loop 2: leave a message

“Weak heart” is what they call it in the amount of shows she’s watched while stuck in a hospital bed. Never addressed by name, of course, and Pheme usually skipped the episodes where said character died, but...still. “Weak heart”, was the name they gave it.

Certainly sounded better than congenital heart disease, huh? More poetic. Either way, it was essentially the same thing taking out all of them.

But not her. She didn’t want it to be her. The amount of shows she’d watched, the grieving, being used as a plot device over, and over, and over...she didn’t want her death to be a sad one. All her life, she’d been ready to go down in peaceful anonymity, a mellow funeral, a small memorial, a few niceties in the yearbook.

And then she met him. And for the first time, her life, even as Everly Weissenhorn, felt important. ”The number you’re trying to reach is currently unavailable.” She whispered a small curse under her breath, raising her shoulder and placing her phone on top of it, holding it against her ear, and began speaking.“Hey...Jenny. This is probably the last you’ll hear from me, but...that was sort of a given at some point, right? At least you can argue that you and I were somewhat prepared for death, unlike….everyone else.” A small pause. God, everything she was carrying was heavy. She took a small breath, looking around.

All clear. For the most part.

“Making that stupid rumour account was the best decision I ever made, honestly. Through it, for once people were interested in me...and I met you.” A small, awkward chuckle? Being this sappy doesn’t fit her at all. “Fuck, Tilly, you….”

She pauses, again. The audio shifts, as if she was moving her phone, as only the sound of footsteps was heard for a second.

“...I love you. I wish I could spend the rest of your life with you, or at least...more than what I estimated. But…shit.” 

Another pause, more hurried footsteps. Heavy breathing. Pheme clenches her phone tightly. Just a little bit longer…. 

“...either way, I just..want you to know that...regardless of what happens, regardless of when I die or however I die...I want you to live for me, okay? Live through this, whatever this is, and keep living afterward. Please. One of us has to.” 

Her voice fades out into a whisper, as she stops breathing, for a tense second where everything is silent. A second becomes a minute, five minutes, even, and finally, she speaks again. Whispering. Her voice is nearly inaudible. 

“I love you. Please keep living, for me.”

Another pause, and Pheme lets out a small, strangled gasp. The hint of a scream, and then, nothing. Silence. The voice note hangs around for ten, fifteen minutes maybe, silent save for the sound of inhuman footsteps, before, finally, the beep of its ending arrives.