Chasing Phantoms [339 words; Ruby]
I don't know why I cannot get over 500 words. It escapes me and I truly, honestly swear that when I write this stuff, it seem longer. =/ Go figure. Well, enjoy anyways!
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When he wakes up because his mother shook him gently in bed and she still has that young glimmer in her eyes, Ruby knows he's dreaming. And in this dream he isn't ten-years old but five years old. He's still a rambunctious who enjoys battling, who will dirty his clothes without care and who could fall from a tree limb and not cry. But most memorably, this five-year old Ruby has no scar.
And sometime during this dream, somewhere between his mother adjusting his jacket and his father eating a hearty meal before his Gym Leader Test, Ruby's conscious knowledge that this is a dream splits from his five-year old self and he's the age he is in reality; ten-years old, meticulous and scarred. Unwillingly Ruby watches the shadow of his former self go with his parents to the testing center, drawn to follow like a Magnemite to a power plant. Scarlet eyes darken in remembrance as Ruby watches a younger Professor Birch and a younger, girlier and docile Sapphire approaches his family. Ruby was having this dream…No, he chuckles darkly. He was having a nightmare.
Ruby mouths along what his parents and the Pokémon professor say to each other; he remembers every detail of that time. But his eyes are on the little Sapphire, in the frilly blue dress and black shoes. He burns the look of innocence into his brain cells, his memory. Ruby will never forget it.
And as Professor Birch nudges his daughter from out behind his lab coat, his five-year old self grins at her. With a bittersweet sadness, fond remembrance, Ruby smiles softly as the younger Sapphire smiles shyly. Vaguely, Ruby hears his parents and her father urge them to go somewhere to play. The five-year old boy offers the girl his hand, and she takes it and Ruby can only smile wryly as they run off. He follows with his hands in his pockets, to only see again his reason to change.
And when he wakes up, he won't remember her face.