Hello, dear readers. Here's another chapter. Elizabeth's infamous line is in this - hope I gave it justice.

Thanks for the review, ShiningDay. ^_^

-Scarlet

Chapter 6: Sorrow

Edward woke up the next morning. I was so excited that I jumped out of bed at once. My knees buckled, and I skinned the palms of my hands on the rough wooden floor when I fell. A nurse came rushing in, bandaged my hands, and told me to lie still. But when she left, I sat at Edward's bedside and held his hand.

His eyelids were swollen and droopy, and his lips were chapped and white. The breaths he took rattled in his chest, and his hand was limp and clammy in mine. When he spoke, his voice was like sandpaper, "Go back to bed, Ella..."

I frowned. "But the sun is up." I gazed out the window, at the cloud-domed sky. Sticky summer rain was on the way.

"It doesn't matter," my brother rasped. "Where's Mother?"

At his words, I looked up at the bed next to his, where my mother tossed in a feverish slumber. Her brow was wrinkled and dotted with sweat. "She got faint last night. She's been sleeping for a while."

Edward didn't even have the strength to turn his head. His eyes drifted shut again, and he fell asleep right then. Tears pricked at my eyes, threatening to overtake me. I squeezed his burning hand between mine and willed the sickness to release him. I could tell his life was dwindling... his breaths were shallow and spread apart.

"How are you today, Miss Masen?"

I started at the sudden voice, and tore my eyes away from Edward's shadowed face. It was the doctor – same as the night before – standing there with an inquisitive look in his eyes. They were darker today... melted caramel instead of warm honey. I wondered why. "I'm still sick," I informed him. "And Edward is very tired..." My eyes drifted back to my brother as the doctor moved to the other side of the bed.

He took Edward's temperature again, marking it on the record he held under his arm. Then he left to all the other patients, asking them how they were and taking their vitals. I watched him from sitting on my cot, legs crossed. My body ached to lay down, but I didn't want to sleep like Edward and my mother. I had to fight it better than they were.

The doctor came back to me after checking the whole room, and listened to my breath with his stethoscope. Then he told me to cough, and he read the thermometer from my mouth. He gave me a tiny cup of water, and told me to drink it slowly.

"You're very lucky, Miss Masen," he said once he was done. "Your respiratory system has not yet been infected. Your body is fighting the illness very well."

And I was proud. I spent the whole day sitting up on pillows, sipping water that the nurses brought me, and waiting for my mother and brother to wake up. They never did. The rain that tapped on the windows lulled me to sleep after a lunch of chicken broth.

:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

I was disoriented when I woke up to darkness. My eyes were sticky from sleep, and my body was sweaty from the stuffy air. I tried to move my sore bones, but they screamed in protests. I soon adjusted to the lighting, and blinked to look around.

It was nighttime, and the room was filled with the night from outside the tall windows. The ward was silent – ominously so – except for the empty breaths of its patients. Feeling weak and lost within myself, I wiggled myself under into the burrow of covers and buried my face into a pillow.

Then, I heard soft, whispered voices. "Are you awake, Mrs Masen?"

I heard the sleepy mumble, "I am," and then a labored yawn.

"How are you feeling?" I decided it was the doctor's voice again.

"I feel that I will follow my husband shortly...," was her answer.

My mind drifted on the border of unconsciousness, but something kept me above slumber.

"Might speak with you, Doctor?" she beckoned surly, as if calling him back.

"Of course." I heard shuffling material, as though he'd taken a seat.

My mother sighed lowly. "You didn't know Edward... he was a wonderful man. I loved him so very much. He gave me two beautiful children and a home. I lived happily." Her reminiscent tone made me frown with gravity. She spoke as though she was already dead.

The doctor was silent; he was only there to listen.

"We have two war bonds taken out for the children... so sad they'll never be used." The sorrow in her voice tore my soul in two. I felt the aching in my chest, and tears spilt from my eyes and wet the pillow.

"I can't express my sympathy enough, Mrs. Masen." The doctor's voice was penitent.

But she continued as though he hadn't spoken. "I regret my treatment of Eleanor the most... She was so much like her father – strong and stubborn. I wanted her to be a lady, but that wasn't for her."

I tiny sob broke through my trembling lips, and I clutched the pillow closer to my face to muffle the sound. They hadn't heard me, though... or if they did, they didn't acknowledge me.

My mother's voice was so strained, her words were barely legible. "Do you have children, Dr. Cullen?"

"I am unmarried," came the soft reply.

She sighed. "There is no other feeling like it that you can sympathize with, then. The helplessness... I can't bear it for much longer." Her voice was heavy with tears, like my own.

"Forgive me," the doctor hazard. "I truly wish I could help."

There was a very long pause, and I heard nothing but Edward's gasping breath. But the doctor didn't leave, and I wondered what they were silently sharing.

Then I heard my mother's voice, and it was a desperate whisper. "Please, Doctor! You must!"

"What must I do, Mrs. Masen?" he prodded urgently.

"You must save them!" my mother pleaded breathlessly.

There was a short pause. "I will do everything in my power," the doctor promised undoubtedly.

"No, no, you must!"

I peeked through the sheets, curious due to their hurried voices. My mother gasped at the doctor's shirtfront, half-sitting and half-laying. The tears on her face sparkled with the moonlight in the room, which turned her matted hair dark silver. The doctor grasped her elbows with ghost-white hands, glowing in the surreal light, as though gently easing her away.

"You must do everything in your power, Doctor," she breathed helplessly. "What others cannot do – that is what you must do for my children!" Her voice was struggled and raspy, and her breaths came in wheezes. Not even old lady Palmer breathed like that.

I looked at Edward's pale, clammy face, but he was still asleep. His eyes had purple around them, like someone had punched him hard. His lips were grey, and parted with slowly-drawn breaths.

When my mother fell silent, I hid my face again. My heart pounded painfully, fueling the sickness to flow hotly through my veins. I felt it consume me further in that moment, as though some part of me had surrendered to it.

"Doctor?" I called into the darkness, through the sheets. My voice was scared and broken, like the little coward I'd become. I didn't doubt that my frightened eyes looked like an owl's again.

"What is it, Eleanor?" The doctor came to my bedside, and peeled the sheets away from my face. His eyes were sad, filled with doubt. It was the very first time that he didn't look like an experienced doctor, but a faultable man.

"I'm frightened," I admitted shakily. "Is Mother OK?"

His head turned to my mother's bed, but I didn't look. Something warned me that I shouldn't. He didn't answer my question. "Sleep now, Eleanor." His chilly fingertips swept gently over my eyelids, closing them. "We'll speak in the morning."

:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

I drifted through the realms of sleep, like a lonely cloud in a dark sky. The sickness raged in my body; I certainly was infected now. I thrashed like the other victims that I'd watched, trying fruitlessly to escape the sucking force that ate my willpower. My mind hazed, and bizarre colors haunted my dreams.

I woke with a jolt, which caused pain to ripple down my depleted body. I wasn't coherent enough to hear beyond the droning buzz in my ears, but my sight was strangely vivid.

A demon, an incarnation from my worst nightmares, stood above me with eyes of blood. A cursed fog hung around him in my delusional vision, and my instincts told me to escape. But my body wasn't able to move; the sickness held me there. His scarlet lips were damp on my neck, and his teeth sharp when his mouth opened over my skin.

"Stop," I breathed faintly.

His hands gripped the bed rail above my head and his teeth slowly pushed through my skin. Pain invaded me like flaming ice. Hot blood spilt down my neck, and I struggled against the pulling pain as he drank from my neck. But I was weak and helpless.

"Stop!" I gasped, clawing at the sheets that restrained my arms.

A new fire – unlike the sickness – erupted in my blood. It tore at every inch of my flesh as a rattling scream ripped up my throat. But he didn't stop... pull, pull, pull... swallow after swallow of my life left me.

"Mother!" I cried out as the flames peaked at my neck. "MOTHER, HELP!"

My heart began fluttering in my chest, causing needles of pain to prick in my veins. My breath came heavy and hard as finally the monster stopped. Though he withdrew from my neck, the pain remained tenfold. I fought against it, like I had the sickness, but it drew me into its grasp firmly and fully.

I knew it was over... My time had stopped... Everything had finished... The end had come...

My life had surely ended.

I'd really like to know what you think, even if it's about breakfast tomorrow. Review?

-Scarlet