DEAD AT HEART

The hospital reeks of antiseptic and finality-no getting around it. The smell hits Ariel the second she steps past the sliding doors, harsh and chemical. It seeps into her lungs, settling deep and cold, like the place itself is quietly reminding her she's here because something's ending, even if no one says it out loud.

Hospitals don't let anyone pretend, not for long. The fluorescent lights, the scrubbed floors, the beep-beep-beep from machines, the sense that time is measured, bodies break, nothing's really forever-she can't ignore any of it.

Ariel's footsteps are soft as she walks down the corridor. Not like at the marble lobby last night-they still echo in the near-empty hallway, but now it's a thinner sound, almost apologetic. She's moving with a careful slowness, partly because she didn't sleep at all, partly because the hours lost their shape sometime in the long, gray dawn. It's both early and late, somehow.

Glass panels line one wall, and her own reflection trails along beside her. She looks washed out. Calm. Like someone she wouldn't recognize, like the crying hasn't happened and maybe never will. Even when everything went sideways twelve hours ago-with words like contract and never and fiancée slamming into her-she didn't cry. Now it's just this strange stillness, as if every feeling dove for cover. What's left is a kind of quiet emptiness humming under her skin.

At the nurses' desk, the young woman there glances up and gives her a polite smile. It falters the moment she recognizes Ariel. "Ms. Larkin." The nurse's voice is gentle, soft in the exact way people get when they expect to give or witness bad news. "Dr. Adeyemi will see you now."

Ariel gives a small nod. No words.

She follows the nurse down a narrower hall. The noise fades out, swallowed up by closed doors and thick air. It's almost suffocating, heavy with every hard conversation that's ever happened in this wing.

They reach a door. The nurse pauses, like she's giving Ariel one last second to dodge whatever's waiting. Ariel doesn't move. She just goes in.

Dr. Adeyemi's office is spotless. Desk arranged just so, papers in order, laptop glowing softly. There's a wide window, but the sky outside is washed gray, the light inside somehow quieter because of it.

He stands as she enters, straight-backed, face calm, but there's something tighter in his posture-he's done this before, but this isn't routine for him. Not today. He gestures to a chair. "Ariel, please, sit."

She sits, slowly, every motion precise, careful. Her face is a practiced blank-not frozen, just under control.

He folds his hands on the desk, waits, then looks up at her. They stare at each other in a silence that stretches just a bit too long. He glances at the folder, jaw clenched, draws a long breath. She watches him, really sees him, and she knows. Even before he speaks, she knows.

Still, he starts in with, "We've received your results. I wanted to talk through them with you in person." His words are tidy, deliberate.

She says, "I appreciate that," voice level, as if they're talking about something mild, mundane.

He hesitates, looking for some reaction-fear, anger, anything to give him a clue how to proceed. He finds nothing. He presses on. "The progression is... aggressive." A slight pause on that word. "More than we thought at first."

Ariel just listens. No interruptions, no questions. The silence waits for him to fill it.

"There are treatment options to explore," he adds quickly, almost like he can't leave things bare, "clinical trials, some experimental therapies, supportive care that-"

"How long?" Ariel cuts in, her voice cutting through without a single extra word.

He freezes for a second. Then his eyes meet hers. Whatever he sees seems to shift him. All the softening falls away. He gives her the truth. "You have three months."

The words drop, sinking into the air. Heavy. Solid. Done.

The silence after isn't awkward-it's complete. Nothing more to say. Three months. Ninety days. Turns out forever's got a number, and hers is in double digits. Plans, dreams, all of it smudged out beyond that horizon.

Ariel doesn't react. No gasp, no sudden tears, nothing shows. Because deep down, she already knew. Not the number, but the certainty. Her own body's been sounding the alarms for weeks: tiredness that never went away, dull aches, that prickling sense all isn't right, no matter how she tried to talk herself out of it.

Three months just gives it shape. A timeline. A limit.

"I see." Her words are steady. Calm, like she's talking about something happening to someone else.

Dr. Adeyemi is still watching her, brow furrowed with concern. "Ariel, I realize this is a lot. You don't have to-"

"I understand," she says, gentle but certain. She does. Because in less than a day, everything-the marriage that wasn't real, the future that's gone, the body giving up-has been stripped away. What's left is brutally simple.

"What happens now?" She asks it flat, practical.

He exhales, shifts in his chair. "We focus on quality. On making sure you're comfortable. If you want, we can talk about trial treatments that could extend-"

"No." This time, her reply is fast. Not harsh. Just certain. She isn't looking for more time; she knows it won't mean more life, just more waiting.

He pauses, asks again. "Are you sure? There are new trials-"

"I'm sure." No extending what's already finished.

He gives her a long look, then nods-accepting her answer without argument. "Then we'll do everything we can to make these months manageable."

Ariel nods back. After that, the talk gets smaller. Appointments, symptom management, numbers and names that mostly blur together. She takes it in because she has to. Then she stands, thanks him, and lets herself out.

Now, the hallway feels different. Not because it's changed; she has. Three months-those words beat through her, not loud, but stubborn. They pace out each step she takes. She reaches the entrance without even noticing her feet move, the doors parting to let her out. The air outside is damp and cool, hinting that rain just ended.

She pauses at the threshold for a breath. She doesn't move, caught between what was and whatever's left. Then she digs her phone out of her bag. The screen lights up empty. No messages. No missed calls. Her thumb lingers, half-expecting something miraculous-a message, a voice, proof she's not alone. Nothing comes. Of course not. There's no one left waiting.

It doesn't cut, not the way it might have yesterday. It's just another fact, another sharp-edged piece of truth. She lowers the phone, drawing in a smooth breath.

Across the street, the city is its usual indifferent self-cars, crowds, lives rolling on, the world unpaused by her private ending.

She glances up. The clouds are splitting, light leaking through.

Then, in the distance: a sudden burst of color. A crack. Fireworks-loud, bright, brazen against the dim city sky. Another flare, then another, lighting up everything for a second before fading.

A celebration, somewhere. She watches, unmoving, as the sky ripples with blue and red and gold-so alive, so loud, all that color against her quiet emptiness.

For the first time since hearing "three months," while the world is busy lighting up, another thought floats quietly in. Not fear. Not grief.

Something riskier. And something she chooses.