Chapter 5

"Ahhh!" I screamed "It hurts! Ahhh!"

"Hold him down, keep him from thrashing around too much!" Anubis commanded "What's going on?! Nobody else was this violent!"

"Ahhh!" I screamed again. My body felt like it was on fire and I had nearly passed out when it started. Anubis, Eona, Lucy, and two other Hybrids I hadn't met came rushing to my aid when Kendal yelled for help. Anubis, with the help of the others, carried me to one of the rooms and got me down on a bed, but my muscles had began to spasm uncontrollably.

"Eona, get his left arm, Lucy his left leg!" Anubis ordered over my cries of agony. "Leon get his right leg!" Anubis's grip moved to my right arm and he held it down. The pain was excruciating, spreading across my chest, down both legs and up my neck. I thought I might have heard bones crack, there were occasional sharp pains in my chest and shoulders. My back arched in pain and my palm opened reflexively, a hand fill my palm and gripped my hand. I clamped down on it as another tremor of pain racked my body. I managed to look over and see that it was Kendal who had taken my hand, she cringed slightly as I squeezed down on it. Her eyes locked with mine and I tried to tell her sorry without saying a word.

"Anubis, his legs!" I heard Lucy yell.

"Arceus, they're already changing." Anubis muttered. My legs were starting to hurt significantly more than the rest of my body now, pain in my chest diminishing slightly. The pain in the left side of my head also stood out. I saw black spots dance in front of my eyes as I let out another scream, tears ran down my cheeks freely. I blinked back the tears to see darkness begin to envelope my vision, the sounds of the world began to die out. My body finally began to succumb to the pain and I blacked out.

"Goodbye old friend." I whispered, tears flowing, to Azrael. "I'm gonna miss you." His now lifeless body was lying peacefully in my lap at the Pokemon Center. It was only a month ago that he was diagnosed with an advanced strain of the Pokerus that was overwhelming his system. Nurse Joy assured that it would be fatal, she hadn't lied. I laid him back down on the examination table and covered him completely with a sheet. I got up from the table and went outside the room, Nurse Joy went in after I left. My phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Yes, Zeke?" The person at the other end replied. "It's Sarah's mom."

"Oh, hello." I said, trying to hide the sadness in my voice. "What can I do for you?"

"Do you know where Sarah is?" She asked.

"No, I haven't heard from her today." I told her. "Why?"

"Well..." She paused "...Zeke she seems to have run away from home."

"What?" I said, exasperated. "Are you sure, maybe she just went to another friends house without telling you."

"No, we already checked with her friends." She explained "You were the last person we needed to check with." I couldn't believe it, she hadn't even said goodbye.

"I... I gotta go." I said, my voice devoid of emotion. I didn't even wait for a reply and I hung up. I walked, not really knowing where I was going, out of the Pokemon Center. How had all this happened? I lost my best friend, to some virus that wasn't even supposed to be fatal, and my girlfriend left, not telling me anything. Those were the last two people in this town who seemed to give a shit about me. I muddled through my thoughts and stopped walking. I found myself at the edge of the a cliff, there was a small bench nearby. I sat down, remembering all the time I spent here. I always sat here and watched the sunset by myself, back before Sarah and I were dating. The first time she really expressed any interest in me was here, we sat and watched the sunset. We shared our first kiss here and spent many afternoons here with each other during the summer months, just watched the sunset together. The sun was setting now, it's red and orange hues painted the sky, but it no longer held the same meaning. It used to be a sight of beauty to me and made my life somewhat enjoyable, but now it was just a horrible sight that dug at my fresh wound. It tore at all the happy memories as if to mock me that I wouldn't have anymore with Sarah. I stood up, filled with sadness, and stared out across the horizon.

I turned my attention downward, to the ground below. I saw the rock slope below me and was presented with a thought, why not jump and end it all. It was at least a four story jump and it would surely bring an end to my sadness. After all, I no longer had a reason to go on. The sudden change in scenery brought my attention back upwards, the sun's light was gone. The full moon and stars replaced the orange light in the sky. I don't know why but it brought me some kind of peace. If the moon was able to make its way across the sky each night without anything else, why couldn't I go on on my own? So I stepped away from the edge and let the blackness of night consume me as I walked home.

My eyes snapped open. I wondered when I might get a semi-happy dream. I didn't move, my body was sore and something felt off. I caught slight movement, out of the corner of my eye. I slowly rotated my head, I saw Kendal sitting in a chair in the room. She wasn't looking at me, she was wringing her right hand like it was hurt.

"Sorry about that." I whispered, my throat was bone dry from all my screaming. She eyes shot up to meet mine. "How long have I been out?"

"About four hours." She told me, standing up and moving closer. "How you feeling?"

"Sore, confused, kinda scared." I told her. "My tailbone hurts for some reason."

"Oh, that." She said as if she knew why. "I can help, roll over on your side." I complied and rolled over, facing away from her. I heard a drawer open and a tug on my cargo pants, then the sound of scissors cutting something and the pain in my tailbone receded. "There, but I wouldn't roll onto you back now." She said, walking over to the side of the bed I was facing.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Just gave your tail a chance to breath." She explained.

"Wait tail?" I reached around my waist and grabbed onto my new, fluffy tail. Kendal giggled at my reaction.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." She giggled "Lucky for you all the chairs in the mansion are designed for tails, save the couches." She stared at me for a couple of moments.

"So do I look like an Umbreon?" I asked and her smile faded. "What?"

"Well, yes and no." She told me.

"What do you mean?" I questioned. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small mirror from her pocket. She held it up to me and what I saw horrified me. I saw my face, half of it anyway. The other half was that of an Umbreon. The left side of my skull was stretched into a partial muzzle, it made me wonder how my speech wasn't affected. "No, no no no no."

"Calm down, you aren't done with your change yet." She explained, it calmed me down slightly. "Your face should even out by tomorrow, or at least I think."

"You think?" I repeated.

"Well it's weird." She explained "You are progressing faster than me or anyone else did. Normally, to get where you are in the change, it should have taken several weeks."

"Rick said that the stasis tank stopped the virus but now that I was out it would progress faster." I explained "I guess this is what he meant." Kendal nodded. "If I'm still changing why isn't my face killing me?"

"Jace gave you some morphine to dull your pain." Kendal explained. "It helping at all?" My face still had a dull pain but it wasn't bad, must be because of the drugs.

"Yeah it is." I told her. She started wringing her right hand again. "I'm really sorry about that."

"It's alright." She explained, stopping. "I know you didn't mean to. It hurt enough for the two weeks I went through the change. I couldn't imagine going through all that in a manner of hours."

"Yeah, trust me you don't want to endure it." I chuckled. I began coughing because of my still dry throat. "Could I get something to drink." Kendal handed me a glass of water that was already on the nightstand.

"I figured you would need this." She explained "What with all the screaming you did." I blushed; embarrassed, even if I had been in extreme pain, no guy wants to have a girl around when he's screaming his head off. Kendal giggled again, patting me on the shoulder. "You know, I really like that laugh of yours."

"Do you?" She smiled "I'll have to remember that." I chuckled. I had a new life now, maybe it's about time I try giving another girl a chance. I thought to myself. But I'll wait to get to know her better. Kendal yawned.

"You should get some sleep." I told her, also yawning.

"You should too." She giggled again, man I actually did find it rather cute. She walked back over to the chair on the other side of the room and sat down, leaning her head bag and shutting her eyes. Her breaths became deep and even, she was asleep. I stared at her for a few minutes, she was pretty cute. Soon my eyes became heavy.

"Goodnight Kendal." I whispered, before falling asleep. I thought I heard her return the goodnight as the world turned to the blackness of my subconscious.