"GAH!"
Ash sat up quick in his bed, gasping for breath. He heard the mattress above him creak as Brock turned over.
"Ash? You okay?" he asked quietly.
The younger boy hesitated. Tell him about his nightmare, or lie to let it go? To be honest, he was pretty freaked out by the short, five-minute nightmare…
"I…Had a nightmare…"
The mattress creaked again, and Brock peered his head down from his bunk. "Do you want to talk about it?"
He hesitated for a second again. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to sleep if he didn't, he nodded.
"Okay."
Smiling sympathetically, Brock rolled out of bed-literally-and landed with a thud on the floor.
"Ouch…"
Ash laughed shortly and quietly as he stepped out of his bed. Brock stood up, and they walked out to the deck. They sat down at the table, with the older boy across from the younger.
"So, what happened in your dream?"
Ash took a deep breath to calm himself. "It started out being all dark. I heard somebody calling me, and I knew who it was immediately because she's got a pretty unique voice. When I turned around, I saw who I thought it was, my best friend, Curfy."
"Well, that doesn't sound scary."
"It was, but only because she… she was a zombie."
Brock laughed. "A zombie? Come on, I'm not even scared of that."
"That's not even close to it all. That was within the first… ten seconds. After I saw her as a zombie, I was suddenly near a cliff. I heard screaming from the edge of it, and I ran over and saw Kyndra, the prettiest and most beautiful girl in my class. She was hanging onto the cliff by her fingernails. When I went to grab her, the cliff collapsed, and Kyndra and I were falling. When we hit the water, Kyndra wasn't there anymore. Instead, it was Kelly, my little sister. She was drowning, and I couldn't get to her. She passed out, and again I was suddenly somewhere else. This time, I was in a forest, and Dawn was getting attacked by Ursaring. I tried to get my Pokemon to help, but anytime I threw a PokeBall, it disappeared, and Pikachu wasn't around. I didn't know what to do." He swallowed to that he could breathe through the lump in his throat. "After that, I was in a field. There was a long line of… coffins, and each one had somebody that I care for a bunch. The one that stood out to me was Curfy's. Hers was a dark pink, as apposed to the pale blue all the others were. Everyone else was wearing a white dress or tuxedo, but Curfy was wearing her favorite green dress that didn't have straps or anything. Kyndra's things were different, too. Her coffin was golden, and she was wearing a light blue dress. The top half had thin straps, and the bottom was fluffed out. She looked amazing… But then, the ground started to crumble from beneath my feet, and everything started falling into a huge crack that was opening right there…"
He fell silent as Brock went through everything in his mind. "Wow…"
Still very freaked out, Ash put his feet up on the chair and wrapped his arms around his legs. Brock could sense that the raven-haired boy was scared, so he moved his chair over next to his and wrapped and arm around him.
"Don't worry, Ash. Pikachu and I won't let anything bad happen to you. I promise."
Ash looked up and smiled at Brock. He felt really glad that he had a friend like him.
He promised.