CHAPTER 21

I ran through the forest as fast as I could, but my legs felt sluggish. Nonresponsive. I ducked under a branch and jumped over a fallen log before slipping and tumbling down for what seemed like minutes. When I stopped, I was on the shore of Lake Verity. Sweat clung to my hands and back as I looked around, trying to decipher where this sinking feeling in my heart came from.

“Found you.”

I turned and saw a group of those same criminals standing over me, each more sinister looking than the last. Their heads were distorted, twisted, and mangled. Their eyes were sunken deep into their skulls, and their voices were echoing across the entire area.

“What should we do with her?”

A tall, blue-haired humanoid figure stepped through the crowd, and with a twisted smile, he answered her.

“Kill her.”

I scrambled backward, hoping to buy myself some time as I grabbed my Pokeballs. I clicked on the button to release them, but it was stuck. Jammed. The girl who had asked what to do with me released a monstrous Golbat with rows and rows of needle-like teeth. I tried to scream, but no sound escaped my mouth. The Golbat flew toward me and bit—

I woke up in my bed, screaming with tears in my eyes, and it took a few seconds to get my bearings. With a trembling hand, I turned on the light on my bedside table and sat up. I clasped my head with my hands and took a few deep breaths.

“It’s not real. It’s not real. You’re fine,” I muttered to myself.

I closed my eyes, and the Golbat appeared in my mind, causing me to flinch.

“Water,” I whispered, licking my dry lips.

I tip-toed through my apartment and opened the fridge, basking in the warm, comforting blue light. After a few seconds, I grabbed myself a cup of water and downed it straight away.

Luckily my scream didn’t wake anyone up, I thought as I put the cup in the dishwasher. I silently walked back to my bedroom and took off my shirt. I needed a shower, but it was too late to take one, otherwise I’d have to explain to my dad why I was awake at 4 am in the morning. I changed into a tank top and hopped back into my bed. There was no sound but my heartbeat, my breathing, and the city outside of my window.

“Why now?” I asked myself. “I was fine until recently. No, I am fine. Everything’s been taken care of. Everything…” I trailed off.

Closing my eyes, I hugged my knees and waited to fall asleep.

——

When I woke up, I felt like I hadn’t even slept at all. My eyelids were heavy, and I struggled to keep them open.

“Ugh, I need to change my bedsheets…”

I dragged my feet into the bathroom and met my dad in the hallway. He was already dressed in a suit.

“Morning, kid.”

“Hey, dad.”

“Ready to leave your poor father alone once again? I’m gonna miss you!”

“You know how hard it was to convince myself to leave. Don’t guilt trip me…” I muttered as I entered the bathroom.

It had been five days since we came back to Jubilife, and I had gotten this recurring nightmare every single night. Every time, it ended as the Golbat bit my head off, but the worst part was I could never tell it was a dream, meaning I woke up screaming every night, and always at three or four in the morning. I brushed my teeth, took a shower, and made myself some buttered toast. Denzel wouldn’t wake up for another hour or so, and we were going to leave in the afternoon anyway. The goal was to reach the halfway point to the ravaged path before it got dark and set up camp there.

“You look tired. Did you go to sleep late?” Dad asked me.

“No… no, I’m good,” I said, turning my head away.

“You know I’m here if you need to talk, right?”

“I said I’m fine,” I said, raising my tone. His face grew saddened at my sudden outburst. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright. Anyway, I’m going to work, so… hug?”

I stood on my toes and hugged dad, trying not to cry. In a way, I felt like I was failing him by not saying anything. I trusted him more than anyone, but at the same time, I felt like it was silly to make him worry for no reason. If the people that had threatened us were still a threat, the League would find out and take care of them, so there was nothing to worry about. The nightmares would stop soon, and things would be back to normal.

“Love you, Grace. Always.”

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“Mhm. Me too.”

“Don’t forget to lock the door when you leave. Oh, and make sure you guys don’t forget the lunchboxes I made, otherwise I’ll have busted my ass cooking those meals for nothing. Love ya! Say bye to Denzel for me!”

I nodded, waiting for him to step into the elevator to get back inside. A feeling of loss began to take hold of me. It was the last time I was seeing my dad probably in almost a year, and yet we had said goodbye so casually. I lazily began to pack my bag while I waited for Denzel to wake up. My somber mood didn’t improve whatsoever in the two hours and a half it took him to do so.

“Are you good? You look tense,” He asked me.

“Just sad about leaving my dad,” I said in half-truth. “It’ll pass, don’t worry.”

How do you do it? I thought. How are you fine after what happened?

We locked up, grabbed dad’s homemade food, and quickly made our way onto a bus toward route 204. The ride there was quiet, and I mostly spent it enjoying the last few minutes of internet I was going to get for a while. Unlike the previous routes I’d been on, this route was more of a wide, grassy, open field without any apparent edges. Nothing much of note happened on the first half of the route, apart from a few battles with trainers or weak wild Pokemon. There was this surprising moment when a kid owning an Eevee recognized Denzel and asked for his autograph. I hadn’t realized it, but even trainers with only a single badge were somewhat famous and had fans rooting for them. Denzel was giddy the entire rest of the day.

“I still can’t believe it. He said I was his role model! Sure, his Eevee was a bit weak, but I gave him a ton of training advice. I hope he’ll get his badge,” Denzel said happily.

We were at the halfway point, and so we decided to set up camp. It was barely the start of October, but the temperature at night was already dropping below fifteen degrees celsius, a sign of what was to come during winter. Sinnohan winters were extremely brutal, with temperatures in the south of the region reaching down to negative twenty, and Snowpoint city could sometimes get to negative forty degrees Celcius. No trainers with half a brain would ever go there during winter, so Candice— one of the newer gym leaders— often ended up being challenged as a trainer’s eighth badge, even if there was no official order. And that wasn’t even starting to scratch the surface of the hell that was getting to Snowpoint. You either had to trek through the caves of mount Coronet, which was the area known as the deadliest for trainers, along with Victory Road and Eterna Forest, or you could try your luck and scale it. It was quicker, but deadlier.

Oh, and the best part? Due to how small the town was and how terrible the conditions were, there was no airport, so you had to get through mount Coronet one way or another.

I so wasn’t looking forward to that. If I even made it that far in the Circuit, that is.

“...Set him on the right path to learning Double Kick, but he needs to train her endurance up so she can use Quick Attack more.”

Luckily, I finished my thoughts right as Denzel finished his spiel. I liked him, but his need to be recognized was not something we shared.

“Can you set up the tents? I’ll heat up the food, my legs are killing me.”

“Sure, I got you,” He said. “Hey, what do you think about working out?”

“Working out? Like going to the gym?” I asked, tilting my head.

“Yeah. People tend to only train their Pokemon, but after seeing Chase, and knowing the things we’re going to have to go through in the later routes, building up some endurance and muscle should be a good idea,” He explained.

I tapped my chin. “You know, that does make sense. Aw, man, now I’m sad I didn’t do any of that in Jubilife.”

“Well, a few days wouldn’t have made a difference, but there are things you can do in the wild. A nice flat road like this? We could jog our way through tomorrow. Not only is it healthy, but we’re also getting to the Ravaged Path faster.”

My excitement immediately deflated as soon as he brought up starting our workouts so soon. Imagining it and getting pumped for it was one thing, but actually doing it? That was a whole different story.

“And you can have Togetic improve her flight time too,” He added. He had probably noticed my change in demeanor, a sign that after more than a month of traveling together, we were starting to notice our body language quirks.

“Getic!” She said happily.

“You’d agree with anything,” I joked at Togetic. “But I guess that’s what makes you special,” I continued, petting her head. “Let’s do it, then.”

We agreed, and then I heat up the food with a portable oven and a battery we had bought in Jubilife. Tasting dad’s cooking still made me feel like a part of him was still with me, but we’d run out after a few days. Then it’d be back to jerky, granola bars, and fruits. Despite not expecting it to be the case, the lack of food variety was one of the worst parts of traveling in the wild for me. Sure, I could always hunt and cook Pokemon if I was really desperate for food— and a significant amount of trainers did so, but I was vehemently against the practice. Whenever I ate meat, I only ate animals.

Animals, huh? I thought.

We had learned in school that animals used to be way more numerous until Pokemon came into being hundreds of thousands of years ago, and we still don’t know where they came from. All we know is that roughly one hundred and fifty thousand years ago, fossil records start showing Pokemon appearing all of the sudden. Animals were quickly hunted close to extinction, and today they’re all living in large industrial farms that deliver our food, or in natural reserves with rangers that protect them. Other than insects, I had never seen an animal with my own eyes. The vast majority of people ate animals, mainly because they were cheaper to raise and slaughter. Pokemon could defend themselves and could easily break out of wherever they were held, meaning that virtually every Pokemon a person ate had to be hunted in the wild, except for a few exceptions like Magikarp, which could be raised in fish farms because of how weak they were.

But the main point was that unless you were filthy rich, you weren’t going to be eating Pokemon anywhere near a regular basis. I found it to be immoral, and the government seemingly agreed with me, since they kept putting more and more restrictions on using Pokemon as food every few decades.

We finished our food as we talked about the future. Togetic fooled around with Frillish while Eevee snuggled close to Denzel. Budew stood at a distance, looking at us with angry eyes, and Feebas was… well… a Feebas, so he was in his Pokeball. I was starting to wonder if Denzel wasn’t letting this planned team of his get in the way of practicality. Tunnel vision was a problem anyone could be the victim of.

We returned our Pokemon except for Eevee and climbed into our sleeping bags. It was getting cold, and soon we’d have to start making fires. I still had that lighter I had bought at the very start of my journey, but gathering firewood would be such a pain.

I gradually fell asleep.

And the nightmares came back.