Three Days Ago
Turn the alarm off, eat breakfast, brush teeth, get ready, take the motorcycle and drive to work. That was Clara's normal morning routine. But not today. She woke up extra early. She made a mug of tea and hummed to the calendar and circled the date.
It was a Wednesday, which meant it was 'travelling with the Doctor Day'. She always looked forward to Wednesdays – even more than Fridays or Saturdays.
She eagerly looked at the watch and waited for the welcoming sound to appear. 5 minutes… 10 minutes… an hour.
"I'm going to be late for work." She sighed in defeat, gathered her markings and got on the motorbike. However, when she turned the engine, it stalled.
"Oh come on!" Clara yelled and kicked the tires in frustration.
Clara checked the watch and swore under her breath. "10 mins till school starts."
She ran. She bumped into quite a lot of pedestrians in the way, but it didn't matter. Being on time did. She had lots to do on a Wednesday. Senior English class, drama club supervision, yard duty, double English with COURTNEY… she sighed even at the thought of it. Although, the trip to the moon did change her a little. It gave her some inspiration, and motivated her to do more work than before. Still, Courtney was Courtney. It didn't mean she stopped getting into fights with students and staff members of the school.
Her chain of thought disappeared when she saw a green glowing rock dropping out of someone's bag. Clara stopped running and picked it up. She chased the man and tapped her in the shoulder with a cough.
"Hey, excuse me, you dropped this." Clara handed the glowy rock thing. She looked up to see a face… not human. It looked like one of those spoonhead things, but with two blue glowing eyes and a mouth-like hole in the middle. She gasped.
The alien punched her square in the jaw. Then, 'it' crouched down to pick up the rock Clara was holding, only to find it vaporise into the air. The alien muttered some angry gibberish and left without a trace.
Clara sat on the pavement, dumbfounded. "What the hell just happened?" She whispered to herself. She traced her jaw, where a bruise was already forming. Then, she saw her watch. She was already ten minutes late! After picking her bags and markings up from the pavement and gathering her thoughts, she sprinted to Coal Hill High School.
By the end of her first English class, she was dozing off. She shouldn't be the one to doze off – she was the teacher!
"Miss, what happened to your face?" A student asked.
"Nothing. Let's just say an alien from outer space punched me." She said nonchalantly. The student looked at her with a confused frown but that was the end of the discussion.
Drama club supervision was alright because Adrian did all the work. He always did all the work. Bless. Clara sat on one of the audiences' seats and dozed off again. She was so exhausted for some reason- and it wasn't even afternoon yet (or had Courtney for a lesson).
Yard duty was when everything started to become woozy. The dizziness made it really difficult to stand on one spot and/or walk around, supervising the kids. She couldn't let all the kids see it though, so she leaned on the school wall, acting natural. She was never going to go home sick. She had it all under control.
Then, it was time for double English… featuring Courtney.
"Courtney, stop chucking stuff at Liam!" Clara told her off, knowing that it won't work.
"But miss, I'm bored." She retorted.
"Come on Courtney. Behave." She slipped a sheet of paper under her notebooks. She knew it was going to motivate her.
"If you misbehave, I'll tell the Doctor." The note had said. That note always worked on her. She shouldn't threaten students but it was Courtney and she was never an ordinary student.
Courtney looked at it in shock and started working, just as she thought. Clara smirked and returned to her table, slightly stumbling. What was happening to her?
As she sat down, she wiggled her fingers around. They were feeling sluggish. Strange. The numbness were spreading, and by 2:30 pm, she couldn't feel her left arm.
'Come on, just be okay for thirty minutes.' She told herself. Thirty minutes and she could go home. End of school, go home and sleep on her big, comfortable bed.
"Miss, could you explain to us the symbolism used in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest?" Katrina asked. It was always Katrina, Katrina the model student. Other times, she would be delighted to. But she was dreading even to get up from her chair. But she had to. She needed to, as she knew no one had understood the concept of it in the first place. '30 minutes.' She said over and over in her head. 'Just 30 minutes.' She breathed out, trying to steady herself.
"Right, so…" She got up, but then, she slammed on the side of the wall after losing balance. Some students let out a giggle.
Oh no.
She landed on the floor and that was that. The last thing she saw was the student's faces indistinctively yelling at her with their worries/bemused/surprised eyes.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Clara opened her eyes. There was something covering her face… she felt a burning sensation to her sides. She reached out to feel a tube leading inside her. What was happening?
"Clara!" It was her dad. Well of course it was. "Oh my god, what is wrong with you?! Going to work even though you're sick. You know, when you are sick, even just a little bit, you have to…"
Clara groaned and switched her dad's never-ending speech off. Speaking of her brain, she had a sharp headache… actually, body ache. She ripped the oxygen mask off. It finally registered that she was in a hospital. White, sterile room, worried faces… the bed and the sickly green sheet of shame she was wearing. She loathed hospital gowns. She loathed hospital in general.
"You should keep the mask on, dear. Just in case." It was her gran. The sight of her always made her relaxed. Her gran gently placed the mask on her face again.
"Gran… Sorry about what happened… Wait, what happened?" Clara frowned.
"Don't be sorry dear. It wasn't your fault." Her gran stroked her hair.
"Kidney failure. You have a bloody kidney failure. Why didn't you tell us? You must have had warning symptoms before. Why do you always hide stuff from us?" Her dad frustratingly asked.
"What? Kidney failure?" She paused. She suddenly remembered the kids… She was in her English class. "Oh my stars." She covered her face in embarrassment. "They saw everything, didn't they? I was teaching an English class. Oh no, no no… this is not happening."
"The kids handled it well, don't worry." There was another voice.
"Adrian?" She sat up, flinching with pain. The pain was getting worse, but she had to hide it in front of her family, and definitely Adrian. She didn't want them to worry.
"Hey, glad you're doing better. I was getting worried, you know… with all that stuff with Danny few months back. I thought I was going to lose you too." He said, placing a bouquet of flower on the bedside table. "… also, the kids made you a get well card. I helped." He awkwardly smiled and placed a gigantic card on the table as well.
"Awww, that's so sweet." Clara smiled, hiding the sadness. It still hurt when anyone talked about Danny. "I promise you, I'm fine. You won't be able to get rid of me that easily." She chuckled, but stopped as soon as the wave of sleepiness tried to control her. "Anyway, I think whatever this is, it's affecting me." She said, holding up her IV hand. "If you don't mind, is it okay if I get more sleep?" Clara asked. She probably didn't need to, but it seemed like a polite thing to do.
"Of course, dear. Good night." Her gran kissed her on the cheek.
"Night Clara. Hope you get well." Adrian smiled. The darkness took over her again.
The next time she was awake was not a good memory. It was like she was being dragged underwater while being stabbed repeatedly. There were shining lights everywhere, panicked, indistinct voices and most importantly, pain.
"Doctor, what's happening to her?" It was as if someone was whispering in her dreams.
"She's having a liver failure, but we haven't found the reason why yet. These things are not common with a person her age. "
"Is she going to be okay?"
"We can't promise anything. I'm sorry."
The next time she woke up, she was surrounded by tubes.
"We've moved?" Clara croaked. It wasn't the room she woke up in initially. It was dark, only lit by the artificial lights from the millions of monitors next to her. She tried to sit up, but was met by a wave of dizzying pain.
"Hello dear. You'll be alright. Just breathe."
"Gran. I'm sorry. I really don't want you to worry." Clara apologised.
"No, dear. It's alright. It's really alright." Her gran squeezed her hand.
A doctor came in.
"Hello, Clara. How are you feeling? My name is Doctor Lanzou."
"Hi. Um… I feel very numb." She couldn't really describe what she was experiencing. It felt like she was trying to speak in dreams. "Is this a dream?" She asked, confused.
"That's okay, that's just the pain killers." He said with a soothing voice, scribbling something down. While he was checking her all over, Clara found the courage to ask him a question.
"Doctor, what's happening to me?"
He paused. "We… don't know yet. All we know is that your organs are failing one by one. We're trying our best to get your organs going. You've had a kidney failure, liver failure and even a collapsed lung. When we know what you're suffering from, you'll be the first to find out. Okay?" He gave her a reassuring smile.
Clara nodded with disappointment and sadness. "Got it." Suddenly, another wave of pain struck her.
There were people running around once again, flashing lights and then quietness.
"Clara, I'm always here if you need me. I know you can make it alive. Come on." She wondered how long her gran had been beside her. She couldn't remember much every time she woke up, as she was barely conscious, but she always acknowledged the fact that her gran was there, watching over her.
Even Clara knew that every second there, everything was becoming worse.
She had no idea how long had passed. But she woke up feeling her gran's warm hand on hers.
"Gran." Clara gently tapped her gran's hand. Even that gesture was sparking pain along her body, so she stopped after a few taps. "If I don't make it alive…"
"Don't say that." Clara's gran said firmly. "You're going to live past me, you hear? You're only 28. You have a whole life ahead of you."
Clara ignored her, she had to tell her Gran. "… if I don't make it alive, I need you to call a number. The number should be written in a notepad inside my coat. It's the best helpline in the universe. His name is the Doctor, but he's changed since you met him on Christmas. I need you to tell him what happened."
"You can tell him yourself when you get all better." Her gran smiled sadly.
Clara smiled. "But if I don't, you have to. I'm going to say this just in case I won't be able to later." Tears fell around her mask. "I love you, gran, more than anyone else in the world."
Clara fell asleep again.
Dave walked in huffing. "The Doctors gave her one week to live. What are they? Gods?! They don't even know what's wrong with her!"
Clara's gran looked at her with sad eyes.
Halfway through the night, it started again. The pain, the never ending pain. Clara's gran watched in pain as she saw her gasping for her breath. Her precious granddaughter was suffering so much. So much for what? She didn't deserve any of this.
She found a phone number in Clara's green coat as she said. While waiting in the waiting room until her condition stabilised, she reluctantly dialled the number.
"Hello?" A gruff voice answered. This was definitely not the young (naked) man she saw last Christmas.
"… Hello? Is this the… Doctor?" She nervously said.
"Maybe. Who is this? How did you get my number?"
She sobbed. Maybe this wasn't it. She held on though. If her granddaughter trusts him, she could too.
"She said I needed to call you. She said that you were the best helpline in the universe."
"Who said? Who is she? Who are you?"
She couldn't bear saying it.
"She's very ill." She sniffled. "Doctor, please help my granddaughter. Save her for me. Please."
"Who's your granddaughter? Listen, if you're going to be any vaguer, I'm going to hang up."
"It's Clara. She collapsed at work. She's dying and no one knows what's happening to her." She blurted. Suddenly the line went dead.
The doctors came out with sadness cast in their eyes.
"No!" She fell onto the ground. Even before they said it, she knew what they were going to say.
"I am so sorry ma'am. She didn't make it."
Dave hugged her, crying as well.
They walked into the room to see a body covered in a white sheet. Dave uncovered the sheet up to the face. Clara's pretty face, just like Ellie's, exactly like Ellie's. There were no expressions on her face now. Her hands were still warm and her cheeks still had some colour. Those were the last traces of her short life.
They stood there as they saw the body being wheeled off to the morgue. They stared at the empty room, with an empty bed.
It was three days. Three days to see their child be destroyed bit by bit. In the process, it destroyed them too.
Suddenly, their grieving silence was interrupted by a groaning noise. It was the blue box. The blue box she was always talking about. Half of the time, they had no idea what she was saying. If only they'd paid more attention to her. Suddenly, all the bad memories flooded in Dave. All the pointless arguments, slamming of doors… even just being annoyed. He just wanted to go back to those memories and hold her, and never let go.
An old man ran out of the box.
"You missed her." Dave replied, feeling nothing but a big, empty hole. He was clutching onto Clara's green coat, with his eyes filled with tears. "She died five minutes ago."
The Doctor dropped the translucent rock, and it shattered into pieces on the cold, hard hospital floor.