"What is my favourite Pokémon...?"

I sat down on my bed to think; it had been a rough few days helping my grandma moving in and I needed the time I had to rest. She was out of sorts because Grandpa, her husband, had just passed. I hadn't been close to him but I still missed him. My mother would be able to keep grandma calm - that I was sure of. Screaming echoed through the house.

"Fairy magic resides in this house! The same magic and horror that stole away my husband will be the end of us!"

Someone screamed at the top of their lungs and as I went down I saw my mother crying softly. My father restrained Grandma from flailing too much, and I noticed my mother was holding onto something. As I went closer I saw that it was a small doll; a ragdoll, but she clutched it close. She looked up at me and glared. Deciding that she needed some form of comfort, I walked over to her and hugged her tight.

"Take this doll, Seb," she hissed while pulling me close, "it is very important it stays safe." With that she pushed me away. I started to wander back up to my room, looking over my shoulder as I went. It seemed like grandma had calmed down while I was with my mother; now she was just sitting and shivering.

Back in my room I placed the doll down on the dresser across from my bed. It was a sad thing, worn out and, honestly, a bit ugly. I leaned against my headboard to relax for a bit, not meaning to fall asleep, and ended up napping for a few hours - but when I came to, the doll was on my chest. I jumped up and tried to calm myself down. I had probably just picked it up before I fell asleep and couldn't remember.

My heart still pounding, I went down to the kitchen to get a glass of water before I turned in for the night. It was still vacation, so I didn't have to worry about getting up anytime soon.

My dreams were fevered, to say the least. I tossed and turned most of the night and when I finally awoke, I had a chill. The house was silent. I went downstairs to find a note saying that they were taking grandma for a mental check-up and get her something to help with the stress of losing her husband. I grabbed a snack and turned on the television. I was about to fall asleep when I saw something that caught my eye: that was my neighbourhood on the news. I quickly changed the channel back.

"...orts of Pokémon deaths. They were first reported early this morning, but as the investigation goes on more evidence points to unnatural causes… almost cruel in the way these Pokémon were killed. One oddish and a rattata were found… more news at 6." A cold lump grew in my stomach. They had shown my street - and even worse, they had shown just in front of my house. I walked over to the window to see if there was anyone around, but the streets were empty. My heart pounded nonetheless.

"Is this why they left so early..." I mumbled under my breath. I couldn't believe Grandma would ever hurt anyone intentionally, but I also knew she wasn't thinking straight. It was getting a bit stale in the house so I decided to go for a walk. I grabbed my bag and was about a half block down when I noticed that the ragdoll had fallen into it. The little thing, though still creepy, had started to grow on me a bit.

Just as I was coming back I noticed a little pidgey sitting on the road; the poor thing must have hurt its wing. It seemed a bit nervous at first, but I was able to take it home and bandage it and left it sleeping in the kitchen.

Hours passed before everyone got home. Grandma seemed calmer and everyone was happier; that is, until grandma went to the kitchen. She began to scream again. I ran after but had to turn my face away quickly. Her hands were outstretched towards the pidgey, which lay in front of her, dead.

"You. YOU did this, you horrible little creature!" she came at me quickly but my father pushed her back. My heart thundered in my throat.

"Go to your room, Seb."

"But Dad, I..."

"I said go to your room." He didn't raise his voice. His vision didn't even falter from my grandma. He just stood there, perhaps in as much shock as I was. I went up to my room and took out the doll; how odd that it had become my only constant in the past two days. I gave it a big hug and started to fall asleep. Strange; I hadn't even felt drowsy until I came upstairs.

I woke up hours later and something seemed off. If was as if the entire house was different. I walked around a bit upstairs trying to figure out why I was so out of sorts, but I couldn't place it. I went over to check a clock to see if I had just overslept and was still groggy.

I stared at the digital numbers as the information clicked into place. Two days had passed since I went to sleep. Something has to be happening - did we get robbed? Was I drugged? I went downstairs to find all the lights off and someone sobbing in the corner. At first I thought it was my mother again, but as I got closer I realized it was my grandmother. She looked up at me with resignation in her eyes.

"Back again, they are coming I hope you know, they know it was you." She glared at me "I just have to know why you did it, Seb, you were always such a good boy." There were deep shadows around her eyes, and she trembled as she spoke. She seemed to be flecked with blood. My blood got icy.

"Listen, Grandma, you need to calm down… I think you hurt yourself. Now think, do you know where my parents, your daughter and son-in-law are?"

"Where are they? WHERE ARE THEY." She started to scream but stopped, fixing me with a gaze of pure ice. "You killed them. You horrible little creature, not an hour ago you killed them right here, after beating them and me, after torturing the poor local Pokémon - you finally did them in." I was paralyzed - all I could do was stare at her.. I feared for my life.

The door burst open behind me and I saw police uniforms. I almost cried from relief. I was safe.

They ran up.

They grabbed me. I thrashed, no idea what was happening.

*****

"And you're the grandmother and legal guardian now, correct?" I nodded, trying to force back the tears that were forming in my eyes.

"Do you think he knows what he did? I can't even imagine how long he was delusional." The doctor looked not at me but through me. I wasn't any more a person to him then Seb was.

"I almost wonder if he was like this before I came..." I thought back to the hints: the fact that he pushed my daughter down and stole the gift I was giving her, a ragdoll that belonged to my mother, claiming it was some sort of fairy that was speaking to him. The fact that we knew it was him that tortured those poor Pokémon, we had to take and bury the poor things, and that pidgey. The pidgey was almost the worst thing, I say; it was opened up and still crying when we found it. I saw him change, when he found us with it - he pushed me down and stormed off to his room. I am not sure what happened to his parents. I knew there was blood, and I knew they were hurt if not dead but I couldn't bring myself to look at them. Perhaps, though, what scared me the most was the fact he had no memory of the past; that he came to me that day and thought I had done all those horrible things.

"Can I talk with him, doctor?" I was hopeful that perhaps he had at least come to terms with what had happened.

"Yes, I suppose now is best. He is under heavy sedative - and to answer your question, he seems to be starting to come to terms with what happened. He even admitted to a few things we did not realize he had done."

I walked into the room where he was being held, strapped in some form of gurney. He looked up to me with empty eyes.

"Hello, Seb. How are you?"

He smiled weakly and played with his ragdoll. It seemed he had become close to it in this span of time, almost like a child.

I repeated, "How are you?"

He looked at me, and his smile faded. He peered at my shoulder. "What is my favourite Pokémon..." he started to say.

"No, no, honey - How are you."

I felt like I was only talking to a shell with something underneath it; something not him.

"What a silly question. It's the one that has been with me the entire time. The one that's hovering over your shoulder."

*****

Doctor's analysis:
The boy appears to be behaviourally stable at this point, but in a state of emotional and mental decline. Perhaps he, in coming to terms with what he has done, has lost the will to live. It is almost as if the life is being drained out of him. Everyday he lays there and tells passerbyes that he sees his favourite Pokémon by their shoulder. The grandmother has passed. She went into shock immediately after the meeting we allowed, stuttering and screaming something. The most we were about to decipher was "ba", although it is uncertain whether this had any meaning. Further inquiry will commence, of course. The boy is to be put under strict observation.