He's going to die, you know?

She closed her tired eyes and laid her head on the blue pillow. She inhaled the scent of lilies of the valley. She buried her face in the sheets and hid her legs under the covers. She didn't even have the strength to change into her pajamas.

Angels always reminded her of white wings, smiles, and good news.

When she opened her eyes, she was sitting on a wooden chair. People in robes, with bandages on various parts of their bodies, doctors in white coats, and nurses with fear written all over their faces, walked by. She slowly rose from the chair and entered the first room she came across. She saw a tiny girl on the bed. The child didn't move. Her family stood around the bed. The mother was crying, the father was clutching his daughter's cold hand and silently cursing the doctors. The girl retreated from the room. She wanted to ask someone how to get out, but no one noticed her, no one showed her the way. Passing another door in the hospital corridor, she noticed a special one. They weren't white, but painted a bright green. Curiosity overcame the girl's emotions, and her delicate hands pushed the door open. A boy sat at a small table by the large window. A young, well-built boy with coal-black hair and tears in his eyes. A bed stood against the wall. A bed with blue borders and snow-white sheets. The girl had to get closer to see who occupied it. A man lay beneath the white sheets. He was hooked up to some equipment the girl couldn't recall the name of. She glanced at the boy, but his gaze was directed out the window. The girl recognized him from somewhere, so much so that now she couldn't for the life of her recall his name. She wanted to leave the room as quickly as possible before the boy sensed her presence, but a doctor had just entered, accompanied by a woman. The girl quickly pieced together the facts. Family.

She headed toward the door, but something stopped her. Something made her return to the boy's seat and sit in the chair as he approached the woman and wrapped his broad arm around her.

"What am I doing here?" she asked herself, but her legs gave out. They wouldn't stand.

"Doctor, what's wrong with him?" the woman asked, holding back tears and covering her eyes with large black glasses. "

It's not good. We're still waiting for the final results. There's always hope... But in this case, it's so slim it's almost nonexistent," the doctor said. His voice seemed to break at the word hope. He was a young man, not as experienced as other doctors. Apparently, he wasn't yet used to announcing the death of loved ones to his patients. He didn't know how to take away the hope that left patients as soon as they arrived at their ward. The woman said nothing. The girl thought she heard her tears falling and scattering on the green floor, but somehow no one else noticed.

The doctor left after a moment, deciding there was nothing left for him here.

"We have to wait... And believe," he said, closing the green door. The woman gently pulled herself from the boy's arms and wordlessly followed the doctor. The boy glanced around the room, then returned to the window.

"He's going to die, you know?" someone said. The boy looked around the room but said nothing. "

He's going to die..." whispered the lips of the figure emerging from the green wall. The girl's eyes concealed terror.

"Shut up!" the boy screamed and slammed his fist on the table. "Who the hell are you?!" he hissed. "The

Angel of Death," the figure said. Tall, with black wings rooted to his back and a white robe tied around his waist. His tightly curled hair was also black, and his eyes were strangely empty.

"Take me instead..." the boy pleaded, falling limply onto the bed.

"I don't come for people. That's Death's job. I only announce its decrees." She once played cards with Hope. Hope was unlucky and lost. As a reward, Death could claim one mortal. It fell on him," the Angel said, extending his hand from under his black wing. "

Why him?!" The boy jumped out of bed, ran to the Angel, and tugged on his wings. "

I placed a sign in your path. A sign that was supposed to tell you this and soothe your pain," the Angel whispered, freeing himself from the boy's strong hands.

"A sign? What sign?" the boy asked, wiping his tears.

"Her," the Angel replied, pulling the hand of the girl sitting in the chair.

"Magda?"

The girl woke up with beads of sweat on her face. It was just a bad dream... A nightmare that would never come true. She jumped off the bed and ran to the bathroom to wash her face. Beads of sweat mingled with the water and ran down the girl's face. She looked up to look in the mirror. But instead of her reflection, she saw someone else. This person had curly brown hair, beige wings with black spots, and black eyes. Eyes that made you fall into a bottomless pit. The girl jumped away from the mirror.

"He's going to die, you know?"