"The death that appeared"

[December 21st, 2021]

"Yo! These are some nice paintings!" Ethan exclaimed in surprise as he went through all of the paintings.

Though they were amateur painters, they had spent the entire evening doing just that as they waited for Ethan to arrive, which he did, at 2am.

No, they were fine with that as well. It was much of a deal.

Ethan sat on the bed as he finished viewing all the paintings.

"Your parents chill? With us staying over and all?"

"Of course." Aurora said with a smile.

Ethan nodded before taking out pamphlets out of his bag. Yes, he carried a school bag around because of how he had to commute the entire day. The bag solely contained essentials that he may need. The pamphlets were one of the essentials as well.

They were going to decide what type of speech or play they had to do at the ceremony,

The ceremony was going to start tomorrow so they had a whole day to decide how to make the boring graduation ceremony more fun.

Some students were doing a Christmas theme so that could be an option as well.

"How about we also go with a Christmas theme?" Giselle murmured after looking at the pamphlet that had listed the students that were doing different things on this suddenly announced occasion.

The pamphlet was written by the top student of their school for others' leverage. Basically, he did all the hard work then distributed his notes among the students.

It had everything listed; Other than the students who hadn't prepared anything yet like them.

"Christmas theme is great, but what do we do?" Aurora asked.

"You guys are painters now. How about we do face painting for everyone? No one's doing that." Ethan muttered.

"That's.. For children. We are not children." Sean objected.

"Cool! Maybe Baby Sean will finally show up? It's been so long. He doesn't come out anymore…" Aurora said as she sighed.

"Face painting is great. Plus! We are still children, Sean." Lucy said. "At least until the ceremony."

Ethan noted down face painting.

"But we do need face paints? Aurora has acrylics." Giselle mentioned.

"I-I have face paints." Sean embarrassedly admitted. "Baby Sean likes them... So I got them for him on his birthday."

"See??" Ethan chuckled as he noted it down.

Aurora placed her hand against her mouth as she yawned.

"Okay, face painting is checked so we should sleep now." Giselle suggested.

"I can stay awake." Aurora assured them.

"No, we have the whole day today. You should sleep for now. We will too." Sean said.

"Oh, then I'll get more mattresses for the guest room. The girls can sleep with me, no?" Aurora yawned while talking.

"No sleepyhead! We got this. Go to bed." Giselle said before making everyone get off of her bed so she could rest. "I'll set the mattress for the boys. Lucy and you should go to bed."

Giselle left the room with the boys then walked all the way to the guest room.

She knew where they put their things. She opened the closet in the store room to get the extra mattress and had the boys help her pick it up before she put it down on the guest room floor.

"Here we go. Sleep tight boys." Giselle murmured before leaving the room.

She went back to Aurora's room where the two sleepyheads had already fallen asleep.

She sat down on the couch as she sighed. Their paintings were hung on her room's wall by the boys. She stared at the paintings.

She looked at each carefully before looking at Aurora's painting.

The monarch butterfly; She knew she could recall something but she didn't know what.

She grabbed her nose bridge within her index and thumb and gave it a hard thought.

The art class!

She remembered Aurora talking about seeing a monarch butterfly flying on the first snow. How long had the first snow been?

She grabbed her phone and searched for the meaning of monarch butterflies, spiritual meaning.

She remembered the art teacher mentioning their spiritual meaning.

She opened a website with a blog about the meaning and started to read it when she came across the highlighted words.

"They are strongly associated with the dead…" She read out loud, in a whisper. "The s-strongest… right before they die…" She stuttered unwillingly. "Transformation?..." She sighed, noticing that all this terminal illness crap really did transform Aurora's personality into something new. "Angels… Beings of light."

Giselle teared up involuntarily.

"Average span is… 6… weeks." She was lost.

She quickly ran into the bathroom not being able to stop her tears as she took heavy breaths.

Putting up an act to be alright wasn't necessarily fun. It was so painful when she pondered upon the small thought of her small span. She will die in a few days! She will die!

She shook her head as she shed countless tears the entire night, locked in the bathroom.

The more she would think about it, the tougher it would get.

When Aurora woke up in the morning, no one was in her room. But she could hear chatter from the living room.

Maybe they were having breakfast. She quickly changed and washed before going out.

"I don't wanna lose her!" Her mother bursted into tears while the rest listened.

Aurora stopped before entering the living room from her room and stood behind the bookshelf, trying to hear what they were talking about.

"Can you not do it?" Her mother cried out loud.

"Aunt! She'll hear you!" Giselle whispered loudly.

Her mother continued to cry as she shook her head.

"I-I can do it… I'm sure I can." Sean stuttered.

Aurora narrowed eyes before running back to her room. She started to lose her breath and balance. She shook her head. Not now, not now! She just started feeling better!

Her head rang loudly causing her to fall as she groaned. She quickly stood up eating the pain. No one should know. No one.

She took deep breaths and waited in the bathroom till someone checks on her so she doesn't have to face her parents and friends as they cry.

She took heavy breaths.

She heard the door up. Okay, someone checked on her. Now she could go outside. She was still in pain trying to hide it as she looked in the mirror. She looked too pale.

Too pale to go outside unnoticed. Good thing she kept makeup in her bathroom cupboard. She had been watching natural makeup tutorials just for this purpose.

She quickly grabbed a concealer and applied it all over her pale face. She blended it before grabbing a cheek tint so she doesn't look sick.

She left her room after setting everything in its place so she doesn't look plastic.

She waved to her friends who were seated on the breakfast table. It appeared as if her parents had left for the time being.

"Where's mom and dad?" She asked.

"They stepped out for groceries." Ethan said.

"Good morning sleepyhead!!" Giselle cheerfully stretched her cheeks, noticing makeup. She was going to keep it to herself.

Aurora passed a big smile, or tried to pass one.

"I have work, I'll get going. You should chow one small one." Ethan said to Aurora before leaving.

It totally looked like he panicked and left.

But there was nothing she could've done about that.

"I also have to go help mom. Thanks for the night!." Lucy said before hugging her and leaving.

"I'll watch you finish breakfast first." Giselle said as she chuckled.

Sean was seated with an empty plate and a straight face. She wanted to believe they weren't pressuring him on something.

Aurora started chewing on the sandwiches her mother had made. She slowly chewed them down despite the strong nausea and pain in her head.

She didn't want them to notice but also felt as if they knew she was trying hard.

She shook her head. Eat. Eat. Eat.

It didn't matter if she ended up throwing up. Must eat.

After half her breakfast was finished, Giselle almost looked like she couldn't bear to watch her trying to eat. She almost teared up.

"I-I'll go now. See you tomorrow with face paints." She said before leaving everything to Sean.

Sean stared at her with his still-straight face.

"I can't eat anymore." She told him, the only one she felt comfortable saying these things to.

He nodded before standing up and taking the plates away from her.

His expression took her places.

She felt as if she wasn't considerate enough to him. She shared all her problems with him and him alone. She never wondered if it mentally disturbed him or not. Now that the thought flooded in her mind, she actually felt bad.

"Do you wanna-"

"Sean." She cut his words, knowing he would offer an activity. More depression, that is. "I wanna… Sleep today. I feel tired. Plus I think I should rest so I can at least wake up tomorrow." She chuckled at the end, trying to lighten the mood.

"Alright." But he was so understanding.

He tucked her in bed and left her alone after a light forehead kiss.

[December 21st, 2020]

She couldn't recall any event from the day.