Origins
Two screaming voices rang out across the house of my early years. By this time, I had forgotten what my drunken parents were arguing about. It did not matter. This happened every night for the first seven years of my life. It was normal. Tonight was the first break in the pattern of screaming, abuse, unconscious bliss, pain, and repeat.
I looked around me. My older brother, Joe, was trying to convince his flareon to come out from under the desk. My one-year-old brother and sister, Jai and Alex, were somehow sleeping through all of the chaos as if it was not happening. I wish I could do that. A crash coming from the kitchen caused a chain reaction that I will never fully understand.
Joe grabbed up Jai in complete silence and headed out the back door with flareon in tow. I picked up my sleeping brother, heavy in my weak, bruised arms, and followed out the door. About ten minutes later, my mother's screaming voice rang out in a different matter. She discovered we were missing when she went to make us into anger toys for her to abuse. Joe started running faster than I had ever seen him run. My trembling legs somehow kept up with the new pace that he set. I was terrified.
My father's voice rang out in harmony with wild gunshots as he chased after us. I do not know how, but I somehow ran faster than before. Something in me told me that I could not be caught, not now, not ever. My burning lungs screamed for air, as we got closer to our destination. I thought that we were doomed to fail. Then, a sweet scent entered my nose; the ocean! We might make it!
Joe reached the docks faster than I did and started calling out to his friend to start the boat. I ran faster as the screaming voices of my parents grew louder. Gunshots continued to ring out. Then, I tripped on a lose board. I twisted myself so that I would not fall on Alex, making back hit the hard, wet wood with a painful thud. I gave up all hope. They would get to me before I reached freedom. It was over.
Then a voice called out,"Flareon, use flamethrower to distract them!" A fiery mass sprayed out of his partner's mouth to land in front of me. I scrambled to my feet and ran towards the boat. A sense of freedom overtook me as I toppled onto the boat. When I got on, the craft started moving. I was greatly relieved. We would not have to worry anymore. We were safe. An ear-piercing scream disrupted my thoughts. When I looked back to the burning docks, I was horrified.
The wild gunshots my father shot out had hit an unexpected target, my mother. I watched as she clutched at the fatal wound in her chest. Her expression was of true terror as she glanced at my father before her life came to the bitter end and she toppled to the ground, never to rise again. My father, holding the gun in an unfortunate position, fired it in surprise. His trigger-happy personality came back to bite him as he slumped to the ground, a bullet embedded in his brain. He never would be able to harm another person again.
I looked up to see Joe's silver eyes wide in shook at what he had witnessed. He stood there in silence as we speed away from the gruesome site. I looked down at the sleeping boy in my arms, envying his luck of never knowing the pain I had suffered in the seven years of my life. He was lucky. I was not. I looked back at Joe. He had moved to sit with his back against the wall of the only room the boat contained. The breeze played with his dark hair as he stroke the fur of his loyal flareon. Jai was lying in his lap dreaming peacefully. I looked out at the calm water, lit only by the light of the full moon. The land that I fear had raced out of my view. We were leaving to a new region, Kanto, to start our lives anew. I looked out at the water and silently thanked whatever being watched over us for getting us a way.
Years have passed since that faithful night. I now live in comfort with many wonderful Pokémon, a mischievous seven-year-old sister, her intelligent twin brother, and a tired, sleeping Joe that they both are trying to pester into wakefulness. Although I do wish that I could get a mute button so that I would not have to listen to all the noise they make… or a way to keep it as it is now forever. No, defiantly the mute button…My life is perfect regardless. I would not trade it for anything, no matter the circumstance.
