Merciless Tragedy

Chapter 3

I stood completely still, now dressed in the cold, revealing hospital gown, alone in the dark room. My clothes were piled on the floor next to my feet, my hands engulfed my face as my body radiated with fear and nervousness.

"Eden, can I come in?" A fist knocked lightly on the door.

"Yeah." My voice wavered in terror as more frantic sparks of panic traveled down my spine, setting every nerve in my body on fire.

The door swung open. A doctor in a white gown came in and approached the sink just beside the door. A nurse followed behind her with a shiny metal try that set off another round of trepidation through my spindly body. She pulled it beside the examination bed and covered it with a clean sheet of thin paper.

"Come lie on your left side Eden." She smiled softly, trying to ease the apprehension that filled the room. I did as she said, my whole body, trembling. "Pull your legs to your chest." She guided my knees to meet with my chest as the doctor pulled on a pair of latex gloves that snapped tightly to his skin. My heart pounded rapidly as she approached the table and moved behind me. The nurse rubbed a cold liquid onto my skin.

"I'm just disinfecting the area. Then I will give you a shot to numb the area and then Dr. Matt here, will insert the needle into your spine to test the fluid. I will tell you when that is over and then you should roll directly onto your back and we will turn off the lights and let you rest."

She poked a thin needle into my back and I winced. "Stay completely still Eden." The nurse placed a firm hand onto my side as the doctor steadied herself and touched the needle softly to my skin before ejecting it into my back. I let out a moan as the needle pierced in between my spine and tightly squeezed my eyes shut at the unpleasant feeling.

"Roll onto your back Eden." The nurse helped me onto my back and then collected her items onto her tray and rolled it back out the door, flicking the light off as she closed the door behind her. I was overcome with darkness to face my fears.

"What's wrong with me?" A sob shook through my body, igniting sparks of pain in my head.

"Would you like some pain medication?" The nurse reappeared at least an hour later to find my hand clutched to my head. I didn't move for fear of further pain.

"If you don't, say so, otherwise I'll just give you some." I concentrated so hard on the pounding pain that radiated through my brain, I never felt the needle pierce through my skin. "You shouldn't hurt any more in ten minutes. Then you'll have to go have another meeting with your doctor upstairs."

The pain nearly diminished in the ten minutes I was left in the dark and I wondered why the nurse hadn't given me the medication immediately after the spinal tap.

I stood back up when she entered the room again, a hint of stiffness was left in my back but it didn't hurt. She reunited me with my parents who hugged me tightly and led me upstairs to the conference rooms. We were called back into a big room with a huge round table and my doctor and another doctor I'd never seen before sat at one end. My parents took to chairs opposite from them and I sat beside them.

Their frowns were tight and their eyes illustrated a grim picture. "Cancer." I heard the word and immediately disappeared to my thoughts. A lonely, bald and ugly child. Left to suffer alone in a hospital until Death wrapped its grips around her so hard and pulled her down into a dark afterlife underground. Her last month's filled with fear and pain that made her anticipate the day Death dragged her down.

"No!" I cried. I shot up in bed, my back ached ever so slightly. Tears fell from my heavy eyelids. Someone stood up from the corner and approached me.

It was all a dream.

I sobbed in relief, but the pounding headache and slight ache in my back grew slowly as I hunched over in the bed to remind me it was not all a dream. My mother engulfed me and hugged me tightly into her warm body.

"I don't want to die." I cried. She shifted me over and pulled the covers around her. I buried my face into the crook of her neck and let the tears that feel from my cheeks dry on her soft skin.

"I will never let you die." She fingered with my hair softly as I feel back to sleep.