Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay! School is harshing my mellow.
The morning made everything better, insecurities and all. Callista woke up, assured that the couch did hold, and there had been no more home invasions; then she had a shower, got dressed, and made breakfast while she waited for everyone to get up. Daisy followed her quietly, purring, and Callista made sure to make an extra piece of buttered toast - Daisy's favourite.
She left a voicemail on her boss' phone, briefly explaining why she hadn't come back after lunch yesterday - she figured she had enough vacation hours from her wasted summer to maybe get away without being fired.
Nicholas woke up when Tarsi nibbled a hole through his shirt, curled up on the apartment couch with an old blanket over him. Swatting Tarsi gently away, he sat up, lingering anger over Whitehall's intimidation quelled by the rather mean-spirited satisfaction that neither Whitehall nor Sebastian had all the pieces - the sheet with all the symbols lay on the living room table, where Callista had left it last night.
Tarsi had spun String Shot around himself and was amusing himself by gnawing it off again - a sign he was hungry. Nicholas dazedly joined Beatrice in the kitchen, not really managing any conversation until he'd made a cup of coffee.
Beatrice woke up last, thankfully with only the dull remnants of a headache, but even more thankfully with no legendary Pokémon in sight.
Getting up, she wandered briefly into the bathroom for some pills for her headache, washing them down with water cupped in her palm, and she paused to examine herself in the mirror.
She looked okay, if not a little pale, and her head hadn't bruised or anything - unless you counted the little nick she'd gotten from Mandy, but that was just standard fare...oh, shit.
Sprinting back to her room, she fumbled through her bag to find Mandy's Pokéball - she had fallen asleep before she had remembered to let her Pokémon out after the bus ride!
Standing as close to the doorway as possible, Beatrice gritted her teeth and lobbed Mandy's Pokéball into the room before turning and running in the opposite direction.
Her Mandibuzz was released in a burst of feathers (she molted sporadically when she was stressed), shrieking and irate. She was promised an hour or two in the Pokéball, not the whole night! She gave chase after her owner, knocking many of her possessions over in the process.
Beatrice sprinted down the hall, skidding across the linoleum and throwing open the window under the startled stares of her two friends. Mandy came streaking after her, neck taut, beak at the ready to peck some sense into her human. Beatrice threw herself in front of the open window.
"I'M PRETTY SURE WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS!" she yelled as her Pokémon approached - then she ducked, Mandy tumbling straight past her and out the window, which Beatrice quickly shut behind her.
Mandy spun circles in the air outside, looking more relieved to be able to stretch her wings than determined to get back inside.
"She'll calm down." Beatrice explained to her concerned friends, rubbing her temple. "Then hopefully she won't bite. Hard."
As Beatrice made herself some tea, Callista delicately spread the bus schedule out over one knee.
"Well, there's a bus that goes to Driftveil," she offered to her friends, pointing. "...leaves in an hour, we'd get there by mid-afternoon."
"Yo, I have an idea." Beatrice piped up, feeding Daisy a chunk of her toast. "We could hike it up north. You know. On foot. Like real adventurers."
There was a silence.
"I'm waiting for you to tell me you're joking." Nicholas spoke up, with a nervous laugh.
"Hey, you said you've never been camping or hiking or anything, right?" Beatrice countered. "And none of us ever took the League Challenge so we never traveled 'round much, right? They say the best way to experience Unova is on foot. Or, like, by bike. Whichever you prefer."
Nicholas didn't look convinced, and Beatrice didn't really blame him - the southerner was what you could call a "city boy", if the term didn't sound like a taunt. Beatrice had at least gone on a few camping trips with her family when she was younger...hell, even Callista had been in a tent once or twice in her life.
As a closing argument, Beatrice spread her hands placatingly and suggested, "If your crazy-ass stalker somehow come back for you, how hard would it be to find you if we were on the road?"
Fear of Sebastian (barely) overcame fear of wet, soggy campgrounds, and Nicholas very reluctantly caved.
"I think the chick downstairs has a tent." Beatrice said, confident. "She's got a crush on you, I think, Nick, so you should go ask her if we can use it for a month or so."
"A month!" Nicholas repeated with horror (though whether it was over the thought of spending more than a day outside in a tent, or talking to the girl downstairs, who had demonstrated herself the few times Nicholas had been over as a rather abrasive, giggling mess).
"Okay, three weeks." Beatrice rephrased.
Callista frowned.
"I'm just going to tell you right now, I don't think you thought this through." she declared.
"I don't need your rationality right now." Beatrice held up a hand. "Listen. You survived a home invasion. Nick survived a hostage situation and a corrupt cop. I know a girl from elementary who left home at ten and she's traveled half the world, won a Contest in Hoenn, and the Pokémon she's caught are fucking terrifying! Like, I'm sorry, I don't care if your Gyrados "adores" you and you called her 'Chee-chee', if she rolls over on accident, it's game over, man. You're dead. Also, side note, who names a Gyrados CHEE-CHEE? Name her Crusher or something. Take advantage of that shit."
"Sorry," Nicholas said dryly. "What was the point of this?"
"The point," Beatrice glared, "Is that I'm in my twenties and the most exciting thing to happen to me is last week I thought someone stole my bike but I had just left it behind my building instead of in front of it and forgot because I was drunk. Meanwhile some kid with a Gyrados named Chee-chee is scaling a fucking mountain in Sinnoh. Look, I'm not a creep, okay?" she added at Callista's dubious look. "I just follow her blog.
"Oh, c'mon!" she whined when neither of them moved. "OK, look. Compromise. We rough it 'til Driftveil...and if you're sick of it by then, we stop by, say hi to your sister, and then take the train the rest of the way, or you can go back to work at the library or whatever. Easy peasy. Right?"
"Til Driftveil?" Callista repeated, and Beatrice held up her pinkie finger.
"'Til Driftveil." she affirmed, and they pinkie-swore on it.
Nicholas felt a little better - at least until Beatrice still made him go downstairs to inquire about the tent.
When he got back, with both the tent and the downstair's neighbour's Xtransceiver number, Beatrice laughed so hard so looked like she might choke - so Nicholas went to take a shower instead of flipping her off like he had planned. Mandy, who had been let back in during his absence, was showing her displeasure towards her owner by sulking on the edge of the couch, making sure to use her claws as much as possible.
"We can cover that up with a doily or something." Beatrice said, with little confidence.
Callista cleaned up after breakfast and Beatrice disappeared into her room to pack, emerging only once with an upset expression to complain about, "who the fuck are you letting rent my room, Cal? Don't give him his damage deposit back!"
Callista made herself a cup of tea and curled up at the foot of the couch, scratching Daisy's belly as she snoozed on one of the cushions, chubby legs twitching in sleep. Without thinking, she withdrew the rock again from her pocket, smoothing her thumb over the ridges. She repeated this absently until her thumb was tingling. Her arm felt weird, like she had just hit her funny bone. She stopped scratching in favour of cupping the rock in both hands.
What was so special about it? Why did she bring it all the way to Nacrene and then all the way back instead of leaving it at home, or tossing it off Skyarrow Bridge? What was it about this rock that had people doing strange things?
Her thumbs were tingling again, and Daisy was snuffling in her sleep, anxiously, as if dreaming. Callista looked down at herself, and stifled an exclamation - her hand was blue. Not stained...it was more like a lightbulb within her had been turned on, and now the light was coming out of her in a soft pulsing glow. She could see the veins under her palm illuminated with terrifying clarity and, frightened, she scrambled to her feet, wiping her hand against the front of her shirt as if that would get rid of it.
By the front entrance, something metallic fell to the floor with a 'thunk'. At the same time, Daisy began to whimper. Turning to her Pokémon, Callista saw her Munna had woken up, looking agitated, with her beady eyes fixated on her owner's hand.
Beatrice's keys came sliding across the floor towards her, as if attracted to a powerful magnet. In shock, she dropped the rock and the keys shot to them. Mandy, who had refused to follow her owner into her room, was making weird, avian hissing noises, feathers ruffled, neck scrunched down like she was protecting herself.
She was going crazy, Callista decided, as she stared at her hand - the pulsating blue light was almost sickening, now, and it seemed almost as if her veins were pulsating in time...and her bones, and her skin. She was seized with the sudden delirious thought that if she didn't stop this soon she'd explode from the inside out. Panicked, she threw herself down the hallway that led to her bedroom, bleating, "Bee?" in a nervous voice. Squealing, panicked, Daisy followed.
As she passed, the metal letters on her door that spelled out her name trembled and rattled.
She reached Beatrice's door just as Beatrice did, and the two girls collided - without thinking, Callista reached out her blue hand to steady herself on Beatrice's shoulder, and the other girl jumped with a yelp.
"Ouch, Cal, you shocked me!" she exclaimed with no heat; then, "Shit, you're white as a sheet, are you okay?"
Trembling, Callista looked at her hand, still clasping Beatrice's shoulder; perfectly normal, no blue glow or throbbing veins to be seen.
"I'm - yeah, I'm fine." she managed shakily. "Are you okay?"
"Never better." Looking wary, Beatrice reached up to grab her arm. "Bit of a headache, though. You gonna faint, or...?"
But Callista was too busy gaping at Beatrice's hands. The owner of a bird Pokémon, Beatrice's hands had, since high school, never been without a few bites, scrapes, and cuts. Some had simply scabbed and healed over but some, especially from when Mandy was still an untrained Vullaby, had left scars that (though they had faded over the years) still riddled Beatrice's hands with white marks and puckered skin. Most noticeable was the scar above her left eyebrow from training Mandy - Beatrice could literally touch her eyebrow and turn her Pokémon into a shuffling, crowing mess of guilt.
(She only used it for special occasions)
All that was gone now. Right in front of Callista's eyes, the hand holding her arm was unmarred, knuckles void of dark scabs; the skin above her eyebrow looked perfectly healed.
"Your hand." she said faintly, still bordering that fine edge of puking, and Beatrice frowned.
"Huh? Wh - yikes!" she let go of Callista like she'd been burned, holding up both hands in front of her, eyes wide.
"There is some spooky shit going on around here." she said finally, staring at her knuckles like she'd seen a ghost; Callista would have agreed if she hadn't felt like she was going to throw up. That sickening, pulsing feel was still there, thrumming in her ribs, and she felt nauseous, like she'd been exposed to some sort of toxic radiation.
Beatrice looked about as freaked out as Callista felt.
"Oh man, you can't be crazy too!" she whined, like a little girl. Callista was about to ask her what she meant but Nicholas appeared in the hallway, hair wet from the shower, holding Beatrice's keys, still attached to the rock and what looked like the whole little box of paper clips that sat on the desk neither of the girls used for studying.
"Your rock's a magnet." he pointed out helpfully.
"Aw man, I love magnets." Beatrice piped up, just as helpfully.
Callista excused herself to the bathroom.
"What's going on?" Beatrice asked, unusually worried, and Nicholas shrugged.
"I don't even know anymore."
They left the apartment around noon, with the intention of staying the next two nights in Nimbasa - Callista wanted to see the amusement park and Beatrice was hoping to catch a baseball game for sheer nostalgia purposes. Aside from a bit of nausea, Callista was feeling okay - she had purposefully left the rock on her desk when she packed her things, and meant to leave it behind as a sort of purposeful reminder that she shouldn't be sticking her nose into potentially dangerous things. She got as far as the kitchen before she was hurrying back to the her bedroom, using the sleeve of her sweater to scoop it up and bury it shamefully at the bottom of her backpack - she wasn't touching it again!
Beatrice hadn't pressed about the earlier event, not in front of Nicholas (which Callista was grateful for), but every so often Callista noticed her friend looking at her hands with quizzical wonderment - Mandy, perhaps sensing her owner's joy and wanting to spoil it, had pecked her on the left knuckle to draw blood, leaving her owner cursing.
Nicholas had been pretty quiet - Callista wasn't sure if it was because he didn't appreciate Beatrice using the neighbour's crush to their advantage (and at his expense!)), or if he was merely thinking as hard as she was.
When Nicholas was in the bathroom Beatrice, who was lying on the couch, looked over at her.
"So...you going to tell me about your freaky deaky healing magic, or what?" she asked.
"...I'm not sure I'm going to sound sane if I do." Callista admitted, and to her surprise Beatrice nodded.
"Okay, I get that, seriously. Has this - " she held up her hands, "happened often?"
"First time." Callista confirmed, miserably.
They heard the toilet flush and, hurriedly, Beatrice said:
"Listen. Tonight, when we get a chance. I'll tell you something freaky if you tell me your freaky thing. Deal?"
"I guess." Callista replied reluctantly, and their conversation stopped when Nicholas returned to the living room.
When they started off, Callista was optimistic. Nimbasa wasn't too far away from Castelia, and, really, all of Unova's cities were adequately spaced from each other, the routes dotted with small towns along the way.
Well, she was okay with it until they hit the sandstorm on Route 4.
"Okay, to be fair, the whole trip isn't going to be like this!" Beatrice yelled over the wind as they trudged forward into the desert separating them from Nimbasa. Callista missed her shout because she was too busy wrapping a scarf around her face to keep out the sand. In the end, they had to recall their Pokémon (though if it had been up to Mandy, she would have attempted to keep flying through the storm 'til she collapsed).
If Beatrice had ever felt an appropriate time for the use of the phrase, "mutiny among the ranks" in her life, this was it. She thought camping was fucking awesome, and it wasn't helping her cause that they had started their journey in the middle of a sandstorm.
Nicholas' face was covered by his sleeve, but she could see from here how unhappy he looked; and Callista had looked pale and nauseous since this morning. Beatrice caught her staring into space, as if constantly preoccupied.
And really, the whole thing was fucking fishy, if you asked Beatrice (not that anybody had). All these things happening to them at once...now there was weird magic-healing shit going on and Beatrice was seeing things, which did not bode well for her mental health in the long run.
All of a sudden, a large face of rock loomed up in front of her vision and Beatrice came up short in surprise.
"Where are we going?" Nicholas yelled, and Beatrice wheeled around, bewildered.
"It's a straight route, I thought we were following the path!" she bellowed back.
"Well, should we turn around?" Callista's voice was muffled and barely audible under her scarf - she had taken her backpack off and was rifling around at the bottom of it.
"D'you have the map?" Beatrice asked Nicholas, who slid off his backpack as well - sand cascaded from his thick hair into his bag.
As Beatrice stood, impatiently, eyes stinging from the storm, her jaw slackened - standing on a nearby dune, totally placid, was another fucking Entei.
"Just what I fucking need right now!" Beatrice exclaimed, and Nicholas looked up from his search.
"What?" he asked. Callista's brow was furrowed. Beatrice laughed, loudly, despite the sand in her mouth.
"Sorry! Talking to myself!" the Entei's eyes almost hurt, they were so sharp; after a moment, it nodded, and padded off over the dune. Almost as if she was responding to some secret signal, Beatrice exclaimed, "Okay, I think I know where we're going, follow me!"
She took a few steps toward the Entei, then looked back; both Callista and Nicholas were staring at her.
"I haven't even shown you the map yet." Nicholas protested, still crouched over his sandy backpack. Beatrice laughed again; she wondered if her friends could sense the hysteria.
"Trust me, okay? I've got a good feeling about this."
"A good feeling?" Callista repeated - but she and Nicholas were quick to follow, wading through the sand after Beatrice as she made her way firmly up the dune, feeling woozy.
"Well...a feeling, at least." she muttered to herself, slipping a little.
"Bee, what are you doing?" Callista was asking behind her, and Beatrice couldn't honestly answer her. In the distance, amidst the howling sandstorm, she thought she could see the shape of Entei, always watching, always solid.
This was insane, she thought. She honestly had no idea where they were going. She could be leading her friends into a sand trap, for all she knew. All she knew was that once they got onto the paved Route path, it would all be okay; that if they hit the Desert Resort they only needed to head east to get to Nimbasa City.
Whenever she looked up (it was hard staring straight into a sandstorm!), the Entei was still there, calm and unruffled despite the weather, but still only sand stretched in front of them.
And really, she was going to give up on the whole thing when a large, rather abandoned construction site loomed up in front of them.
"Well, this was convenient timing." she said, which was swallowed in the storm; nonetheless, Nicholas and Callista saw it about the same time she did (which was what she loved about them - why bother telling people about shit?), and surged forward, leaving her to trail after them, wondering. Entei was nowhere to be seen.
Okay, she thought. So did Entei lead me here...or did I get really fucking lucky and aimlessly follow a hallucination until I stumbled upon a refuge?
It wasn't really giving her any answers.
The workers within the main building weren't really surprised when three, sandy teenagers burst into their workspace - on the whole, they seemed used to the idea. They mumbled the usual, appropriate apologies; Beatrice set to scraping sand off her tongue, while Callista shook out her scarf and Nicholas ruffled his hair, a shower of sand falling to the floor.
"Yo, you have a map, or something?" Beatrice asked the nearest worker, and as he complied, Callista perused the set of brochures the construction building had set up at the reception.
"Ah." she said, quietly, holding up a brochure. "Nick, look at this."
Nicholas glanced over - she was holding a bright, simple brochure; across its front was a glossy picture of a big white tent in the middle of the desert, in front of a clear blue sky, with a stream of people moving in and out. In blue letters across the top, it read, 'Experience the Miracles'.
"What?" Nicholas took it from her. "Is it like a circus? In the middle of the desert? That doesn't seem very smart."
Beatrice had looked over from where she was poring over the worker's map.
"It looks like a revival tent," she offered, with a frown. "Dunno, they were popular ages ago. You'd go and there'd be a guy shoutin', gettin' all spiritual, and then a broad would limp up to the stage with an awful disease, and everyone would pray and then miraculously she'd be healed. And everyone would put donations in at the start, so they'd get away with loads at the end. Usually the sick person would be just playing along."
Nicholas raised his eyebrows. "Yeah...I didn't know they were still popular."
"They're not." Beatrice offered. "That's the weird part. Unless it's an ironic sort of thing. We should check it out!"
"You want to go to a revival tent?" Nicholas asked with a bit of disbelief. Beatrice shrugged.
"Why not? When else would you be able to say, 'I went to a revival tent'? Like, legit!"
"I don't know when I'd ever want to be able to say that." Nicholas offered. Beatrice frowned at him.
"Look at you, sucking all the fun out of life!"
Callista laughed. "That's rude! Besides, you're the least spiritual person I know."
"Whoa, that's awkward!" Beatrice feigned offense. "What if I was mega into that sort of shit?"
Callista gave an undignified snort, which drew some amused looks from the workers.
Religion was a tricky thing, depending on what region you were in. The main religion was a pantheon of nature-based, Pokémon-centred deities, whose branches were far flung depending on which legendary Pokemon you placed particular importance on. For example, in Hoenn, religion was often found at two extreme ends of the same spectrum - most people acknowledged and incorporated the duality of Kyogre and Groudon into their spiritual lives. The idea of one Pokemon being "the most important" wasn't very common - unless you subscribed to the Arceus-ian branch. There had been, when the three were very young, an issue of two cults in Hoenn that pursued the separate Pokemon with such fervency that they almost upended the balance of nature...but that was a fluke. For the most part, religion was free-flowing and adaptable. In Johto, for example, you could still find roadside shrines to Ho-Oh or Lugia - in more modern Unova, you were better off looking for the modest churches nestled in the bigger cities.
In Unova, religion tended to be an emphasis on duality - duality in nature and technology, duality in people and Pokemon, even duality in the black and white Pokemon of children's legends and religious stories. Nicholas had been raised by a fairly religious family, but his view on religion itself varied. Callista had never really brought it up in conversation (and it wasn't a conversation they were often having among the three of them!), and while Beatrice was superstitious bordering on anxiety (if Nicholas had a nickel for every time she had knocked on wood...), her views on religion had never been that nice.
So the only favourable reason Callista could see for Beatrice wanting to go to a revival tent was for a bit of kitsch and to probably mock it. Beatrice really liked mocking things.
Almost as if Beatrice could hear what she was thinking, the curly-haired girl was giving her an offended look, which only made Callista laugh harder.
"We should go," she said finally. "I want to see what Beatrice makes of this."
"You're so rude!" Beatrice snickered, looking over at her fondly, but with a bit of worry - Callista could tell her thoughts were still back to this morning.
"Uh, first we should probably figure out where we are." Nicholas spoke up. "Bee, did you look at the map?"
"Huh? Yeah." Beatrice smoothed it out. "Guy says we're here." she jabbed a finger into the map, about a quarter of the way up the route.
"He says it'll take about an hour to get to Nimbasa, about forty-five minutes to Desert Resort. That's where this miracle tent is or whatever."
"An hour?" Callista looked stricken.
"They've got some stuff for sale." Beatrice suggested. "Goggles and hats and shit."
They perused the little shop hastily set up in the corner by one of the workers - the stuff they were selling was ridiculously overpriced, Callista was pretty sure she could get most of this for much cheaper in the side streets of Castelia - but she supposed it was their own fault for not anticipating the weather. Route 4 was known for quick, but frequent, sandstorms, and farther north rainstorms were known to wreak havoc on hikers. As far as Callista knew, they hadn't even brought an umbrella!
Beatrice ended up buying a pair of goggles, while Nicholas fashioned his own out of a scarf and his sunglasses. After thanking the workers, they braved the desert once more.
Luckily, they had a brief reprieve for twenty minutes when the sandstorm died down - without the swirling sand it wasn't as disorientating, and someone had tacked up helpful, metal signs to direct them.
"So we doing this?" Beatrice asked as they came to a fork in the road - left to the Desert Resort and right to Nimbasa City. A flyer had been tacked on the Desert Resort sign, touting the Miracle Tent, but it had been badly damaged by the frequent storms.
"Why not?" Callista shrugged - to be honest, she had a bit of a headache, and ever since they had left the construction building her stomach had knotted up, like she was expecting something bad to happen - but both Nicholas and Beatrice seemed interested so she didn't want to spoil anything.
The Desert Resort was almost sheltered from the true viciousness of the storm - they were surrounded by looming cliffs that boxed the area in. Nicholas hoped they'd linger enough to visit the Relic Castle; he had read about it in his research and it would nice to see it in person, if only for a moment.
It was pretty hard to miss this 'Miracle Tent' - it was huge and white against the dark cliffs, pristine despite all the sand. There were large, heavy-duty trucks parked behind it, like everything had just been set up. A hastily erected tarp over the front entrance allowed visitors to brush themselves off and remove their headwear before entering.
Speaking of visitors...
"Where did all these people come from?" Callista asked.
Beatrice was squinting through her ridiculous goggles. For one, there were a lot of people, like a whole busload had arrived just for this tent. Callista knew the Desert Resort was popular with tourists but...they were all dressed like they were going to a fancy dinner party. The men were wearing suits, the women in modest skirts and blouses. They definitely weren't here to visit the relics!
The trio hesitated for a second, aware of their dusty jeans and large, obnoxious backpacks.
"Okay, let's get this show on the road!" Beatrice finally announced, adding, "Or, let's at least get out of this fucking sand."
There was a rosy-cheeked, curly-haired girl at the entrance in a clean, pressed dress, with a big, genuine smile and a donations basket - she seemed unaware of the masses of people filing past her into the tent, nodding and smiling at random, ill-timed intervals. Beatrice, dusty rings around her eyes from her goggles, fished laboriously in her pocket for a spare coin, and Nicholas met the girl's eyes with a smile as he dropped in his contribution. She looked dazed, like she'd just run into a wall and was trying to regain understanding of her environment. Her smile was big and tight against her teeth, and there was a bit of lipstick on one of the front ones.
Wicker chairs were set up in rows, under the faint light of fairy lights, strung up in the recesses of the tent's arching ceiling. Up front, a simple wooden stage had been erected, complete with podium. Beatrice sat down in a chair immediately, propping her feet up on the the chair legs in front of her. Callista followed, eyes trained on the overhead lights. They reflected in her eyes, and for a moment she looked lost. Hands stuffed in her jacket pockets, her right fist visibly clenched and unclenched under the light fabric, like she was gripping something in her hand.
Nicholas sat down next to a modestly dressed, middle-aged woman with carefully styled hair.
"Hello, dear." she said to him. "First time?"
"What?" Nicholas asked, puzzled. Then: "Oh, yes. We're just passing through. Is this...?"
"Where miracles happen." the woman finished for him, confidently. Her eyes were crinkled in a perpetual smile, her lips carefully painted. "You'll see, dear." she turned her face back up front, leaving Nicholas speechless.
There were still people milling around at the back of the tent, talking in happy, yet subdued voices, and after a few moments Beatrice got up and shuffled past Nicholas, leaving her backpack under her chair and her coat draped over the back. Callista watched her move through the crowd of people to the front of the tent, aimlessly, and after a moment she followed. Nicholas remained as the woman began to chat with him.
There was a little card table set up near the smiling girl and her donation basket. There were two little figurines of Reshiram and Zekrom, who beadily watched over their collection of brochures and pamphlets. Callista picked over them - there was one advertising tours of the Relic ruins; another was asking for donations and support to fix up Dragonspiral Tower. One was simply a stiff piece of white paper, headlined by a pale, aquamarine "P". Under it was a toll-free number
'Worried? Unsure of your place in the world?' it said. '24/7 hotline...call and find out where you belong. Experience the miracles'.
"Sisters." the voice was so close that Callista jumped, but when she turned she saw only the back of a man's head as he spoke to Beatrice. He looked young, in a smart suit, with pale hair. Callista felt a strange thrumming of unease.
"You should take a seat - I am about to begin." he was saying, putting a hand on Beatrice's elbow, to which the girl looked affronted
"Yes sir." Beatrice replied sarcastically, and the man left, weaving through the crowd of people effortlessly, like he had experienced this before. Callista craned her neck to catch another glimpse of the man, though the crowd blocked his face.
"Did you..." she began to ask, but seemed to think better of it, leaving Beatrice frowning and confused.
Nevertheless, the two of them moved back to their seats along with the rest of the crowd - surveying the tent, Callista saw it was packed. There weren't enough chairs and people had taken up standing at the back. There were a couple people eyeing their empty chairs when they got back, and the two of them hurried to sit down as someone turned off most of the fairy lights, leaving them waiting in a stuffy, dim tent. Callista could faintly hear the howl of the wind outside the tent and over on the other side of the tent a baby had started to fuss.
"Brothers and sisters!" the man raised his arms, face openly radiant and full of awe - he was standing behind the podium, comfortable in his role as orator.
"Pray with me - we are blessed every day, brothers and sisters, every day we are allowed to walk upon this Earth."
"We are blessed." the crowd murmured, steadfastly, and Nicholas looked around with caution.
Beside him, Callista had gone absolutely still; after a moment, she sunk in her seat, obscured from view by the tall man in front of her. Beatrice looked over, confused. At the same time, the man up front looked in their direction, sharply, as if someone had shouted something. Then, he smiled, and under the weak fairy lights his teeth gleamed a sickly colour.
"We are dealing with miracles, ladies and gentlemen." he announced. "Every day we come in contact with miracles, whether we know it or not. They work through regular people, give us opportunities to worship them, acknowledge them, know them. We live in a time of miracles."
"We live in a time of miracles." the crowd repeated.
Leaning over a still tense Callista, Beatrice muttered to Nicholas, "Okay, I changed my mind...I never want to go to a revival tent ever again."
"No doubt." Nicholas muttered back, before the man was clapping, sharply.
"My name is Paarce." he announced. "And I believe we live in the time of miracles. I was lowly, and now I am blessed. I have been blessed, brothers and sisters, with a gift, which has been given to me by the gods I now implore you to look towards. I will prove this to you, today, so that you may see my miracles."
"Miracles." came the slow chant, ebbing and flowing like a slow, suckling tide. Everyone in the tent rose to their feet, and reluctantly the trio followed suit. Callista was still hunched, with a terrified frozen look on her face.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Beatrice hissed to her friend, as Paarce raised his hands.
"Come, testify. Show me your worst burdens, and I will show you that our lords can set you free." he began to sway, wildly, as if gripped in some sort of euphoria.
"That's the man that was in my bedroom!" Callista squeaked, under her friends' worried eyes. "He - he was arrested! I don't understand - "
"Sister!" Paarce was pointing off into the mass of swaying bodies. "I see you are in need of a miracle."
"Yes." the word was sobbed, and a pitiful figure began climbing the short steps of the podium, accompanied by a silent, concerned Simipour. The woman looked young, yet hunched. As she turned her face fully towards the audience, Nicholas bit back the urge to recoil: one side of her face was horribly scarred and burned, as if she'd been in an accident.
"Sister, you look to be in pain." Paarce's tone was saccharine sweetness, and he took the lady's hand, guiding her into the centre of the stage.
"There was a fire." her voice was a whisper, but the crowd had grown hushed - her words traveled, clearly, over the tent's occupants. "When I was very young. My lungs are shriveled, every day is agony."
"Wow, good makeup job." Beatrice, ever the blunt disbeliever, muttered under her breath - the kindly lady by Nicholas shot her an offended look. Nicholas sunk lower in his seat.
Paarce nodded, kindly. "If you'll pray with me, brothers and sisters." he implored. "Show this woman she is not alone! Show her that through our faith, we can achieve all that our lords set before us!"
"Achieve, achieve!" it was a chant started by few, but taken up by the whole tent - Nicholas found himself mouthing along, found himself clasping the kindly lady's hand and raising it up towards the sky.
By his side, Callista was watching the man, Paarce, intently - only she saw the way his hand glowed, like he was holding a little blue light in his hand; he stroked it quickly over the side of the lady's face, down over her shoulder and across her arm. Her Simipour began to exclaim, beating its little fists against the wooden podium, in either an outcry of worry or fear.
The lady doubled over, arms clenched around her stomach, and there was a gasp - Callista's mouth hung open.
As the woman raised herself, her fingers splayed, disbelievingly, over the once-burnt side of her face. At Paarce's insistence, she lowered her hand to reveal smooth, untouched skin. There was no evidence of any scarring, the skin unpuckered. Undeterred, the lady began to feel across her face, dark brown eyes wide with absolute surprise.
"It's gone!" she choked. "I don't...I don't understand - !"
"You have been spared." Paarce said lowly, though his voice was heard by everyone. "You have been granted a miracle, sister."
The woman flung herself to her knees, her Simipour worrying around her.
"Praise be to them!" she wailed, genuine tears streaming down her face. "Praise be to Reshiram, and Zekrom!"
Nicholas looked at Beatrice - his friend's face had gone slack with disbelief.
"No way!" she declared, loudly, as the audience broke into shouts, hollers, and applause. "There is no way!"
The woman, still sobbing, was helped off the stage and down the aisle by what Callista could only assume were her friends; people reached out their hands to touch her as she passed, as if she could bring them good luck.
Paarce raised his hands, waiting for the noise to die down.
"I must share something with you, brothers and sisters." he announced. "When I was young, I followed the words of a very wise man. This man connected with the gods in a way I was previously ignorant to. And now he is dead, but through him I am able to continue his miracles.
"Perhaps you have heard of him," Paarce surveyed his rapt audience, with a little smile. "His name is Ghetsis."
There was an outburst of murmurs among several members of the audience, and the three of them sat, stunned.
Nicholas obviously recognized the name - you'd be hard-pressed to find someone in Unova who didn't. Ghetsis had been the leader of Team Plasma, whose son had originally summoned the dragon Pokémon when Nicholas was thirteen; he had emerged two years later, attempting to raise another legendary Pokémon. Nicholas knew him only as a tyrant, an insane man who had twice attempted to seize power in Unova. Looking over, he saw the woman beside him was calm, nodding along to Paarce's words like she'd heard them before - indeed, most of the audience members looked like they were regular patrons, swaying and nodding, totally serene; there were only a few faces that registered shock at Paarce's words.
Paarce was unperturbed.
"Many of you, I'm sure, only know his name connected with negative terms." he continued, firmly, "But he is responsible for the miracles you saw before you today!"
"Oh, fuck, is he seriously - " Beatrice was hissing in Callista's ear, and Nicholas had reached across to fasten a hand on her forearm as she began to raise her voice.
"Ghetsis had contact with Reshiram and Zekrom during his lifetime," Paarce continued. "And in the afterlife he continues to deliver us miracles. I ask you all to direct your thanks and your prayers to Ghetsis...so that he may continue to heal us and guide us in our life, under the direction of Zekrom and Reshiram."
"Thank you, Ghetsis." the collective murmur was strong, and Nicholas and Callista exchanged horrified look as the name of a madman was taken up as a prayer.
"Oh good fucking almighty..." Beatrice was squeezing the arms of her wicker chair, incredulous and furious all in one. Her father had had one of his Pokémon taken away from him by a member of Team Plasma when she was young - he had never gotten it back, and this open adoration for the man responsible for it hit close to home for her. Callista added her hand to Nicholas' squeeze, trying to express her apologies and comfort. Beatrice contented herself with seething in her seat, eyebrows drawn low.
The performance trickled off after that - Paarce continued to preach, but after the miraculous healing nothing could really hold the audience's interest like before. After it ended, a crowd swelled around the preacher to express admiration, thanks, and a plea for similar treatment; but as far as Callista could see, Paarce looked drained, and brushed off their requests politely, but firmly. There were a couple large men in matching uniforms - security, probably - that hovered around the podium, in case things got violent. Most of the people who attended this session just looked sad, Callista figured. Sad and hopeful for something that Paarce could give them - and by the looks of it, he could give them a lot.
She thought back to the blue glow on Paarce's palm, with a sense of looming dread, and busied herself with pulling on her jacket - after meeting her home invader, she didn't want to stick around, and began to wrap herself in her scarf again. Beatrice was emptying sand out of her goggles, while Nicholas shook the kindly lady's hand.
"Callista." her name, hummed in that voice, with that smug, simpering tone, made Callista's insides freeze.
Beside her, Beatrice grabbed her arm defensively as she swiveled to take in Paarce, his forehead shiny with sweat, fixing the sleeves of his suit jacket; his adoring crowd had dissipated, some hovering near the entrance of the tent, but most had left to brave the storm. Some workers were beginning to pack up the podium.
Paarce was smiling, serenely, like he hadn't previously been arrested for breaking into her house. "You came to see me. I'm so happy."
"How..." Callista mouthed faintly, willing words to come to her.
"Nice performance, dude." Beatrice sneered, though it was a little subdued - Paarce had that same weird, magnetic energy that had surrounded him during his preaching. He looked flushed from exertion but also from a strange sort of power. Callista felt like fleeing. "So is this an ironic sort of hipster revival, or are you legitimately preaching some sorta new religion?"
Paarce spread his palms with a sharp edge to his smile. "I only wish to spread the truth." he replied, demurely.
Beatrice snorted at that, and the edge to Paarce's smile grew sharper.
"It disappoints me to know you associate with such a low caliber of people, Callista." his voice was soft, dangerous, and he ignored Beatrice's affronted noise. Callista was vaguely aware she was shivering, with her hands in her pockets, clenching onto the rock.
Paarce caught the motion and cocked his head.
"So you brought it all the way here?" he wondered. "What a good girl you are. Give it to me."
His hands were still spread, greedily, and Beatrice snapped, "Hey, fuck off, okay? We'll call the police on your ass - pretty sure you're supposed to be in jail right now."
Her raised voice had caught the attention of some of the security standing around; Paarce looked unaffected, and Callista tugged on her friend's sleeve.
"Cut it out." she ground out.
"It's so good to see you again." Paarce addressed her again, ignoring Beatrice. "I was almost afraid you'd forgotten about me."
Callista scowled. "You broke into my house." she intoned.
"Let me make it up to you." Paarce moved closer with a smile, and Callista couldn't help herself; she took a step backwards, unable to hide her fear.
"You can make it up to me by never coming near me again." she snapped, firmly; Beatrice looked satisfied by this outburst.
"Yeah, dude, we're out. Thanks for a ridiculously terrible shit show." she told the preacher, who frowned.
"We're not done here." he warned, his eyes locked on Callista's. Nicholas and Beatrice stepped between them, in unison.
"Yeah, you are, or I'mma knock you out." Beatrice warned, though even she seemed spooked by Paarce's weird energy - the four of them knew that the threat carried little weight. Paarce merely smiled.
"Bless you." he told them, raising his hands in some sort of a prayer. "May you travel safe until we meet again."
"Don't count on it!" Beatrice squawked, and began tugging Callista away; she followed, gladly, not daring to look back at the criminal preacher.
Nicholas did look back, though, and when he saw Paarce speaking quietly with a member of his security force, he murmured, "Guys, we should probably get out of here quickly."
"You don't have to tell me twice." Callista stammered.
"Word." Beatrice agreed.
"Did you enjoy the show?" a slight, red-headed girl chirped at them, as they paused briefly under the tarp to gather their things.
Beatrice shot her a scowl. "Yeah, had a great fucking time."
"Good!" the girl grinned, without a trace of sarcasm. "See you again soon!"
Beatrice snorted. "Not likely." she muttered, and the three of them took off into the storm.
Only once did Callista look back - by this time the swirling sand made it hard to see the outline of the tent entrance, but she was pretty sure she saw Paarce at the entrance, watching them leave. At his side was a dark, four-legged Pokémon, flicking its tail in the air.
"Hey, you're looking all sick again." Beatrice spoke up, worried, craning her head over her shoulder to follow Callista's gaze.
"Let's just get as far away from here as possible." Callista replied.
After a moment, she reached into her pocket to squeeze the rock tightly in her fist, like she thought it would help.
It didn't.
END CHAPTER FOUR
Author's Note: My friend and I think we should just rename this story to, "You Should Be Worried About Callista". Packs a better punch