The world slowly faded around Stephen. No matter how desperately he fought to keep his eyes open, the darkness kept creeping closer, swallowing everything bit by bit.
And yet... he could still see her.
Standing quietly in the corner was a little girl wearing her favorite pink dress, just as he remembered her. She smiled at him with the same innocent warmth she had carried twelve years ago, her tiny voice softly calling out for her father.
"Dad..."
Was she real? A hallucination brought on by death? Or was it simply the desperate wish of a broken father who had spent every day since losing her hoping for just one more chance to see her face?
He didn't know.
But at that moment, it didn't matter.
As his eyelids grew heavier, as every breath became slower and weaker than the last, and as his body finally began surrendering after fighting for so long, there was only one thing left in his fading world.
Her.
His little girl.
His only child.
