"You have a challenger, Miss."
Sabrina opened her eyes. She'd been meditating peacefully until the young psychic interrupted. His words had made her stomach lurch. She hadn't had any visions about this one, which was unusual.
At least she couldn't see anything strange about the future, she thought. She didn't see anything at all, in fact.
"It's late, we're already closing. Send him away."
"But Miss," he said, pausing when she turned to face him. Questioning her judgment was risky business. "He has already defeated all of our trainers, and will be arriving here shortly."
Sabrina clenched her teeth; it would be unreasonable to turn someone away who'd come so far, so she couldn't. But the idea that someone could clear her entire gym of students without her feeling the slightest tremor or seeing a single warning beforehand unsettled her immensely. Her gym was one of the strongest in the region, and not one of her acolytes was a weakling.
"Send him in. You may go."
The psychic hesitated, wondering if something he'd said had upset her. The troubled expression on her face seemed uncharacteristic of the usually stoic woman.
"Is everything alright?" he asked, just before he reached the tile that led to the previous room.
"Quite so." She glanced at the teleport tile that the challenger would soon be appearing from, the uneasy feeling in her stomach spreading to her chest. "Tell the others they're dismissed for the night, as well."
"At once." The boy bowed and vanished with a soft buzz from the exit tile, leaving the gym leader alone with her thoughts.
Sabrina closed her eyes, intending to quietly wait for the challenger's arrival. Only an instant after she dropped her guard, she felt a jarring presence that made her eyes shoot back open.
It was just a boy that had startled her, and her heartbeat slowed back to a healthy pace. He seemed normal enough, wearing a bright red hat and shaggy black hair that hid most of his face from her - the latest style, perhaps.
Sabrina hadn't heard the telltale buzz of the teleporters she'd designed.
The boy wasn't standing near the entry tile to her room.
It would be unreasonable to assume things, so she didn't. Instead she observed him like she did every stranger she met, absorbing every detail about his appearance. She noticed with some alarm the red marks on his wrists, the slightly-faded scars around his neck. Perhaps he was an abused child; that wouldn't be too unlikely.
She couldn't sense anything from him. No malicious intent, no hungry desire to claim her badge. His presence was like a completely empty space in the room, devoid of emotion or thought.
"You're different from most who come here." She raised a pokeball with her mind. "Will you win? I can't tell."
The challenger remained silent and released his pokemon. It was one that she hadn't seen before, most likely from another region. It seemed like a ghost-type, she registered with some irritation.
In what seemed like no time at all she was forced to send out her second-to-last: Hypno.
She reached for his pokeball and called him out, already giving mental instructions.
To her shock, nothing came out.
How did an empty ball end up on my belt, she wondered, much more agitated than before. Where the hell is Hypno? This was his pokeball, she could still feel lingering remnants of his unique aura inside of it.
She couldn't think of any logical explanation, and she couldn't make any telepathic connection with the pokemon.
"Where's Hypno?" the boy asked, his words mirroring her own thoughts. His soft, raspy voice made Sabrina shiver. "I wanted to see him."
"He's in the pc. I plan on replacing him soon," she lied, because there was no time to figure it out.
She was still in the middle of a battle. Making her opponent wait would've been unreasonable.
"Too bad," he said, and the silence following his words made it seem as if he hadn't spoken at all. Had she met the boy before? How would he know her Hypno?
Her throat was dry. Her palms were sweaty. She didn't know why though, and she couldn't put a name to whatever it was that she was feeling. Something like "anxious." Something like "nervous."
It was certainly something.
Her irritation at getting swept by a single Pokemon defeating her anxiety, she sent out Alakazam.
Alakazam went down with one hit, before he had a chance to lift a spoon. Sabrina realized that she couldn't remember hearing the trainer call out an attack even once. She realized that she couldn't remember what any of those attacks looked like. She had been sending her pokemon out, watching them faint, recalling them, repeating the process.
"You really weren't like the others." she said, her voice a little unsteady. The formless apprehension that had lain in the back of her mind since she'd heard of his arrival was now a blood-chilling something, and she didn't even know why she felt so afraid.
Slowly, she approached him, since he didn't seem to want to move. Slowly, she reached out to hand him her badge. He looked up for the first time, revealing his eyes.
Bloodshot and swollen and sunken in and shrouded in dark shadows. She flinched when he lifted his hand to accept it, and he frowned.
He turned and stepped towards the exit tile without another word.
Sabrina released a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in. Finally, she could leave. What time is it now, she asked herself. A quarter to midnight. Had the battle really lasted that long? It was only eight when she was notified of his arrival.
She took a single step towards the exit tile, and stopped, eyes wide. Don't leave. The feeling was overwhelming, almost a command from her subconscious. Don't step out. Sleep in the office tonight.
Why, though? It was... It was just a formless apprehension. She hadn't had any visions. There was no logical reason to be... afraid. That's what it was. It would be unreasonable to sleep in the office just because of some ridiculous unfounded fear.
She took another step towards the tile. It was only a few yards away, so why was walking suddenly difficult? Her blood was cold but her heart was racing, her head was swimming trying to make sense of those irrational feelings.
Sabrina clenched her fists, unwilling to let some silly emotions cow her into doing something shameful like cower in her gym from absolutely nothing. That's what she was afraid of: absolutely nothing.
She stepped onto the tile and vanished, re-materializing in the entrance of the gym as expected. She could only breathe in relief for a moment, couldn't take a step off the tile before the formless apprehension she was trying to ignore became a crushing, unbearable pain in her mind.
She blacked out.
She woke up laying on her stomach, sore and shivering. Where was she now? She could only see blackness darker than pitch in every direction. A cave? Her eyes adjusted after a few minutes.
She reached a hand to her belt - where were her pokemon? Where was her cell phone? Panic finally started to set in. Her situation started to sink in. The putrid smell of stale air and stagnant water told her that wherever she was, she was incredibly deep inside. Getting out would probably take awhile.
She couldn't see any visions about the future, nothing at all. She couldn't sense where her pokemon were. She couldn't sense where the hell she was in relation to the rest of the world.
She decided to conserve her energy, to save her powers unless things started looking really dire.
She started walking.
Sabrina was exhausted now. She no longer knew how long she'd been walking, how long it'd been since she'd woken up in this dark, cold place. Suddenly, she heard something in the distance. Music? Perhaps that would lead to the exit, or the entrance, or anything other than where she was.
She followed the sound, and as she drew nearer to its source she was struck by the familiarity of it. Kind of like the funeral music the Pokemon Tower constantly played in Lavender. A lot like it, actually, but slower. Lower pitch... sinister.
The cave was getting impossibly darker, and Sabrina was so, so very tired. Now that the music was much louder, she stopped feeling like she was actually getting closer to anything, and it terrified her. How deep was this cave? She had to have walked for miles.
She collapsed onto her hands and knees. Even damp, the rocks on the ground cut into her skin, but she could hardly feel it on top of the soreness and aching pain pulsing throughout her body.
The music was gradually increasing in volume, and the cave grew darker still. She could barely keep her eyes open. And then, she felt a familiar presence.
Sabrina looked up. Her eyes were suddenly much better adjusted, and she could just make out a silhouette standing just a little ways ahead.
Laying beneath the something was what she was sure was a person, motionless. She could sense that that person was restrained, and that knowledge made her heart leap into her throat.
Slowly, so slowly, the figure approached her, and she felt a paralyzing fear grip her heart that she couldn't explain.
Before long, it was only an arms length away, towering above her. It reached out a hand, and she saw a dangling, glowing circle begin to swing.
"Hypno," she breathed, unable to do anything else. She tried to close her eyes, tried to break contact with his, but she was already trapped. She slumped forward and fell, succumbing to the hypnosis.
Physically asleep, but completely conscious in her mind, Sabrina vividly felt herself being dragged through dirt and sharp rocks. She felt herself be carelessly tossed at a rugged wall, then bound with thick ropes around her wrists.
After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, for something, anything to happen, Lavender Town's signature music stopped abruptly, and she stirred.
Hypno was inches from her face, like it had been sitting there staring for some time. Just waiting for her to wake. Even from so close, it was so dark that she couldn't see its eyes. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, and from this close she could sense that he could hear it.
She could sense that he liked that.
She didn't like that.
Sabrina threw up a light screen and shoved it in his face with all her mental strength. Being terrified helped. Every ounce of desperation helped.
Hypno staggered backwards and she ripped through her restraints with help from her powers, not caring that the coarse rope shredded her skin.
There was another person beside her. No time to think. She tore him from the wall and limped away as fast as she could manage.
Not fast enough, she knew.
Should have left him behind.
Not nearly fast enough.
Something large and heavy hit her in the back of the head, a boulder, maybe.
"Ugh!"
Her vision flashed red as she crashed to the ground, the other person tumbling out of her hands. His bright red hat flew off his head at the impact.
She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the protest of her aching, bleeding body. She whirled around in time to get hit in the face with something else, something smaller and sharper.
She stumbled, but kept on her feet, and lifted the boy to her side with her mind. With the very last of her psychic energy she teleported them just a few yards away. Only desperation and adrenaline allowed her to make it that far, and she knew it.
Goddammit, what the hell is happening? Where is my team? Why is he doing this?
She was so exhausted. She limped away as fast as she could manage. She should have left him behind, they'd never make it far, and the cave was endless anyway.
Not fast enou-
Sabrina groaned. Her fingers scraped through the dirt, trying to find purchase. She strained to support herself on shaking hands and knees.
Now she knew why she couldn't see any future.
There was no future.
She knew she couldn't stand, so she didn't bother trying. She heard soft footsteps, and the scratchy, scraping sound of something being slowly dragged across the ground. Another body? She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. To be kidnapped, killed, and maybe worse by her own pokemon? The irony.
Oh, my master was not clever.
Hypno was speaking into her mind, but she could barely pay his words by attention. Would anyone notice?
Was there anyone that would care that she went missing?
More than the cuts and the breaks and the bruises, it hurt to think that no one would.
Perhaps there was someone-
Now she'll stay with me forever.