Rets, the Perrserker

A knock on the door. Very familiar considering I had to listen to it twice a day at minimum.

“Come in.” I wasn’t yelling, but my voice was loud enough to hear.

“Good morning, Rets.” The Gourgeist greeted me. As every morning, she was carrying a tray with breakfast. Well… calling it breakfast might be overselling it. It was mostly a couple of loaves of bread accompanied with a glass of juice of… I didn’t know, they changed the berry every day, but by the color, it looked like Chesto. “Did you have a good night?”

“As good of a night as I can have, Melody.”

Clearly that’s not the response the nurse wanted to hear, but it was true. Between the constant coughing and the pain I had in my chest, it was a miracle I even slept at all.

“Oh, uh… Do you think you need a higher dosage of painkillers?”

“I already take four pills daily, I’m pretty sure the doctor told me that I was getting close to overdosing.”

Her frown deepened for a second before she masked it with that same fake smile I’d seen a thousand times. “I’ll talk with them then, maybe we can try another approach.”

I nodded, mostly because I wanted her to leave. ‘Another approach’, yeah, sure. I’d been in this hospital for a year now, if there was another approach, I would have tried it by now.

My attempt worked as Melody finally left me alone. I sat on the bed, the sunrays hitting me directly on the back. It was a good sensation, some heat difference in the middle of this god forsaken temperature-controlled room.

I wasn’t exactly hungry, but I knew that skipping breakfast would just start more conversations with the nurses about how I need to keep myself nourished and they’d start with all of those talks that they’d already told me over and over. So with a grumble, I ate.

The only good part about this time of day was that I got to hear the conversations the nurses were having. I always tried to have hope that one of those involved me having visitors, even if it never happened.

“I’m gonna need Mike’s file. He had an allergic reaction to Pecha yesterday, I want to make sure…”

“I just got notice that we’re getting a Silicobra later today, do we have a free room for them?”

“I was thinking about why so many Pokémon in town participate in ‘speedrunning’…”

My sense of hearing got obscured by my munching, but I already got the gist of it. No visits for yours truly, as always. Just another day of me doing absolutely nothing in my room.

With a sigh, I finished eating and laid back down. It was painful to move, my chest hurt like crazy, but that’s what happens when you have myocarditis, I supposed.

Another knock on the door, probably Melody again to get the tray back.

“Come in.”

It was indeed Melody, but there was someone behind her.

“Hey, Rets. There is… someone here that wants to talk to you. It’s about… well, your future.” Sure enough, a Tsareena made themselves visible. “I’ll just… leave you alone. Feel free to call me if you need anything.” And so Melody got the tray and left again.

We exchanged looks real quick. They were carrying a briefcase, and it seemed like one of those made to organize papers.

“So, you probably already know who I am considering you wanted to talk to me. But you don’t seem familiar, mind introducing yourself?” I said, with a bit of anger in my tone. I had a feeling as to what this was going to be for, and I didn’t like it one bit.

“Right, my name is Iciar. I am here because I know of your situation, and I’m sure you already know about it too, even with what the nurses and doctors tell you.”

“Yes, I know. A Myocarditis this strong is basically a time bomb until I get a heart attack and die. I’ve already made peace with it, so if you’re here to tell me how you can save me and cure this, you can leave right away. I’ve already tried everything, including multiple surgeries, and nothing has worked on me for some reason.”

“I’m not here for that, I’m here to… Well, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll be direct with you, I’m sure you would prefer that. I’m here to make sure you have your will set up.”

Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought. “Look, miss. I don’t plan on having a will. I have almost no money, and my properties are mostly sentimental value. I doubt anyone would want that.”

“Not even your daughter?”

That struck a nerve. “You know nothing about her.”

“I don’t, but if my father died, I’d like to have his belongings as a memento. You two are family, after all.”

“We aren’t family until she has the dignity to come visit me. One year. One whole year and she hasn’t stepped into this hospital at all. I have no idea about her life, or where she is, or who she is with. And I am not interested in that until she shows me a bit of respect and sympathy.”

Iciar sighed in frustration. It was clear she didn’t really care about me. Not that I was surprised, this was her job, probably.

“Rets, are you sure this is how you want this to go? Don’t you think Maialen would want-”

“So you DO know about her!” I stood up, my chest hurt at the sudden movement, but I was too angry to notice. “Why would you lie to me about that, huh? Oh, I wonder…”

She didn’t say anything, instead opting to silently stare at me. Her expression told me that I was close to making her snap. That’s what I wanted, the truth about her.

“I have a theory, you know? You’re not the first one that has come to me about my will. And all of the others understand my point when I say I don’t want to give my sweet Maialen anything. But you? You’re persistent, like you will not take a ‘no’ as an answer. I wonder why?”

I slowly walked up to her. She wasn’t even looking at me anymore, not because of shame, but because she was trying to calm her anger.

“You… you are her friend, are you not? She really tried to send you here to get what little I have left…” I pointed at her chest with one of my claws. “All because she’s too much of a coward to confront me herself.”

There it was. The snap. The words that would finally put her facade down. In just an instant, her attempts at ignoring me were dropped, swapped with an intent to hurt. She didn’t waste a moment, either, immediately trying to kick me.

Luckily, there’s one good thing about being old. Experience.

I dodged, completely expecting her attack. I readied myself and hit her with an Iron Head, straight into her chest. All manners were off, I wanted her to see that nobody messes with me.

She stumbled back against the wall, but her expression didn’t change. If anything, her growling got louder. “I’m going to make you sign whether you want it or not!” She launched a Razor Leaf, most of the projectiles missed me, instead getting stuck on the wall behind me. But ‘most’ didn’t mean ‘all’. Some of those leaves cut part of my fur and skin off around my arms.

“Heh… What? Did my sweet Maialen promise you part of the money? You’re gonna be so disappointed when you realize I wasn’t lying about having almost none…” I was panting heavily. I was already weak from my illness, the sudden pain didn’t help. For some reason, I was also starting to get dizzy, but I paid it no mind.

I pulled out my claws, ready to strike. But in the middle of my swing, something happened. Something I could only curse for happening right in the worst possible moment.

I couldn’t breathe.

The pain in my chest tripled, my vision was fading, my muscles stopped having any sort of strength. I fell to my knees, holding my spot of where my heart was, gasping for air but to no avail.

“Would you look at that? What unfortunate timing.” I could somewhat see Iciar get closer to me, and even without being able to decipher her face, I could sense she was smiling. “You don’t want to sign? Fine, I’ll do it myself and tell everyone it was you. They won’t be able to prove it’s fake, after all. Not with you already on the other side.”

I was panicking, my heart wasn’t beating, the survival instincts came in and made me attempt to yell, but no sound came out.

“Have a good passing away, Rets.” I managed to hear her footsteps as well as the opening and closing of the door. I was alone now.

My fur was standing on end. I thought I accepted my death, but it only took experiencing it to change my mind. I didn’t want to die, less so like this.

“Hello, Rets. How did the conversation-” That voice, it was Melody. I was already collapsed on the floor, it was obvious to figure out what was happening. Thankfully, Melody didn’t disappoint, immediately screaming. “CARDIAC ARREST! I NEED HELP URGENTLY! I REPEAT, CARDIAC ARREST!”

I could feel her limbs touching me, trying to pull me up carefully but quickly.

But that was the last thing I managed to feel.