Chapter 4
Patient Pt. 2
Under the brim of a red and white cap, dark brown pools locked intensely down into the dark shadow near his feet. The expression accompanying them appeared to be verging on despondent. More correctly, however, he was resigned. In his peripheral vision, Ash would notice the officer glancing over to him in concern for a split second, before turning his eyes back to the road. As to whether the man just thought he was understandably quiet, sullen, and perhaps lost in thought, or alternatively simply had his sights resting on his feet for lack of interest in the things around him was up for debate. It was reasonable to think both.
"Much better trying to sneak into the car, than following along, hm…? That would be… annoying." He recalled hearing something along those lines while locking up the house. To say he paid the words any attention would be giving him too much credit. But after slipping into the police-cruiser, he did notice that she went completely silent. She hadn't spoken for several minutes now.
If the officer looked down at the shadow for long enough, he might have been able to tell that there was something odd about it; it much was darker than normal, though it was hard to see at this time of day. Fortunately for everyone involved, he kept his attention focused on the road and cars around him.
Ash could practically feel the weight resting on him, and the odd sensation of the air. She would get irritated if he moved his legs. Maybe it would disturb her illusion or something, he was unsure. Frankly, there wasn't any part of him that was itching to disturb her. Aside from not having the will to, he probably wouldn't have anyway. What was the point?
Instead of disturbing the atmosphere that felt to him as fragile as glass, he sat there still on the passenger side, arms lying around his bag, and silent with the exception of his gentle breathing. The unfamiliar setting and company made him stiff, uncomfortable; so much so that he was practically counting the seconds in which he was trapped there in the vehicle.
Why? Why am I here? His mother would be fine alone, right? He would obviously be doing more harm than good by going to the hospital. Everything would have been fine if he stayed home. His mother would get some rest, she would hopefully recover, and he wouldn't be worried about her because he knew where she was at.
He imagined the scenario playing out earlier, with him still standing at the door. "Actually, no sir, I don't want to visit my single mother in the hospital as her only child"; would anyone say that?
"Hey, kid," Officer Maury spoke up, causing Ash to fidget. However, he didn't look over, avoiding eye contact. "If you don't mind me asking, how's you and your mother's life at home? You're sure you have no idea what's going on with her?"
Don't worry about me. The memory of his mother's sweet but tired voice caused Ash to bite his lip. "Mom—she works a lot. Normally she's out for most of the day, but she brings home dinner, and stuff… I don't know," he shared awkwardly, carefully navigating the treacherous waters of the conversation. It didn't need to be this way, Ash knew. Unlike his mother, that wasn't the case for him, and if he really wanted to, he could spill everything.
Everything… How far would she go to stop it? That, he didn't know. Going as far as murder seemed so unfathomable when he thought about it.
"Oh, yeah. That seems a bit complicated," the officer commented, nodding. His response was non-committal at best. Ash struggled to get a grasp on what precisely the man was trying to get him to say, but eventually it faded from his mind when the car descended into silence once more. This wasn't to last though, as after a minute or two he heard the officer let out a deep sigh. "Man, I hate rush hour."
Ash glanced up, gazing out the window. The rain-splashed streets of downtown Saffron; masses of people and Pokemon on foot, busses, motorbikes, cars, you name it. While few people actually owned any large-form personal transportation in Saffron, or in Kanto in general, the sheer magnitude of people in the city inevitably caused congestion on the roads. Seeing it all reminded him of just how little he ever went outside the house.
His pale skin reflected the lack of exposure to the sunlight, how he would spend his days doing the same few things. TV, workbooks, the dirt cheap internet, sleeping, or otherwise what would probably be dubbed vegetating by most normal people; sitting alone with his thoughts and his ever-present "companion". He had no friends and few responsibilities. As far as his life went, all he did was exist. The future was sketchy at best.
Ash found it slightly difficult to pull his sights from the window, lingering just a moment too long for his liking. He wanted to let out a sigh of his own, his unfocused stare reluctantly returning to rest in limbo, for no one else to see.
"She's your mother, she'll be happy to see you, so don't look so down. I'm sure everything will be fine." Maury wasn't blind, Ash understood that much. The officer must've spotted the flippant nature of his expression, however minute it was. That, or he had been through this song and dance before. "…I don't really know what your family situation looks like, and it seems like you don't me prying into it, but just know that."
As encouraging as the man tried to sound, it just didn't click with the raven haired child whatsoever. This time Ash did let out a light, but very audible breath. "Yeah," he mumbled.
Saffron City General Hospital was unsurprisingly a very "official-looking" place, if he had to term it. That should be expected, Ash figured. As it was paid for by the city itself, like the Gyms and Pokemon Centers, it probably had a fair amount of money backing it's architecture and , metal, sharp brickwork, and tile everywhere; no wood, cracks, or deterioration visible. While there may have been much better looking places around, this was certainly up there in terms of visual quality. To top it all off, it was huge.
If going outside for him was rare, then being in a part of the city that looked this modern, expensive, and well-kempt was near unprecedented. And just across the way, in viewing distance, was the counterpart to General Hospital, the Specialty Center. Though the design language was identical to it's twin, it appeared much smaller.
Even the parking garage itself that they drove into a few moments ago was relatively clean of oil stains and whatnot. At any other time, this may have been enough to grab hold of Ash's attention. He was used to seeing the same types of run down stores and housing developments, where as this was the type of scale that Saffron City was known for outside of the Kanto region. All of these things noted though, it wasn't long before he inevitably zoned out once more anyway, lost in his own head. None of it could keep his attention for long in comparison to everything else going on.
"And here we are," Maury said, cutting the engine after backing into the seemingly reserved parking space, shaking Ash from his musings, "You ready? We have a bit of a walk," the man noted as he swung his door open. Ash nodded, reaching for the handle to his own. Briefly hearing a quip of "be gentle on the door, it gets enough abuse" and so on, he got out of the police car. The lights of the ceiling of the parking garage gave the place a slightly eerie ambience in the early hours that didn't provide enough sunlight, but at least he found the warming morning air calming when he stood up and took it all in.
He felt the weight of his false shadow shedding from his feet. "We're at the hospital, huh? Short nap…" Her words pricked his ears, while he shouldered his beat up old his other hand Ash firmly shut the car door, and made his way over to the front of the car where Officer Maury stood waiting for him.
"Don't wander off," the man joked, trying to make light of the situation, "I don't need you getting lost before you can see your mom. That wouldn't look good for me, eh?"
This attempt at humor only resulted in Ash giving another curt nod, before shielding his eyes from the headlights of a slowly passing vehicle. Officer Maury looked like he wanted to speak up again, but refrained. The atmosphere between them went back to awkward, or remained that way depending on how one looked at it. While Maury appeared to be progressively putting in effort to try and make himself seem more friendly, for Ash this whole thing had never been anything other than said status quo.
The short beep as Maury locked the car up signaled the start of their walk through the garage, towards the hospital building. Minutes on, Ash's eyes were kept distracted watching his resident nightmare-feeder drift in his shadow as he followed the Officer closely.
"You know, unless she has any other problems, I wouldn't expect you and your mom to be here too long. Even though originally she was in the emergency-room, the nurse said her issue probably wasn't serious enough to require anything more than another overnight stay."
Ash made a nondescript noise acknowledging what the man said, before hearing his ghost hum. "…That's good, yeah," she mumbled softly, "Better to be out of here as soon as possible, anyway. So many people everywhere, it'll drive me mad." They weren't even in the hospital yet, and she already sounded restless.
Under his breath, Ash couldn't help responding, "Then you should have just stayed home." It was so low, so hollow, he would be surprised if the Officer heard a thing. On the other hand, he knew that the intended party most definitely heard it.
"Who knows how long I would be there, without either of my favorite humans?" she raven haired boy she lurked next to looked up from the ground, towards the line of glass doors they were approaching. She didn't speak again until the Officer was already pulling at the handle of one of them, letting somebody through the door before they walked in themselves. "And, I meant what I said earlier. I'll be good. I'll let her rest—just for tonight…"
He didn't believe her. How could he?
Ash didn't pay much attention to the person in front of them as they stood second in their line to the receptionist counter, watching people and a select few smaller sized pokemon mill through the well-lit lobby. Potted plants were the decor of choice for the waiting area, lining the walls next to benches that were sparsely occupied. Towards the back of the lobby there were multiple elevators, and the halls split off in each direction in front of them, forming somewhat of a stubby 't' shape. On the counter in front of them a sign read "Please note; no pokemon over 4 feet in length or height allowed in the halls, common areas, or elevators outside of their containment devices. We thank you for understanding."
Was that supposed to mean that they were allowed in rooms? He could only imagine a 7 foot, 550 pound Tyranitar allowing themself to be stuffed in one of them, simply for the sake of seeing their trainer. Ash's musings faded when he heard the Officer speak up in front of him. Their turn; they approached.
"Good morning ma'am, I'm Officer Maury with the Saffron City Police Department. I need a visitor's pass for him," Maury began, tilting his head in the direction of Ash, "To see his mother, Ms. Delia Ketchum. She was admitted here last night?"
The older female receptionist that sat behind the counter looked between the two for a moment, acknowledging their presence. Dropping her eyes back to her monitor, she tapped a sequence of keys on her keyboard. "That's 'D.E.L.I.A', correct?" she spelled out, "No 'H' at the end?"
"Yeah, that's her," Ash was the one to speak up.
She nodded. "Ok. And your first name is…?"
"Ash, um, 'A.S.H'. Same last name as my mom." He figured that the lady would have already guessed that, but it came out anyway. A few more taps on the keyboard, and then the low hum of a machine could be heard. Two seconds maximum passed, eventually leading to the over-counter presentation of a plastic identification card.
Ash hesitantly picked it up, viewing its printed content. Name first, what he guessed was an estimation at his height and age, and the name of his mother in the "visiting:" section. There was also a spot for a picture, something that was left blank. Nothing fancy.
"Hold on tight to that card, unless you want to be seeing me again to print another," the receptionist advised, "You're looking for room 202, on floor 3."
"Thank you, ma'am," The officer spoke, who had been content with letting the boy speak, peeked back into the conversation to give the woman his gratitude as well. Followed by this the both of them headed to the elevators. Stepping into the first one available, it didn't take Ash long to notice the absence of his shadow. The lights were most likely too bright for her to stay hidden.
I'll be good…
A person or two else stepped in after them, but it was quiet, and Ash naturally sank into the corner until they reached the third floor. He felt so entirely removed from the unknown faces around him, and he could feel his frustration growing with every second they became closer to his mother.
I'll be good…
Ash finally found himself staring at his mother's face for the first time in what felt like forever, from the doorframe of the room. She was fast asleep; peacefully, although looking no less worn. His eyes softened when he approached her bedside.
I'll be good… That's what she told him.
Seeing and playing with pokemon at the old ranch in Pallet town helped to form his younger opinion of the creatures. Not all were friendly, but none were like her. She was an entirely different breed, even amongst the strangest pokemon he knew of. Gengar took satisfaction in playing cruel tricks on people, Drowzee were known to hang around daycares and the homes of children, and it wasn't impossible for wild Drifloon to just vanish with them.
She had hospitalized and threatened to kill his mother. She talked to him every single day. She acted like both of them were her toys. She tormented and tortured, jabbed and prodded. He couldn't imagine an average day without her existence.
It would be odd, and dare he even say it, undesirable.
Realizing this, Ash quickly found himself wishing he had never woken up.
Banette of my Existence
A/N
I'm not gonna lie, part of me thinks that this chapter (Or what passes for one, to me, for some reason. What the fuck, me?) is a bunch of filler bullshit with bits of exposition sprinkled throughout, and some slightly poor characterization as a bad aftertaste. I had been working on this for the better part of a month, and between the days where I would try to forget it's existence, I swear I edited the second section 40 times before settling on what it is now. All in all, I feel like this could have been written much better, and planned out even more-so. It gets the message across, I guess.
This chapter is the culmination of some poor decisions. I make a lot of poor decisions.
