I don't know what to expect from this chapter. It should be sad, but with my writing, I doubt I could make anyone feel emotional when reading. (Ignore the picture lol)

Anyways, carry on...

—-

I was now on my way to the hospital. It wasn't too far from the city, in fact it was just on the outskirts of Petalburg. I felt a huge headache coming. From all the stress, I'm not too surprised at how I was feeling. I miss Max.

The news from last night messed up my emotions. And then this morning when mum had mentioned Max, my own little brother, had gone missing, I lost it completely. I broke down again for at least a couple of hours before deciding ride my bike and visit dad. At least he was still here.

All I could think about was my dad in hospital. I had almost forgotten about my loss at the Grand Festival till I heard people speaking about this years Hoenn festival. I had completely forgotten about Drew as well making me feel like a terrible friend, for one, I didn't even say a proper goodbye. Now that I think about it, the last time I saw him, I had run off in a rush for nothing. But that should be the least of my problems though.

But what I couldn't help thinking of was when Drew accidentally forgot to let go of my hand at the Pokémon centre. We had just stared at each other for at least five minutes. I don't know but even in the state I'm in, I manage to smile and blush a bit. Maybe I should call him and apologise for the abrupt farewell.

No stop it May! You shouldn't be thinking about that now. You have more important things to think about instead. Yeah, Drew's not as important as getting to my dad at the moment.

But I still couldn't help but wish for the supportive and arrogant voice of Drew to reassure me that everything was going to be alright. I missed his constant reminders that I can always do it, that I will always make it through.

Through all the teasing and all the mockery, deep down I knew he was a friend, and I really needed one right now. But I knew that couldn't happen at the moment. Drew was probably heading off to Kanto by now. It was too late to join him, or stop him from leaving me.

I looked up from the path and found myself stopping outside a tall building just outside the Petalburg woods. This was definitely the hospital.

Walking in, I saw the woman at the reception and asked her to the room for my dad. Entering the room, I felt my heart drop. I felt my eyes water once more. The person who lay in front of me did not look like the father I had grown up with for ten years of my life.

This person looked lifeless. Not the same cheerful father I had come to know. Maybe mum was right about his state, maybe it was just a week before he left us completely...

"May, is that you?" A voice rasped, snapping me back to reality.

"Dad. I'm so sorry!" I said running up to his bed and crying on his shoulder.

"Why are you sorry?" My dad said with a hoarse voice, wincing when he tried to sit up.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't have been here to support you! I'm sorry that I have been sulking over a stupid loss from the Grand festival and not thinking about you. I'm sorry for being so selfish and not coming back sooner and" I paused, my dad was using so much energy, just trying to listen to my apology.

"Dad, please lie down again, I'm sorry." I murmured while gently pushing him back down on the bed.

"I guess we're both sorry." He whispered to me.

"What do you mean." I looked him in the eye.

"I'm sorry for not trying hard enough to stay strong...May, I'm not going to make it, and you know that. I'd just like to tell you before I depart, I tried to tell him to stay."

"Tell who to stay?" I questioned curiously.

Before he could answer, he began a coughing fit, which was quite some violent coughing. A few moments later and he was coughing up a red substance. I gasped.

"NURSE NURSE, WE NEED A NURSE IN HERE IMMEDIATELY PLEASE!!" I shouted as loud as I could in panic.

Soon, a few people came in the room and pushed me away. They dragged my dads bed into the hallway and pushed it into another room where they locked the doors, giving me no access to see what was wrong.

"Dad, please stay strong." I whimpered staring at the door of which he just disappeared in.

A few hours later and the door opened once more. My dad was on the moving bed and they pushed his bed back to the room I had spoken to him in. A question was still unanswered and I needed answers now. Going back into the room, after the doctors and nurses had left, I sat down next to his bed. They had put him to sleep which was good news but I still was going to wait for answers, no matter what.

It was the next morning and I woke up to violent coughing. I shot up out of the seat I had ended up falling asleep in and rushed to my dad. His coughing died down and luckily didn't continue like it had yesterday.

I failed to notice my phone ringing at the same time because I was too distracted with taking care of my dad. After a while, he had calmed down slightly and opened his eyes as though he had been sleeping throughout his whole coughing fit. I brought over a glass of water for him to drink which he gratefully took in his hands. He sat up slowly as I saw pain flash through his eyes as he did so. He drank the water and sighed when he looked into my worried eyes.

I hugged him tightly in relief, knowing that there was still life within him. Maybe there was still hope for him in this world. I was just happy he was here with me now.

"I know you want answers." He mumbled through my hair as I continued hugging him. "So I will give them to you. Now listen to me."

"Max left after he found out I was sick. He researched online that there was this plant that could cure any sickness that existed in the world. Including this disease I am suffering from right now. I had told him it was hopeless but... he left anyway, convinced that he could find it in time to cure me. He had been talking to us on the phone everyday from his departure, and suddenly there was no more communication between us. We knew immediately something was wrong." Dad explained to me.

"I blame myself for not trying to convince him well enough to stay. Nothing would've ever happened to him if I just had been stronger and hadn't caught this horrible disease."

I sat up, baffled. It was so much like Max to be determined for something he put his mind to. And this cure for dad was important to him...but he was missing now. Stupid, stubborn child, couldn't just listen to reason. I didn't realise I was clenching my fists tightly until my dad place a hand on them. I immediately released my fists and stared at my dad.

"It was not your fault. You can't just decide on whether you can get a disease or not. Max just wanted to help you, I'm sure that he wouldn't blame you for anything. That just wouldn't be like Max if he did so." I told dad reassuringly.

"Can you get your mother?" He said wincing at the pain of just trying to move positions.

"Of course." I responded.

Going outside of the room, I leaned against the wall and turned on my phone. My eyes widened as I saw that I had missed calls from both my mum and.......Drew!? But why would Drew call me? I should text him back later I guess. Opening my contacts, I called my mums phone number patiently waiting for an answer.

"May?" Her voice sounded through the phone.

"You should come over to the hospital now. Dad was asking for you." I told her.

"I'm coming right away." She answered in a rush.

The week was almost at an end and mum and I were exhausted. We had spent the whole week just taking care of dad while he stayed in bed. We hadn't gone home in a while as we were afraid that if one of us left, dad would have gone by then...

We were awoken early this morning by the doctor who said that the disease was taking him away. Today was the day he had said sadly while shaking his head. Both my mum and I refused to believe his statement so we decided to go back to dad and stay there for the rest of the day. The three of us shared a few laughs while talking with each other for maybe the last time.

A few hours later and dad began shaking. His breathing quickened and his heart rate was out of control. It was so alarming that I couldn't even move from shock.

"May! MAY!" My mum snapped at me I shook myself and stared at her. "GET THE NURSE!" She screamed in panic.

I ran out of the room and ran straight into a nurse.

"Excuse me young lady. You should watch where you are going before running into someone again." She scolded me.

"Now's not the time to tell me off, my dad is in trouble!" I shouted at her while grabbing her wrists.

I pulled her to dads room and pushed her inside allowing her to inspect him. She looked up at me and shook her head as though saying it was too late. I stood there. No words formed from my mouth, everything became silent and everything and everyone disappeared from my vision except for the one person who was directly in front of me, lying down on a bed taking his last breaths.

"I love you." I heard him whisper just barely.

"No..." I whispered to myself.

I felt like screaming to the heavens. This was like a nightmare, just in real life. I pinched myself as though I wasn't convinced that this was real. No, it can't be real though. It's just a bad dream right? I was pinching myself until my skin began bleeding. It's all just fake. Not real. Just a bad dream... I closed my eyes as if expecting to see myself in a bedroom of some sort when I re-opened them. It was real. The lifeless body in front of me was definitely real. I touched his pale skin, it was cold, like ice.

I felt the pain of loss weigh down on my like rain. It wasn't the loss of a contest this time, but a permanent loss. The loss of life.

I guess we both lost our battles, except he lost his last battle. A battle between life and death.

IM SUCH A TERRIBLE PERSON, I LITERALLY JUST KILLED NORMAN... I'm sorry. This wasn't sad for me to write because I just don't know how to add proper emotions into my work believe it or not.

Sorry if this wasn't really that interesting to read. There's not much contestshipping yet but trust me, there will be coming up in chapters in the future.

Also I'm about to publish another book lol. I just can't stop writing these. Its called A Royal Fantasy. The description is horrible as usual. But it's the best I could do. It involves pokeshipping, ikarishipping, leafgreenshipping and contestshipping. I just hope it turns out alright.

Okay byeeee ^_^

- April

24 jan, 2018