The Demon Inside (Discontinued)

Live

Roger's POV

"You're...- You're kidding, right?", I said with a shaky voice.

"Why would I joke about something like this?", said Dr Goodman.

"No. No. Walter!", I looked at him. "Tell me that's not true!", tears began to roll down my face.

He didn't respond.

"He's showing all the symptoms. Chest pain, fever, tiredness, loss of weight for no apparent reason along with the lump on his neck. You can... pay me later. I'll leave you two alone.", said Dr Goodman as he began to walk out of the house.

"Wait!", Walter finally spoke up.

"Yeah?", he came back.

"How much time can chemotherapy add to my life?"

"Around three or four weeks, I think. Could be more but... not a whole lot. I'm really sorry."

"No... You haven't even seen me graduate from school.", I basically whispered. "How can this just happen all of a sudden?!"

"It's because of age. This happens usually in children and the elderly.", said Dr Goodman

"He's not even that old, he's just 73!"

"Leukemia can just... happen. I'm sorry.", he slowly walked out of the house.

Walter got out of bed, rushed up to me and gave me a hug. It felt as if he was trying hard to hug me tightly but his lack of energy was preventing that but I hugged him as tight as I could.

"You still... have to take me on that cruise ship in May..."

"I'm sorry, Rog... I'm sor-", he broke down in tears. "I thought that...- I thought that when the time would come I'd be ready. I'm nowhere near ready!", continued to cry as I did the same.

"Please just live a little longer for me. Please..."

"You know I want to."

"Don't leave me, man...", I looked up at him with my hands on his shoulders. "Please don't leave me."

"I'm sorry.", he couldn't even keep his eyes open because of the amount of tears escaping his eyes.
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The next few weeks were incredibly damaging. Chemo drugs didn't efficiently work on his his cancer cells and didn't get rid of them. Mentally and physically, he was deteriorating by each day as I had to see him crying so much and having so many panic attacks which really fucked me up as well, having to cry everyday like that.

At least we cried together.

It was scary waking up every morning as the first thing I'd do before getting ready for what was left of school, I'd rush to his house that was right next to mine and check to see if he was alive or not. A lot of the times, I'd just skip school to stay with him and spend nights in his house as well.

I graduated from school in March and he was so happy that day, it made me forget he had leukemia at all. But after that, he was back to crying.

All of his best friends whom he met on his job on the cargo ship he used to have came to visit and they stayed in town. They would come to visit everyday and just stay in his room, talk to him, laugh with him and cry with him. There were six of them. Martin, Evan, Drew, Ruby, Diane and Martin's younger sister Aileen.

I didn't know them very well but I knew that they were all between the ages 60-73, Walter being the oldest.

We tried our absolute to best to keep him as happy as possible and he did feel happy from time to time but most of the day or night he was depressed and would cry randomly. It was a miracle how long he had survived. Even Dr Goodman was baffled but it was no use.