“Future” which is utterly and totally improbable but hey. what're we here for, if not the improbable?
I’ll just want you to know, I’m so sorry.
She looked too small inthe hospital bed, almost like a doll in a bed built for a human. Thesickness had taken the roundness from her face, and the colour fromher skin, as it slowly drained the life from her body. The blackpatches of rot that marred her skin look almost like ink against hertoo pale flesh. Her lips were cracked and dry, the shadows beneathher eyes stood out like livid bruises. Two men hovered worriedly ather bedside.
“The doctors sayyou’ll be able to come home soon, Lizzie!” Harry’s voice wascheerful as ever, though there was little cause for cheer. She hadlittle time left, and both men were fully aware of this. The doctorshad told them there was little more they could do for her, aside frommaking her as comfortable as possible in the time she had left. Shewas fading faster and faster each day and Geostigma had no cure.
She smiled weakly,“Really? Oh, Daddy, I’m so glad. I don’t like it here very much.”Her sentence was followed by a series of rattling coughs that wrackedher tiny frame, as her lungs tried to expel the rot from her lungs.When the coughing subsided, she sagged back against the pillows,clearly exhausted. Tseng took her hand and squeezed it gently.”Takea deep breath, Lizzie. You’re alright.” She was far from alright,but he had learned this was the type of lie one told to a child.Especially a sick one.
“Papa? How is uncleRufus doing? Is he still sick too?” His heart contracted a little.She loved Rufus quite dearly and he in turn had become quite takenwith her. She had always referred to him as her uncle, despite thelack of relation, but he had never seemed to mind. The news of hisillness had sat poorly with her and everyday she would ask to go seehim, despite being told no every time. He and Harry had doneeverything in their power to stop their little girl from gettingsick, and still, there she was, dying. “He’s alright, qiānjīn.You don’t need to worry.”She nodded weakly. “Rest now. You mustbe tired.” She nodded again and closed her eyes.
Suddenly she jerkedupright in the bed, her eyes wide open, but unseeing. Her usuallybrown eyes were a startling shade of green, and her pupils wereslit like a cat’s. “Papa? Daddy? Where are you?” She soundedpanicked. Her fathers were on their feet the instant she had sat up.She clutched at her head, and whimpered as black fluid leaked fromher eyes and mouth. “S-Stop it!” She screamed. Harry bolted fromthe room to get a doctor, while Tseng gently lay the writhing girlback down. “S-Stay away from me!” Her skin was feverish as it always was when the illnesstook hold of her. First came a spike in fever, then hallucinations, then finally the seizures. He rolled her on her side. Lizzie began screaming,horrible inhuman screams as her suffering grew in intensity.
She began to convulse.Seizures weren’t uncommon upon the onset of Geostigma, but it wasconcerning that they had not only remained through the course of herillness, but had only gotten worse as time had progressed. Harryreturned with a doctor and a nurse, and the three of them rushed overto help hold the shaking girl down. Her voice grew hoarse from thescreaming and eventually gave out altogether, which certainly madethe process easier. She whimpered and sobbed softly as the seizurepassed, her convulsion turned into light tremors, then shivering,which in turn, at long last, turned to stillness. At last it wasover. Lizzie appeared to have fallen a sleep, the seizure havingdrained the lat of her energy.
The doctor, havingfinished checking over the child’s vitals, drew the two men aside.“She’s fading fast. I don’t think she’ll last until tomorrow.”Though they had both known this news was coming, it still hurt.“Iam so sorry.” She and the nurse left the room, to leave the fathersalone with their daughter.
Exhausted, the two menslumped back into the chairs beside Lizzie’s bed. Tseng just wantedthis to be over. He didn’t want to see his little girl suffer anylonger, and he was sure that Harry felt the same. The end would comeas a blessing. Of that much he was sure.