Chapter 4

As they arrived home it was already past visiting hours and the sun began to set. Ella went back to her room with heavy footsteps. She looked around the room, where it's design was inspired by Otto's love of astronomy which is now her hobby too. She didn't know what to do, if she saw him she would have cried but now that she didn't she regrets it even more and is close to tears anyway. Making up her mind she wanted to go see him, though it was too late. She went to tell her mother but waited in the hallway seeing her mother talking on the phone.

"What do you mean you're leaving?! He's your son! You have to be there for him!" She cried in desperation. Ella froze up, her eyes fixed on the phone. That was definitely her dad, and it sounded like he was going away. Then she heard her mother's voice become more quiet and gentle. "Can't you at least see him... before he's gone forever?" She said tears running down her face. But to Ella, it was like realisation hit her like a ton of bricks. She was never going to see her brother again. She doesn't know when he's leaving but she knew she missed the chance of being a true sister to him. Though her mum always told him to protect her, she had never done that for him. Without a second thought, she dashed out of the house holding stuffed toys, games, pieces to build with: basically anything she could carry in her hands. She practically took the first things she could in Otto's room and hers not even seeing what they were. She sprinted to the hospital at full speed making her way to his room. Though visitors weren't allowed she didn't care as long as she could see him. She made it to his room but, again, was hesitant to open the door. But she couldn't stop coughing from trying to catch her breath. Maybe he was already gone, or maybe he didn't want to see her. She knew she made his life difficult before, but chose to ignore it. But she didn't want any regrets so she mustered up all her courage and silently opened the door and peaked in. As she entered the first thing that caught her sight was Otto silently lying in bed with his eyes staring at the ceiling. He heard the door open and as he looked over his eyes widened in surprise. Ella's face was ruddy from the cold breeze as she ran to the hospital and her eyes were brimming with tears. She ran up to him and dropped all the toys onto his bed.

"Ella? What's going on? It's after visiting hours, and... really late." Otto asked weakly sitting up.

"Let's play some games- I don't want you to go yet pleased- we still have games to play and help mum- I don't want you to leave... " Ella's voice cracked as she couldn't hold back her tears anymore. Otto saw what was going on with all the toys then realised how lonely he made her. How lonely she will be when he's gone. Even he knows that he won't be there for her anymore so the best he could do was give her her first and last hug from him. He was actually relieved to see her before he left her forever, that's why he was so reluctant to let her go, but as soon as he did Ella grabbed his hand with swollen eyes puffy cheeks.

"In this world... we only have each other..." She hic-upped. Those words reminded him of what his mother said to him the other day, and he froze. Did she hear their conversation, and up to what part? If she did hear then she would know they had a lot more in common than they first thought. However he didn't want to dig in too deep so he sent her home, he didn't want things to get any worse than they already were.

Ella always wore the necklace around with her- it would be her good luck charm. She left the toys as a way of giving him a little taste of home where he was going. And to her luck, it was raining. Hard. But she didn't really care about the rain that much considering she was losing someone precious to her though she barely spent a lot of good moments with them. She didn't care about the bad moments though because she still sees him as family. She went home as he said but he did get a cold afterwards which made her bedridden. Her mother took care of her the whole day, but during that time she had a pale look on her face. But not soon after Ella was better she received news that Otto's heart stopped beating and he was not able to wake up anymore. It was like Ella's whole world came crashing down and her worst nightmare came true. It was truly over.

Otto's final moments approached and he just lied in bed staring at the ceiling. He held one of Ella's stuffed animals that she left behind. He honestly couldn't believe that he left her with awful memories of himself. He didn't explain to her why he behaved that way. As he closed his eyes and his heartbeat decelerated all he could think about is never seeing his family again, never going to school again, not being able to spoil his sister, not living his life how he hoped he would. Those were all he thought about as he lost consciousness.