Interlude 3

ETERNAL BLUE

And what's left of me, a cavity

At least this space is mine

It's where you left me to die

I wish my blood would slow down

You can make my blood rush

Slow down

- Spirtbox

"FUCK ME!" Sarah screamed as she pushed on her bedroom floor. The outside light finally filled the dark room, reflecting off a massive pool of amniotic fluid that extended far beyond the towel barrier Seth had created.

"You're almost there, baby," Seth said, smiling at his beautiful wife. Vulpix watched overhead from the bed, never taking her eyes off Sarah.

"If you say 'almost there' one more time, I swear on everything, I'm going to hang you from the tree outsi—" Another push interrupted her empty threats as the pain coursed through her body. "He isn't coming; we've been at this for hours."

"I'm staring at his hairy head! Come on, just one more push," Seth encouraged, trying to focus on his still beautiful, albeit exhausted wife.

"FUCK!" she screamed through another push.

"His head is out!" Seth exclaimed.

"Is he cute?" Sarah asked, gasping for air.

"He's beautiful. Now come on!" Sarah let out an excruciating scream, and the room fell into silence. The moment seemed to drag on from excitement to anticipation and finally to dread.

"What's wr—?" And the room fell into a pleasant chaos as Erin's cries filled the Golden Tails Diner.

"What was he like as a baby?" Emily asked, the spring breeze filtering through Sarah's tree blowing her chestnut hair revealing a deep bruise on her forehead. Ninetales's grey fur rustled in the wind.

He opened his mouth, “it my fault he is dead.” but those words never escaped. Couldn’t as much as he would love to have this weight finally lifted from his stomach, chest, fuck his entire being. He knew the reality. Emily wouldn't help carry the weight, she would use it to finally crush him.

"He..." Tears streamed down his face as he sat in his own backyard, feeling the grass and yearning for anything to be underneath the tree with his family. Yet, despite his sorrow, a smile touched his lips as he delved back into his memories. "He was just exhausting, wanting to be with Sarah so badly. No matter how often I held him, he'd just scream until he was in her arms." He wiped his tears with his arm and stared ahead.

"When did that change?" Emily asked, looking at his heartbreak.

"JUST HELP ME, SETH!" Sarah's scream echoed through the kitchen as she struggled to manage both Erin and her cooking endeavors. A burnt smell hung in the air, determined to underscore her culinary misadventures with wafts of smoke.

"I'm trying! For an entire month, if I so much as touch him, he screams," Seth yelled back. Yelling at her was the last thing he wanted, considering she usually won all their arguments. Both of them were utterly drained.

Sarah's afro swayed vigorously as she moved from the kitchen into the dining area, causing an awkward scene for the patrons. They were hastily gobbling their food, hoping not to be entangled in the whirlwind of their marital drama. "Here, now get the hell out."

Erin's screams pierced the air, even louder. They reverberated through the front door of the diner and echoed down the sparsely populated streets of Westgate. Seth, holding his son, swiftly left town, heading to a green field. The hot summer sun beat down on Seth, and Erin. However his son’s dark skin seemed to emit an iridescent, radiant glow, as if it had developed its unique warmth.

As Erin's cries finally subsided, Seth held him close, studying every feature: his bright hazel eyes and his already wild head of curly hair. Seth dipped his feet into the cool water and released Mankey. Finally, he was just enjoying the company of his son, genuinely, for the first time.

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"Erin, I know I haven't been the best. You seemed like you didn't want me, and I was genuinely scared," Seth confessed, looking down at his son. Erin gazed back at his father and the sky, where the sun illuminated his warm aura. "I promise, buddy, I will always be there for you. No matter what happens, I will be there for you."

For the first time in his life, Erin smiled. His dimples deepened so much that Seth felt like he could get lost in the joy they radiated. Erin's hazel eyes reflected the sunlight, and Seth couldn't help but shed tears of love and happiness. He realized that Erin's life had become every aspect of his own, and he no longer had an identity other than being Erin's father, and that was the most amazing thing in the world.

"Are you smiling for Dad?" Seth asked through his tears. Then, Erin let out the wettest, most unpleasant shit that Seth had ever heard in his life. The stench was so vile, so putrid, that Mankey, who took a single sniff, fled so far away that he was almost invisible.

"Do you want to know what the worst part is?" Seth asked Emily, his eyes reddening again as the spring breeze continued to rustle the leaves around them. Emily remained silent, merely offering him an ear to listen, the best thing she could do in the situation.

"I would sacrifice this entire country a thousand times over just to be given the opportunity to change that diaper again." Seth's face fell into his hands, his sobs blending with the rustling of the leaves. The smell of coffee wafted from Seth's untouched mug. He couldn't bear to take a sip of something he enjoyed while Erin lay in the dirt beneath him, unable to enjoy anything anymore.

After a few minutes, a bright white light flashed as a Ralts emerged from thin air. The Ralts scurried over to Emily and presented a scroll of paper tied with a thin yellow string. Without any empathy or compassion, as soon as the paper left the Ralts' hand, it disappeared in a flash.

"What does it say?" Seth asked, staring at the scroll, with the string drifting in the strong gust that persisted around them.

"Tell me another story about him," she responded, pretending not to notice his question or the message from Lt. Surge in her hand.

The diner appeared as usual, clean and with its usual handful of customers dining during the lunch rush. The three older gentlemen, Harold, Benjamin, and Samuel, waited patiently at their booth. The smell of the Lunch Special and coffee hung in the air like a thick cloud.

"Seth, this isn't going to last," Sarah said, her dark fist firmly planted on the cashier counter as she gave her husband her demanding stare.

Erin emerged from the kitchen with a shirt that barely covered anything, as he had reached the age where putting on pants was more trouble than it was worth for a three-year-old. He grabbed the notepad and pen, which sat next to his mother's clenched fist, and made his way to Harold and his friends.

"Hi, Harold!" Erin greeted them with a giant grin, looking up at his neighbors.

"Well, hi there, Erin. Are you getting us our food?" Harold chuckled, gazing down at the child in amusement at his outfit.

"Yup! Okay, be right back!" Erin replied, running away as quickly as he had appeared.

"But you didn't take our order," Samuel complained, his hunger growing more desperate. Erin, however, ignored him as he vanished into the kitchen. He was on a mission to bring them their food, and he'd use any means necessary.

"We'll be fine, Sarah. Please, we have customers," Seth responded, desperately attempting to steer the conversation in a different direction.

"Three families are already dead! Are we supposed to wait until it happens here?" Sarah's intensity grew as Erin rushed past her with a plate of carrots and cheese in one hand, and a glass spilling its contents all over the floor in the other.

"What do you have for us, Erin?" Benjamin warmly inquired, raising a bushy eyebrow.

"Carrots and cheese!" Erin cheerfully announced, setting the plate and glass down, although it resulted in even more of a mess, before taking a seat in the empty space next to Samuel.

"And this?" Harold lifted the glass of a brownish liquid.

"Well, Daddy loves coffee, and I love orange juice, so it's both!" Erin enthusiastically responded.

"Oh," Samuel remarked as his hunger waned. "Did you wash your hands?"

"Yup!" Erin cheerfully exclaimed, lying through his teeth and making it clear to everyone else who hesitated to pick up snacks. Nevertheless, it was impossible not to smile in response to his contagious happiness that seemed to radiate from him.

Once more, the warm wind brushed past their faces as they sat closely together, gazing at the tree behind the Golden Tails Diner. Emily wiped away a tear and unraveled the letter from Lt. Surge, which had simple words scribbled on it: "Saffron City, Silph Co. 2 days, sunset."

"Come on, Seth, let's go get prepared," she urged, struggling to her feet, her gaze lingering on the words etched into the tree one last time before helping him up.

Seth remained silent and looked up. “It's my fault he is dead,” But still those words were stuck in his throat. “It's… It’s so fucking dark.” The unneeded but still true words dripped out through his continual sobs. “His life was my life, and now his death will be my death. I will scorch this entire fucking world, because without that all I have left, all I want is to be hanging from this tree.”

“I know,” Emily answered back softly.

“No you fucking don’t!” Seth said, ignoring her hand to help him up and slapping it away while he jolted up.

“After my sister died. I tried so many times to go into the most inescapable situations to finally let my rage kill me.” She continued, paying Seth’s anger no mind. “If it wasn't for Aggron I would have but I kept living and I hated myself for it.” The wind blew her chestnut hair out of her freckled face revealing fresh tears streaming down, and the cut on her forehead where she blamed herself scabbed over and healing. “It wasn't until Erin that I realized how stupid that rage was. I still want the death of Team Rocket and will be glad to kill anyone of those bastards, but it is so no one has to endure my life. Reasons matter Seth and you still have someone who loves you. Who doesn't want you hanging from that tree.”

“It's my fault he died.” Seth struggled and failed again to get out. He took one last look at his failures under the tree and walked inside.

The tree branches creaked as the wind swayed them back and forth, causing the sunlight to dance on Ninetales, who lay there unmoving. The trunk bore immortal words etched into it, which read:

"Sarah Conklin, Loving wife & incredible mother"

"Erin Conklin, If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever."