“Only by detaching from your senses that you can discover the greatest treasure of all. Yourself.”
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I started shifting, finally feeling something in my lazy bones. However, I stayed there with my eyes closed. Last time I woke up, I was captured by some freaky Ponytas. I’m sure that, by staying down, I’ll hear them and know what is their plan. I controlled my breathing and concentrated on the outside world.
The only sound that got to my ear was snoring. However, it was a special kind of snoring. The same one that I heard every night for the last few months. Somewhere near me was Tenebre sleeping. Yet how could he be sleeping if we were both captured?
I started to think of the worst case scenario. Maybe they drugged him and placed him with me in a… pretty comfortable cage if I refer to what I am laying on. Do I fake sleeping and try to hear something else or try to wake him up. Considering he’s the only thing I can hear, let’s do the latter.
I quickly opened my eyes and, without caring about my surroundings, shook the limp body beside me. The black fox moved a bit before opening his eyes and staring at me with drowsiness covering his face. “Tenebre, wake up! We have to run away!” I shouted.
“I have vague suspicions on who you truly are, but before I can be sure, you are considered a stranger in my book. Which means that you really don’t know how dangerous it is to wake me up and spouting nonsense.” He stared at me with a glare that could easily scare anyone who doesn’t know him.
“What do you mean ‘I don’t know who you are’? I’ve been with you for the last few months! Why can’t you recognise your trainer?” I asked him, still under the impression that our lives were in danger.
“Well, first off, you can hold a conversation with me. Second off… you’re pink.” He stated before placing his paw over his mouth. It was like if time stopped around me as I looked down at my hands… or paws. Two pink three-fingered stumps replaced my normal hands.
I started shaking, but I didn’t know why. Actually, I knew why, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say it. It was so surreal, yet so grounded in reality. I stopped caring about what was happening outside and only felt whatever was happening inside.
I went over what I could move inside my body. Left arm, right arm, left leg, r-reversed, r-right l-leg, r-r-reversed… n-new appen-. I couldn’t even think straight anymore. I finally realised that I was actually crying on the outside and that Tenebre looked guilty.
He immediately rushed to me and gently placed me in a laying position. “Shhh… Look, Neige, just take your time. I know it’s you and I was only trying to… slowly bring you to the inevitable realisation of your predicament.” He sighed. “And I didn’t remember that since I was half-asleep.”
I would have laughed if I wasn’t so busy trying to stop my mental from destroying itself. I was now in a proper position for general panic thanks to Tenebre. So, like a reflex, I went into a fetal position. I continued shaking as I stared into nothingness.
I suddenly felt a weight behind me. It seemed that he laid behind me and was slowly petting what felt like my midsection. It felt nice, but didn’t help my situation. I was feeling something that I’ve never felt before. Some kind of emotion I never experienced before.
I was continuing to tremble in Tenebre’s gentle hug when I heard his voice singing softly a bedtime song I used to sing to him.
À la claire fontaine
M'en allant promener
J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle
Que je m'y suis baigné
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime jamais je ne t'oublierai
After only a single part, I was already feeling more relaxed. The voice that I heard repeating Umbreon countless time was the last one I was waiting for to sing this song, but his baritone voice made this Kalosian poem sound even better.
Sous les feuilles d'un chêne
Je me suis fait sécher
Sur la plus haute branche
Un rossignol chantait
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime jam-
“Tenebre?” I asked, cutting him in his singing. He was startled at first, but he immediately nodded. “Why… is this only happening to me?” I said, tears still flowing from under my eyes. He stopped petting me for a second, obviously trying to find how to answer such a question.
“You are not the only one. I think multiple humans got turned into Pokemon.” He answered without thinking too much. I nodded, placing my head back in his embrace. “Also, Mister Sycamore is here as a Treevenant.” I was a bit surprised, but I had that dark happiness to know that I wasn’t the only one stuck with this… curse?.
I looked down to the rest of my body and started to ask myself question. What am I going to do? Am I going to stay as a Pokemon forever? Is there a future for me where I am? What do I do now? Should I go and try to analyse wher-
“Neige. Neige!” He shouted, just quiet enough for my ears to stay in one piece. “Shh… I… don’t know how you can deal with what is happening to you, but I’ll always be with you.” He moved his paw under my eye and cleaned what looked like tears. “Please stop crying.”
“W-Why me? This… this is horrible. N-no offence, b-but I don’t want to be a Pokemon.” I said between sobs. All the while Tenebre was still petting me, shaking his head.
He slowly grabbed the side of my body and rolled me in a way that I would be able to look at him. We were now face to face, almost too close for my personal taste. “How about you sleep a little bit, leave some time for your body to adjust a bit, then we talk about it.” He proposed.
Since I was still a crying wreck, I’ve decided to agree to his proposal. We were still quite in an intimate position, so when I placed myself in a more comfortable position, I ended up with my head on his shoulder and my body right beside him. I didn’t care that it felt a bit too close for two ‘friends’.
Before falling asleep, however, I raised my paw to my eyes. “I can feel them.” I stated with a monotone voice. Tenebre looked at me, confused. “My fingers. I can still feel them. It’s like… they are still there, but invisible. And they hurt. They are in pain.” I tried moving them, but only ended up slightly moving back and forth my paw fingers. “Why do they hurt so much?” I asked to no one in particular.
Tenebre raised his own arm and slowly replaced mine between us. He was now hugging me. This position felt right for some reason, but the crying burned the last reserves I had. Even if I just woke up from being knocked out, I still felt like I needed a good night of sleep. It didn’t take long before the feeling washed over me.
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I opened my eyes and quickly raised my body. I looked around and realised that I was actually in my room in my parent’s villa. I sighed in relief as the nightmare I just had was exactly that… a nightmare. I placed my head back on my pillow.
“Neige, can you come here?” I heard from downstairs. I sighed and made my way outside my room, annoyed that I had to wake up. When I left my room, however, I immediately stopped, confused.
“Wait… how can I be here? I was in Kalos last time I remembered.” I descended the stairs, still trying to find an explanation for my memories. “Yes, I was in Kalos with Tenebre and the team. Wait a second, where is Tenebre?” The last line was said when I was downstairs, the room beside the person who called me.
“Oh, Tenebre? I have no idea.” My father said. He was standing under the door frame, a smile on his face. “Anyway, can you come here? I have something to show you.” He entered the living room, almost forcing me to follow him.
When I entered the room, I was suddenly tackled from behind. As my face was falling on the floor, I felt a force attaching my hands behind my bag using what sounded like handcuffs. I started to tear up from pain, but also from confusion.
“As gullible as always, aren’t you Neige? I just love people who are easy to take and throw away like you.” He said while holding me in place. I was full blown crying at that point, scared of what was coming. I knew what was coming. I wish I didn’t know what was coming.
“Well, you are already crying. Looks like nothing has changed.” He stated, followed by a deep laugh. I tried to raise my head, but was only able to get a blurred sight of my mother, standing in a corner, afraid. I knew she never would help me. I wish she would come help me.
He turned me around and placed me on the wall, giving me a clear view of him. Even if tears was covering my face, I saw him clear as day. He started untying his belt buckle and unbutton his jeans. I-I knew w-what was hiding b-behind. I-I wish I n-never knew…
When his pants dropped down, I closed my eyes in an attempt to hide the horrible truth. He told me I would feel pleasure, while I would actually be pain. Everytime, I ended up injured down there where only my father and I could touch. I didn’t want to look.
However, what was supposed to be a sound of joy and a hand removing my clothes, there was a sound of surprise and fear. I opened my eyes to find… nothing. He was there, staring at me with his pants off, but where his body would be, there was nothing. Only a floating shirt with a head on top and arms beside.
“What is happening!?” He shouted, as surprised as me. I felt something behind me, like if some pressure was released around my wrists. I removed my hands off my back and realised that my handcuffs were nowhere to be found.
I stood up and looked at the shocked expression of my father. “Don’t you dare move, you fucking whore!” He lunged at me, which was weird since he didn’t have any appendages to do so. I braced myself as his fist was coming toward me. Yet, no pain was felt.
When his fist was about 2 decimeters from my face, it started to disintegrate like if it was traversing a wall that destroyed evil. I was confused, but still found it quite reassuring. Although, like Michael, I was oblivious to what was protecting me.
Suddenly, a voice coming out of nowhere boomed. “May this action be a pitiful apology for what I did.” It sounded like my mother, but I could still see her standing on the other side of the room… motionless… lifeless…
A human-sized light flew from the ceiling and landed on my mother’s body, making it disintegrate like my father’s arm. The light started to take a more humanoid form until the brightness faded off, showing… my mother?
“Liliane? What… how…?” My half destroyed father asked. In response, she pointed at his other arm with her fingers in the form of a gun. When she ‘fired’ the gun, his arm exploded in a thousand pieces, all of them disappearing.
“You’ve been ruining both Neige and my life. Even if you are not truly here, I am sure that making you disappear here will make us a bit happier.” She snapped her fingers and, when I turned my head toward Michael, he was nowhere to be found.
However, even if he was gone, what happened still happened. I almost got raped by him… again. Like last time, even if it didn’t happen, I was still under the shock of the event. It was one of those times where I look up to other kids and wish I could have a life like theirs.
“Neige, are you okay? Wait, no you aren’t obviously…” She approached me, but I reeled back in reflex. Like any mother, she looked at me with worry, knowing that she did something wrong. ”Look, I’m sorry. Even if that means nothing, I regret everything I ever did… or didn’t do ever since you were born. Can you please let me hug you while I explain what is happening?”
I stared at her, used to her… straightforward way of talking. Seeing that I was confused on why I was there, what was happening and why she descended from the sky as a floating lightbulb, I’ve decided to give in to my child temptation and allow her to hug me like in my long forgotten past.
She started explaining as she was petting me. “Look, the truth is… this isn’t real life. I mean, you just saw your father disappear, it’s kind of a given. We are in your head. I guess you never got over the fact that your father was a crazy rapist… well, who can get over this. It also doesn’t help that I was the worst mom ever and never tried to stop him.” She sighed.
“So, this is where it’s getting weird. Yesterday, half the humans and Pokemon on the planet disappeared. Then, after your father went on a rant, the house… kind of got destroyed by a Charizard.” She stopped and looked around. “Wow, I’ve totally forgotten that we changed the furniture in this room. It’s like if your brain had an old backup of the room.” I snapped my fingers, returning her attention.
“Oh, yes. So, I died and went in the world of the dead or something. Pretty lonely place if you ask me. From what I was told by… I think it was Giratina, that they were all sent to another world and that the ‘bad guys’ were left there. Since I was… uhh… ‘borderline bad guy’, he decided to grant me one last wish. With the help of… I don’t even remember her name… let’s call her Pink Moon. With the help of Pink Moon, I got one last chance to speak to you.”
I whispered a small thank and hugged her back, quite to her surprise. She lowered her head and we were finally in a proper mother-daughter comforting hug. I think that we never hugged like that, but from what she said, she would never hug me like that ever again…
Wait a second.
“Are you telling… Oh sweet Arceus, you died. No no no... “ Aaaand I was back to crying. Sure, she wasn’t the best mother one could have, but she was still my mother. Even if we were in a dream, for some reason, I could tell it was really her and that she was telling the truth.
“Shh, don’t worry. In fact, it’s quite a positive thing.” I looked at her, my eyes red from all the crying I had in the last ten minutes. “I am finally free of your father’s influence. Sure, it’s not the best way to take care of the problem, but a way is a way.” I shook my head, not wanting to hear more.
“Look Neige. I don’t have much time and I have stuff to tell you. First, I am sorry for everything. I should have been a better mother and I regret everything. Second, you have a future in Pokemon training. Wherever you’ve landed, grab the opportunity you can have and win. Third… tell Tenebre good luck for his… ‘conquest’. He’ll understand.”
I was even more confused at that last part, but was quickly brought back to reality when her hands started to glow. “Looks like my time is up.” She simply said. I shook my head and grabbed her in a giant hug. “This is my last words. Take them and cherish them, my girl. Enjoy the new world you are in because it’s not everyday that you get to rebuild your life on a solid ground without your past breaking it. Good luck, Neige.”
I protected my eyes as her body was engulfed in a strong light. I fell on the floor as the person holding me left this world. When I could finally see, I looked around and saw that I was finally alone in my living room. No father, no mother, only my own self.
I sighed. “Looks like I have no choice.” I cleaned my eyes and stood up. I walked toward the door leading outside. Since dreams can only load what I remember, if I leave what I know, I might be able to wake up. At least, that’s my hypothesis.
I braced myself and opened the door.