- Chapter Six -
The Last Drawing

Julia’s Point of View:

The next morning I woke up feeling extremely light-hearted.  After yesterday’s fairytale wedding, I felt like Super Woman.  Even Yi Xing seemed to be high in spirits.

“Do you want to visit your bride this morning?” I joked.

I expected a snappy retort but he just nodded happily.

“Yeah.  I heard she was pretty tired after the wedding yesterday,” he replied with a worried expression.

We made our way towards the children’s wing.  Word had gotten out about the wedding and several people stopped us to talk about it.  However, as soon as we got off of the elevator at Sam’s floor, people were not as sociable.  In fact, it almost seemed as if they were ignoring us.  I shrugged it off and followed Yi Xing down the hallway.  When we reached Sam’s room, he frowned in confusion.  A nurse was in the room making up an empty bed.  All of the butterfly pictures had been taken down off of the walls and Sam was nowhere in sight.

“Where’s Sam?” asked Yi Xing.

Did she get sick again?  Were they running more tests?  One of the nurses walked up and held out a single piece of paper to us.  It was a crayon drawing of what looked like me, Yi Xing, and Samantha holding hands in a field of colorful flowers.  In the distance was a cute little version of some sort of cottage.

“Samantha’s mother wanted you to have this,” said the nurse.

Yi Xing looked at the picture in confusion, before questioning the nurse once again.

“Where is Samantha?”

The nurse took in a deep breath, before exhaling slowly.

“I’m sorry, sweetie but… Samantha passed away early this morning.”

My blood ran cold.

“W-What do you… mean?”  Yi Xing asked, his voice wavering.

“I’m truly sorry… really I am,” finished the nurse as she walked past us and down the hallway.

It just wasn’t fair.  Samantha had only lived to be seven years old.  She’d never finish school, go on her first date, go to college, or fall in love and have children.  That realization coupled with the grief stricken look on Yi Xing’s face tore my soul apart.  He burst into tears before slumping down to the floor in the doorway.

To be continued….     

A/N:  I know I said I wouldn't update until AFF was fixed but... OH WELL... Why not?!  I've got this saved on my computer so if this chapter gets deleted I'll re-upload it.  I think I'm going to do a double update today.  Chapter seven is coming up right after this one!!!