Finally, I got to the door I was aiming for and used every bit of strength I had to open the mirrored cabinet.
Behind it was the holy grail, the medication that’d…
“Fuck!” I croaked again when the last two pills in it tumbled out into my palm.
A desperate search showed me I only had tampons, toothpaste, panty liners, and two spare toothbrushes in there, too.
I would have to give them an hour to kick in and then go to get some more and every other medication I could find. I’d die at this rate if I didn’t have anything to help.
So, throwing them in my mouth, I stuck my head under the faucet and drank for a good minute. At least if I died from dirty water, the pain and suffering would end.
As I staggered back to my bed, I realized what a stupid thing that was to think and said a silent prayer that I didn’t end up with an upset stomach because of the water.
If I had to fight a fever and whatever else I had going on and puke or have diarrhea, my last moments would be spent in the worst hell imaginable.
Dropping down on the mattress, I ignored the shriek and hiss Milkshake let out as he scrambled out from under my body. Animals knew when people were sick, so his choices were on him.
He should’ve known not to lie there when his mommy was dying.
Twelve hours later…
I’d accidentally slept for longer than I’d intended to, so any good that the Tylenol had done for me had worn off. That’s why I was currently making my way slowly out of my apartment to find a cab to take me to the pharmacy or urgent care. I didn’t care which one it was at this moment in time.
Maybe I should skip both and just get him to drop me off at the mortuary? Save the planet with fewer carbon emissions from the drive a van would have to do to take my body from the hospital to them. It could be my last ‘I love you’ to the planet.
The short drop from the sidewalk onto the road felt like it was a deep chasm that went on for miles, and the pain that radiated up through the muscles and joints had me gritting my teeth.
It was May, so it wasn’t hot and humid to the point of being uncomfortable, but it also wasn’t freezing outside, either. Did my body know that? Did it shit. That’s why I had the hood of my sweater pulled up over my head and the sleeves tightly clutched in my fists.
I probably looked like a drunk or drugged-up hobo as I staggered across the road, but I just couldn’t muster even one little fuck about that. Let them think what they wanted. Hell, I could get stopped for jaywalking for all I cared, so long as they gave me something for how shitty I felt while they did it.
I could see the sidewalk on the other side getting closer and was just mentally preparing myself to climb up it when the world took pity on me, and the lights to heaven shone down on me. Well, technically, they were shining from the side instead of above, but maybe the road to heaven was specific to each person who traversed it? Like they were giving you the extra peace by opening the gates in a more convenient way? That would make sense when you thought about it. Heaven was the final peaceful resting place. Why would they put the entrance somewhere inconvenient?
It was ironic that I’d just figured that out before I could tell anyone about it, but I guess the knowledge was meant to be kept secret. Maybe I could come back and tell my dads about it somehow?
Losing more of the strength in my limbs, I felt my body sag lower as the lights got closer. And then there was an awful noise before something hit me.
The last thought I had before I screamed was: Tylenol and ibuprofen totally wouldn’t do shit for this pain.
“Be careful what you wish for.” My dads have said that for as long as I can remember, and today was the perfect example of how right that saying was.
I’d said I wanted to go to the emergency room because they could knock me out and help me with the pain, and here I was. Well, it hadn’t happened in that order, but it’d happened all the same.
See, the lights to the pearly gates were, in fact, the lights of Jackson Townsend-Rossi’s truck. He’d accidentally hit me—fortunately, he’d been driving at a crawling speed while he looked for a parking space—and I’d been knocked out when my head had hit the tarmac of the road.
There was the second thing on my list ticked off—being knocked out and away from the pain I’d been in.