Ok. This is my first story. I know it doesn't really follow the topic of The Avengers yet but I'm getting to that. Believe me, the story gets better as well... I hope... Please leave any constructive criticism or review. Please enjoy.
It'sATimeyWimeyThing

The Death of an Angel

I promised myself I wouldn't cry. I would be strong. For her. For Sarah... But as I walked slowly into her hospital ward, I just lost it. Tears poured down my face as I stared at her broken form.

Sarah Bell. The only person left in the world that I cared about. The only person in the world who had ever cared about me. And now here she was, lying pale and shivering in a hospital bed, diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. The world is so cruel. She was so pale and limp. It broke my heart and soul to see her like this. It felt like something had shattered inside me. A glass sphere inside my heart had been smashed and had left a gaping hole of which could never be replaced. Of course I loved her, I just never had the courage to tell her so. What if she didn't feel the same way? Where would we be then? Still friends? I was too scared to ask, so of course I never found out.

Looking at her now it was difficult to imagine what she once was. The amazing girl I couldn't help falling in love with. She was an angel. Once upon a time, she had had long black hair, which she often dyed the ends pink. She had elven features and a smile that would light up any room. This all changed in a matter of months. As the cancer progressed, her hair fell out, and she all but lost the energy to smile. Her timeless elven face seemed to age 20 years. But no matter how sick she got, she still looked as beautiful as ever in my eyes. She would always be an angel to me. Even though my eyes were already red from crying, I forced back the tears and approached her bed.

As I walked closer, I listened to the regular beep from the machine that represented my only friend's fading heartbeat, and realised both how precious and how delicate life truly is. I felt tears welling back up in my throat, and I almost backed away, but her pale hand reached up and took mine, and I couldn't leave. I held her hand, our eyes met, and in that single moment, I saw how scared she really was. That brave girl I had spent so much time with was gone. She didn't want to die; she still had a whole life to live. It wasn't fair. And I realised, I didn't want to ever leave her. I would die, just to be with her.

We sat there in silence for a while. Holding hands and wishing we were someplace else. We both knew she wouldn't live for much longer; she had only been given three months to live. That time was up as of yesterday. She was now on borrowed time. I went to break the silence, but she spoke first:

"Don't you dare" she whispered in my ear.

I almost smiled, she could read me like a book. She knew what I was thinking: how could I go on without her?

"Life wouldn't be worth it without you", I whispered back.

"I know", she said, "I'm amazing like that"

That was Sarah, making jokes on her death bed. I couldn't help it, I smiled. She smiled back, and for that single moment in time, all was well with the world. That was the last time she ever smiled. And the last time I smiled in a very long time.

Sarah coughed up blood, and our smiles were instantly wiped off our faces as we were thrown back into reality: Sarah was dying and there was nothing anybody could do to help. Sarah's hand felt weaker in mine as she whispered feebly in my ear:

"Then forget me, live your life and forget about me. Promise"

"Promise" I said.

She seemed satisfied with my answer, and as our eyes met for the last time, her hand fell from my grip, and her eyes glazed over, never to blink again. I fell to pieces, not only because my only friend had just died in front of me, or because she had told me to forget about her, but because I had lied: I could never forget her.

And as I sat there listening to the single, continuous tone of the machine that had once represented my friends heartbeat, I sobbed. I cried and I screamed at the world until two of the doctors came and dragged me away, kicking and screaming, from my friend's lifeless body. And as I was dragged from the room, I remembered something that truly shattered my soul: I never even got to tell her I loved her.