Blood.

It's in all of us.

We share it,

we lose it.

But once too much is lost,

it can never come back.

The end can hit you so quickly you don't even realize you're dead.

Until it's the end.

"CLEAR!" The doctors screamed from inside the door.

Cooper and I paced around the hallway.

What was going on?

Is she okay?

Will she live?

Will she die?

Who did this?

why would they do it?

I didn't even know who this girl was.

All I knew was what Cooper told me.

She was Bronwyn's younger sister,

and she was dying from cancer.

But from her shiny red wound that only a bullet carried,

it was no cancer.

There was panic.

Fear.

Despair.

She obviously meant the world to Bronwyn.

And I didn't know how either of us could possibly tell her this.

But we had to.

I picked up Cooper's phone from the table.

Then I held my hand out with it inside.

"Cooper, you need to do this. I'm a stranger to her, I can't." I simply said.

He sniffed quickly and took the phone from me.

He held it up to his ear and I could hear the ringing.

"Bronwyn?" He asks into the phone.

"Cooper. What's up?" She asks.

"You need to get to the hospital now."

"What happened? What happened to Nate?" She asks in worry.

She was concerned about me.

She cared.

She was special.

"Not Nate. Just, please, get to the hospital now. It's an emergency." Cooper says calmly.

"Okay." She responds,

and then hangs up.

"Wow, you really handled this maturely." I said.

"Yeah, well how do you tell old high school friend that was only your friend because you both got framed and became suspects for murder and an arson that her little sister who is dying of cancer isn't dying of cancer? She's dying from being shot, on top of the cancer."

I scoffed.

"Well, that just about sums it up from what you've told me." I respond.

"Thank you, Nate."

"For what?"

"For helping me. For sticking with me through this. Hell, you don't remember anything yet you still help out."

I smiled.

"Let's just say something tells me that I had an instinct." I answer.

He smiles back.

It felt good to make someone else smile through tragedy.

Even if it was brief.

Which,

in this case,

it was.

"CLEAR!" The doctor yelled again.

But then something awful happened.

The machine faded.

It was a straight line.

____________________________

Bronwyn showed up 15 minutes later.

She didn't know what was going on,

or who she was here for.

She didn't know it yet,

but what she was about to know would kill her.

Right now she was a perfect ice cube straight from the freezer.

But now she was about to become boiling water on a stove.

Cooper and I glanced at each other.

It was time.

We had no choice.

"Bronwyn- you-" Cooper begins.

"Cooper," She says, putting her hand on his shoulder. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

Tears formed in his eyes.

He tried to hold them back,

to sniff them back up.

He sighed a few times and tried to collect himself.

But it was just impossible.

His voice soon broke.

Tears shed down his cheeks softly.

"Bronwyn- you need to go in that room." He says, pointing at Maeve's room.

"Sure, okay." She answers.

We follow her into the room slowly.

The door opens.

There she was.

Dead.

Maeve Rojas.

Dead.

Her blood was everywhere.

A tear was drying from her cheek.

Bronwyn's eyes went cold.

Her face froze up.

She ran over to her body and kneeled down next to the bed.

She took Maeve's arms and tried to shake her.

She hugged her,

and tried everything to bring her back.

She screamed.

"NO! MAEVE! COME BACK! COME BACK! MAEVE!!!!!!"

Her screams echoed through the halls and several people ran over.

Tears exploded from her eyes and all she did was cry and scream.

I tried to hug her but she shoved me away.

She couldn't believe her eyes.

Nothing seemed real to her anymore.

Her once gray and shiny eyes turned black in an instant.

Then she turned to Cooper and I.

She was about to explode.

"WE ARE GOING TO FIND OUT WHO DID THIS, AND THEY WILL PAY!!!"