Only a miracle could save Daniel now. The Sun's last rays streamed into the hospital room and the evening sky shone at the vital monitor next to his bed. His sky blue eyes blinked woozily under his blonde hair.

Serenity stood by his side. A tear rolled down her cheek, but Daniel, his face as pale as a ghost's, lifted his hand from his bed and touched hers.

"Don't cry," he said.

"W-why? Why should I not cry? You'll die!"

"Everyone dies someday. I'll just die sooner than most."

He was too young to be claimed by cancer. Serenity had only known him for a few months. He was a football player, she was a bookworm; a pair that did not naturally fit together, but they had shared interests, liked the same movies, and even the same food.

But there was a difference. Daniel believed in miracles. He believed good things happened to good people and anything was possible if you just believed. Serenity was skeptical. She knew there were rules in this universe. Thermodynamics, for instance. But also the rule that adenocarcinoma at this stage couldn't be healed anymore. They ignored everything. They ignored the shortness of breath and his persistent coughs; now, it was too late to save him.

"What about me?" she said. "You'll leave me behind! How can you do this?"

"I won't leave you behind," he answered. "It's true that I'll have to walk through the door of death alone. But I'll be together with you on one side of it and we'll also be together on the other."

Serenity shook her head. She hated this nonsense. She didn't believe in anything resembling ghosts, or magic, or an afterlife. She knew he was going to die and that would be it.

She let go of his hand and ran out of his patient room, crying, and entered the visitor's room. It was a visitor's room like every other visitor's room with its cubic-like shape, its small windows, and its oppressive, claustrophobically low ceiling. This was a nightmare. A nightmare from which she would soon wake up, only for her to see Daniel back on the field with his healthy tan restored.

"This is not a nightmare!" a squealing, child-like voice said.

Serenity looked around. Prying eyes filled the room where an old lady watched Serenity with a scolding glare and a boy as young as Tiny Tim hid his head in his collar. None of them looked inquisitive. They looked baffled, surprised why that brown-haired girl glanced around as if she were fleeing from a ghost.

"They aren't talking to you," the voice said. "I am."

Serenity snapped around. On the window board sat a tiny, black-furred cat with a white half-moon pattern on its neck and a glint in its eyes as bright and radiant as the stars.

"My name is Gaia," the cat said. "You know, like the goddess of Earth because I love bathing in mud."

Serenity's eyes narrowed. She looked at the lady and the young boy, then back to the window with the cat on it to make sure she hadn't imagined it. Dread spiked through her mind like a spear as her mouth opened and the words fell out of it like rocks from a cliff.

"You can talk?" she asked.

"Yes!" 'Gaia' answered.

Serenity screamed. She screamed as loud as she had when she learned about Daniel's cancer and, before the old lady could stand up to complain, she ran to the door, left the visitor's room, and headed for the staircase. Where was she even running? Away from this madness, that was where. Running one step lower, she hoped she had woken up and that the hallucination from above wasn't following her.

She hoped wrong.

The black-furred cat with the half-moon pattern was still there and it sat on the stairs that led farther down below.

"Leave me alone!" Serenity said. "You aren't real!"

"Evidently I am," the cat Gaia said.

"Shut up!"

"Why do you refuse to believe? Why do you refuse to see the miracles before you and to listen to the wonders of ancient myth? I am one of the familiar spirits that the cunning folk of old folklore used to aid them in their magic. I helped black witches in their curses and white witches in their healing. I am willing to impart knowledge to those in need and you, Serenity Waters, are in need!"

"Witches," she muttered. "Magic. I lost my mind! I lost my mind!"

"You did not lose your mind yet, but you might lose the love of your life. I have come to give you an offer. I will help you heal your love and in exchange, you must believe."

"Believe?" Serenity's disheveled hair ran all over her face while her tears had washed away any trace of makeup she applied today. "I can't just believe."

"Why?"

"Because people don't work that way! I can't just believe in pink elephants because I want them to be real!"

"You can't?"

At this point, the cat did something incredible. It wiggled its nose and then, its fur was pink. It wiggled its nose once more and then the nose was no more. It had a trunk now. And feet instead of paws, tusks instead of teeth, a tiny tail instead of a long one, and a thick, trunk-like body instead of a thin and feline one.

"I am an elephant now," it said and reverted to its old form. "And now, I am a cat."

"I'm hallucinating!" Serenity said. "This isn't real!"

"It is," the cat spoke. "I think I know what the problem is. It's not that you can't believe. You don't want to! You don't want to believe that good things can happen to you, do you?"

"That's not true, that's- Totally true."

Serenity had seen people die. She had seen her loved ones die. Her uncle had been claimed by lung cancer before. Her grandma suffered from a stroke. None of them deserved it, but death was a fact of life. It was always a tragedy, always inevitable, and she had long made peace with the fact that people couldn't do anything to prevent it. But Daniel, he was still alive.

"Are you letting me help you?" Gaia asked.

"I don't know," Serenity said, "this seems so-"

"Absurd?" the cat asked. "Impossible? You are living on a tiny speck of rock that orbits a gigantic nuclear reactor while moving at a speed of millions of miles per hour all while a cat is talking to you. And you don't want to believe in miracles?"

"No," Serenity said. "I am now willing to believe. I will help him."

And with those words, she walked up the stairs.

The people, the old lady, and the boy, who saw her and thought she was crazy, but Serenity waved them off and went back to Daniel's room. He was sleeping. The boy she had sold her heart to looked as pale as cheese, but he wouldn't stay that way.

Serenity smiled at him. She touched his hand just one more time and Daniel opened his eyes. He looked at her and, just as they watched each other, they felt their souls bond. They were still so young. True love, as people say, endures everything, even death, and heals all wounds. As their eyes met, something incredible happened.

Serenity, as if tapping into a fundamental force of creation, bonded her soul with that of Daniel. She poured part of herself into him. A cloud of her life force touched his body, washed over his flesh, and destroyed the metastases that had grown in his body. The color returned to his face. He opened his ocean blue eyes and it was like he would never close them again. His teeth shone as white as a dentist's and his cheeks had those mild freckles that she always admired in him. Just as Daniel stood up, Serenity threw herself around his arms and pressed him down again.

"You idiot," she said.

"I think you just healed me."

"I don't know how."

"But I do. It was the power of miracles."