Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Tales of a Bored Raichu ❯ Upon a Night Sky ( Chapter 10 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Tales of a Bored Raichu - how one pokemon can be bored for so long, we'll never know

Friday, March 15th 2002 - 7:06pm

It's too quiet. Even though a machine nearby is loud, it is still too quiet. But I get that a lot. I won't write about myself, eheh.
But, I can only recall nine stories before this one. Meaning this is the tenth - a milestone in itself. So, I'll try and make it something of a change.

#10 - Upon a Night Sky

She wasn't even sure why she was here, at this time of the twilight hours. A few people had tried to work out why she had slept, day in and day out, to wake at dusk, and for after that time, what she did could only be left to the Legendaries, and other omnipotent pokemon like that.
As much as the infernal body clock is changeable, humans are not built, and were not built, for the nocturnal life - this is very obvious to most, because they can't see without a source of light.
Mischa picked several flakes of rye grass from her GI-like green trousers, (well, if they last for the GI, they can last for me as well), and set off walking again, heading for the other side of the hill she was on. This whole area, a section of the widespread moors of Johto, was rather large in itself, and any onlooker would be surprised how far in it she actually was. In all reality, she had a tent, a small one, so sleeping in the day was no problem like that.

Still, the often wondered. "Why?", as she sat in her tent, watching the sunrise. True enough, a mere four months beforehand, she was just the ordinary type, sleeping at night, off to a well paid and slightly boring job as a hotel receptionist, do her work, check out, come home, eat, sleep, crap, all the usual. Not in that order, of course.

~~~~
Then again, she knew exactly what it was. Some guy had walked into the hotel, mumbling faintly. What he didn't seem to notice is that he was bleeding quite openly from a whole lot of places; each place in itself would be a wound deemed fatal. Mischa, in her inquisitive (and slightly naive) nature, came up to the guy,
"Need any help?" she asked, rhetorically, expecting a yes.
"Not really.." So much for being rhetorical.. "I can help you though."
"I'm not the one bleeding all over the carpet.." she admitted. Mischa was never one for knowing what to do in a situation.
It was then he had told her;
"My time is short enough as it is. Just let me tell you something. The sixth Johto plain is a special one, more then could be thought. For it is home to the Shadow Pool, of which I'm thinking you know of. It will find you if you let it, but remember these words if you so wish to do so.. It is not within five miles of any wall of the plain, and it only shows itself at night. Between the first disappearings of evelight and the faintest appearings of morn."
The only thing Mischa really noted was whether 'evelight' really was a word.. This guy seemed too unconcerned about himself, so she had listened, in the hope he'd actually do something else..
"It's the place where no one comes back from. Can you think of anybody who didn't come back, Mischa?" Two very obvious things hit home in that sentence, and Mischa gained a rather noxious headache.
"I'm.. going to ring the ambulance now."
"If it makes you feel happy, I promise their time will be wasted." he'd said. At which he leaned against the wall, and slid down it, leaving a trail of red on the side. After what seemed like forever, they arrived, and carted the strange man away. She didn't follow - for she had been elsewhere in spirit, just thinking. Her thoughts had been the same thing she mainly considered while sat in the tent.

~~~~

When Mischa had been 17, her father had gone out for a walk, and had never returned. When nothing was found, no one had been surprised; those moors were unfriendly.
He'd gone on either the fifth of the sixth plain, for those were the two aside their small, rural home.
Mischa was then sure it had been the sixth. And she also knew what she had to do.

Within a week, she had gone on 'indeterminate leave' from her job, bought up on supplies, and was on her way to the old house where she once had lived. It was to become her base of operations. That day she had gone to sleep at two in the afternoon. Her search was to begin.

~~~

By the time Mischa regained her sense, the sun was dawning. Apparently, she'd dreams her thoughts, rather then plainly think them. She had been doing that a lot lately; maybe it was a sign. After all this time, she was hopeful of such an indication, and when she set off walking that night, it was with fervour unseen for many weeks. "Many" being around equal to every single one. She felt this was a wild goose chase, but... she had kept going.

She was not devoid of thought when starting out, no. The area of land that was five miles from the edges of the moor was actually quite a lot of area. She'd covered a lot of it, but she didn't have that much left to search, so her hope of finding something was waning ever so much. Still, she could almost hear her father in her mind, ( I'll be back soon, hon _, and that much was enough to keep her going - indeed, it had kept her on track for this long.

It was around three in the morning. Her tent was a way back in the other direction; she was not moving camp today. And yet she'd overstepped her bounds, ploughing into the area she was scheduled to check tomorrow. Still, she had many hours left before the dawn, so in a fit of spontaneous thought, she had decided it would be best to continue on.

It was at the top of the next hill that she stopped. A number of faint sparkles by the waning moon ahead were reflecting off of something not too far away.
She remembered the first time she'd found the lake on her map, near the start of this endeavour. She had only realized it wasn't her target when nothing special had been noted about it. And the sign; an unknown place would not be likely to have a sign by it.
At this moment, though, it was different, It felt special, sublime, and perhaps even... cosy, and.. before she knew it, she was at the edge of the nearby lake.

This whole little valleyette seemed dark, even under moonlight. Mischa fancied a drink, and didn't want to waste her own meagre supply of water, so removing a clear cup from her backpack, she took up some of the water, holding it to the light to check she hadn't fished out another not meant to be drunk. Of course, curiously, she noted no light was passing through the liquid. The stuff was actually black.
Black water.. hey, wait a minute.. Wasn't she looking for this..?

"But.. This place is deserted..?" said Mischa, quietly and calmly, to herself.
( Maybe they're inside the water? ) said a voice in her head, one of her thoughts.
"I couldn't see them if they were..." mused Mischa, cynically disregarding the thought. Before.. suddenly, having a change of heart, turning out towards the pool, dropping off her bags, and walking straight into it, wading her way out. No question as to 'why'.. only the action itself mattered.
The water, surprisingly, felt no different to every other lake that she'd suddenly decided to, most strangely, wade into without any thought of what the thing was. It got deeper as she got further out, anyway.. it wasn't quite the deepest lake in the world, since she could still see out, with most of her body above the waist staying dry. And then, it ceased to be dry, as Mischa tripped over something, and fell forwards, the water completely taking her for this duration.

Inside.. it was dark. Silent, and foreboding. It carried a sense of detachment that she could never have understood had she not completely entered it.. wading through on a passing is a lot less clear than actually sitting in it, breathing it in.. somehow. You could forget you were actually drowning in such a pool, flailing your arms, and legs, and not being able to get back up.. but Mischa did neither of these things, pushing off the ground, and wrenching herself back over the water, the force of this shaking water from her hair in a scattering of black droplets, which fell back to their 'collective' soon after. Apparently, she'd shifted the ground enough so that she couldn't actually stand on it.. so, she treaded water for a while, before then heading back towards the shore she'd stepped off.
"Well.. wasn't this a dumb idea.." she commented to herself, moving some of her wet hair away from her wet face, while her wet body slipped out of the wet water, and started to drop onto dry ground. "I have to walk back to the tent, and get these changed.. Shadow Pool, indeed..."
And suddenly she was aware of presence. As if she was being watched from everywhere, anywhere, all around her, forever around her. But, to look around.. all she saw was the dark pool, and the slight glimmer of starlight from the sky.
"Nobody there. Get your bags, start walking, girl. Now." she said to herself, picking up her bags, and doing just that.

~~~

So, off she went. Perhaps she had found it, perhaps she had not.. but in any case, it was of no use to her. No trace of anything. She did, however, believe she was being followed.. just a feeling. Mischa didn't get such feelings often, but she'd look behind her often, and often would there be nothing there but the moor.
This went on for a while, until finally, the girl reached another slight upwards slope in the floor ahead. And went up it, and.. stared.
The shadow pool didn't really stare back, it just sort of waved at her. With real waves, mind; just the brief hint of disturbance that.. she'd given it, about ten minutes ago.
"No. I did not go around in circles. I have not just reached the same place twice." Mischa said, before her eyes hurt a little from all the night looking, and she closed them, and rubbed them, for a while.
It was upon opening them that she was blinded slightly.. it wasn't dark any more. Well, yes, it was. There was a difference between normal light and this lunar glow, though.. it was fairly surreal, but she could see. Her feet ached, and she needed a drink, and without thought she downed most of the cup she'd been holding since she was here last. It tasted like water, which is what it was.
"Probably shouldn't have drunk that, but.. it doesn't taste different, anyway." she mentioned, licking the last parts off the bottom of the cup before wandering back into the secluded valleyette, where the pond was. All that the light showed her was that there really wasn't any presence following her. Or anywhere around her, as she looked behind.
Well, until;
"Was that nice, child?" It had been the first voice she'd heard other than her own in a very long while, so it startled her. Still, she couldn't actually see where the voice was coming from. Maybe this was the pool itself?
"I'm not a child." Her voice was simple, yet definite.
"So, child, what brought you this far?" Obviously, it didn't care for what Mischa thought of herself. No matter.
"Because I thought my father might be here." she said, surprising even herself with the level of honesty she was having here. Then again, she considered, it might already know. You don't hazard a guess as to what non corporeal voices might not know, you just assume they already do.
"He might be. What is your name?" it asked. Well, if it didn't know that..
"Mischa." She fidgeted upon saying that.. it was an okay name, but she didn't have to have told it properly. Or.. maybe she did have to. She wasn't so sure.
"Hmm... Well, he is here. I'll confide that much with you. I can lead you to him, if you would like - but you shall do what I say to get this far."
"Go on..."
"You are to go up to the pool and sit in the water. And just think of whatever you would like to." Mischa was, obviously, hesitant.. but, she hadn't realized just how obedient she was feeling towards this voice.. And so, she wandered towards the blackness once again.

~~

It didn't feel at all strange after a few minutes that she was sat in the middle of some random pool of water. Her head actually was just above surface.. and if it hadn't been, she wouldn't have been here for much longer. Mischa's thoughts hopped around a lot.. thoughts of her rather, of the hotel.. of the strange guy that told her to come here, of this whole godforsaken plan.. Wait, there was one thing she thought of just then, which needed an answer, now.
"Why is everything lit up suddenly? It's not morning yet."
"Does it look like sunlight to you? I'll answer that later." Ooh, the voice knew sarcasm. "Look behind you."
Mischa turned herself in the water. Okay, now there was presence.. it was a large umbreon. Looked about double sized, and had slightly greying fur. Next to that was a normally sized umbreon, perhaps a little larger than she knew them to be. Its fur was all black, without even the golden circles of its others, and it was looking in another direction. Not concentrating.
"I guess you can now see us. Didn't take long, did it?" said the larger one. Yes, it spoke to her. Mischa could have guessed that, but..
"Yes, I guess I can. Should you be talking..?" she asked.
The question was ignored. "I said I'd lead you to your father, but that wasn't completely true. I led him to you, instead, though, so it's quite all right."
Mischa.. looked around. No, her father was not here.. she could see if he was. "I don't see him."
"That's because you don't know what you're looking for. Try this little mite here. I never guaranteed you'd know him when I led him to you - or, indeed, that he'd know you. He doesn't, any more, just in case you were wondering." Mischa stared.
"Oh sure, and I'm a ballet dancing Vaporeon. Is this a joke..?" She was beginning to lose patience.
"Are you laughing? Try me. Or maybe you should come look at this, I'm sure it'll help."
The wet female got out of the water, then.. and headed towards where the two pokemon were standing.
"Right front paw, second digit. Tell me what that is."
She looked.. The umbreon didn't flinch so much when she grabbed the paw, but.. there was something there. A rather narrow band of colour, rough, but not fur.
"You'll get to it eventually, but I want this to move quickly. That's coral. A rarity to find on wedding rings, but still. A delight to texture, as well."
Mischa stared, because.. that was correct, her father did have a coral wedding ring. Index finger, on his right hand. The umbreon looked back at Mischa, and Mischa looked at it.. and, despite the fact one didn't really know the other any more.. there was just something in the eyes.
Something that meant Mischa wanted to run away, very far, and very fast.
".... I don't care to know who or.. WHAT you are, or what this is.. but, tell me anyway! Why? Why this, why everything today?"
"I sent this one to your mother a long time ago. You sent yourself to me. Of course, you didn't notice that the man at the hotel was already dead when you spoke to him. Was unconscious when hitting the wall as he walked in. But you didn't see that. No, you saw what I wanted you to."
And suddenly, Mischa's thoughts.. reflected precisely what the guy said.. She'd talked to thus guy, but his head had been lolled back throughout. And he'd never said any of it. But you don't think to notice, do you..
"..." Mischa paused; she was clearly not happy.
"I will answer your question now. Dark types actually have this ability to see in the dark. Everything has this.. twilight quality to it, though. You might have noticed."
"And now you're just playing with my mind." Mischa sighed.. her head was spinning. "This is all you, and.. I want to know what you're doing."
"What I'm doing..? Sanctifying the family of the Pool, of course. You didn't think I was here for the good of my health? But this is useless, all these questions.. I say we just let something else happen now." The greying umbreon now sounded strange, and Mischa's head hurt severely. It took another spin upon the grey's next line:

"Have you taken a look at yourself lately?"

Which is when Mischa's heart likely skipped a beat. Her gaze passed from the large umbreon to her hand, which was still holding the cup, quite coincidentally. Which was actually full of water, since she'd got into the water still with it in hand. And then she froze.
What looked like her hand was slightly overcast with an overshadow.. and what looked like black hair was beginning to creep out around it. Her ability to keep the glass grabbed ceased when the hand tightened a little, and the cup dropped to the floor, emptying its contents over the soil beneath.

"No." Mischa was defiant. But she couldn't stop the feeling of burning that grabbed her.. it took her from that place, and instantly she knew that - the place is all it was. For just a minute, she thought about how she could avoid this hand which Fate had gave her from the bottom of the deck.
Against the will of her legs, she turned, and started running. Slowly up the side of the valleyette, but quickly from then on... and the grey umbreon laughed a little, and it was all she could hear. A voice.. mocking HER, her very being. But it was more than she could beat... her adrenaline had spoken; run away!
There was no thought for her tent, or for herself.. she just had to get back to the house, "home", and very damn fast. But, the weight of everything was bearing on her.. her movements seemed sluggish. There was a fire in her mind and it was busy making the whole of her body move jerkily, just like she really was on strings, like she had been led by a puppet to come to this place. Her hands were tight and her feet hurt more than she could think.. and the temptation to go all fours to run was there, but she would not. That would be conceding, now wouldn't it?
Bits of the place passed by her.. trees, odd fences, bushes, stones.. all lit up with the glow that she would always remember; a glow that was obvious in that it was scary. She could only imagine what her eyes must look like this point.. and hoped that she didn't run into anyone on the way out of this hellbound place. And as for the rest of her.. she was running eyes closed soon. Her hair felt light, and her body seemed not to want to go precisely as it always had. Even running on the flat of her feet was painful.. but she would not, could not, let herself stop. Stopping was not an option, bit her feet and her head burned, and she could be sure that there was something shifting about on her head and down her back..

Would she concede? That was the question she had to ask.. but she was running, eyes only open part of the time, and she had not reached the pool again. She didn't even know where she was, or if she had set off the right way. The only thing that mattered was running. And on, and on....

Eventually, Mischa blacked out, somewhere in the middle of delirium, which had come on just after she had heard, but more so felt, the back of her clothing split. She had never known such fear, of such insurmountable power as that which she had faced. And she also never knew halting from her run. In fact, she might possibly have ran on and on, even while unconsciousness proper.

She had a dreamless sleep that night.

~~~

Morning crept upon the house like a scared fireball. The light roused Mischa.. who awoke immediately with a shriek, even though she had not had a dream. Remnant thoughts... But, wait? It was morning. She was still herself.
Quickly she glanced at her hands, and they were mucky, but the same hands she had looked at holding the water. They were hers, and they were not furred, nor tight. Taking a quick look about herself revealed that, indeed, her clothing had split around the lower back. But there was no given physical reason why.
"I probably stood on it, running away, or something.."

Still. Mischa was tired, exhausted, and actually cold to the touch, like she was coated with cold sweat. Which she was.
"Well, I'm home.. I should remember to go back out there and get my stuff.. during the day, of course." she said, wandering up to her door. Her keys were still present, too.. so she used those, left them in the reverse side of the door, and paced through the house.

Empty rooms, most of them.. the only occupied presence was in one downstairs room, which had used to be the lounge. It had her bed and her plans written on a map. Adjoining was the kitchen, which contained a fridge, and actual running water. The upstairs probably still had a shower running, or the bath, or something she could clean up with. This place wasn't paradise, but to Mischa at this moment, it could have been Eden itself.
"And so, now I know.. Assuming all of that wasn't just a damn hallucination.." The woman herself believed that, even if it was.. Fate didn't want her looking out there. So she would have to believe what she had seen. Sheesh, what a thing to know..
She even wondered if her mother had known. But, of course, she had no way to find out. Her mother had always been slightly withdrawn after he'd gone.. and she'd found her in bed one time, condemned to a sleep she'd never wake up from.

Which just left her. It had consumed all, but it had not got her. She was the one that got away, and it felt damn good to be alive right now.
"One thing it doesn't feel damn good to be.. is cold and soaked in my own sweat. Shower. Now." And upstairs she went.

~~

Mischa woke up in her bed, clothed, and still smelling like her own sweat. Something was wrong.. Hadn't she come up to take a shower or something? And then, of course, she thought.
"I was tired.. I musta just saw the bed, and thought.. 'Well, I'll just have a little nap first..'. Oh well. Wonder what time it is.."
It was dark out of the curtainless window. To be expected, of course. How many times had she woken at sundown over the last few weeks?
"Blah.. I'll have to force myself to stay up, one of these days. I'll take that shower now."
{ No, you won't. }
It was like a light had come on in her head. And she knew the voice, too.
"I got away from you. And you won't see me back out on the moors in a hurry."
{ That's fine. I wouldn't let you come back anyway. }
"You wouldn't let ME?"
Oh, this was great.. Maybe he was just pissed off cause she had got away.
{ Don't be too smug, you're not the first to refuse your fate. Though you're the only one alive right now. I don't know, it's something about afterwards that makes them.. unhappy. }
"And now you really are trying to play with my head. Excuse me, I'm going off to take a shower."
{ Like I said, no you won't. You took some of the pool with you, you know that? That and the fact you had some in the first place? You're mine, now and forever. And I do not appreciate fledglings deserting me before they know what's going on. }
"Well then.. Do something about it."
{ Sure thing. Don't blink now, will you? }
Mischa was blinded suddenly, so she did blink.. and upon reopening her eyes, the outside was, once again, light.. the lunar quality she would forever have etched onto her mind. Her own house looked less than real, too.. like this whole thing was something out of a story...
{ It's always a story, Mischa.. You were gone as soon as you walked into the pool the very first time. }
Something felt very wrong now. The burning came back, strongly. She bent double, and fell sideways onto the floor.
{ Where you gonna run to now? Not here, remember? Don't come here now. You can stay out there. }
Mischa tossed and turned on the floor.. forcing herself to her feet again, using the bed as an aid.. Her hands were black again, as they had been.. only this time, there really was nowhere else she could be. If she wasn't safe in her own house?
Pain knocked her one on the chest, and she collapsed again, onto the bed, backwards, legs and arms up in the air. Her fingers were just twisting into one another.. and it felt as painful as it sounded, so she shrieked once more. The voice taunted, again,
{ Nobody's planning to save you now, you know. Not you, not me. I could have offered you somewhere to be.. but no, you'd rather not be here. So that's fine. }
Mischa didn't care, she wasn't listening, she was turning along the bed, as a pain down her back forced her onto her front. The hole in her clothing proved to be resourceful, when the tail feathers started to appear. Slightly off pink sheen, but all black.. just like they all were. Like the presences which she had never seen.. they were dark creatures, of times past, just living out a ghost's life in obscurity, in the middle of nowhere.
It wasn't to be that way for her, no.. She'd still have to live around humans. But as what? A pokemon? That could be handled.
{ Yeah, it could be. You'll be an outcast even among pokemon once I'm done. }
.. oops.

Her clothes got a bit looser, but most of the burning going on was just slight downy fur, nothing special. She had to lift her head up as her ears grew into themselves, and her world was silence.. only to reappear at the top of her head, amplified, black and pink.. one oversized, but both functional. Her mind spun, and she spasmed once again, and fell off the bed, and onto the floor.. her shoes by then were busy shredding themselves, as the claws on her feet were a lot larger than they could handle. Pain was her world, and her mind was pain. At least she always felt herself throughout this.. eventually entering catatonia, so she had at least some respite from the change...

~~~

The shower was running. Trickles, drops, of water.. from a highly suspended faucet on a wall. And silence other than that.
Mischa was stood under it. But not the Mischa that she was. A similarly built sneasel-human stood, instead.. A full length mirror adorned the back of the room. She'd be a good catch for some trainer, if that was even a possibility for her. No, she'd consigned herself to just.. existing. A shadow of everyone, of anyone. Little more.
The good thing about the shower running, is that it masked her tears. Though there was nobody to mask them from, really.

Her left hand, or paw, or whatever she would call it, gripped a razor blade that she had put there, carefully, earlier. The bathplug was in, and the shower water was filling the tub. It would be so easy now.. with nothing., no proof who she was..
~ I can't even fucking SPEAK! ~ she screeched, in the language of pokemon, at her reflection. And that was it, as she took out a divot of her wrist with the blade.

And then she glanced as nothing happened; there was no wound, no sign she'd even tried.
{ You're special, though. The reason you're left out is because you'll never come willingly. But I'll break you, eventually. And then you're mine - properly mine. But, until then, you're not getting out the easy way. No, you're going to find a spare room window, hop out of it, and fall through the ceiling of the storage building. You're then going to cut yourself some coverall clothing made of tarpaulin, and go for a long, long run. It'll make you fell a lot better. I've even made it rain for you. }

Mischa wailed. Because of the unfairness. Because of the torment. And because - as she, they, already knew - she would not last forever. In a fleeting attempt to gain some respite, the sneasel-girl hopped out of the tub, and did, indeed, run straight through the window, cutting herself quite badly in the process.. falling through a roof after that, breaking her neck with a loud crack, and scarring one ear and the side of her back.

The neck wasn't broken when she landed on the pile of boxes stacked up, however. She was still very much alive. And, therefore, she knew she'd get up, and start clawing at the first thing she could see - a large tarpaulin, black, designed for keeping the whole of this outhouse covered, should it rain. Just like the voice had said. Just uncanny enough to keep her doubting.. and feeling real enough to keep her confused. Just... cruel.

~

The cloaked figure that ran away from the house, down the road, claws clicking incessantly.. was getting away from the area completely. She was in tears when she set out. Mostly because it felt so unreal.. so much like it wasn't happening. The cruellest reality is that, in the end.. it was. She would be stuck somewhere in the middle.. and nobody really would care.

Except him. And he probably didn't really care, either.
{ See you later then, Mischa. I'll be waiting. }
The rain hid her tears this time; the sound of pitter patter on the cold unforgiving road, it masked her cries.

~~

Fin.