I was a sick kid. Like, the kid who never went to school sick. I suffer from epilepsy, and my seizures kept me in the hospital for 3 months when I was ten. It sucked, it really did, but Birsha Children's Hospital became my home, and the staff there became my family.

Due to the severity of my seizures (I had them multiple times a week, and most were severe) I was placed in what the hospital called the Butterfly Unit, which was code word for "no hope left" unit. It was mainly for kids who were so severe that the hospital's main focus was comfort instead of cures, and while I've been told I was one of the less severe cases in that wing, I definitely belonged there.

It was pretty boring. I mean, there's only so many Spongebob episodes, colouring pages and popsicles a ten-year-old girl can enjoy before going crazy. So I slept a lot.

For a while, I had normal dreams. I could fly, my teeth fell out, a monster was chasing me, the works. But one day, when I was in the last month of being in the hospital, it changed.

I opened my eyes to a bright carnival in front of me, the smell of popcorn wafting in the air and the sound of carousel music in the distance. A man wearing a magician's hat and a suit with a colourful tie skipped up to me, balloon in hand.

"Welcome, Gracie! We've been waiting so long to meet you!"

"I- how do you know my name?" I asked.

The man waved his hand away, like the question I asked was completely irrational and not a genuine concern. "Call me Dr. Azrail- that's hebrew for fun times. And this-" He gestured around to the carnival behind him. "Is Azrail's Fair For Fun Times! See, Gracie, I take little boys and girls just like you, who could use a little bit more fun in their lives, and I make them happier! Balloon?" Dr. Azrail offered the pink balloon to me, which I skeptically took.

"Dr. Azrail," I said to myself. "Are you a real doctor?" For some reason I just assumed this was another one of the hospital's lame ways to cheer the sick kids up, even though that didn't make much sense.

"Well, I guess you could consider me a doctor. But I'm not one of those crochety old doctors who feeds you gross medicine and give you shots- I'm a fun doctor! I cure you with good times!" He said, taking my hand. "Now let's get inside the fair- I'm sure it'll make you smile!"

And honestly, it did. Even though I was aware I was dreaming, everything just felt so real. I could really taste the cotton candy and funnel cakes, I could feel the air hitting my face as I went on the roller coasters, I could smell the popcorn carts as the smiling clowns pushed them around the carnival. I was actually sad to wake up.

"Don't worry," Dr. Azrail said as I drifted back into consciousness. "I'll be here next time!"

"Oh, look you're up!" My nurse, Beth, said as I rubbed my eyes. I was in the same drab hospital room, decorated with butterflies as yet another reminder how close to death I was. "Breakfast is being served- eggs today!"

Every Sunday, the Butterfly room at Birsha's Children's Hospital would host a breakfast for all of the sick kids to eat together; the food was always pretty bad, but most of us didn't care, and eggs were my favourite breakfast food. I took Nurse Beth by the hand, and we walked to the dining hall together, the smell of eggs drifting through the air.

As I sat down to eat my eggs and bacon in the shape of a smiley face, a boy across the room from me caught my eye.

He was bald, just like a lot of the kids here-he wasn't eating any eggs. He looked at me, and awkwardly waved, to which I returned it, probably just as awkward.

"Nurse Beth," I said, tugging on her scrubs. "Who is that?" I pointed to the boy, who was colouring instead of eating.

"Him? Oh, that's Gabriel. He's another one of my patients. I think he's ten years old, just like you. You two would make a great pair; he doesn't have many friends." She said.

I could barely wait for nighttime- I wanted to see if Dr. Azrail would come back.

"Are you sure you want lights out, Gracie? It's only 7:30- are you feeling okay?" Nurse Beth asked.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. Can you give me the sleepy pills?"

Reluctantly, Nurse Beth got my glass of water and sleepy pill, and sighed as she turned out the lights. For once, I was excited to have my sleepy pill, because it meant I got to go to Azrail's Fair For Fun Times again.

This time, when I opened my eyes to that spectacular fair, though, it was different. I wasn't alone anymore. I saw Gabriel, the boy from the breakfast room.

"Hi," I said to him. He turned his small head towards me. "I'm Gracie."

"Hi," He said. "I'm Gabriel."

"I know."

He took a step back, and I realized how creepy that must've sounded. "Sorry." I laughed. "Nurse Beth told me about you. She says she thinks we'll get along great. I'm ten. How old are you?"

Gabriel went back to looking relaxed. "I'm ten, too! Well, almost. I'm nine and eleven and a half months."

Just then, Dr. Azrail jumped in front of us, startling both Gabriel and I.

"Hullo, Gracie! I see you have met my other fun patient, Gabriel! You two will have fun together- come with me!"

Gabriel smiled. "This places looks awesome."

"Oh it is," I said, taking his frail hand, "Just wait 'till you see the inside."

All night Gabriel and I went on rides and ate sweets, something Gabriel said he'd normally never be able to do. Most foods made him sick, and rides were a strict no, he said.

As the morning became closer and closer, Gabriel and I rode the carousel together, eating cotton candy.

"When we wake up, how will I know if this was just a dream or not?" I asked.

Gabriel rubbed his chin for a while, in deep thought. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers. "Oh! Duh! We've never met in real life! If I know your name, then we know this is for real!"

I was slightly embarrassed that I hadn't thought of that, but I didn't care.

"Okay. Meet me at the colouring table when you wake up if you remember me. Deal?" I asked.

He smiled. "Deal."

And that was the last thing I remember before I suddenly woke up, drool running down my cheek.

"Good morning, Gracie!" Nurse Beth said. "How was your sleep?"

"I need to go to the colouring table." I said, brushing straight past her.

To my glee, I saw Gabriel patiently sitting at the colouring table, scribbling over a picture of Spider-Man.

"Uh, hi, I-"

"Hullo, Gracie." He said, and I instantly knew it was the same Gabriel.

We spent all day playing, and talking about Dr. Azrail's Fair For Fun Times, and about how boring being a sick kid was, and about how much we hated all the butterflies.

But, as nighttime neared, I got another seizure. The last thing I remembered was Gabriel calling for the nurses, and footsteps running towards me.

When I came to, I was hooked to another breathing tube and other weird tubes that I didn't bother learning the names of, and Nurse Beck was standing over me.

"Hello, sweetie. I'm so sorry you had another seizure; you'll recover quickly enough. And, we moved Gabriel's bed close to you, too, so you'll have some company!"

Gabriel waved enthusiastically at me from the other side of the room.

"I'll leave you to it. Call me if anything's wrong, okay?" She said, and left the room.

Gabriel and I looked at each other, and we knew what we had to do. Smiling at each other, we both closed our eyes, trying to sleep as soon as possible.

From then on, we were both obsessed. We barely spent any time awake; we'd wake up, eat, and go to bed. We refused our medicine, because sometimes they'd make us too nauseous to sleep, plus, Dr. Azrail had told us that the medicine wasn't as much help as his fair. Light started to hurt our eyes, so we blocked the window, and kept all the lights off. Nurse Beth was worried, but we didn't care.

But the more we visited Dr. Azrail's Fair For Fun Times, the more it changed. The bright colours slowly turned more muted, and the smiling clowns stopped smiling all the time. The rides got rusty, and every so often they'd break down completely.

On top of that, my seizures got worse, and Gabriel seemed to get even weaker. But anywhere was better than being in the damn Butterfly Unit, in our sick reality, even if it was some old, creepy, carnival.

One day, the day before Gabriel's birthday, we were getting ready to sleep at 8:00 AM, and Nurse Beth knocked on our door.

"Hey, sweeties, I've wanted to talk to you about your sleeping for a while. Are you two feeling okay? I'm worried. If you stay awake, I'll read a story to you. I'll even bring out my puppet theatre. I know you two both love that." She said. We ignored her.

"You know what? I'm sorry, but I have to. I'm too worried; stay up with me. We'll watch a movie, anything!"

"NO!" Gabriel screamed, and tried to run at her. It was the strongest I had ever seen him. I, although weak, was stronger than Gabriel, and I followed suite, running at Nurse Beth. She called for backup, as the two of us charged at her.

"WE NEED TO SLEEP! WE NEED HIM, WE NEED HIM!" Gabriel screeched.

"WHO IS 'HIM'?" The nurses begged as we fought against them, putting up a fair fight. We didn't explain. We knew they couldn't understand.

Suddenly, a doctor came in with the sedation needle. I had seen it been used before- when I had passed by the Spider Unit, which was another word for the psychiatric unit. Gabriel and I were relieved to see it. We could go back to Dr. Azrail now. As I slipped out of consciousness, Gabriel and I sneaked a smile at each other. They didn't know that we had won the fight after all.

But when we opened our eyes to the fair, it was different. The smell of cotton candy no longer lingered, the clowns weren't just unsmiling, they were snarling, and Dr. Azrail wasn't smiling like usual.

"Um- Dr. Azrail? What's wrong with the fair?" I asked.

"Nothing, Gracie. Nothing is wrong with the fair. Now go in, both of you. Have fun." He said, his back facing me. His voice was different, too. Not as animated as usual.

"But-"

"Did you hear me, Gracie? Get in, both of you. Now."

Frightened, I grabbed Gabriel's hand, and we slowly stepped in.

It was not at all like how we remembered it. The banners were falling down, the rollercoaster appeared to be on fire, and the carousel's music was warped.

"I don't like it here." I said, holding my friend's hand tighter.

"Me neither. I want to go home." He said, but as we turned back to the entrance, it was suddenly blocked. We both jumped as a piece of the sky fell down.

"We need to get out of here!" I yelled, and Gabriel and I ran aimlessly around, trying to find an exit.

More of the sky began to fall, revealing a black abyss in place of it.

"There's no escape, Gabriel!" Dr. Azrail's voice boomed from somewhere.

The rollercoaster fell down, setting the rest of the fair ablaze. I sobbed as I ran.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" I said to myself.

It wasn't until I had been running for quite some time that I noticed Gabriel's hand was no longer in mine.

"Gabriel?"

"Gracie!" I heard. He was pinned down under the flaming roller coaster, slowly burning.

"You can't save him now, Gracie. It's his time. I'm sorry, I can't change that." Dr. Azrail's voice said. "Now go. It's not your time yet. Go, leave. Wake up. But I'm taking Gabriel with me."

"GRACIE!" Gabriel's voice got more panicked. I ran to help him, but an invisible force stopped me.

"Did you not hear me, Gracie? Leave. But I'm not done with you, yet. Your time will come, one day."

"What do you-"

But suddenly, I was whipped back into reality. I sighed. I was safe!

"Oh, there you are, Gracie! I'm so sorry about yesterday- I think we both got carried away. We'll work as a team to be better, okay?" Nurse Beth said, placing her hand on my cheek.

"Where's Gabriel?" I said.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm not sure how to tell you this," Nurse Beth broke eye contact. "But, last night, your friend Gabriel... he passed away. He didn't even get to turn ten. I'm so sorry, Gracie."

I don't know much else about what happened after that. All I knew was that I never had a seizure again, and that I never saw that godforsaken fair again, either. I'm eighteen now, and doing fairly well. But every once in a while, in my dreams, I'll hear Dr. Azrail's laugh somewhere in the distance. As if he's saying,

I'll be back