Never Give Up, a short story | Teen Ink

Never Give Up, a short story

July 4, 2012
By Sammy Tbeile BRONZE, Brooklyn, New York
Sammy Tbeile BRONZE, Brooklyn, New York
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Today my life changed forever.
I walked into a doctor’s office for a routine checkup and he sent me to a big lab. The type you see in movies, all silver, sterile, and with plenty of machines. I had no clue what was going on but when they send you to a place like this it can’t be good. The doctor walked in all smiles in that stereotypical white coat and took some blood. I asked him what was going on and he just said not to worry, hopefully it’s nothing. That “hopefully” doesn’t sound very good.
Half an hour of twiddling my thumbs later the doctor walked back in and asked to speak to my mother outside. Not good. My mom walked back in a few minutes later crying. Definitely not good.
“What’s going?” I had to know at this point.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat or beat around the bush; you have a very rare condition. There’s a bacteria inside you that’s eating you from the inside out. You have about two weeks until it reaches your heart. We did tests on the bacteria in your blood samples and it seems to pool together anytime we attack it. We believe that if we attacked it in your bloodstream then it would rush to your heart and speed up your death. I’m sorry.” No you’re not; aren’t the one who just got a death sentence.
This is insane, two days ago I was hanging out with my friends and eating pizza and now I’m spending the last two weeks of my life dying in a hospital.
“Are you sure there’s nothing that could be done?” Please god say there is something.
“Unfortunately not, unless you freeze it.” Is he seriously cracking jokes with me?
Another doctor came in right about as I was about to give him a piece of my mind.
“My name is Dr. Kusaidia, but call me Lance. I’m here to take you to the hospital and provide anything you’ll possibly need.”
“Thank you.” My mom always the polite one.
That night as I lay in the hospital bed watching late night soap operas a plan came to me.



Part 2:
I was thinking about what that doctor said and it came to me there was a way to possibly stop it. It was an extremely long shot with more chance of killing me than saving me and to be honest it basically is killing me. If all of the bacteria around my body are attacked then it’ll go and cluster around my heart. If at that very moment it was to stop moving then wouldn’t that save me. There are two holes in this plan though: 1. the only way to stop the bacteria’s movement is to bring it down to absolute zero, the temperature all movement stops. 2. This would also stop my heart. To save myself, I’ll also need to kill myself. I called Lance in and told him my plan. He said it was worth a try because it was better than not doing anything. We would try tomorrow, no point in waiting. That night I wrote a letter

Dear World,
My name is irrelevant. Today I was diagnosed with a type of bacteria that will eat me alive. I have two weeks before it gets to my heart and kills me. If I die I will leave behind so much: my parents, two sisters, a brother, friends, best friends, a girlfriend, a life. There’s so much left I want to do. I can’t die yet; I’m not ready. Reality says it’s time to go but I say no. I’m not going to crawl up in a fetal position and sit around crying all day for the next two weeks. I will fight and I will beat this. Most doctors say it’s impossible, but everything’s impossible until it’s done. Tomorrow I will kill myself to live. I don’t know if it will work or I will die. So consider these my last words. It was a good life, but it doesn’t have to end. If I do die then I just ask that everyone do me a favor and in my memory never give up, no matter how hopeless something looks. No matter who says it’s impossible. No matter who says no. If I die then I will live through those that keep going.
Thank you and good bye.
I’ll see you soon
I put the tear stained letter in an envelope without signing it. With that I turned over and went to bed, after all I had a big day tomorrow.
The next day I woke up and went straight to the lab for our “experiment.” 10 minutes later I was all hooked up and Lance was standing next to me promising to tell me everything that’s happening as it happens. I could hear the heart monitor beat out my heart beat, like a drum. Boom, boom, boom.
“Injections in.” Boom, boom, boom the drums kept going
“The bacteria are moving towards your heart.” Boom, boom, boom, boom the drums sped up a bit
“Dropping temperature.” Boom, boom drums slowing down.
“Absolute zero.” The call finally came and the drums stopped beating.


The author's comments:
A short story I wrote to work on an inception like ending. LMK what you think :)

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