The month had passed, resulting in a total of six months. It was the beginning of October.

The leaves were fading and were starting to fall. Red, brown, and yellow-colored leaves could be seen everywhere on the ground.

Although you can’t tell if Alex had cancer unless you’re an expert or have a really sharp eye, it doesn’t take a doctor to know if something’s wrong with him if you see his medicines, and how frequently he visited the hospital.

But with some skill and luck, he managed to pull it off, and nobody knew anything. Alex continued to smile, from the outside that is.

Even though his father was out there doing everything he could to save his son, Alex was still alone all the time.

In exchange for accepting his condition of having the operation performed in Japan, Jira imposed a condition of its own, that is, Dean can’t talk to or meet his son until the procedure has been completed and it’s successful.

The condition actually was that Dean can only meet his son and talk to him after the operation, but if it fails, well, you can’t talk to a dead body.

After leaving the house looking for a cure and only coming home once a month and not even that after the deal was made, Alex was pretty lonely.

Alex was used to living all alone, but back then, he didn’t have thoughts like I’m going to die, and there’s nothing that can be done.

He was stressed out and depressed like hell. Often tears could be seen in his eyes but only at night.

One might think, oh well if there’s nothing that can be done might as well be optimistic about it like how many months you got to live and all the fun things you can do in that time. If some intellectual proposes this idea, then he deserves the honor of being hit in the face, with a chair.

Death is one of the few universal truths which can’t be denied no matter what one might suggest in any situation, but nobody likes to think about it.

Sure, we all acknowledge this fact, but when death is staring you in the eyes, and you aren’t scared shitless, it’s because either, you’re already dead or prepared to die, but only a handful fit any of the conditions, fewer meeting the latter.

In his house, Alex used a walking stick or handles that were made on the wall to get around.

He was walking down the stairs to get to the kitchen, and his hand suddenly slipped, causing him to fall headfirst, knocking himself unconscious.

He was home alone, or so he thought.

When he woke up, he saw a VSMU, vital sign monitoring unit, a device used to monitor a patient’s health; heartbeat, blood pressure, respiration, etc., attached to him.

--What happened?

He scanned the room and realized it was a hospital room.

It was small and had only one stretcher on which Alex was lying, making it look more like a surgery room.

He could only see a few instruments and equipment and a chair next to the stretcher, also an IV stand.

After frequently going to the hospital, Alex finally came over his fear of them, but now he had three reasons to be afraid.

1.The room was dimly lit.

2.There was nobody in the room, and he couldn’t hear any sound.

And the third most important reason:

3. HIS HANDS AND FEET WERE TIED WITH BELTS.

It looked like one of those hospital rooms which you see in horror movies where there is a killer in a hospital and you are trapped.

Alex heard the sound of footsteps, the door opened, and he saw a man in a suit come in.

He was formerly dressed in oxford shoes, a necktie, and a 2-piece suit.

At this point, Alex was scared out of his mind. It’s not every day you wake up on a stretcher, in a dimly lit room, tied with belts, and it looks like the whole place is completely abandoned.

The man came closer to Alex, pull the chair, and sat down. Alex’s body had started to shake on instinct.

“Mr. Alexander Dean, please do not be afraid.”

He spoke in a gentle but heavy voice.

“I am a representative of a company whom your father made a deal with, we know about your disease, and we think we can help you.”

The man whom Alex suspected to be a killer was a representative of Jira.

“However, according to our policy, we must ask the patient for permission to let the treatment be performed on him.”

“Why is that?”

“Because there is a risk, there’s a 60%-40%, failure in it will result in your death, do you wish to take the risk? if so, I am handing you a contract to sign.”

He took out a paper and a pen and put it on Alex’s chest.

First of all, you don’t ask somebody if they want a surgery to be performed, in which there is a chance of failing, right off the bat while he is on a stretcher tied with belts. You need to give the person time to think, but the man simply didn’t give a shit about the patient’s mental health.

--My father agreed to this? What should I do?

It wasn’t a tough decision for Alex.

Alex had nothing to lose. He was going to die anyway, and nothing was keeping him attached to the world except the fear of death itself.

Having nothing precious apart from your own life is sad in its own way, and as previously said, as long as there’s hope, humans will cling to it.

“Alright, I accept your risk, but I have one condition, please come near me so I can tell it to you.”

The man put his ear near Alex’s mouth.

“UNTIE MY HANDS FIRST SO I CAN SIGN THE DAMN CONTRACT”

The man was startled by Alex.

Apparently, having brain cancer does something to a person.

When the man entered the room, his face said it all, hitman. Alex was strangely happy that now he can die in a cool way, again having brain cancer does something to a person. So he was pissed because the guy was not a killer.

Since the day the deal was made between Dean and Jira, Jira had been observing Alex all the time, mainly because it took a month to secretly transport all the machinery and things in Japan in a secret place.

When everything was ready, they were just deciding how to take Alex to the secret facility without anyone knowing, including him, where it was.

Luckily, when Alex fainted in his house, it saved the company the trouble of kidnapping Alex and taking him there.

They even made an excuse for Alex’s school that he was going to Germany to visit his great aunt Bessie for an entire month as the treatment would take about a month.

How did they manage to pull it off is still mysterious, but hey, it worked!!