Chapter 1 The offer

0Reads1,000+I lay alone in my hospital bed, the monitors beeping quietly, the breathing machine sighing out its steady rhythm. I waited, without regret, without fear. It was time. I had outlived all of my friends. My family had come and said goodbye. My great-great grandchildren, still not old enough to understand what was happening, but knowing that their parents were sad, so they should be, too. A good life, well lived. The Asian man who walked around the curtain caught me off-guard. I had not heard the door open. He was obviously not a doctor in his black kimono with stylized dragon details, his long black hair pulled back tight against his head, giving his face a hard, angular look.