—-Prequal, Dead Ringer.—-
Ash always felt uncomfortable in hospitals. The sterile, too-clean feeling mixed with the knowledge of how many people have passed away in the very room he sat in.
He tried to stay still, to not let the crushing weight of the silence break him any more than what he felt in that moment. A low, monotonous beep of a heart monitor could be heard in the room next door.
Beep, Beep, Beep. It made Ash’s heart race. “Too many bad memories,” he thought to himself, “What did they need that was so urgent?” Not like he had anything else planned for today.
After a moment, a doctor walked in. The solemn looking man took a seat on a nearby rolling chair. The doctor took a deep breath.
“Ashton Rolland?” he said, looking up from his clipboard.
“Yea, that’s me.” Ash replied nervously.
The doctor took a deep breath. “Mister Rolland, it’s never easy to say this but, Your MRI results came back from a few months ago.” Ash’s heart beat hard against his chest. “We discovered something alarming.” He pulled out a picture that looked like a human spine. “You’ve got a mass of tumors between your T-6 and T-12 vertebrae.”