is really unfair after all. Why me? All I ever wanted was a normal life."

As her last strength left her, her vision blurred, and darkness enveloped the white walls of her room. She slowly closed her eyes, as if going to sleep, but this time, she knew she would not wake up. She suddenly remembered her parents and all their hardships trying to keep her alive.

"I'm sorry." Those were her last thoughts.

-Beeeeeeeeeeep-

A flat alarm suddenly sounded. The ECG was no longer recording any activity from her heart. Instead of showing regular pacing spikes, the screen displayed a single straight line.

"D-Doctor! We're losing her!" one of the nurses shouted.

"The defibrillator!" the doctor immediately responded.

While the nurse prepared the machine, the doctor placed the electrodes. Once he ensured it was charged, he delivered the shock. But Aileen did not regain a pulse. He tried again. He repeated the operation a dozen times, without success. After a few minutes, he finally ordered to turn off the machine.

"Doctor "

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking at his unconscious patient. Frustration surfaced on his face. He sighed loudly, shaking his head. Understanding what it meant, the nurse silently headed to the door to invite the patient's parents to come in. The doctor pulled up his left sleeve, revealing a silver watch.

"Time of death: 8:36 pm."