A week had passed since Tori got home. Everyone was gathered at her house as David was reading the results the hospital had sent them. The expressions on their faces told more than words could. Tori needed chemotherapy to prevent the cancer from spreading even more. David, Holly and Trina were fighting the tears while each one of them read the letter again and again, trying to find anything that would prove them wrong. But it was in useless. Tori watched her family's fight with the tears. She was calm, stoic, and emotionless. She was the last one to take the letter, carefully reading it. She took the information she had needed. The first chemotherapy session would be in a few days, while the others would take place every three weeks.

"I'm sorry honey." Holly said as she hugged her youngest kid. Tori saw the pain her family was in. She knew that they were emotionally and mentally exhausted. She also knew that someone had to stay calm and rational during all this. Tori sighed as she placed the letter back down on the table and walked upstairs into her room. Nobody followed her. They wanted to give her some lone time to let everything sink in.

"She must be devastated." Holly said to her husband and her older daughter.

"She looked calm to me." David said in a more concerned tone.

"How can she stay so calm?" Holly asked, looking at him.

"Somebody has to." Trina said before getting up and walking upstairs. She stopped in front of Tori's room and slowly opened the door. She peeked in to see her baby sister lying on her bed, watching the ceiling and humming some sound.

"How are you?" Trina asked her in a concerned tone. She knew that Tori must be sick of that question by now, but she couldn't find any other words.

"I'm fine. To be honest, I expected this to happen." Tori admitted.

"You… you expected this?" Trina stuttered, not sure if she heard right.

"I had a feeling. It would have been too easy if the surgery had done the job." Tori admitted. She honestly felt that way. This time, she knew that she wouldn't get off the easy way. This time, she had to fight for her life, literally.

"Are you scared of the chemotherapy?"

"No. Not really. I mean, I'm not happy that I have to do all those sessions, but what can I do?" Tori sighed. "What's the use of crying over it if I can't change it now?"

"But… you can't just be so cold about it… I mean…" Trina stuttered, not daring to finish her thought.

"I could die. Yeah, I know. I had a lot of time to think about that." Tori simply said, leaving her sister to stand there with a dropped jaw.

"You won't die, Tori."

"There is a good chance for that."

"Stop it!" Trina finally screamed. Tori turned her head to look at the now crying Trina. Tori sighed as she got up and walked towards her. She put her hands on her older sister's shoulders.

"I know you don't want to hear about this, but that's how things are now. Somebody has to think about all the possibilities, and none of you is doing it right now." Tori simply said before pulling Trina in a hug. Trina wrapped her arms around her sister, tightening the grip as much as she could. Tori didn't say anything. She understood that Trina was scared. Everyone is. But Tori for some reason wasn't. She thought about it for quite a while now. She actually made peace with the idea that she could die in a matter of months. She was scared at first, but after spending so much time thinking about it, she found it to be a lot easier to come to peace with than she actually expected. It wasn't that she didn't love life. It was the opposite. She loved life, her friends, and her family. There was still so much she wanted to do and experience. But she also knew that not every story can have a happy ending.

Trina pulled away after a few minutes. She calmed down and left Tori's room without saying another word. Tori's attitude left her speechless. She didn't understand how of all people it was Tori who seemingly had the least problem with the whole situation.

Tori lied back down on her bed. She knew that she had to tell the others about the news. But she didn't know how to break it to them. While she was stoic and prepared for everything that would happen to her, she wasn't keen of worrying the others even more. She thought about calling everyone or sending them a message that explains the whole ordeal, but she imagined their faces when they see a message from her. She can see the hope in their eyes that everything would be alright now, and she can see that hope dying when they get confronted with the hard truth.

She decided for a rather bold move. She took her phone and logged into her TheSlap account. After a few clicks, she had updated her status.

Chemo in a few days.

That was it. Nothing added. Nothing explained. The short, simple and heartbreaking truth. The comments immediately flooded it. She didn't bother reading them now. She swore she could guess each one posted. It would be the usual "I'm so sorry" mixed with the "It's going to be okay" and the seldom, but never disappointing "My prayers go to you". She chuckled at the idea of a divine intervention. Her faith had been shaken up a long time ago with everything that happened around the world. She had decided to trade her faith for hard work and desire. Maybe that was a punishment for that? If so, then she knew a lot of people who had a lot of things coming and a lot who had it even worse than her, no matter the fact that they were very religious.

She heard her phone buzz. She looked at the message. It was from Beck, saying "Are you okay? I can't believe it…" She quickly typed her answer.

"I'm fine. Not so surprised myself." After finishing it, she pressed the send button and threw her phone back on her bed. She thought about what chemo would do to her. In the hospital she informed herself about everything. She prepared herself mentally as much as she could. In the few, but strong panic attacks, music would help her. She mentally thanked the musicians who composed such instrumentals and sadder types of songs which really help to calm down and think. She knew that without something like that, she would have gone crazy a long time ago.

That moment, she made a decision. She got off her bed and walked to the bathroom. In there, she took out a pair of scissors Trina and her mother always used. She looked at herself in the mirror one last time, before taking one of her long strands of hair and cutting it off.