'For five score, divided by four...'

I sit in my apartment; alone, but not lonely. I feel a sense of familiarity, but at the same time a sense of novelty I've never felt before. I feel at my lowest as the final dregs of the drug that imprisoned me finally fade. It isn't easy, but I'm finally coming back to my senses. I look around. Suddenly I remember my friends of old that I left behind. They look to me as if they've never left my side. I'm suddenly surrounded by my loyal pokemon, my pets... my oldest friends and greatest confidants. They remind me of who I was before my journey into life. 

"Royal Road, huh?" I muse to myself. Memories of past adventures come rushing back to me. How could I forget? This place is looks so much like fimfiction, I feel at home once again.

'Your memories removed, your bodies confused...'

There's no escaping it. What use is a fit body without a fit mind? For years and years I tried everything I could to escape reality. After all, who would want to live in a world like ours? I tried drawing, writing, reading, games, and even drugs. It's the drugs that took the largest toll. I smoked weed once and 3 years disappeared in the blink of an eye. I didn't know who I was anymore. Addiction seemed like the final nail in my coffin. I lost all of my motivation and creativity for living in the world I loved so much. Something had to give. 

'For your insolence, you must pay. Cast off to a land far FAR away...' 

I find myself once again facing portals to other realities; other universes. I can see as close as my own past, and as far as my imagination can take me. Imagination is my home and passion. I could always be in two places at once. Here in my apartment, but in another galaxy simultaneously. "I could go for a smoke," I think, but I know that there would be no satisfying the monster inside me if I did. I have everything I need with me. I don't need the weed anymore. As if on cue, my attention returns to reality while my water boils over on the stove. I giggle to myself as I pour my coffee, thinking "Trading one addiction for another." It's not true, of course. I've always loved coffee, and recently even had the discipline to stop consuming caffeine every day. Still, it's always nice to have a warm beverage while traveling to other worlds. 

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"I can do this," I say out loud. I'm not afraid anymore. I can live my life again. I can face challenges ahead of me, and I can certainly face new adventures in the paradise that only my mind can create. The only question is: Where to start?

Espeon coos to me. I know where I need to be. I step through a portal to a cave hidden behind a waterfall. I'm joined by my partner pokemon as a torrent of memories come flooding back into the mindscape. Silence washes over me, calming the chaos of my inner thoughts. Here, nothing else matters. I'm free of my vices and past sins. I know that I can return to reality at any time, but for now there's no reason. The cave is dark as night, with the only source of light coming from the waterfall behind me that leads to the outside world. I tread slowly, deeper into the cave. This part of the journey is new to me. I don't know where I will come out this time, but I let my feelings guide me. There are no people in sight and in fact the only life in sight is my espeon and myself. I continue walking without doubt. The cave twists and turns and has many paths, but I keep moving forward. This journey isn't about covering every inch of explorable space. Like real life, I can only keep moving forward. 

Eventually after what feels like an eternity, I come to find more familiar scenery. There's a glow in the darkness. I approach the mouth of the cave and exit into a forest. The trees are so close together, and the canopy continues to block out most of the daylight, though the sun is high in the sky. Time passes differently here. I feel breathing slow and my muscles relax. There's no rush to get anywhere so I keep walking, slowing my pace as I take in the scenery. I see the mix of trees, grass, moss, and plant life. There are flowers here unseen by anyone in the real world; colors that don't exist in reality. Everything is as beautiful as you could imagine. The air is fresh and crisp, without pollution. as I continue onward the trees thin out and give way to a small town on a hillside. I recognize Pallet town from my adventures in the Kanto region, and my way home is just a little further. 

As I make my way beyond the town of Pallet, through Viridian Forest and Mt Moon, and finally to Cerulean city, I greet many of the wild pokemon along the way. I head south and into Saffron City. The place feels like it hadn't changed at all. My home is here, and exactly the way I left it. I enter my old house and look around. There's a two-seated couch, unusual in this world, but comfortable all the same. I have a seat to rest my body and mind from the long journey back here, and close my eyes. I still smell the fresh air, even in this industrious city. Before long, I feel the seat next to me depress and a voice emanating from it. 

"Where have you been? We missed you."