The city was destroyed. Collapsed buildings, reduced to rubble and ruins. There were no people nearby, except for a group of figures wearing strange costumes—heroes known as Spider-Man and Superman, along with others completely unknown. Standing in front of everyone, a strong man in a military uniform, wielding a sword and shield—Captain Ramirez—stood before a hospital, watching the figure responsible for such devastation.
"Surrender, Captain Ramirez. You cannot escape from me. I will take control of this hospital!" A figure dressed in dark clothes, wearing a mask covering the lower part of their face, spoke in a heavy voice as the young hero in front of him struggled to stay on his feet.
"I will never surrender. I made a promise to my comrades..." Captain Ramirez replied, his voice firm and resolute, while behind him, his wounded companions nodded in agreement.
"Fufufufu, such a brave hero! However, I shall show you that courage alone is not enough." The figure channeled a strange energy into his hands, taking a battle stance. "Come now, show me your determination to protect your comrades! Come at me, CAPTAIN RAMIREZ!"
"ATTACK!"
"AAAA!"
"What's going on here?" Just as the brave heroes were about to clash, a calm and somewhat tired voice sounded, making everyone stop and turn to look.
The noise of the battle faded, replaced by the familiar humming of medical equipment. The smell of antiseptic took over the scent of destruction. The ruined city was replaced by a hospital room, illuminated by fluorescent lights and filled with beds. In the center, a group of five children, all wearing costumes, stood frozen as if caught red-handed. Immediately, they rushed back to their beds.
"Tomas, what are you doing? You can't just barge into the other kids' room like that!" The owner of the voice, a doctor in his fifties, asked the boy wrapped in sheets, who hid his face with a surgical mask.
"Haha, it's nothing, Uncle. No need to worry so much." Tomas pulled off the sheets covering his body as some nurses entered to check on the other kids who were complaining that their game had been interrupted.
Tomas smiled at the kids' reactions and then left the room with the doctor, waving to the little boy dressed in a military uniform.
"Bye, Ramirez! See you on my next visit!"
"It's Captain Ramirez!" the little boy corrected Tomas with a childish pout while waving back. "Next time, we'll definitely defeat you!"
"That's right!" another boy, dressed in what looked like a mix of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, agreed with Ramirez.
Tomas just smiled as he said goodbye to the children and followed the doctor to his own room.
"How are you feeling today, Tomas?"
"Oh, the usual… Nothing much different from before." The boy smiled—a smile that didn't reach his eyes—as he removed the sheets covering his pale, frail body.
"Tomas…"
"I'm fine," he said as he stopped to grab a soda from a vending machine in the hallway.
Sigh. "Alright, I trust you," the doctor replied, the worry clear in his eyes as he accompanied Tomas to his private room.
Unlike the shared room where the other children stayed, this was a relatively normal room. A desk with a computer, a television with video games, a bookshelf filled with books. There were also two other doors, one leading to a bathroom and another to a small closet.
Tomas went to take a shower before sitting down at his desk to work on his assignments, with "I Lived" by OneRepublic playing in the background—a song choice that, honestly, felt like a cruel joke, making him chuckle as he began writing his essay about the U.S. involvement in World War I.
In another room, Dr. Marcus was reviewing some medical charts when a soft knock sounded at the door.
"Come in."
"Sorry to bother you, Doctor. I have Tomas's latest results." A female doctor entered the room holding Tomas's file, her face tired and worried.
"Let me see."
Marcus took the tests and began reviewing them with intense focus. "His lymphocyte levels dropped again? The medication isn't working anymore… Should I increase the dosage?"
"He's in systemic metastasis, Marcus. The cancer has spread to his intestines, liver, and right lung. His bone marrow is severely compromised again, even worse than before. There's not much else we can do with conventional chemotherapy. This medication… it just buys him a bit more time and allows him to live a somewhat normal life, but it's no miracle," the doctor said in a soft, choked voice.
"Did Julius say anything when you showed him the report?" Marcus asked as he handed the folder back to her.
"He only said he's coming to see his son. He should be here in a few hours."
"I see. You may go."
"Yes, sir." The doctor left, leaving Marcus staring at a photo of the boy.
Tomas was his nephew, the one he had been taking care of for as long as he could remember.
His brother, Julius, was a wealthy and ambitious man who made a fortune in 2008 and had since diversified his investments.
Tomas grew up as a normal child, but at the age of six, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone marrow cancer.
After that, Tomas lived in hospitals. Chemotherapy, radiation, bone marrow transplants… he went through countless treatments. But, in a cruel twist of fate, the cancer never receded. Instead, it grew stronger, becoming increasingly resistant and relentless.
It wasn't until two years ago, with the discovery of a new experimental drug, that Tomas began living a somewhat normal life. But even that was now coming to an end.
<><><><><>
"YOU DEAD!"
Tomas threw himself onto his bed, controller in hand, watching in frustration as the screen went dark.
"Damn it, again."
He had spent almost forty minutes finishing his homework—a five-page essay about the involvement of American troops on the Western Front.
Now that he was done, all he wanted was to relax a bit. But trying to defeat Malenia had been a terrible idea. Staring at the ceiling, Tomas remained silent, listening to "Glass Sky" as he thought about his life.
Fourteen years old, eight of them spent in hospitals and experimental treatment facilities.
Even now, in this place. Though it looked like a normal room, beyond that door there was no cozy home—only hospital walls and corridors.
This place had been built under his father's orders—a specialized institute for treating childhood cancer and other rare conditions, all financed by him and his corporate partners. It was meant to treat children whose families couldn't afford proper treatment.
Ramirez, for example, was the son of an army captain who died on a mission three months ago. His mother died during childbirth, and his paternal grandparents were now raising him. Two months ago, he was diagnosed with stage 2 liver cancer and was admitted to the institute.
Of course, Tomas knew not everything was as it seemed. Behind the philanthropic facade, he knew his father had deals with several large pharmaceutical companies. And yes, they were using the institute's children—kids like Ramirez—to test experimental drugs for childhood cancer treatment.
Whether that was a bad thing… honestly, Tomas didn't know. After all, his father really was helping the children.
The work done here was genuinely important, and the doctors under his uncle's leadership were truly dedicated and concerned about the patients. Plus, the families of the children were financially supported by the institution. Wasn't this a win-win situation?
"Eh, whatever," Tomas muttered, dropping the controller and standing up with the intention of taking a walk. However, before he could take a few steps, his world suddenly spun, and he began to collapse. "What the—"
Tomas watched as the door to his room was suddenly forced open, and a group of doctors rushed in. His uncle came right after, followed by a man in a suit shouting things he couldn't quite understand.
His father crying, trying to reach him—
That was the last thing Tomas saw before he died.
<><><><><>
"Death wasn't as terrible as I thought. I mean, I liked playing video games and hanging out with the younger kids, but this?" Tomas pointed to the vastness around him. "Freedom. No hospital rooms, no doctors, just me and the world in front of me."
"What a curious perspective on death," the figure in front of Tomas said with a bored tone as it ate a golden fruit.
"Yeah, what can you do?" Tomas smiled as he approached and picked up a fruit for himself. "So... what happens if I eat one of these?"
"No idea," the figure replied. "You might return to life, become a god, have your existence erased... the possibilities are endless."
"If they're so dangerous... why do you keep eating them?"
"Because they're delicious."
Tomas let out a small sigh as he stared at the golden fruit in his hands.
After he died, he wandered through an endless void for a while before reaching this strange garden.
The place was a true paradise, and for a brief moment, he actually believed he had reached Heaven, even though he wasn't Catholic.
After wandering the place for some time, he stumbled upon this strange figure in front of him. He couldn't describe it because he himself didn't know what it looked like.
He could see it, but whenever he tried to understand what he was seeing, the figure would change, making it impossible for him to discern what it actually was.
Luckily, the figure didn't seem to care about him and instead remained under the shade of a tree, silently eating its golden fruits.
Tomas wandered the place looking for other people, but after realizing he was alone, he began to ramble with the figure.
It didn't seem to care about the boy and just kept eating the fruits, sometimes saying something, but most of the time remaining silent.
Tomas never really worried about the figure, perhaps because being dead wasn't as scary as he had thought. He didn't care what happened to him from then on.
In the end, he didn't mind the creature, nor did he mind staying in that garden for the rest of his existence. However, a problem arose. The garden was dying.
The more fruits the creature consumed from the tree, the more the garden lost its glow and shrank in size.
What was once as vast as a continent was now no more than a small island, and it kept shrinking.
Tomas liked that place, but he knew it wouldn't last. So at the moment, his options were:
1 - Leave the garden and wander through the endless void again.
2 - Cling to the strange creature and wander around with it.
3 - Eat a fruit and see what happens.
The first option was out of the question. He didn't know if he could find another place like this—it was pure luck that brought him here.
The second option was also impossible, not because the creature didn't want him nearby, but because he couldn't get within more than 10 meters of it. If he tried, he'd be struck by a terrible pain, as if he were being torn apart piece by piece.
Besides, the creature didn't seem to care much about his existence—whether he was there or not didn't matter to it.
So, Tomas knew his only chance was to eat a fruit and pray that something good would happen.
"Well, here goes nothing. Wish me luck," Tomas said as he grabbed the fruit, which was larger than a watermelon, and took a bite.
At that moment, the creature briefly stopped eating and observed him for a moment as Tomas devoured the fruit eagerly.
"It really is... delicious..." He struggled to speak between bites, and when he finished, he lay down, staring at the clouds in the sky, waiting silently.
"So... now what?" he asked, but the creature remained silent, just watching him before turning its gaze away and resuming eating.
Tomas wanted to ask something else, but suddenly he felt something pulling him downward.
"What—" Before he could understand what had happened, he vanished from the garden.
The creature remained unmoved, eating its fruits without caring about Tomas or where he had gone. It simply stayed there, eating its fruits as the garden crumbled more and more.