him and went to his apartment. However, he wasn't home, and he told her where the keys were, when he came home he found her on his guest room floor almost dead. She had overdosed on pills. That was the first time he brought her to the hospital and from then on she has been in and out.

There were many reasons a person can get an honorable discharge before the completion of the contract. Justin knew she didn't have to be 'injured' to get a medical discharge. Shannon had an aneurysm after years of active duty. Justin knew several others who had strokes or heart attacks, and a few who developed cancer or other diseases but Shannon's condition was different. She was discharged from it.

Yet, she believes that they took the percentage that her service was in a situation where it was uncertain as to whether she doctor declared that it wasn't possible anymore as her aneurysm was worsening.

It causes the enlargement of her artery faster and results in weakness in the arterial wall and affects the arteries supplying the brain and the heart, and affects her body's main artery. Though at her most severe stage, it ruptured, leading to life-threatening internal bleeding, and that happened to her at the coffee shop.

After an hour of waiting, another doctor walked in with a face like a brick. His actions were all intended and with a goal, he analyzed the chart for a few seconds and looked up with a perfunctory smile flashed for just a minute. Behind the metal spectacles, his eyes were as murky as his mouth. His speech was peppered with humor, though never improper, yet Shannon never doubted for a moment that he was taking her seriously. He heeded, asked questions that were targeted to find the input he required, and gave well-balanced feedback.

In his replies, there was the truth of what he thought was transpiring, but holding back from diagnosis before the lab results came back. Every time she went in she "knew" it was something crucial this time, and she went out with her sanity put at ease or at least knowing the right tests had been authorized with her one and only friend.

"Every action sent screaming miseries dancing across her vulnerable flesh. Her surroundings dimmed into a new 2 reality only the broken could see. She was broken.

Only one question haunted her. Heaven or Hell? Light or darkness? Then her fragile, human heartbeat one last time.

Then, void emptiness.

Unexpectedly, after a moment or so, she felt the pain burning her inside out, rushing through her vein. She never felt this pain before, this was beyond anguish. It was total madness. It felt like there was a stake being hammered into her rib cage, through her heart, the assaults burning pain in a way that wrecked her brain.

Dying was painful, she thought.