Haruhi's Voice

-Faster, faster… Come on, run faster.

After receiving that call, I tried to arrive at the hospital as fast as I could.

It had been several days without any message from her, and the thought that something could have happened to her increasingly grew inside me as time passed.

Upon arriving at her room, I saw a young doctor in front of the door.

- Doc. H-How is she? -I said, almost without breath.

- I’m so sorry. We can’t do any more… We had tried everything in our hands to control the disease, which is spreading at high pace all over her body, but nothing has worked.

- Sorry, but she has not much time left.

After a few moments in silence looking at each other, he moved away from me, slowly walking down the aisle. I could tell that he hadn’t slept in the last few days.

Deep inside me, I needed to know how she was doing. So I entered her room.

At first, she seemed to be asleep. There were a lot of machines and devices connected all around her body. Upon seeing her in that state, my mind could only recall those moments when she was happy and smiling every time we met each other.

Like that time when we went to the amusement park and took pictures with a giant panda bear, won as a prize. Or when we went to the theater to watch movies, they were so boring that we fell asleep. Or when we sang her favorite songs at the karaoke. That day, we almost lost our voices after hours of singing.

Tears were about to escape, but I had to try to be strong in this moment and maintain composure. But it was truly impossible, impossible not to cry in this situation. She had been a part of my life for a whole year; I was unable to easily forgetting everything.

Right now, I could feel a void in my chest, mixed with a deep sadness that I couldn't even describe with just some words.

I wished this was just a terrible nightmare from which I could wake up, but it wasn't. This was reality. The real world as we know it, was right in front of my eyes, but even so, I didn't want to accept it. I didn't want to accept the fact that something so cruel could happen to the person I loved the most in this world. I couldn't accept the simple fact of having to endure this deep sadness and, at the same time, helplessness for not being able to do anything to prevent her death.

While hundreds of thoughts still raced through my mind, the only thing I was certain of was that I had completely lost my desire and motivation to move forward. She was the strength that I needed to face the injustices of the world, but now she was no longer here.

While I was still feeling depressed, I grabbed my jacket and left the hospital room. I descended the stairs slowly and proceeded to exit the building I was in. Right at the exit, it started raining heavily, as if the sky was also crying strongly, and I opened the umbrella I had with me.

Just as I was about to take the first step forward, I heard a voice behind me. I think someone was saying something to me, but I really didn't feel like responding.

-Hey, wait a minute, I forgot to give you this earlier. Take it, it's for you.

-Huh? For me?

-It's the gift your girlfriend wanted to give you for your birthday. She told me to give it to you in case she couldn't.

-A gift? Oh, right, today is my birthday. With everything that has happened today, I completely forgot about that little detail.

-Here you go. Well, I have to go. I still have work to do. Happy birthday, dude.

-Um, thanks, I guess.

The doctor walked away slowly, with all the calm in the world. It was as if he was already used to this kind of situation. Maybe for him, she was just another patient, but not for me. For me, she was everything in my world.

As I wiped away the few remaining tears on my face, I opened the gift that I held in my hands.

- W-What is this?

It looks like a novel.

Indeed, she loved writing a lot. It was one of her many passions. I remembered as tears fell onto the cover.

Her favorite genre was fantasy; she loved writing about other worlds that could only be reached through imagination.

I began reading the novel calmly as I walked through the nighttime streets of the city. It was raining, but I felt no rush to return home. I simply wanted to read the last thing she had written, to see to which world her words would travel me this time.

It seemed that the two main characters of the novel were also lovers. As I read on, I could see some similarities between their romantic relationship and ours. I suppose she drew inspiration from us to write this romance.

- Uhh? - as I turned the page, there was nothing written. The rest of the pages were also blank. There was no ending written.

The rain had stopped, so I decided to close the umbrella.

Just as I closed it, a bright light blinded me, and the next thing that happened was quite painful.

Unfortunately, a truck hit me at full speed. I didn't see it coming, so I took the impact completely.

Not only did I go flying, but the novel and all its pages did too. They scattered in the air.

In that moment, my eyes looked up at the sky, and I saw her smiling face. I closed my eyes and smiled back at her.

After what felt like an eternity floating in the air, though it was only a few seconds, I then fell to the ground.

Nothing. Everything was dark. A darkness as deep as the void of space.

I don't know how much time passed, but suddenly I saw a light in the distance. I wanted to reach it, so I tried to move. However, it wasn't me who was moving. I couldn't. It was that light that was approaching me, getting closer and closer until it enveloped me completely.

Then I woke up. I tried to open my eyes slowly, as my head still hurt. I tried to gather myself and began walking through an unfamiliar place. It was a bit dark, like a typical alley with buildings on either side. The darkness was due to the shadows formed by the buildings.

I tried to move forward to reach the main street, but I was still quite dizzy. As soon as I managed to exit the alley, I passed out.

When I woke up again, I took a quick look around. It seemed like I was lying in the middle of a street, on top of something. People kept walking back and forth, and I still had a slight headache.

I think I was on a girl's lap. I looked up and could see her face.

She asked me if I was okay, but my brain still couldn't fully process everything that was happening.

When I looked into her eyes more intently, I was completely stunned.

She, she... was Haruhi?