The Bitter Truth

The small room was simply designed, the walls and ceiling painted white. The smell of medicine wafted into our senses as the breeze of the turned-on air conditioner blew.

On the chair opposite sat a forty-year-old man. He was holding a white examination paper. A young girl in a blue shirt and dark brown pants sat leaning against the opposite seat. It was ten o'clock in the morning.

"Cassie, are you still listening to me?"

Cassie was stunned, her wide eyes staring at the doctor in front of her "Ah yes, I'm still listening"

"Your disease has started to spread to the back of your head. The chances of surgery are slim, and you should prepare immediately."

Cassie smiled, "I'll try harder" finally, and waltzed out of the medicine-smelling room. Cassie knew that the doctor would say that she didn't have much time left.

The crowded streets, as well as the noisy voices of people, were pounding in Cassie's head. She couldn't focus at the moment and didn't know what to do.

"Cassie you're being called to the director's office" Liliana whispered when Cassie had just arrived at the office.

"Cassie, are you kidding me? How come all the clients have stopped signing contracts?" Marco snapped, his eyes seeming to jump out of his place.

Cassie closed her eyes, Marco's voice disturbing her sense of hearing too much

"I'm sorry, sir. I don't know what's going on in the office yet, because I just got back" Cassie said.

"Where have you been? You want me to terminate your contract!" Marco shouted.

"I'm sorry, sir," Cassie said in a low voice

"I don't want to know, bring them back!"

Cassie closed the door to the director's office, turned her back to the door, and clenched her hands into fists.

This director was so annoying, he always blamed others when something happened in the company.

"Huftt... I want to drown that crazy director" Cassie grumbled.

"Patience Cassie" Liliana rubbed Cassie's back.

Everyone in the office knew that their director was crazy about money but never did any good work and only wanted to date pretty young girls. Even though he was old, and there was nothing good about him.

"Is something going on? Why is Cassie's face so glum today?" said a cold-faced man with a tablet in his hand.

"That crazy director is at it again" whispered Anthon, Cassie's coworker in the same department as her.

Mattew the cold-faced man nodded, "I won't let you quit Cassie" he said, Mattew was indeed an influential person in this department.

Cassie smiled at the cold-faced man, "You don't want to be in trouble yourself"

"That's right, there's no way Mr. Mattew would let a great person like Cassie go" Liliana gave a small chuckle

"In that case, you should just quit," Mattew said flatly without taking his eyes off the tablet in his hand.

Cassie rolled her eyes, 'This Mr. Mattew, he must be reluctant to admit that I'm a useful person here' Cassie thought.

Before heading to her house, Cassie turned at the crossroads to her best friend Hanna's house after reading a series of messages sent by her best friend.

"How's work going?" asked Cassie sitting on the living room sofa.

Hanna who was still struggling with her laptop heard faintly,

"Cassie, can you help me? I'm already tired" Hanna complained with tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong, is your job that hard?" Cassie walked over to Hanna's desk

"Look, I don't want to see it anymore!" Hanna threw herself on the sofa with tears in her eyes.

Cassie shook her head "Ck ck ck you're making up a story about what, that they're mad at you like this?" Cassie scrolled through Hanna's laptop screen, there were a lot of negative comments directed at Hanna.

"I-" Hanna got up, her nose red from the snot coming out of it

Cassie walked over to Hanna and sat down next to this disheveled-looking girl

"I just made a story about, a couple's sincere love and their accidental meeting but I made it so that at the end of the story the man turns out to be an old man in disguise," Hanna said still crying over what happened to her.

"It's a good story, so why don't they like it?" asked Cassie curiously, since the story her best friend had made up seemed like a good one.

"They said they didn't like a pretty girl like Emma having to have sex with an ugly old man like Anthony" Hanna wiped the snot off her nose

Cassie opened her mouth, "It's only appropriate that they don't like it, how can you make the beautiful lead have sex with an ugly old man? How cruel."

Hanna looked at her best friend, "Do you not like it either?" she asked innocently.

"Who wants to have sex with an old man, Hanna?" explained Cassie.

"Never mind, I just want to go home. Don't forget to take care of your problems this time" Cassie walked towards the main door.

Hanna got up from her seat "Cassie... What about me?" shouted Hanna

Ignoring her best friend's cries, Cassie walked straight down the street that had started to empty as it was already nine o'clock in the evening.

Cassie's feet stopped in front of a cake shop, looked at it a few times, and stopped in front of one of the plain white cakes "I want one, just this one" Cassie pointed at the shopkeeper.

Cassie led her feet into the rather dark street, this was one of the streets that could connect to her house.

Bruk...

Cassie stopped her footsteps, "who's there?" she shouted to be sure.

From behind a trash can, a man in a black suit appeared with a disheveled appearance. His hand pointed at Cassie, with a babbling mouth.

Cassie picked up the broom in front of her house, just in case something unexpected happened.

The man walked like a zombie towards Cassie, his face invisible due to the poor lighting. Cassie tightened her grip even more.

"You have to kiss me," the man said, staggering over like a drunk.

Cassie raised her eyebrows, 'What did he say? Is this guy crazy? Or drunk?'

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Cassie shouted a little shakily as the man kept repeating the same sentence

"I'll help you," the man said.

The atmosphere tonight was very quiet, Cassie reached into the pocket of her bag looking for the key that should be there.

The man was getting closer to her, his face now highlighted by the lights outside Cassie's house.

Trembling, Cassie inserted her key into the small hole in the door. To no avail, it wasn't her partner.

Cassie panicked even more when the man tapped her on the shoulder, it turned out that the man had arrived behind her.

"Akh... What are you doing?! Back off or I'll scream!" said Cassie, pushing the man to the ground.

"You can't be rude to me, I'll help you," she said incoherently.

Cassie tried all the keys in her bag and, sure enough. The door managed to open, Cassie hurriedly entered the house before the man got up.

"Let me in," he said, holding the door open with one big, burly hand.

Cassie opened her eyes, panicking. "Wha- what are you doing, go away this isn't your house!" Cassie shouted trying to remove the hand from the door.

Not finished with the fight, Cassie's ears buzzed so strongly that Cassie released the prisoner from the door.

"Akh..."

The man barged into the house, while Cassie squatted in front of the door holding her head which suddenly felt painful.

"Akh... Not now" Cassie smacked her head lightly, trying to get rid of the pain.

"I'll help you," the man walked over to Cassie and squatted down to Cassie's height.

Without a word, the cold mouth that still smelled of alcohol was pressed against Cassie's pale lips.

Cassie opened her eyes, with such a close distance she could see the face of the crazy man that she didn't know who it was.

Before her consciousness was completely taken away, Cassie felt like her body was floating. It ended with the man letting go of her brief kiss, and the next second it was dark. Cassie couldn't see anything.