She could probably slow down just a bit...
The old woman stopped to catch her breath on the side of the snow covered road. Any hopes of doing so without grabbing her companions’ attention were dashed as the Arcanine stopped with her, looking up at her with clear worry on his snout.
“~Don’t worry Leo, I’m good, I’m good. Just—just need a moment. Much more walking than usual, but I’ll manage,~” she spoke, stroking the hound’s rich mane to counteract the stinging cold. It did little to reassure Leo himself, however, especially with his human’s obviously pitiful state. The Ribombee that scrambled out of the cream fur shortly after was similarly doubtful.
She wasted no time before trying to convey that to her human, buzzing softly as she flew over to the woman’s free hand. The pretend attempts at dragging the limb in the direction they came from sent a clear message, but they only made the recipient sigh. It’s not like the lil’ bee was wrong, even.
The old woman’s years were catching up with her. She was in absolutely no state to be undertaking this expedition. It shouldn’t have been her tired old self pushing deeper and deeper into these cursed woods in search of a lost child—but if not her, then who?
Anne’s damnable parents that fled the place the moment the police got involved?
The cops that did barely any searching themselves, and only put up a handful of disposable ‘missing person’ posters?
The rest of this anemic, half-dead town?
She shouldn’t have to be the one doing this. But if she didn’t at least try looking for Anne, even if just to confirm what felt like the inevitable by now, nobody else would. “~L-let’s keep going for now. Still got the lead, Leo?~”
The constant snowfall of the past few days had almost completely obscured any trail the girl had left, visual and olfactory alike. The Arcanine let out a low woof before sniffing the air again, finding himself increasingly unsure despite the straight path not leaving many other directions for Anne to have gone in.
His human knew what to do.
Leo’s head perked up as he saw the old woman pull the book out of her purse once more. He gave it an intent sniff, before picking up on the trail again, walking slow enough for his guardian to keep up. ‘Understanding Pose and Motion, Illustrated’, hah. The woman could bet a fair bit of change that nobody aside from Anne had ever borrowed that one.
As the group resumed their trek, the Ribombee flew into the pocket of her human’s jacket, and snuggled up to her free hand. She was torn between not wanting to be outside in such bitter cold, eager to go back home, and loathing the idea of staying back while her guardian was putting herself at risk.
The human responded to her tiny hug by embracing her with her thumb, her voice tired and croaky, “~I’m okay, Luxie. Don’t worry, sweetie. It’s... cold, and scary, I know, but we can do this, one step at a time. Hop back into Leo’s mane and warm yourself up. Don’t feel you have to be freezing yourself in there for me.~”
Her words thankfully had their desired effect. The lil’ bee soon squirmed out of the woman’s pocket, about ready to dive back into the Arcanine’s mane—before stopping at the last moment. Instead, she flew up to her human’s face, its determined expression making it clear there would be no arguing about their trip.
Instead, Luxie flew closer to nuzzle the old woman’s cheek with her entire body. The elder’s features softened as she closed her eyes for just a second, savoring the sensation before the Ribombee retreated into Leo’s warmth.
Brief as it was, the moment of comfort was appreciated all the same. It softened the impact of yet another frigid gust that came soon after; the frost forcing a quiet grunt out of the human before she doubled down in response. She pushed on as hard as her body still allowed—for a few moments at least, spite proving to be a very fickle fuel for tasks like this.
Fortunately, she wouldn’t have to rely on it for much longer.
A bump in the blanket of snow right ahead of them caught the entire group’s attention. The couple inches of bark peeking out from underneath it wordlessly explained its presence.
“~Guess we have to go around it, through the white menace,~” the old woman sighed—only for Leo to stop dead in his tracks. He then did a nasal double take before slowly, yet confidently, leading them off into the trees. Gentle as it was, the downwards slope of the sudden detour made trekking through it that much harder for his human.
The hound didn’t leave his guardian’s side even for a moment, providing constant, constantly needed support. Every pebble or root deviously hidden underneath the snow made it even harder to follow the doomed path, for them and Anne a few days ago alike.
“~Goodness Anne, what happened to you...~”
Both her companions shared that thought, Luxie’s quiet squeaks especially unnerved. They all knew, at a certain level deep down, that the girl didn’t make it. Seeing her tragedy unfold like this only made that clinical realization even more viscerally disturbing.
Thankfully, the path evened out eventually, making it that much easier on the old woman. It wasn’t long until the Arcanine leading the party stopped once more; at what felt like random.
“~Leo? What hap—~” the woman asked, stopping after taking one more step and noticing what her Arcanine had moments earlier. Her eyes went wide as she backed off in reflex; the ravine in front of them as deadly deep as it was hard to spot in the uniform whiteness.
“~Verdammt...~”
Much like the sinking feeling in their stomachs suggested, a glance down revealed Anne’s ultimate destination. The handful of specks of red on white couldn’t have been anything else,
But…
The snow layer down there wasn’t even so thick as to fully cover the muddy dirt. And yet, there was no sight of either Anne’s body, the bike she stole, or anything she had worn that night. As Luxie gasped at the sight as loudly as her tiny body was capable of, her human was already thinking through what might’ve actually happened there.
No matter what, they would have to see this to the end.
“~There’s no way she survived that fall. Something must’ve dragged her, but... carnivores would’ve likely done their deed on the spot, especially in such a hidden location. Even the few species that store meat for later wouldn’t bother with dragging a body whole and just cut out the good bits. And I’m not sure any of them even live in this area to begin with...~”
As the human muttered to herself, trying to make sense of the situation at hand, it was Leo’s turn to suddenly realize something. He froze as he sniffed the air some more, finding another, incomparably stronger lead. Stronger, fresher,
Nearby.
The Arcanine turned in the direction his nose was guiding him towards and bolted without waiting any longer. His mind was deadset on either rescuing the lost youngling if it was her, or avenging her if he’d caught a whiff of the beast that had eaten her.
“~Leo, WAIT!~” the old woman shouted before bustling to catch up with the Fire-type. Between old age, the weather, and her exhaustion, she only reached the pace of a light jog, even as she pushed herself to her limit. Luxie was unsure which of the two to stick with before zipping towards Leo, utterly confused about what was happening.
They wouldn’t have to run for long.
Leo had stopped in his tracks only a couple dozen meters in front of them, once he’d dashed within view of his target. Or rather, targets. He felt intimidated at being outnumbered, but he had no idea what he was even looking at. He might have been a town hound, but these two... kinda-humans-but-not-really sure didn’t look like the creature to feast on someone else’s flesh. Then again, one of them was downright rife with the girl’s scent, so what did he know? The black quadruped that accompanied them did look very carnivorous, but barely smelled of Anne.
Something wasn’t adding up.
Without any idea how to proceed, the Arcanine assumed a defensive stance and backed up a couple of paces. He locked his eyes with the opposing group, shifting from one potential threat to another as he growled quietly. The Ribombee that followed had a similar reaction—though in her case, a ‘defensive stance’ meant diving into Leo’s mane to hide, and occasionally peeking out to keep track of what the wildlings were doing.
Or rather, presently, not doing.
It took a while for the human to catch up. Even the brief burst of exertion at a downright sluggish pace left her completely out of breath, and supporting herself heavily on her cane. Once she came to a stop behind Leo, the hound shifted to shield her as she recovered, just in case.
Eventually, she found enough strength to look up at the scene before her—and recoiled immediately.
While her mons’ reactions to the creatures in front of them were mostly unfamiliar confusion, the human’s response was a stark clear of something well familiar. Of what these beings were, what they could do, and why crossing them was a mistake one only made once.
“~L-Leo, Luxie, back slowly a-and don’t make sudden moves...~” the human muttered, following her own advice as she inched backwards, The freezing air hurt her airways as she panted in a mix of strain and anxiety. She kept trying to figure out what was going on—did Leo catch a cold to lead them there, right into the maw of danger? Or did these three do something to Anne and... oh god, oh god, Reshiram merciful—
“^You’re looking for someone, aren’t you?^”
The entire group felt a feminine voice manifest in their minds. It was like an icicle—crystal clear, freezing cold, and pointed like a dagger. Leo and Luxie were taken aback at hearing such a clearly understandable message for the first time in their lives, though the former didn’t acknowledge it.
Their human, on the other hand, only grew more afraid. The neutral question felt taunting to her already terrified mind, as if offering to lead them to Anne’s fate. Even beyond that fear, the textbooks she taught from years ago were clear on telepathy being a tool for intimidation, not communication. ‘You can hear me clearly, back off now’ and all…
“~K-keep going until we make it back t-to the path sweeties, keep going...~”
Before her elderly heart could give out, the voice elaborated, slightly less tense, “^A young girl named Anne.^”
Her worst fears being confirmed made the old woman stop in a mixture of terror and grief, shaking at the ghost bride’s ‘words’. A rational part of her knew she should’ve kept going, to not let herself be taunted. But deep down, she had to know what had befallen the girl, even if it would come at the cost of her life.
After a few excruciating moments, she replied with words drier than sand, eyes affixed on Leo’s head, “~I-I take it you know what... b-became of her, then...~”
To even acknowledge the wraith’s words was asking for trouble, to invite further interaction by responding to them was to sign one’s own doom. Though, considering the circumstances, it’s not like they weren’t doomed already.
As the small group awaited a response, they huddled closer. Leo’s piercing gaze locked with the Luxray’s, before jumping to stare down the white humanoid that stepped forward, his low growl making it stop in place.
“^She had suffered a serious accident, but is now safe, and is being tended to.^”
Despite how utterly infeasible the admission sounded, it still made the woman gasp. It felt impossible, but… what use was lying for a ghost bride, anyway. It had her on a platter, if it so desired. The tiniest bit of relief crept into the elder’s mind, and much more of it into the heads of her companions. It still left the big, and almost as morbid question of what would happen to Anne now, at the wraiths’ mercy. “~T-that’s... good. Wh-what... what will happen to her once she recovers?~”
The long pause following the question was only interspersed with the Luxray’s intermittent growls and barks. They sent freezing shivers down the human’s spine as she kept trying to back off, bit by bit, with her companions soon getting the cue as well.
Before her group could skitter away too far, though, the woman saw the wraith’s eyes light up with a white flare. An instant later, she bumped into an invisible wall right behind her, letting out the most pitiful whine at realizing her own entrapment.
“^Who are you, and what brings you looking for her?^” a different voice asked. Masculine, less pointed, but just as distant. Fear of being essentially held at gunpoint left her thought process, glib despite her age, sluggish and miserly.
“~M-my name is Olive Graham. I’m—I’m Mylock’s librarian. Anne used to visit me all the time. She’d spend most of her afternoons i-in the library and stay until closing, doing homework or reading or t-trying to relax, with Ember or alone, later on.~” Olive’s miserly body did not appreciate the tension in the air one bit. She leaned on her cane more and more as she shook in place, too afraid to even warm her hands in Leo’s mane.
“^That does not explain why would you push yourself though this cold in search of her,^” the masculine voice said.
Indeed, it didn’t.
“~We never t-talked much, but... if I didn’t go find out what happened to her, then nobody else would. M-My library was one of the few places she ever felt safe in, I—I want to do right by her,~” Olive explained, finding herself reminiscing about some of their shared memories, not even considering that these recollections might not have been of her own volition.
One spring evening, a couple years back. She was sorting through the recent arrivals and stocking the shelves as Anne and Ember exchanged giggles and woofs respectively, just out of sight. Goodness, was that fox a fixture on Anne’s lap. She wanted to get the whole box done in one go and not put the rest of it off until the next morning, with her library staying open a couple hours longer than normal because of it. Long enough for its most frequent visitor to doze off after a couple cups of sweet tea, together with the little one in her lap.
Even now, she teared up thinking just how much she wanted to let them stay in the only safe space they had left. Alas, they had to return to their horrid house eventually, day after day.
She remembered Anne being startled awake by the lightest touch on her shoulder.
Another scene, back when she briefly substituted as a biology teacher, when Leo was still just a Growlithe pup. He was just as keen on her lap as Ember was on Anne’s, and they spent many recesses watching the school’s courtyard together.
Alas, their attention was too scattershot to notice the brawl brewing off in the corner.
A couple of boys from the rougher families cornered Anne as she knelt down beside the fence, comforting the lil’ fox. One of them taunted her, making her stand up while still facing away from him. Olive was about to shout to make them disperse, before Anne cut her off with a sucker punch right to the taunter’s nose. Knocked him right on his ass; made his group scatter. As much as the librarian wanted to cheer for her at that, she limited herself to looking the other way and making sure Anne wouldn’t get in any trouble over that.
While she reminisced, the old woman felt her body become lighter. As if some of the unceasing pressure was taken off her elderly joints, leaving together a massive weight off her chest. Couldn’t have been anything but her conscience.
After a long, increasingly less tense silence, the feminine wraith spoke again, sounding… different. Less imposing, warmer, notably uncertain, and with a clear gratitude in its voice, “^Thank you. As to your question... we aren’t sure. We don’t know how safe she’d be to return to... the human world. We hope you can... advise us, somehow.^”
The sentence made all the grammatical sense in the world, but it still stunned Olive to hear. To hear a cruel, deceiving spirit suddenly turn… questioning, asking her for help and not the other way around, sounding so… normal.
Like a person.
Olive breathed deeply as she chewed through that conundrum, the lessened pain around her body making that task easier than usual. Unfortunately, she wasn’t arriving at any particularly reassuring conclusions. “~I’m... unsure. She’d eventually end up with a foster family. Though, given her age, I don’t know how likely she’d be to find one before she turns eighteen and gets kicked out of that system. With how underfunded that entire program is, I can’t imagine the places she’d be staying at in the meantime to be all that better than her present house...~”
The situation got even grimmer the more she thought about it all. It was bad enough to where she wondered whether Anne staying under the woods’ and ghost brides’ protection really was the best possible outcome for her, as outlandish as that was to consider. To think the very society from which she sprung failed her so much that her safest option was being given shelter by spirits...
As her thoughts were being picked up by others beside herself, Olive thought back to how normal that ghost bride sounded. She couldn’t get that out of her mind, making her wonder whether all this wasn’t yet another cruel trick its kind was said to engage in, or… if it was being genuine here.
The sound of snow being waded through cut her thoughts off, sending a shiver down her spine. An upward glance revealed the feminine wraith to be approaching her. She knew better than to ever meet eyes with them, only daring to sneak the briefest of glances.
All she saw was a calm, sad expression, lacking any ferocity aside from the vivid crimson of its eyes. “^I see. With how unsafe the human world sounds for her, it sounds like she’ll have to stay with us for some time longer, then. She told us she has no family left either...^”
“~None that she should be with, no. Heard her mother ran off to her folks when the news broke. That whole rotten bunch shouldn’t be let anywhere near her, even if she’s not nearly as awful as Anne’s father.~”
This really was it then, wasn’t it?
She’d found out what had happened to Anne, even if the answer in its fullest was one she had a hard time comprehending the full impact of. She didn’t entirely trust the beings that had conveyed it to her, but knew well she was in absolutely no position to argue for a more appropriate end for the girl.
Both because doing so with a ghost bride was how people end up being buried alive, and because she really had no argument for a different outcome. There wasn’t anywhere else safe for Anne—and if nothing else, the wraiths of the Lillywood Forest were at least powerful enough to keep her from harm. It was an answer; it was the answer, but... Olive wasn’t satisfied, not one bit. She couldn’t just let it happen like this, not if she could help it.
And help it, she wanted to.
“~Is there... is there any way I could possibly help her out? I owe at least that to her.~”
There was another long pause from the wild group, once more interspersed with Luxray barks. They sounded louder and more forceful this time, harsh enough to make the old woman back off—and realize there was no longer any barrier keeping her trapped.
As much as she wanted to flee and bring her companions to safety, her duty wasn’t done here yet, the resolve to help Anne outweighing her waning fear. A couple more minutes of a mostly inaudible exchange later, the wildlings seemed to have arrived at an agreement, even if a tenuous one.
The sound of fast steps trailing off into the woods made Olive glance up and see the masculine wraith run off, leaving just the other one and the Luxray. Leo was much too confused about what was going on anymore to keep on posturing. He kept shielding his human from the stranger, but wasn’t otherwise trying to scare the wild mons away anymore. The snarl on the Luxray’s expression still concerned him, though.
“^I would greatly appreciate any help, and I’m sure so would Anne. I don’t—I don’t know what a human girl like her needs. I will do all I can to keep her safe and cared for, but I am completely clueless on any specific human requirements or wants,^” the ghost bride explained. To meet one in person was surreal enough; to witness them asking for help was so dumbfounding it melted through much of Olive’s fear of that kin. Enough so for her to finally dare do the unthinkable.
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Her body shook as she looked up the rest of the way, finding the white creature’s expression soft, uncertain—and that bit warmer in response. Their red eyes were still as striking as the fairy tales had her believe, but there wasn’t any malice within them for once.
“~Well... shelter, food, and water are the obvious basics. Being wanted, cared for, clothes. Beyond those, there really isn’t anything that’s strictly needed, I don’t think—especially in Anne’s case, hah. Give her a book or something to draw on and watch her sink into her own little world,~” Olive spoke.
The spirit acknowledged her words, calming down. She was glad beyond words that the little one she had already grown fond of was almost just like everyone else—but only almost, and there definitely were places where Olive could help. “^We can provide most of those, thankfully. Though, clothes and ‘books’ are something we lack.^”
“~Hah! Books are my specialty, you could say. With how few people visit the library, I don’t even see an issue with her getting to take a few of them for good. Though, knowing her, she’ll be done with them in days. As to clothes... I imagine rifling through her wardrobe would be helpful here; no way she took everything with her, after all. Beyond that... I don’t think I have anything that fits her particularly well, but a poor fit is better than no fit, and there are definitely a few things that spent the last decade in my closet uninterrupted. Plus, she’ll grow into it, assuming she stays there for long enough.~”
“^This would involve heading over to your town to retrieve these items, wouldn’t it?^”
As obvious as the answer was, it was worth stating it clearly. Olive’s free hand reached into Leo’s mane as she nodded, the hidden Ribombee snuggling into it all the while.
“You can’t be seriously considering that, Aria,” a low, gruff voice cut in, catching the human group completely off-guard. There wasn’t anyone that could’ve said that, aside from the intimidating Luxray staring up at the spirit and them alike.
“^I don’t see why not. I know my stealth, and unless a sight of a Luxray accompanying Olive’s group is enough to send that whole place into a panic, I imagine we’ll be inconspicuous enough. And—I figured it’d be the best for us all to be able to understand each other, if this is gonna take a while,^” the freshly named Aria said.
The Luxray looked about ready to blow up at her, before her addendum made him look at the human group wide-eyed, only able to spit out, “Have you gone completely mad!?”
“A-all of us?” a quiet, squeaky voice asked, making the whole group look over the Ribombee daring to peek out from Leo’s mane. Aria’s affirmative nod sent her whizzing over to her human’s cheek, nuzzling and hugging it as hard as her little body could manage.
“T-thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! O-Olive, I—” Luxie paused, never in a million years expecting to have an opportunity like that. Everything she wanted to say welled up inside her fairy body. Words kept getting stuck in her throat, leaving her sniffling as she snuggled in, her human’s hand gently petting her in return.
Olive was similarly taken aback, but knew just what to whisper in response, “~Love you too, Luxie.~”
Leo was nowhere near as talkative, instead just nuzzling into his human’s cane hand. As the human’s companions expressed their affection, the pale creature off to the side gave the Luxray a smug smirk, making him roll his eyes. It took a while for the librarian’s group to compose itself again, but once they did, Olive spoke again, “~Would—would following us back to our town be something you’d be interested in?~”
“^Anything, if it means I can help Anne out that bit more.^”
Olive smiled at Aria’s conviction, especially as it matched hers. A newfound sense of purpose renewed her strength, as tired as she still was. “~Well, I suggest we get a move on then. The snow sure ain’t stopping anytime soon, and I’m feeling myself slowly lose sensation in my legs, hah...~”
The off-the-cuff remark made both of her companions look up at Olive with worry on their faces. Waiting no longer, the entire group turned around and headed out, fresh snowfall having already slightly obscured their tracks.
Before the librarian could get properly going again, she saw yet another on an already very long list of unexpected sights today. The spirit held her green hand towards her with a smile, ready to be grasped.
At any point in her life prior to now, she would’ve thought herself having mere minutes, if not seconds to live in a situation like that. But now… now she felt just about ready to take her chances.
And boy, was she glad to have done so.
The warmth that filled her body as her hand took the spirit’s was almost the complete opposite of what she had expected it to be. It worked away at her numbness and aching while undoing decades of strain and wear, making her feel almost weightless. “~Ohhhh. Definitely not what I imagined this to feel like.~”
The ghost bride just giggled at her words as they got going. The sound was so unlike anything she expected from her kin, while also just being very pleasant at the face value. It made the librarian feel just that bit more self-conscious about the spooky stories she spent her life believing in.
“^Hah, I gathered. I’ve no idea who came up with half the things you were thinking I could or would do.^”
Despite most of the terrifying myths turning out to be lies, this seemed to be the one part that was indeed true, enough so to make the stranger casually admit to it. Olive wasn’t sure how she felt about her thoughts being read like that, but it was a concern for another time.
“^My name is Aria. I... can’t thank you enough for agreeing to help us, Olive.^”
“~My pleasure... Aria. I braced myself to find a dead body, if even that. To hear she’s doing alright is... the best news I’ve had in a long while, that’s for sure.~”
“M-me too... that ravine looked so, so scary, h-how did she survive that!?” Luxie asked, her voice bringing a smile to the librarian’s face. The sound was such a dead ringer for how Olive imagined the lil’ bee would sound like if she could talk that it was almost baffling. Baffling, and so sweet that she had no reason to doubt it sounding the way it did.
“^Barely. Thankfully, we... found her quickly.^”
The pause in Aria’s voice to carefully pick her words was noticed, but Olive was of no mind to pry into it. Even if she wasn’t a vengeful banshee that the human expected her to be, she was still a magical creature, one that likely kept many secrets.
“Yeah... I-I was so scared for her when she went missing; I thought she was dead for sure a-a-and it’d probably just break my heart. A-Anne’s too sweet to have something like that happen to her...” Luxie rambled.
“I knew she’d make it. She’s much more resilient than she looks,” Leo said, making the Ribombee raise an eyebrow as Olive chuckled.
“~Indeed, even if it’s by necessity.~”
The Luxray grumbled at Olive’s words as the group made their way back onto the forest path, “If you apparently ‘care’ for her so much, why didn’t you help her before?”
The Electric-type’s snarled gotcha drew glares from most of the rest of the group. Olive, instead, just sighed quietly. It stung, despite her knowing on a rational level that she’d done everything in her power to help.
“^Leave judging people’s hearts to me, Lumi—^”
“~No, no, he has a point, I think,~” Olive sighed.
“No, he doesn’t!” Luxie shouted. “You g-gave her a safe place all the time in the library, made her feel as welcome as you could—you even called for people to come and investigate what her parents were doing to her—”
“~And what came of it?~”
Luxie couldn’t respond to that; the simple lack of knowledge shutting her up. Though, considering Anne’s situation didn’t improve at all afterwards, the answer was likely ‘not much, if anything’. “B-but, didn’t someone come to look at what was happening?”
“~They did. I saw a single police cruiser roll up to their home, then her father talking to one of his coworkers and blowing that entire thing off. Then, the next day, a couple new bruises on her neck,~” Olive said.
The pangs of fury Aria felt back at the clinic came back in force, even as she tried to control herself. These were some evil people she was saving Anne from, the realization giving her more motivation each time she thought about it. Lumi wasn’t entirely convinced yet, but at least his next question wasn’t dripping with as much smarm, “Then why not take her under your own wing, if her own family is so monstrous towards her?”
“^Lumi—^”
“~Do you think I wouldn’t have done so if I could?~” the old woman asked, voice dripping with contempt for the Luxray’s words. Contempt, and more than a bit of regret at her own impotence. She’d wished so, so many times she could just spirit the girl away from her day-to-day hell, but…
Alas.
“~I’m not her relative, and she has a living family. Best case she’d spend a few days with me before I end up behind bars for the rest of my life and she would be forced to get back to her house, and I can’t even imagine what her father would do to her afterwards.~”
Aria didn’t need to know what ‘behind bars’ meant to realize it referred to a punishment. Her heart shuddered at such an obviously generous act being held against the elderly woman. As much as her perception of how virtuous individual humans could be changed by the minute, humanity as a whole remained little more than a monstrous, vile mess inside her mind.
One that brought misery to everything it touched, including itself.
The terrifying mental image chilled the discussion for a long while afterwards, enough for the group to approach the end of the forest path. Luxie hovered out of her warm shelter to nuzzle her guardian’s cold hand, catching her attention.
“~We’re getting close. Whatever stealth you had in mind, Aria, now’s a high time to exhibit it—~”
The end result spoke for itself, enough so to leave Olive speechless at how effective it was.
She was still holding the spirit’s hand, her attempts at clenching it were returned by Aria moments later, but attempting to look at her, or even at the hand she knew she was holding, yielded no results. Her eyes just slid over the spots she would’ve been in.
“^How’s that for stealth~?^”
“~What in the...~”
Aria’s disembodied giggle warmed the atmosphere from its previous gloom as they neared the entrance to the human village. The psychic herself almost never ventured this far, especially not during her duties, but there was one curious sight in front of her she needed to ask about.
“^I’ve always wondered what was the purpose of that… object.^”
“~Hmm?~”
The partially faded and grossly out-of-date sign that flanked the gate to the woods was a sight Olive had turned out completely over the years. She found the wild creature’s curiosity of it charming, almost cute.
> ,-----v----_------.
>
> MYLOCK
>
> POP: 1,634
>
> \----^-------^---/
“~It has the name of the town—Mylock—written on it, and its population. Says it’s sixteen hundred, nowadays the actual number is closer to eleven hundred.~”
Beyond the confusion at what ‘written’ meant, the meaning of the sign took Aria aback. The town’s population might have been pitiful by the standards of human settlements, but it was enough to leave the Gardevoir genuinely surprised. “^T-that’s a good few people, goodness. And on the other side?^”
> ,--------_----v-----.
>
> 🡹
>
> LILLYWOOD 8 MI.
>
> \---^--------^----/
“~Name of the town at the other end of the path, Lillywood, and the distance to it.~”
“^And how big is that one? I’ve heard it’s quite bigger than even this town.^”
“~Not a high bar to clear. Hmm... last time I checked it was something like forty, fifty thousand.~”
As underwhelming as Lillywood was, when compared to the regional capital of Mistralton, the number was still enough to completely stump both Lumi and Aria. Olive couldn’t see the latter, but she felt her arm suddenly being yanked backwards as she walked on, as if her impromptu companion had stopped. “~What’s wrong?~”
“^That’s an astounding number of living beings, good heavens...^”
The librarian just chuckled, amused at Aria’s innocence. “~I’ve a feeling that if I told you Castelia’s population you’d faint on me.~”
“^May be if it’s substantially higher than that...^”
Did two and a quarter orders of magnitude count as substantially higher?
Once Aria had snapped out of her daze, the group finally crossed the threshold between wilderness and humanity. The sight that met them on the other side was firmly underwhelming for Mylock’s inhabitants, and confusing otherwise. The dirt trail opened into a wider one, lined with a multitude of stone slabs, many of them cracked. A massive black path ran beside it, also apparently made of stone. The faded white markings covering it gave little clue as to its function.
The most eye-catching sight, by far, was the pair of large, metallic objects off to the side of the black path. Each was large enough to comfortably contain their entire group—and probably another copy of it on top of that, if they squeezed in the right way.
“^What are those...?^”
“~Cars. Used for getting around much faster than we can on foot,~” Olive explained. Her description left a lot to be desired, and a part of Aria was just about ready to ask the librarian’s ears off about all the human objects around them—but unfortunately, their mission here had priority.
The sooner they were done with it, the better, especially with her stealth having suddenly become much, much more draining with so many more minds around. Altering one person’s perception to erase her was already far from trivial, and with all the humans up ahead, Aria had to concentrate just to not let herself be spotted.
Thankfully, Olive guided them right where they needed to go.
Their destination wasn’t too far from the entrance to the woods, one of a row of ugly, rectangular copies of the same design built decades ago. Multi-story, single-family, mostly abandoned. Or, in case of the specific building they headed towards, worse than abandoned.
The sight of a Luxray accompanying Mrs. Graham’s Arcanine turned a few heads as they passed by, but it didn’t deserve any stronger reaction than that. Especially with Lumi leering down at any onlookers as he scouted the area.
Even beyond having way, way too many humans for comfort, this place was just obscenely ugly. The tide of gray and black around them was only occasionally broken by a ‘car’ of a different color, or a stark outfit of one of the locals. The massive, multi-story building on the other side of the wide black road cutting through the middle of the town was rendered off-putting by the drab color it was painted with.
Raw stone and dark smudges peeking out in places didn’t help any, either.
“What an ugly place,” Lumi commented.
“~Harsh, but true. Can’t believe they still haven’t renovated the school after all these years, good gods.~”
A glance at the building they were heading towards had Olive put on a snarl of her own. The litter strewn around the front yard was a perfect company for the opened front door and the reek emanating from within. Luxie, in particular, couldn’t resist dry heaving before diving back into her human’s pocket.
“~Just a couple days and this place already feels like it’s rotting. Only befits her family, if nothing else. Hold your breath,~” Olive instructed. Lumi and Aria didn’t have to be told twice.
The atrium opened up into the kitchen immediately in front of them. The town-dwellers soon realized, with vivid clarity, that it was the kitchen—and more specifically, the opened fridge—that was the source of the putrid odor. To their right was a small closet full of junk, while the other side had the stairs up to the first floor. As Olive led everyone up there, the two wildings among them paused mid-step at the unknown, concerning sounds coming from above.
“^Is there someone up there? I can hear voices but can’t feel anyone...^” Aria muttered.
“~No, no, it’s just the TV. The bastard didn’t even turn it off.~”
There was enough contempt dripping from Olive’s voice to make her spit it out as they stepped onto the first floor. The human voice emanating from one of the rooms was now clear enough to make out—if one spoke Unovan, that is.
“~—and now for the recap of Hoenn Pro Series 149!~” the announcer shouted. “~Following twenty tense weeks of battles, Trainer Brendan and Gym Leader Flannery with scores of sixteen to four and fifteen to five respectively have managed to secure the top two spots, giving them a possibly once in a lifetime opportunity to challenge the Hoenn Elite Four to potentially replace one of their members—and if they succeed at that, potentially even Champion Wallace himself! In anticipation to the no doubt grueling fights that await them and their teams, let’s take a look at the best, most tense moments of all the battles that had led them here, right after the message from our sponsors, on League24 Extra 2!~”
The sensation of hearing a voice without any attached mental activity—or even just physical presence—was an extremely dumbfounding one for Aria. Her aura’s subconscious efforts to probe towards where the sound originated only found a quasi-metallic slab, the mismatch between her senses making her head spin. “^What is that voice even saying...^”
“~You don’t want to know,~” Olive responded, her answer as short as it was definitive. Thankfully, Aria didn’t have to concern herself with it for much longer. The elderly human beelined to what had to be the girl’s now-abandoned room, its sheer mess making it look like it’s been ransacked several times. “~Here we are.~”
This might’ve been much more furniture than Aria was used to seeing in a single room, but the despairing state of it offset that realization. Desk and shelves were falling apart, wardrobe missed one of its doors and chair one of its legs. Half of the outer wall was reduced to bare brick and mortar, with a few plumes of mold on the ceiling completing the picture.
Smaller pieces of variously colored fabrics and white, rectangular sheets laid all over the floor. Some of the latter had unknown black or blue symbols on them. None of this made any sense to the wildlings, but they went along with their human guide for now.
“~Might as well grab everything she has left, underwear especially.~” Olive pulled a colorful, glistening bag out of her handbag and unfurled it open. It was large enough to contain this entire mess, evidenced by the librarian walking over to the wardrobe and grabbing whatever clothing that remained by the handful. “~Luxie, take a look at shelves and nooks. She had a whole pencil case she kept hidden.~”
“On it!”
Lumi and Aria were too unfamiliar with humanity to contribute much. The former stood guard outside the room as the latter paid close attention to everything the librarian and her friend were doing. The lil’ bee was zooming around the room and collecting small, stick-shaped objects, slowly building a pile on top of the nearby desk. A good dozen pens and a couple pencils was a good haul, but the actual pencil case remained stubbornly hidden, even as Luxie double and triple checked every corner, much to her frustration.
“^What does that... ‘pencil case’ look like?^” Aria asked.
“About as big as I am, tubular I think... I remember seeing it just a few weeks ago, it has to be in there somewhere!” Luxie explained.
“^Lumi?^”
“Hmm? *sigh*, Fine.”
The Luxray’s eyes glowed dimly as he swept the room through the adjacent wall. Solid objects were reduced to mere outlines and other living beings, to what humans would call anatomical diagrams. Not a perspective he enjoyed seeing the world through, but it came in handy sometimes. “Inside the top layer of this... bedding, I think?”
The rest of the group all focused on the unkempt bed, with Leo pulling the covers off in a single, firm motion. Underneath, just a stained, bare mattress—one with a barely visible hole in the side facing the wall. Luxie spotted it first, buzzing right over in an instant. “Got it, thank you!”
She didn’t expect Anne’s pencil case to be this heavy or well-hidden. Considering how much the girl valued being able to draw, though, doing everything to keep it safe from her parents’ prying eyes only made sense. It also turned out to not be the only item stuck in the mattress. The large photo frame that lied beside it only barely fit through the gap, forcing the bee to give it her all to pull it out. Her efforts, thankfully, were more than worth it.
An elderly woman sat on a couch, gray hair tied in a bun and a sea of wrinkles dotting her smiling expression. On her lap sat Anne, and on Anne’s, Ember, all three snuggled together as tightly as they could.
“Oh my goodness, we have to take it!” Luxie squealed.
“~Of course. Pack it in, all the pencils too—we’re scavenging everything in here. Aria, could you help us with the paper?~”
Olive’s mental image was clear enough for the psychic to realize that the word referred to all the scattered white rectangles. A shimmering glow surrounded them all as they were lifted in unison and gathered into a neat heap, making Luxie ‘wow’ under her breath.
“~There’s more of it on the shelves and inside the desks, and a few notebooks too. I think she’ll appreciate everything we can grab.~”
Aria didn’t have to be told twice. All the doors and drawers were rattled open as her mental reach scoured every inch of the room, picking up everything that either was paper, looked like paper, or had paper in it.
The sheer quantity of objects even in this single, rundown room was utterly baffling for the psychic, making her own dwelling look ascetic by comparison. The heap of paper ended up being a few inches tall by the end—and even if only half of it was usable for drawing, it’d still be weeks, if not months, of canvas for Anne. Combined with the drawing supplies and clothes, it was enough to fill Olive’s bag to the brim.
“~She took almost everything that wasn’t falling apart with herself as far as clothes went, not much else left. One more sweep and I think we can get going—~”
“Someone’s coming,” Lumi said, his words freezing the group as he tracked his target from behind several walls. A figure shambled in after leaving one of those metal cages on wheels, slamming the front door behind itself after it had walked in. Everyone heard the gruff grumble that followed,
And some of them knew very well who that was.
“~Can only be the homeowner,~” Olive whispered. Her words made all the wrathful thoughts from earlier slip back into Aria’s mind as she pieced together the identity of the newcomer. Her hands clenched into tight fists before she addressed the group with a cold, pointed voice,
“^Leave him to me.^”
After acknowledging Aria’s call, Olive headed for the stairs, her fear of the person who awaited them subsumed by the Gardevoir’s emboldening presence. She didn’t even try to keep her footsteps quiet as she reached the atrium and turned to face the kitchen, heart racing.
The brown bottle shook in the man’s grasp as he emptied the last of its contents with staggered, uncoordinated gulps. Excess whiskey splashed onto his unkempt, short beard, and the vomit-stained police uniform underneath it. His face, already marked with a permanent grimace, twitched harder as it turned to face the intruder in HIS fucking house.
“~Tom. Fancy meeting you here after all this,~” Olive spoke.
Anne’s father let out an animalistic grunt as the librarian’s companions stared him down. As obvious as especially Leo’s intimidation was, his inebriation and aggression were even stronger. Without letting out a word, he grabbed the freshly emptied bottle by the neck and lunged towards Olive, “~Get the FUCK out of my house you FUCKING BITCH!~”
Before Leo or Luxie could do anything, they felt something deep inside their minds stop them from acting. Olive’s scream was caught in her throat before she saw the other human’s arm become enveloped in a bright white light; frozen in place as if the air itself was holding it in a vise.
“~Wh-what the FUCK is—~” Tom screamed at seeing a ghost bride emerge from behind that worthless bitch of a librarian, its eyes burning up in a brilliant flare. He put his entire strength into trying to pry his arm out of the demon’s grasp as it approached, only straining it further. His mind was equally entrapped, forced to focus entirely on the fiend’s eyes as tendrils of pure terror stabbed deeper and deeper into his psyche. “~G-get THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME—GAAAAAHHHH!~”
His spat out demand was interrupted with a visceral crunch as the bones in his wrist twisted and broke at the sudden application of more force, deep blue bruises enveloping his hand moments later. The agony broke out through his grimace with a pathetic shriek, his thoughts full of pain and anger—and not even the tiniest shred of remorse or regret.
There was no doubt left in Aria’s mind.
Before Tom could do anything more, his entire arm was yanked backwards, bending his elbow the other way as he was flung into the kitchen. The cracking of bone and snapping of ligaments mixed with the shatter of glass from the stove he impacted. He wasn’t thinking of relenting, though.
His drug-induced haze muffled enough of his pain for his rage to keep him going. The trash bag of a human stared the demon down as he pushed through the pain, physical and mental alike. Near-blinding migraine did little to slow him down as he tried to bolt to the other side of the kitchen, eyes set on the dirty knife on the countertop—
Another disgusting crunch filled the room as his ankle was crushed into a thousand pieces; his shrill scream cut off once he’d impacted the filthy floor. Utensils and shards of glass dug into his skin with every motion, the suffering magnified by the psychic’s influence—but it wasn’t enough for him to stop yet.
In desperation, his unbroken hand reached for his holster and aimed his service pistol at the demon. He shrieked in hatred as he tried to pull down on the trigger—only for the hand holding the gun to smash into his own face with enough force to break them both. A cacophony of cracking of bone, the deafening gunshot, a bullet ricocheting off a metal pipe, and finally, Tom’s pained cry as the bullet pierced his leg saturated the air.
And snapped what remained of his resolve.
Even as the monster of a human was reduced to a sprawled, agonized mess, capable of little more than twitching and bleeding, a part of Aria wanted to keep going. To not stop until she’d fully reciprocated the enormity of the suffering Anne had experienced by his hands.
Her eyes burned up with white once more—and stopped shortly after as her anger-fueled high began to die down.
An eerie sensation filled her as she stared at the pathetic heap of a man. Not joy or hateful glee, nothing as uplifting as that, more so… contentment. Of the awareness that he wouldn’t ever be capable of hurting anyone else again. Of at least some of Anne and Ember’s pain being avenged. Even if he eventually recovered, the pain would remain his lifelong companion, its burning presence accompanying him until the end of his life.
As he deserved.
“^Let’s... let’s get going...^” Aria whispered. The rest of the group was too aghast by what they had witnessed to even think about disagreeing. The display of violence was so utterly unlike Aria it left even Lumi worried, making him look at his coworker in uncertainty as they hurried through the front door.
“D-did he really d-deserve all that...” Luxie whimpered, her and others’ fear stinging the psychic’s heart. The air was so saturated with that emotion it was making it hard to think, leaving Aria unsure of what to even say in her defense—
“~All that and worse. Hold on.~”
Olive’s grim tone caught everyone’s attention as she pulled out a small item from inside her purse. She put her bag of spoils down as she talked to the metallic device, its purpose unknown to the wildlings. “~Afternoon. There’s a man with a broken leg in here. I’m not sure if he can move. 17 Central Avenue, ML4 468, Mylock. My name is—~”
*click*
“~None of your business. Alright, let’s go, before the ambulance gets here. He’ll live.~”