The next morning felt unreal.Jerome woke up with his clothes still on. He couldn't remember when he fell asleep, or how. His eyes were burning from crying too much, but he forced himself to sit up because the silence in his room was making him lose it.He kept replaying it.The monitor.The flatline. Her last words.The way the doctor stopped compressions.It didn't feel real.
He left his room without eating or showering, and went straight back to the hospital. He needed to see her again. He needed to make sure he wasn't imagining everything.
When he reached the reception, the nurses looked at him differently today. They weren't confused, they weren't rushing, they weren't shouting like last night. Everything was slower. Softer. Quiet like nobody wanted to disturb the atmosphere.
"They moved her to cold storage," one nurse said gently.
He nodded, but he felt his throat tightening and feet heavy. He dragged it down the hallway.
On his way down the hallway, he saw Alisha sitting in a corner chair. She looked destroyed. Her hair messy, face swollen, hands shaking. When she saw Jerome, she stood up immediately.
"Jerome… I'm sorry. I know sorry means nothing now but I just need you to hear me out. Please." She said holding onto Jerome's shirt.He didn't know if he should answer or not as he continued staring at her.His voice came out tired
"You had time when she was alive." He said and removed her hands from his shirt gently. He dragged his feet with heavy heart.
Alisha looked down, tears dropping again.
"I didn't think it was that serious," she whispered. "I thought she'd get better. I didn't think it could… end." Alisha said and Jerome froze.
Jerome didn't argue with her. There was no point anymore.He slowly walked to the cold room. The hospital staff opened the door for him and left him inside alone.
Kaira lay on the metal tray, covered neatly. Her face looked peaceful, almost like she was just sleeping through pain she had been fighting all her life.
Jerome stepped close. He touched her cold forehead lightly.
"You were supposed to make it," he whispered. "You promised me you would be fine."His breath shook.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier? Why did you keep everything inside until it ate you alive from the inside?"
He opened his palm slowly and placed her letter beside her arm.He didn't read it here.
He didn't want his last memory in this room to be him breaking again.
He took one more breath and turned to leave.
Right before he stepped out, he saw the small monitor on the wall flicker weakly for a second,just one tiny blip of light,then go off again.
He froze.It could've been power.It could've been nothing.But it felt wrong.Like something in that room didn't let go yet.He walked out slowly.Alisha stood up when she saw him.
"How… how did she look?" she asked quietly.Jerome took a long breath.
"She looked like she wasn't finished with the world."
Alisha stared at him confused, but didn't speak again.
Jerome walked out of the hospital and for the first time since that night… his heart didn't feel final.
Something inside him kept repeating.This story didn't truly end yesterday.Not completely.
The school hall felt different the next day.
Students walked around like nothing changed. Lecturers taught like they didn't feel anything. It made Jerome angry in a quiet way. How could the world keep going when Kaira wasn't breathing?
He sat alone behind the school lab, where Kaira used to sit sometimes to eat when she didn't want crowds. The bench still had tiny pen marks she once scratched absentmindedly. He traced them with his finger and his throat tightened again. He had been observing Kaira even before they met at the bus station.
Alisha approached slowly holding her bag tightly, like she was holding guilt inside it.
"Jerome… I found something from her locker."
He lifted his head slowly. Alisha sat beside him, both of them facing the empty school field. He could still hear Kaira's voice in his head.
Alisha opened her bag and brought out a small medication bottle not from the hospital.Jerome stared.
"This was hidden inside her locker wall. Tucked in the back where someone wouldn't easily see," Alisha whispered. "This isn't a normal drug. I checked the school nurse. She said she's never seen this brand before."
Jerome swallowed.
"She was treating something secretly," he said quietly.
"Jerome…" Alisha's voice cracked. "What if she knew she was getting worse but she didn't want us to panic?"Jerome rested his hands together.
"She didn't like burdening people. She didn't want pity. That's why she fought quietly."
Students passed them laughing and shouting, like it was just any regular day. That contrast cut deeper than anything.Jerome looked at the bottle again.
"Nothing about this feels normal," he said softly. "Nothing about her death feels… complete."
Alisha rubbed her palms nervously. "Do you think the hospital missed something? Or she was seeing another doctor? Somewhere else?"
Jerome didn't answer immediately.
He just felt this painful heaviness in his chest… but now it mixed with something sharper Maybe suspicion.
"Kaira didn't die like someone who wanted to give up," he whispered. "She was still planning the future. She was still fighting inside."
A group of students passed by arguing about exam timetable. Jerome watched them, realizing how little the world stops for pain.
He closed his fist on the medication bottle.
"I'm not accepting this ending yet."Alisha looked at him.
"I'm with you," she said softly. "Whatever truth is left… we'll find it together."
A life that maybe… was not gone in the way they thought.