Annie

"What is it? Is Annie all right?"

"Haa....She doing fine for now. She came to me with a slight cough and a headache. I thought it was the start of another one of her colds, so I gave her some meds. She is a bit weaker than normal though. i thought you might want to know."

"Tsk."

Annie had been hiding when she got sick from him recently. She kept saying how he would never find a girlfriend if he kept hovering over her all the time.

She was partially right. Every girls that talked to him enough to find out how over protective he was of his little sister avoided him.

"Why didn't she even send me a text?"

"You know how she is now. Trying to be independent. She wants you to stop worrying about her so much."

"It's because of times like these that I worry so much."

"I know. Back to the topic though, she at the hospital right now. As much as she asked me to not tell you, I know having you here will make her feel better."

"Thank you."

"Anytime."

Before the call had even ended Dex was headed for his car. It wasn't a fancy car, but he did buy it new. Even though he had millions of dollars he couldn't understand blowing so much money on something so worthless.

When he though of all the food and medicine he could have bought him and his sister when they were kids with the money for a single high end sports car he couldn't do it. He grew up pinching every penny for his sister. Not much had changed now that he was older.

It was his sister that told him to buy that car and his nice clothes. Saying he wouldn't impress any girls with baggy second hand clothes and a beater car.

After fifteen minutes he was at the hospital. As soon as he entered the hospital he headed for the counter.

"Room Ten sixteen dear."

With a light nod and a "Thank you" to the receptionist Dex headed to the elevator.

Dex came here so often all of the receptionists knew his face. Every time Annie was admitted they knew he would show up sooner rather than later. They knew what he wanted to know so they told him before he could ask.

After a short ride with some crappy elevator music Dex arrived on the tenth flood and found Annie's room.

Dex gave it four light nocks and one heavy. After a moment he gently opened the door to his pouting sister's face.

"I told him specifically to not call you."

"And I told him specifically to call me if you ever told him that."

"Meany."

"Shorty."

"Hey! That's not fair! You're four years older than me!"

"Well you'll just have to grow up more in the next few years to get taller than me then."

Annie just stuck out her tongue at Dex as he sat down next to her bed. She tried to hold her pouting face, but she soon lost it and started laughing. She was to cheerful to be pouting for to long.

Soon she was asking him how his morning went at school. Then she started to talk about all the gossip she had heard at school.

She told Dex about how one of her friends had just gotten into a big fight with her boyfriend. Apparently there was a lot of yelling. Then she showed him the next project they had just started in her art class.

Annie was a very cheerful girl despite her medical conditions and poor childhood. Her positive attitude had gotten her many friends in school. Dex was the opposite though. He was guarded to anyone around him. He was on speaking terms with a few people at school, but only when there was something they had to work on together like a group assignment.

Due to his sisters nagging he even tried to date a few girls. It never worked out though. While Dex presented a cool and dashing look, he was always on guard with them. They all seemed to childish to him. Complaining about the most trivial things like they were life and death. Others were just trying to date him so that he would buy them nice things. He would immediately get rid of the gold diggers.

Even if he could find a girl that was mature and didn't want his money once they found out that he was always checking on his sister things fell apart. They realized that they would always be second priority.

To Dex Annie was always number one. The reason he did anything was to take care of her and make her happy. The reason he even went to college was because of her.

Dex and Annie kept talking for a little over an hour before Annie got tired and fell asleep listening to Dex talk. Once he was sure that she was asleep he stopped prattling on about random things. She slept so peacefully.

After a few minutes of watching over his sister he heard a quiet tapping from the window on the door to the room. On the other side he could see Mike waving for him to come over.

Dex's face lost his gentle smile and went back to the usual emotionless slate. He quietly got up and made his way out of the room.

"What is it now?"

"Her white blood cell counts are low Dex."

"What's your point? They have always been low. That's why she gets sick all the time. Her bone marrow just doesn't make enough."

"Not low for normal people, low for her. I went back through her record and compared her results to the past six months. There is an ever so slight decline in her counts."

"What? Why didn't you notice this earlier?"

"Because the drop so so slow it always looked to be within tolerance. Once I put the results from the last six months together next to one another I saw it."

Every other week Annie would come to the hospital to get a check up including a full round of bloodwork.

"What does this mean? How fast is the decline? How long does she have? Could a Bone marrow transplant help? Will thi-"

"Slow down Dex! I can only answer your question if you give me the time to do so."

After a short breath Mike continued.

"I haven't told her yet, but if this trend continues she could have anywhere from two to five years before her immune system is basically useless. Now we have talked about bone marrow transplants before. Annie's HLA markers are just to abnormal. It might have been some mutation in her body, we don't know. What we do know is that for anyone we try and do the transplant from the chance of success is less than twenty-five percent."

"What can we do Mike? I wont give up on her now."

"I know you wont Dex. For now all we can do is keep looking. There are some new meds that might be able to help with the decline, but she could also reject the meds. I know this isn't what you wanted to hear. But this is what it is."

"Are you saying you can't stop this?"

"Yes Dex. The meds might help, but I can't guarantee anything."

"....."

Dex just quietly took in the news for a few moments.

"I'll tell her tomorrow when she wakes up."

"Ok. Have a good night Dex."

With that Mike left Dex standing alone in the hallway. Dex was upset. After a deep breath he went back into his sister's room. Thankfully she was still sleeping. He already knew that she wouldn't care about the news very much. That was just the way she was. Always so happy.

The next day Dex and Annie went for a walk through the roof garden. It was one of the few places you could find green in the city. Even outside of the city there was little green.

When Dex told her what Mike had told him last night she didn't seem bothered at all.

"Two to five years is it? Hmm.... I'm going to have to work pretty hard then."

"Work hard for what?"

"Getting you a steady girlfriend. None have lasted more than a month so far."

"What? That's what your concerned about? I tell you that you're going to die in a few years and the one thing you have a problem with is that I don't have a girlfriend?"

"Yes!"

Annie said it with such conviction that all Dex could do was sigh.

"I've known that I'm going to die sooner rather than later for a long time now Dex. You on the other hand are very healthy and could live a long life. I wont let you waste that all mopey and alone."

Annie spent the rest of the day lecturing Dex on how he needed to smile more so he could get a nice girlfriend.

That day turned into another. Those days turned into weeks. Those weeks turned into months and the months turned to years.

Dex finished college and Annie finished high school. Dex had relented to Annie and tried to get a girlified several times. They could always tell that he was just dating them because his sister told him to, so they never worked out.

Annie had been slowly getting worse over the past years. She had been getting sick more often. When she wasn't Dex would try and take her places. He took her to see sights all over the world. From the Eiffel Tower in France to Mount Fuji to Australia.

Four years later though and Annie was sick more often than not. She couldn't travel anymore, so Dex had made it so that her hospital room was full of green. She loved plants and flowers so Dex decorated her room in the hospital with exotic plants and flowers.

Dex had basically moved into her Room. Once she was there all the time Dex arranged for her to have her own large room. It had a bathroom and a shower along with a single person sleeper sofa that Dex would sleep on.

Much to Annie's discontent Dex had failed to get a steady girlfriend and she would never let him forget it.

"But what about that Rachel girl? She was so nice and pretty."

"All she wanted was my money."

"Nova? She hung out with me all the time!"

"She was just putting on a front. I overheard her talking shit about you over the phone to her friends. That was the end of that."

"GRrrrr! I swear you are doing this on purpose! How can you not like any of the girls?!"

"None of them are sincere enough. They are either just emotionally shallow, want nothing but my money, or don't like that I spend so much time with you."

"Are you sure your standards aren't to high?"

"Absolutely."

"God. I swear yo-" Cough! Cough! Cough!

A coughing fit interrupted Annie's sermon. Dex got up and got her glass of water. As soon as the fit had subsided enough Annie took a sip.

"Ahh! That's the stuff."

Annie over exaggerated how good the water was, but Dex could tell she was just messing around. Trying to keep him from worrying about her.

They sat there in silence for a moment before Dex brought up a serious topic.

"Why has Mike told me you stopped taking your meds? You know those are the only reason you-"

"Dex. I am going to die."

"....."

"I know you don't want that. I know you want me to live forever. That's not possible though. Me and you both know it."

Dex clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white and his fingernails dug into his palm.

"But-!"

"No buts Dex! If I kept taking the meds it would be a slow process. I don't want to live out my last days in pain and misery for weeks on end. I just want it to end in one fell swoop Dex."

"....."

"My will is all sorted out and you already know what to do with my body. I have already said my goodbyes to all my friends. The only thing I have left to do is get you to accept my death."

".... I don't want to lose you Annie."

Tears started to well up in the corner of his eyes.

Sigh... "I know Dex. I don't want to leave you alone either."

Annie pulled her brother in for a tear filled hug. Her usual stoned faced brother was nowhere to be found. In his placed was just another man afraid of losing the only person in the entire world that meant a single thing to him.

After a few moments and several tears Annie gently pushed Dex's shoulders back so she could look him in his red and puffy eyes.

"Dex I need you to promise to do something for me when I'm gone."

"Anything Annie, whatever it is I'll do it for you."

"Good. Remember those words you told me just now for the rest of your life. You are not allowed to kill yourself Dex Renton. No matter how sad you are you have now promised me to not take your own life."

Dex's eyes opened wide. Annie's face was dead serious. She knew how much she meant to her brother. She knew he didn't have anyone else, despite her best efforts, that he cared about. The reason she had wanted him to get a girlfriend was so that he would have someone to live for when she was gone.

Dex had spent his entire life looking after her. She knew that he would kill himself once she was gone. He would never admit it to her, but she knew him well enough.

"You can't be-!"

"Serious? I'm dead serious Dex."

Dex ignored her horribly timed dad joke to try and lighten the mood. After several seconds of looking into her unblinking eyes and feeling the unrelenting grip on his shoulders her relented.

"Sigh.....Fine. I promise"

"Good, now come here."

Annie's serious face fell away and her usual smile replaced it as she pulled Dex back in for another hug.

Annie spent the rest of the night asking Dex all about the exotic plants and flowers he had gotten for her. Dex had already answered these same questions several time before, but he just smiled and told his sister the answers again. He knew that she just wanted to listen to him talk.

The next morning was gravely sick. The doctors got her medicine for the pain. Dex knew that she wouldn't make it through the day. She had taken care of her last trouble last night. She was ready and willing now for it all to be over.

Dex stayed with her the whole time, holding her hand. She was conscious at one point near lunch. She poked fun of Dex. Saying that he had to much of a sister complex. That he would never get a good girlfriend with it.

He just retorted "Well no one else is as good as my little sister, so why shouldn't I have a sister complex?"

This got a chuckle out of her and put a smile on her face. Soon after she was unconscious though, her weak body doing the best it could to to fight the fever. It would never win the battle unfortunately.

Just as the final rays of sunset left the room through the window, so did the only ray of sunshine in Dex's life. The heart rate monitor blared it's alarm, but Dex didn't move. A nurse Gently walked over and turned the machine off. After a quick scribble on her notes she silently left Dex to grieve the loss of his little sister by himself.

Through Dex's tear filler eyes he could see that Annie was smiling. As if she was at peace. That just made Dex cry more and more. Due to his promise with her last night he couldn't even go after her either.

Dex wept and wept. After a while though, he ran out of tears. When that happened he got up. Mike and Randy were waiting for him outside of the room. Dex had called Randy in the morning when he knew it was going to be Annie's last day. Randy had been here ever since.

Randy was the first one to speak.

"I'm so sorry Dex. She was to good of a girl for this world."

Dex couldn't muster any words. He just gave a light nod and a small grunt.

"I've already called. They are ready whenever you are."

"Hm."

Another grunt and Randy took his leave to make a phone call.

"Dex. I'm sorry she's gone. You loved her, and she loved you so much. Every time she could she would brag to all of the nurses about her amazing older brother. You can ask any of them."

Dex felt another crying fit come on, but he didn't have any more tears to shed. He thought that was just like her. To praise him. To say nothing but positives about him. God he already missed her so much.

During the dark night Dex watch over as Annie was taken away and cremated. Once he had her ashes he held a small ceremony on the hospital rooftop garden in the first sun rays of the day. Some of her ashes were mixed with the soil of a Purple Nightshade. It was her favorite flower. The only people at the ceremony besides Dex were Mike and Randy.

Dex had set up a fund to pay someone to take care of that nightshade longer than the hospital would last. Annie said she wanted it to be planted there because the hospital garden was the her favorite place to go on the sick days. She just loved all the green plants and pretty flowers.

Dex then spent the next few weeks traveling to various nature preserves and parks to spread her ashes in the only green left in the world.

After that was done Dex didn't know what to do with himself. Dex tried many things to help. Alcohol, drugs, and even sex. None of them helped him forget about Annie. He couldn't just end his own suffering due to his promise though. He thought about it nearly every hour of every day. He never did it though. He knew that if he did and found Annie in whatever came after, if anything came after, she would be sad and never forgive him.

Dex couldn't allow that. Ever.

So Dex tried to burry his pain in whatever he could. Randy would call and visit all the time to check on him. He wasn't able to help Dex though. This continued for several months. It was night out and Dex was walking back from the store after getting supplies to drown his sorrows for the night.

Even the weeds growing in the sidewalk reminded him of his walks in the garden with Annie. While Dex was trying to hold back his tears he looked up and saw a young girl walking his way. She had a backpack on and headphones in her ears. She looked the same age as Annie.

That made the pain only worse. While Dex was feeling his sadness fill his mind he looked behind her. There was a truck swerving in the road.

"Fucking drunk driver. At least I have the decency to only hurt myself."

When he looked at the path of the truck his stomach dropped. It was heading right for the girl. She was on her phone with headphones in. she wouldn't know until the truck hit her.

All Dex could see was his smiling little sister's face over her's. Rage filled Dex. He had watch his sister die once. There was not a chance in hell he would watch it a second time.

He dropped his bag and ran towards her. He only had a few seconds before the truck hit so he thought fast. If he pushed her into the street the truck could still hit the building, slide, and kill her. Thankfully the shop she was passing currently had its door open trying to invite potential customers.

Dex had not beet taking care of himself lately. He need a Shave, bath, a haircut, and clean clothes among other things. To her she just saw the bum looking person running right at her with a look that could kill on his face. She tried to scream and run away.

Dex didn't care about her screaming. She didn't notice Dex until he was a few feet away so she wasn't able to run away. He shoved her through the shop doorway with all his strength right in time.

The truck hit Dex and he went flying. When he landed all he knew was pain. Dex couldn't even breathe. He figured his lungs were probably collapsed.

'Fuck. Hope this doesn't count or Annie is going to be pissed.'

He couldn't see anything, but he could hear people screaming. He even made out the voice of some girl telling him everything was going to be alright. That the ambulance was on the way and he would make it. Dex knew otherwise though.

Soon even the sounds went away and Dex embraced the emptiness of death.