Five Hours Earlier....
Misa walked into Kana's ward only to find an empty room.
Misa: Huh? Where is she?
Misa placed the box which held the cake she had baked for her on the table close to her bed and then walked out to the corridor hoping to see Kana around. But she was nowhere in sight.
Misa: Come to think of it, John said she always liked going to the rooftop. Maybe I'll check there.
After getting directions from one of the nurses, Misa began walking towards where the stairs were located. Just as she was about to turn the corner, she heard something hit the ground with a resounding crack sound echoing throughout the corridors of the hospital.
Misa: What could've possibly fallen down so hard like that?
However, nothing could prepare Misa for what she was about to see the moment she turned the corner. There lying down on the floor in the pool of her own blood which bled out of her head was Kana.
The scene filled Misa with horror, fear and a lot of different emotions she couldn't name at that moment and then she let out an ear deafening scream.
Misa: KANA!!!
Her cries echoed through the hallway as nurses and doctors came rushing in from every direction to see what was the cause of the commotion and when they saw the scene, they immediately got to work and then a nurse came and checked her vitals.
Nurse: She's unconscious! She's bleeding from the skull, get a stretcher here immediately!!
Jane came sprinting in, froze at the sight, then rushed forward as tears began to gather up in her eyes and then Misa who had become an emotional wreck grabbed Jane as soon as she came.
Misa: Help her! Please help her!!
Kana's limp body was carefully lifted onto the stretcher as blood soaked through the white sheets.
Unknown to them, Kana stood a few feet away… watching the whole thing unfold in confusion. She took a look at herself and then at her body which was being wheeled away on the stretcher towards the ICU and then and Misa who was crying uncontrollably in Misa's arms.
Kana: (softly) What's going on…That's… me?
She turned to Misa, who was crying uncontrollably.
Kana: (confused) Misa…? Why are you crying? I'm right here…
She moved and tried to touch Misa and Jane but her hand suddenly went through them which added to her confusion. She tried calling out to them but they didn't seem to hear her no matter how many times she yelled and screamed.
She then began to panic.
Kana: What's happening…?!
While all this was happening, Jane and Misa began heading to the ICU waiting room where they were to sit and wait for the worst possible outcome and Kana followed them.
After she watched them take their seats remain quiet, Kana reached for the ICU doors and like she expected, she was able to walk through them and then she found herself in the room full of doctors and nurses moving around while her body layed there at the center of the room.
Soon enough, Dr. Kennedy burst through the doors in surgical scrubs having been informed already about what had happened.
Dr. Kennedy: What's her BP?
A nearby nurse responded
Nurse: 80 over 40 and dropping. Head trauma and possible internal bleeding.
Dr. Kennedy: She's crashing. Let's begin immediate surgery now!
Machines began to beep, blood was suctioned scalpels moved and everyone focused. But the air was thick with dread and Dr Kennedy had a tense look that Kana had never ever seen on his face before.
They began surgery immediately and Kana watched everything happen and as expected, no one acknowledged her presence. And how would they? They couldn't see her and Kana had by now gotten the vague idea of why things were unfolding the way they were.
Kana: So... This is what it feels like... to die?
She stood there for a while as the memories of all her friends flashed in her mind as she realized that if this surgery wasn't successful, she'd leave them all behind...
Then suddenly, Kana felt something pull her from underneath and she gasped as her body was yanked downward into an endless blue ocean vast, which was quiet, and cold.
She spun around in the water, and when she looked up where she she could still see the surgery happening above her.
Kana: What's happening…?
Her body twitched violently and then soon enough it began convulsing as the monitors began to beep faster that they initially did five seconds ago.
Nurse: She's going into cardiac arrest!
Suddenly the whole operation was thrown into confusion as everyone began to rush here and there trying to resolve the situation which had suddenly grown worse.
Kana immediately realized what was happening and began to fully panic.
Kana: No no! Not now!! Don't let this happen!!
She tried to swim back up toward her body. But the water held her. The current grew stronger. She kicked harder but it was useless.
She was drifting downward.
Kana: (screaming) I don't want to die!! I'm not ready....please... someone anyone...!!!
But there was no sound in the ocean and her voice didn't reach them. Only silence remain as she continued sinking into the blue sea.
Meanwhile, the doctors and nurses around the ICU room tried their very best to salvage the situation but her body constantly rejected every treatment given, and Kana effortlessly tried to swim back up but the weight of the ocean made it harder for her and then after realizing how futile it was, Kana gave up and her body stopped struggling.
And as she sank slowly into the quiet blue depths,
bubbles began to rise around her, each one flashing with light.
Inside each bubble… a memory.
Her first day in the hospital.
Laughing with Jane.
Making her Twibbler account.
Meeting John online.
His first message.
Their late-night chats.
Reuniting with Misa.
Meeting Liam and Rose.
The day he told her that he loved and it made her smile so hard her chest hurt.
The day they shared their first kiss.
Their last conversation...
All these memories began to replay in her mind as she continued to fall slowly and deeper into the blue sea. Kana began to cry at the realization of what was about to happen.
And then, one final memory replayed in her mind as the words Dr Kennedy had told her one year ago began to echo in her mind...
"Then give them a reason to never forget you."
Recalling those words, a question came to Kana's mind, one she knew she would possibly never get the answers to
Kana (softly): Did I…? Did I do enough?
She held her hands to her chest as all the memories she had made replayed in her mind and then she smiled sadly and just before she disappeared into the depths of the blue seas, John's face flashed in her mind for one last time...
******
Meanwhile, the monitor in the ICU which had been beeping slowly had now gone silent playing that static sound which discouraged anyone from continuing on with the surgery.
Dr Kennedy stood back and stared at Kana's body which lay there lifeless on the operation table as the undeniable and painful truth began to slowly sip into his mind.
Kana was dead…
******
The hall is dimly lit. Quiet. Still.
John sat on a cold steel bench outside the ICU. His posture slouched, his eyes empty, his hands trembling.
In one hand, he held Kana's blood-stained journal—its once clean pages now smeared with a dark crimson blot across the corner.
In the other, her phone, with a cracked screen. Her lock screen still showed that familiar selfie—smiling, hopeful, unaware of what was coming.
Across the hall, Misa sat on the floor, curled into a ball as she sobbed uncontrollably, her cries muffled by Jane's shoulder. Jane held her tightly, though tears streamed down her own cheeks. They rocked back and forth slowly, trying to breathe, trying to accept.
But John just sat there, frozen as the tears wouldn't come out.
Only silence remained inside. An emptiness that hurt more than screaming ever could.
John: (whispering) You weren't supposed to die…
Eventually, hours later, John unlocked her phone and opened her contact list. His fingers moved slowly, like the weight of reality had sunk into his muscles, making everything feel heavier.
He tapped on Liam's name first.
The call rang for a long time before it was finally picked up.
No one else was in the hallway to hear the conversation, but John didn't say much and he didn't need to. He simply told Liam that Kana had died earlier that day after an accident.
That the surgery failed and that she was gone.
There was silence on the other endlong, dragging silence.
Then a choked "...no" from Liam, followed by the call cutting off abruptly.
Probably he was too shocked to have any words to say.
John called Rose next.
She picked up quickly and her voice was filled with hope at first, excited to hear from him.
But that hope shattered the moment John spoke.
He told her what happened in the simplest words he could find, his voice almost devoid of emotion. And as soon as she processed it, she broke down completely.
Rose's cries echoed through the phone speaker.
She kept saying "It's not true. She was supposed to be okay. She promised she'd be okay."
And John couldn't answer her. He didn't know how to. So he just stayed silent until Rose's voice faded behind the sound of her sobbing, and the call ended.
Now, it was quiet again.
John sat back on the bench with Kana's journal in one hand and her phone in the other, along with the overwhelming, unbearable stillness of the world without her.