Disclaimer: Pokémon and its related properties are copyrighted to The Pokémon Company and Nintendo, respectively.


A Yearning for the Mud
Chapter Nine – The Lost Boy

So the darkness shall be the light,
and the stillness the dancing. - T.S. Eliot


Wallace pressed his back to the wall, chest moving in an irregular pattern due to his quickened breaths, as he inched down the second story. He slipped the Poké Ball that contained his newly caught pokémon into his pocket and gave elgyem a fleeting glance over his shoulder.

His speed slowed as he reached the corner that led to the landing strip, before he could think about moving towards the staircase, he heard someone scream again. From his spot, huddled against the corner piece of the wall, Wallace could see the bottom of the stairs and a patch of the first floor's tile.

"No, no, no, please!"

A high and panicked voice caused Wallace to tense and press himself harder to the wall, wishing he could sink into it and vanish from the mansion. In the silence that followed the outcry, Wallace felt his heartbeat vibrating through the wall before something wet splattered against the tile below, red spray against a canvas.

A gushing sound and muffled, wet, coughs drove Wallace from his place at the corner and closer to the stairs in time for him to see Dirk's body fall into view. The boy fell backwards, his hands flying out ahead of him, before his head hit the bottom of stairs with a solid thud. For a moment Drik trembled, his hands twitching towards his throat, a jagged red slash sliced through the flesh like a wicked second smile, before he went still and his eyes lost focus on the ceiling.

Wallace's hands shot to his chest, fists clenched, as every part of him seemed to freeze, yet roar to live with the inching intensity of imminent fear.

"Wallace, I know you're there. Just come down, make it easy."

Wallace steepled his hands over his nose and mouth to keep himself from yelling. Still unable to get control of his breathing, Wallace took in air in panicked and fluttering spurts, his chest and stomach tightening and trembling. The voice that spoke to him didn't sound familiar. It sounded too deep and heavy to belong to Simone or Chara, it didn't sound like Ben and Dirk was...

"Wallace!"

Wallace tensed and, without thought, staggered forward, gripping the banister tightly to support himself. He took each step with a slow and deliberate step, his brown eyes strained ahead to get a look at whoever was below the moment they came into view. As he neared the bottom his eyes flicked to the floor as the blood from from Dirk's throat ran onto the marble. His mind replayed the sound of his own heartbeat over as the sound of Dirk's head hitting the stairs and as the sound of Andrew's head hitting the floor of his foyer, interchangeably.

His grip on the banister tightened as Wallace walked the rest of the way down. With his mind drowning in flashbacks, he was oblivious to the others in the entry.

Ben laid at the base of the stairs, his legs tangled with Dirk's. Wallace looked over his body for only a second, but noted the rise and fall of his chest, the only sign of life he needed at the moment. Simone stood in the center of the entryway, sweat beading across her dark skin and her eyes shut tight.

"S-Simone?" Wallace asked, but he stopped himself from moving forward when his eyes fell to Simone's neck. A stretch of white fabric was pulled taunt around her throat before it loosened and Simone's knees buckled. Her body instantly went limp before she fell into a heap on the floor.

The sound of her body hitting rattled Wallace to his core. He was barely able to comprehend in the sight of Chara standing where Simone was just a moment before, bloody knife in one hand and white rope in the other.

"Chara?"

Chara tossed the knife up and caught it by the handle before she aimed the sharp end at Wallace's head. A mix of relief and confusion flooded Wallace's already cluttered mind. The man who called to him was gone, but it was Chara he found at the bottom surrounded by bodies with a bloodied knife.

"Chara, what did – w-what happened?" Wallace asked, his mind working at a slower pace than his mouth.

"I did what I came here to do," Chara said in that same deep voice Wallace heard from the second floor. "Dirk was my only target, but the other two were tagging along."

"T-Target?" Wallace asked, his brain falling over itself trying to make sense of the words and voice coming from Chara's mouth. "You killed them?"

"Just Dirk," Chara said coolly. "For now."

"W-Why?"

Chara's body doubled over as she let out a high pitched laughed. She threw her head back and sighed before she looked off to the southern wall. "He wants to know why!" Chara pulled her arm back so quickly Wallace didn't have time to react before she hurled the knife directly at him.

In the time it took the knife to reach him Wallace thought about Chara's aim in the sitting room, how she hit the target every time. He was nothing but a target, a stationary target. Wallace clenched his eyes shut and waited for the blow, but seconds ticked by and nothing came.

His mouth fell open as he kept waiting, his ragged and shuddering breaths falling from his mouth before he opened his eyes and found the knife hovering inches from his face. Wallace's eyes scanned the knife, searching for an explanation, before he realized he was staring at the weapon through some kind of lens. Translucent and vibrant purple, an oblong barrier had formed before Wallace and had the knife lodged inside.

Wallace looked over the barrier in disbelief before he craned his head around to his shoulder. Elgyem was standing up, its arms held outwards and all digits on its hands lit up. Its usually wide and inquisitive eyes were narrowed, pinched, in concentration as the barrier began to waver.

"Elgy?" Wallace asked.

Elgyem pushed off from Wallace's shoulder and hovered before its trainer. The barrier slowly shrunk into a tight orb, Chara's knife suspended inside, before elgyem pushed forward and the orb followed suit. In a flash, the orb crossed the room and slammed into Chara, forcing her back against the far wall.

Wallace listened to the sound of fabric tearing as the knife cut across Chara's chest, ripping through the stripes of her sweater, before the orb vanished and the knife clattered to the floor.

"Heheh." Chara straightened up and grabbed at the shredded sides of her sweater, tearing them apart to expose her chest.

Wallace gaped at what lied underneath. Where he expected to find breasts, he found a bare and toned chest, and suddenly Chara's change in voice didn't muddle his mind any longer. "You're a boy," he said, his voice light.

Chara clapped his hands and grinned. "Congratulations," he said before he scooped up the knife.

Wallace didn't wait for Chara to wind up and throw the knife again before he yanked elgyem out of the air and bolted up the stairs. As he climbed the marble steps, two at a time, he registered the sound of Chara's footsteps thudding against the entry floor below before he reached the landing strip.

The house, just a few hours ago, had been a source of aged detail and furnishings, but now Wallace only saw the interior as a blur of colors as his pulse thundered so hard he felt it in the veins of his eyes. He whipped his head left and right, determining which way to go before he tore off down the left hall.

Out of sight from the staircase, Wallace opened the first door he came to and without bothering to check inside, he slammed it shut and slinked off further down the hall. Although he, Neo, and Garret had taken to exploring the house they didn't check everywhere and if there was one thing he was sure of the mansion had a balcony attached somewhere.

Wallace ducked off around a corner that looped to the back of the house in time to hear Chara's footsteps echoing down the hall. He didn't dare peek around the corner, but he strained to hear Chara taking the bait as he opened one of the doors. Wallace crept off down the back hallway, slowly turning doorknobs and peering inside as he went.

The third door he opened revealed a faded white bedroom with two large floor to ceiling windows that looked out onto a balcony, pelted by the downpour. He kept the doorknob twisted and shut the door, making as little noise as possible, before he darted across the room and tried the windows.

His hands fumbled through willowy curtains at the glass before he found another knob on what turned out to be a door. Still focused on the sounds around him, blocking out the rain, Wallace slipped outside and was drenched instantly as white lightning flashed through the grey clouds over the clearing.

Wallace glanced down to elgyem who was attempting to cover itself with its arms when a crack of thunder boomed over the house. Over the deafening sound, Wallace didn't hear the glass doors opening, but he reeled back on the balcony once he saw Chara peeking out from around the door onto the balcony.

"You've cornered yourself, little rat," Chara said, his eyes shining like the knife blade, the silver metal, scarlet with blood.

Wallace's breath hitched in his throat as he rushed forward, his eyes on the half of Chara's body that was still inside the room, and in the glass door's frame. Turning to his side Wallace pushed against the door with all his weight and slammed it up against Chara's shoulder. There was a sickening crack and Chara stumbled back, the force of the impact causing him to drop the knife.

Wallace froze for a moment, in shock his idea worked, as Chara slipped out of the frame and dove for the knife. Wallace lunged over Chara and swiftly kicked the knife away, sending it careening towards the edge of the balcony.

"No!" Chara cried as he stretched his arms out as the knife slid to the edge and slipped between two rail posts. It balanced on the edge for a moment and Chara crawled towards it before it tipped and fell out of sight.

Wallace felt a weight ease off his chest seeing the knife vanish below, but that weight returned when Chara whipped back in his direction, the boy's face twisted with rage. Tangles of his brown hair matted over his forehead and shining eyes, but it was Chara's wicked and jagged smile that caused Wallace's stomach to hollow out.

"No more weapons," Wallace said, his voice trembling.

Chara reached a hand to his waistline and pulled a Poké Ball out, a design Wallace wasn't familiar with. "There are always weapons."

Wallace blanched as Chara chucked the Poké Ball into the air, his voice lost under the clap of thunder, before it broke open. Wallace darted back into the room, a flash, either lightning or the Poké Ball, illuminating him from behind before something heavy landed on the balcony.

As he reached the door, Wallace dared a glance back and found Chara stepping into the room, but it was the massive shadow behind him that panickedw Wallace. Leathery green skin was pulled taunt over a quadruped body that bulged with muscles. Vibrant pink petals, lined in white, sprouted around its neck and long wispy antenna-like strands twitched above its nose. The pokémon lowered its long extended neck as it ducked and stomped through the doorway and into the bedroom. A hollow, but powerful roar came from its mouth as it jutted its neck out to Wallace.

"Elgyem?" Wallace asked, gripping his only pokémon tightly. "D-Do you think we can win?" Wallace looked down to his ally who blinked the red digits on its hands fiercely. Wallace's jaw trembled as he thought about the miniaturized Poké Ball in his pocket, he didn't even know his new pokémon's name, he couldn't ask it to fight, could he?

Chara bent over in laughter and clapped his hands together. "Your own pokémon doesn't even believe in you, perfect! Meganium, use magical leaf!"

Meganium shook its head before the motion moved to the rest of its body, the petals around its neck swaying in turn before small glowing petals floated in the air around it. Wallace gripped elgyem tightly before he backed up and turned to the door, hoping it rip it open and flee, only to find it locked.

"No!" Wallace cried before he looked back.

Meganium roared again and with it commanded the petals. Streaks of green and white light shot across the room, slashing through furniture and the floor before they reached Wallace.

Wallace turned his back to Chara and Meganium and curled over elgyem when the first petal reached him. He cried out as it sliced through the shirt on his back, cutting through the skin on his shoulder like fire. Expecting the petals that came after to hurt less, Wallace braced himself for the pain, but each petal cut him like the first: clean and white-hot. Each one erupted a starburst of pain across his back before the petals slowed to a stop.

Wallace shuddered in pain as he pried his wet eyes open. Several petals had stuck into the door before him, thin as paper, but sharp like blades on their edges. "Ahh!" Wallace cried as he uncoiled from around elgyem, his shoulders were screaming, but a deeper pain crippled him. As he looked over his shoulder Wallace spotted a large petal, at least the size of his hand, sticking out of his shoulder.

Tears streamed down his face as he reached back and plucked the petal out. A mix of pain and relief flooding his senses as he dropped the bloody petal to the floor. "Are you okay?" he asked through choking sobs, his eyes filled with tears as he looked down to elgyem.

Elgyem nodded, its eyes glassy and wide with concern as it reached up and touched its hands to Wallace's slick cheeks. "Elgy..."

Wallace focused on elgyem's eyes and heard Chara's voice behind him growing fainter before the floor beneath him changed. In a flash of light the dusty white carpet of the bedroom had vanished and was replaced by the marshy earth of the yard outside the mansion.

Wallace looked up and found himself kneeling before the tree with names carved into it. "Elgyem, did you?"

Elgyem nodded and blinked the lights on its hands in a pattern.

"Thank you," Wallace said as he relaxed his bleeding and tense shoulders. The cold rainfall felt like sweet relief to his burning flesh, but the pain still throbbed through his body every second.

Suddenly, a pair of hands came down on his shoulders.

Wallace yelped, out of fright and out of pain, as the hands clamped down over his wounds. "GET OFF!" he cried as he fell forward onto the swampy ground. He rolled over, careful to stay off his back, and found Eleanor standing over him.

"Oh!" Eleanor was slack jawed and staring at her hands, lined with Wallace's blood. "Wallace, what – oh my – are you – are you bleeding?"

"Help me," Wallace said through gritted teeth as he scurried back against the tree, the bark grinding against his open wounds caused him to hiss out air through his teeth.

"What?" Eleanor asked as she crouched before Wallace. "What's wrong?"

"That maniac inside, he killed someone!" Wallace yelped as he weakly lifted an arm and pointed to the house.

"Killed?! What? Wallace, I came back to find you!" Eleanor said. "Why are you bleeding, who killed who? I'm so confused!"

"Wallace!"

Wallace's eyes snapped to the front of the house where Chara stood, Meganium stomping wildly behind him. "It's him!" he whimpered, struggling to get his feet under him.

Eleanor turned as Chara and Meganium stomped across the yard. "Oh my, Chara, w-what's happening?"

"It's kind of like a game of meowth chasing pikachu, are you up for playing?" Chara asked. "If not move and let me kill that one!"

"Dirk, that boy Dirk, he killed him," Wallace said. "Simone and Ben are inside too."

"Chara, what did you do?" Eleanor asked, her hand slowly inching to her waist.

Chara brought a hand to his neck and dragged it across his throat while he made a sickening slicing sound. "Hahaha! And you're next. Meganium, grass knot!"

Meganium roared and the petals the haloed its neck shimmered for a brief moment before the grass beneath Eleanor bloomed in full force and ensnared her legs. Eleanor shrieked and struggled to pull herself free, only for the grass to snake further up her legs and cover her knees.

Wallace listened to the mixed cry of Eleanor and Chara's maniacal laughter before Eleanor hurled something, a Poké Ball he guessed, into the air.

The light from the Poké Ball was muted in the rain, but what emerged struck the ground with force and completely blocked Wallace's view of Chara. It was larger than Meganium, with a blood orange pelt crossed with black stripes that looked like char markings from a fire. Its body rippled with muscles that tensed and flexed as its massive haunches moved to find stable footing on the marshy ground. Plumes of fluffy tan fur stuck out around its limbs and its tail which was crooked and bent down over itself.

"Krakaota, flamethrower!"

A bark, one that rivaled the boom of thunder, came from the pokémon's mouth before licks of fire shot out towards Eleanor. Despite the rain, Wallace picked up the distinct smell of grass burning before Eleanor came to stand beside the massive four-legged pokémon, easily dwarfed by its size. The pokémon turned and glanced down to Eleanor, who reached up and ran her hand up and down its snout. Wallace watched as its large eyes clamped shut and its snout crinkle as it bared its massive and curved fangs.

"Use sunny day, please," Eleanor said as she backed away from the quadruped.

Krakaota barked loudly at Eleanor before it raised its head to the sky, a glint of light forming in its mouth. Wallace watched as beams of searing light passed through the gaps in the pokémon's teeth before it opened its massive jaws and roared.

Wallace shielded his eyes as a ray of white light shot from the pokémon's mouth and into the sky. The light separated and exploded just as it reached the mantle of heavy grey clouds. The light from Krakaota's attack shattered across the firmament, fading the storm clouds into ones like white lace that Wallace had seen upon arrival to the island. The clouds swayed and parted in the middle of the sky above the clearing as the sun seemed to be renewed for a second wind.

Wallace felt the rain on his skin drying quickly, but the relief of warmth quickly turned into searing heat as the patches of his skin not protected by shade burned white hot. "Ahh!" Wallace yelped as he scooted back under the shade of the tree. Rays of sun were clearly visible, even in the harsh light Krakaota created, and phased across the clearing, illuminating Eleanor and Chara who stood beside their respective pokémon.

"The sunlight can only help me." Chara held his arms out to the side, as if he was still expecting rain to fall. "Meganium, use solar beam."

"Krakaota, extremespeed!" Eleanor said meekly as she pointed to the floral pokémon whose petals were glimmering.

Krakaota let out a threatening bark before its black and pointed claws jutted out from its paws. Wallace watched as the large pokémon's body was there before him in one second, and the next gone. A blur of orange sailed across Wallace's vision and struck Meganium.

Krakaota appeared, standing over Meganium as it reeled back from the strike and collapsed onto its back awkwardly. Krakaota raised one of its massive paws and slammed it down onto middle of Meganium's neck. The floral pokémon squirmed under the larger pokémon's weight, but was unable to roll its body to get back on its feet.

"Fire!" Chara cried out. "Blast arcanine's head off!"

The petals around Meganium's neck continued to glint with the absorption of sunlight before Meganium opened its mouth wide, aimed up at Krakaota.

Wallace watched a white ball of light gather and concentrate above Meganium's mouth, growing larger with each passing second. Just when it seemed the ball wouldn't expand any more, Krakaota's paw shifted and came swiftly down onto the side of Meganium's face. Meganium let out a pained wail as its head smacked the ground and the orb in its mouth fired.

A precise white ray of concentrated light shot from Meganium's mouth and fired off into the wooded around that surrounded them. Wallace listened to trees falling and stone being cleaved in the distance before the solar beam died down.

"Meganium, quick, use grass knot!" Chara commanded, hands clenched over his ears.

Megnium cried out as spots of the high grass in the field focused around Krakaota and began to bind its massive legs. Krakaota released Meganium and reared back on its hing legs, its body casting a long shadow across the clearing, as more of the grass and vines around them constricted its body. Krakaota thrashed from side to side, a snarling ball of fur and muscle, as it bared its fangs and gnawed through the coating of grass on its body.

Eleanor let out a piercing, terrified scream. Wallace tore his eyes from the sight of Krakaota burning away the strips of grass as its teeth became cloaked in fire, and saw Chara sprinting across the clearing for Eleanor. The guide reached for her waistline and fumbled at a string of Poké Balls there, but Chara wasted no time, instead he charged full speed for her.

"Elgyem, do the thing again!" Wallace yelled.

Elgyem lazily floated into the air before Wallace, its arms raised, and the lights on its hands blinking quickly. Wallace peered around the pokémon's small body in time to see a glint of purple light flash between Chara and Eleanor. The light flashed again before it spread into wall, a barrier, that Chara slammed directly into.

Wallace bit into his lip as he smiled, oddly pleased to see Chara falling back horizontally and vanishing under the high grass. He looked back to the pokémon as they parted, Meganium back on its feet and Krakaota free from the grass knot. Meganium hung its head at an odd angle that brought Wallace's attention to a gash across its flesh from Krakaota's claws.

Eleanor screamed again and Wallace split his attention to see Chara lunging out of the grass at the girl. Krakaota saw it too, and in its momentary distraction, Meganium attacked. The seconds it took Krakaota to turn to Eleanor, Meganium's petals drew in more of the harsh sunlight and it wasted no time in gathering light in its mouth before it fired point blank at Krakaota.

The light struck Krakaota's side, just under its arm, knocking the large pokémon off its feet and sending it tumbling towards the mansion. Krakaota writhed in mid-air, attempting to flip, but slammed onto the ground on its back. As Krakaota attempted to right itself as Meganium charged, its steps like booms of thunder under the earth.

Krakaota managed to get its feet underneath it just in time for Meganium to slam into it. The pokémon's long neck curled in as a ram that connected to Krakaota's chest and sent the quadruped reeling back into the mansion's side.

Meganium charged in again, but Krakaota's hind legs slapped the ground and it threw itself at the floral pokémon, its fangs curved like blades. Meganium veered right to avoid Krakaota, but it moved too slow for the giant beast whose jaws closed down around Meganium's neck.

Wallace flinched at the sound of a loud and grinding crunch before Meganium let go of a high, eerily human cry, and then it was flailing. Krakaota had a solid bite on its neck and was shaking its head, swinging Meganium's head around like a toy as it pressed down on its body with its paw, slowly bringing the pokémon to the ground.

Meganium continued to cry out as Wallace watched its body leave the ground. Krakaota, using all of its massive strength, pulled Meganium up by its neck and began to thrash the helpless pokémon around, using its own weight against it. Krakaota's jaws opened and Meganium soared across the clearing and smashed into a tree.

Wallace cringed at the sickening sound Meganium's back made upon contact and at the mad look in Krakaota's eyes as it darted across the clearing after its prey. Krakaota hovered over Meganium's form before it bit down, its jaws clamping over Meganium's neck before it gave a quick yank back, ripping off a chunk of Meganium's neck.

Krakaota dropped a chunk of flesh before it bit down again and Wallace listened to the snap of bone and a deep ripping sound before Meganium let out a deep cry.

Wallace watched in horror as Krakaota scratched at the fallen pokémon, nudging it with its paws and nose before it placed both paws on its body. Wallace thought, foolishly, for a second that it might try to rouse the floral pokémon, instead Krakaota pounced up and down on Meganium's body. A series of popping sounds burst across the clearing as Krakaota crushed Meganium's body under its weight.

Eleanor screamed again and Wallace had to tear himself away from the malice to see Chara plow into Eleanor. Eleanor's arms flew back as she was knocked off her feet and Chara lunged over her.

Wallace grunted as he pushed himself to his feet, blocking out the throbs of shooting pain in his back, before he darted across the clearing. He stopped short of the grass where Chara and Eleanor had fallen, their bodies a tangle of limbs. The shredded front of Chara's sweater swiped across Eleanor's face as she thrashed, whimpering, trying to bat her way free.

Chara's head snapped to the side, his eyes locking in on Wallace, before he reached to his waistline and pulled forth another knife, just as sharp and dangerous as the first.

"No!" Eleanor screamed, her voice cracking, as the sunlight glinted off the knife.

Wallace stood frozen to his spot as Chara dragged the tip of the knife down Eleanor's cheek. A thin dribbling line of bright red blood followed the blade as Chara pulled away close to her ear. Eleanor never stopped screaming, her body thrashing wildly in the matted down grass. The veins in her neck bulged and her face burned as red as her blood as Chara repositioned the knife over her other cheek.

Wallace watched as one second Chara angled the knife against Eleanor's tanned skin, and the next he was gone, blown off her body by a large orange blur.

A glint of metal, the knife, cartwheeled through the air before it vanished into the grass. Krakaota had slammed into Chara, the blow knocked the boy several feet away onto his back, struggling under Krakaota's massive paw.

Wallace listened to Chara's grunting cries as he tried to squeeze away from the arcanine. Krakaota lowered its head, breathing out a huff of air into Chara's face as it snapped at the boy's face, its teeth clashing together.

"Stupid mutt!" Chara spat before he rammed the heel of his palm into the pokémon's jaw.

Krakaota yelped as he reeled back, its hold on Chara slackening for a moment. Chara wasted no time in getting to his feet just as Krakaota came back down on all fours, snarling at the boy. Chara whirled back and let loose a quick backhand to the pokémon's jaw, a solid and loud crack.

Krakaota seemed only momentarily phased by the blow, but Chara doubled over his hand and began backing away from the beast. Wallace watched as Krakaota flashed its bloody teeth at Chara before a flash of red shot across the clearing and struck it. Eleanor's pokémon froze in place, moments away from devouring Chara, before it was recalled to Eleanor who was standing, one hand pressed to her cheek, slick with blood.

"A-Are you okay?" Eleanor asked weakly, as she stumbled forward. Her eyes fell to her hand as she pulled it from her cheek, still gushing blood. "I don't think I am –"

Wallace watched as Eleanor's entire body buckled, like a puppet whose strings had been severed, she crumbled, knees first, into the grass of the clearing.

Wallace wavered in his spot, wanting to check Eleanor, but his eyes fell across the clearing to Chara who popped back up from his place in the grass. Wallace's eyes fell to Chara's hand, the knife clutched firmly in it. Wallace watched the boy's murderous eyes as they darted between Wallace and the fallen Eleanor before he took off from his spot, heading straight for Eleanor.

"Elgyem!" Wallace cried as he took off, much slower than Chara, also heading for Eleanor.

Through the corner of his eye, Wallace watched elgyem flashing across the clearing, closing the distance to Eleanor faster either he or Chara were. In one final glitch, elgyem rested above Eleanor's back, its stubby arms touching down on her shoulders.

Wallace pumped his legs faster as he watched Chara practically leaping through the tall grass towards Eleanor. In one final ditch effort to reach her first, Wallace threw himself forward and soared across the clearing, landing just feet from Eleanor's still form.

Listening to Chara's feet crunch through the grass, Wallace crawled forward just enough to reach out and lay his hand on Eleanor's shoulder.

For a brief second Wallace felt weightless as the sound of Chara's breathing neared him, but then instantly grew fainter. The rough and scratchy grass of the clearing was replaced by the shifting and fine feeling of 0 0 00sand as the three of them reemerged on the island's beach.

Wallace found himself staring up at the silver grey hull of one of the motor boats that had brought them to the safari zone and a salmon pink sky. Faces popped out over the edge of the boat, Neo and Garret were among them, all staring down at Wallace and Eleanor with curious eyes.

Wallace tried to lift his head to speak, but his mouth was gummy and his head felt like it weighted a ton. Voices started up around him and melted into one long hum in his ears as the beach faded to black.


Wallace woke to white. His surroundings were pristine, white walls that bounced sunlight around as if the walls were made of mirrors. A lone window sat in the center of the wall behind him, bursting through with sunlight. The room smelled clean, like bleach and linen air spray. His hands spread and clenched at the down bedding beneath him. His movements must have startled someone because from the far corner Wallace heard a soft gasp before something fell and clattered against metal.

The room was small, barely big enough for the bed, a table, a stool, and a row of counters that were attached to the wall opposite Wallace. A door, placed in the center of the adjacent wall, opened and a woman with a bun of tightly coiled light red hair stepped in.

"Good morning, Wallace," she said, her voice the kind you heard in commercials for children.

"G-Good morning, Nurse Joie."

Wallace craned his neck back to find a familiar face hiding in the corner. Arlette, the girl he'd met in Camphrier Town, was in the room, struggling to gather up fallen supplies off the table. She was dressed in overalls and a long white coat with a red banana tied awkwardly over her head.

The nurse, wearing a light pink dress and a white coat to match Arlette's, smiled as she approached the bed. "Hi, Wallace. I'm Anna Joie, the on-site nurse for the university. You're in our Health and Wellness Center right now."

"How'd I get here?" Wallace asked, his throat dry and scratchy.

"You were brought in last night on a boat returning from the safari tour," Anna said as she reached past Wallace and came back with a large blue plastic cup with a straw sticking out the top. "Do you remember any of that?"

Wallace eyed the nurse as she guided the straw to his mouth, but clamped his eyes shut the moment the ice cold water hit his tongue. The water chilled his mouth and seemed to put him back at ease as the fog of his mind lifted. "I remember being on the island, running," he said before clearing his throat.

The nurse nodded to Wallace before she looked to Arlette. "Students and the other guides took you and one of our upperclassmen, Eleanor, into the boat and brought you back after they realized the two of you were injured," she said.

Wallace shifted on his back as the memory of Chara and his Meganium flashed back in his mind. There wasn't any pain, but he could still feel the slice of Meganium's petals through his back. "Chara," he said softly.

Anna nodded and regarded him with a small, sad, smile. "Our department of public safety is looking into Chara and what happened on the island. They'll be by later to speak with you." Anna rubbed her hands across her knees before she stood and looked to Arlette. "Until then, we've patched you up. Thankfully your injuries weren't severe and all it took was ointment and some bandages, but you'll be fine. You're welcome to leave whenever you feel up to it. Just make sure to check out at the front desk."

Wallace nodded with a smile as Anna left and the silence filled the room again as he looked back to Arlette. "Hi," he said. "I remember you. We met in the Hotel Camphrier," Wallace said as he scooted up into a half sitting, half leaning, position. "Arlette, right?"

Arlette bobbed her head as she fingered back a strand of hair and retreated further back into the corner behind the table. "I'm sorry. I-I don't remember you," she said, sounding ashamed.

Wallace frowned before he remembered he looked a little different the last time they met. "I changed my hair a little bit," he said as he took off his glasses and found the room to be hazy and blurred.

"Oh. You're that Wallace." she said.

Wallace slipped his glasses back on and nodded. His eyes drifted from Arlette to countertop where a chunky white candle sat, but the longer he stared the more he realized it wasn't a candle, unless candles came with an eye and a mouth.

Arlette caught Wallace's eyes and she reached out to pet the candle. "This is Chandler," she said softly. "My litwick."

"I've never seen one before," Wallace said before another realization hit him. "My elgyem!"

Arlette jumped a little on the spot before she rushed to the door and out of the room. Wallace watched the small glass window in the door before Arlette darted back inside, elgyem in her arms and a Poké Ball in hand. "S-Sorry, Nurse Joie was keeping them outside," she said as elgyem wiggled free from her arms and flew to Wallace.

"Hi," Wallace said, his voice cracking a little as elgyem buried itself into the crook of his neck, humming all the while.

"T-They were a little tired, but we healed them," Arlette said as she placed the Poké Ball beside Wallace on the bed and retreated to the other side of the room.

Wallace rubbed a pattern into elgyem's back as the small pokémon wrapped its arms around his neck. "Thank you," he said as he grabbed the Poké Ball and tapped the locking button.

The already bright room filled with even more light as the Poké Ball broke up and from it Wallace's six-legged pokémon emerged into the room. Full of as much energy as it had when Wallace found it, the pokémon skittered back and forth across the bed, snapping its mandibles in every direction before it crawled up Wallace's stomach.

"They miss you," Arlette said. "Are they young?"

"Elgyem hatched the other day. I caught, um – " Wallace said before he realized he had no clue what pokémon he'd caught at the mansion.

"Spinarak," Arlette said. "It's a spinarak. Have they eaten?"

"Eaten?" Wallace asked, his eyes flicking back to Arlette who was tentatively rubbing Chandler on the head. The though hadn't occurred to him.

Arlette grabbed a faded purple bag from beside the counter and dug around inside before she pulled out an opened bag of pokémon food that had been crumpled and rolled down to keep it closed. "You can have it, if you want." she said softly as she placed the bag down on the bed.

Wallace watched how quickly she retracted back to her side of the room and how her eyes never stayed on him for long, always finding something else in the room to look at. She reminded him a lot of Garret as he unrolled the bag and shook out a handful of small pellets for elgyem and spinarak. It took some coaxing to get it elgyem to pry away from Wallace's neck, but eventually elgyem slid down onto the bed and ate beside the overzealous spinarak.

The students watched, in awkward silence, as the two pokémon devoured the last of Arlette's food. The only sounds came from the snapping of spinarak's mandibles and from elgyem who let out soft robotic sounds of disappointment once all the food was gone. "I'll add food to my list to things to buy," Wallace said as he rubbed elgyem's head.

"Elgy, elgy!" Elgyem floated around Wallace's shoulders before it perched onto his shoulder.

"Trainers nickname their pokémon, right?" Wallace asked.

"You don't have to, but it helps you develop a bond." Arlette fiddled and poked at a patch of fabric at the end of her coat sleeve.

"I don't know much about pokémon. How do I know if it's a boy or a girl?" Wallace asked.

"They're both boys," she said.

"How can you tell?" he asked, he'd barely had time to check spinarak out and elgyem looked about as genderless as they come

"It showed up when we healed them," she said dryly, looking somberly at her coat that was too big.

"Boys," Wallace said as he pressed his chin to his shoulder, looking through his peripheral at elgyem.

Elgyem wiggled on his shoulder before it stood up and prodded Wallace's cheek with its glowing hand. "Elgy?" he asked, the illuminated digits of its hands glowing against Wallace's skin.

"Big eyes, big head, greenish blue, glowing hands," Wallace said as he listed off descriptors of elgyem, trying to find something that rang out to him as an appropriate nickname.

"M-Maybe scan it with your Pokédex," Arlette said.

"I don't have one," Wallace said.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I-I just assumed."

"Assumed what?"

"I-I just thought you were one of those students." Arlette pressed her chin to her chest and looked off across the room while her hands locked and her fingers played with each other in front of her. "Y-Your friends were here, one of them left his laptop."

Wallace followed Arlette's hand as she gestured to the table where he found Garret's laptop sitting closed. Careful not to jostle elgyem too much, Wallace reached back and pulled the laptop into the bed with him. As he booted up the laptop, Wallace watched Arlette turn her back to him in the act of gathering up all her supplies into her bag and preparing to leave.

Without any kind of password protection on the laptop, Wallace quickly made his way to , the thing that had been gnawing at his mind since the bonfire.

Dr. Stratton had announced the site to a majority of the first year class about two days, but according to her the site had been running the entire day of the bonfire. As he scrolled and clicked through the website, Wallace discovered that the site had been launched around four o'clock Friday morning, and two days later had received over 2,000 comments and crashed eight times.

The website was really just one page. FIND ANDREW GATES sat boldly at the top above a navy blue background. Below it, a slideshow of pictures scrolled from side to side. The string of photos were all submissions from other visitors to the site. Andrew was the focal of all the photos, whether he was the only one in them or not, the camera only seemed to focus on him. Below the slideshow, walls of text detailed Andrew's life. It started with his upbringing in Lumiose City, his decision to become a trainer, and the ups and downs of his life that took him through six regions, all before it culminated in the details of his disappearance that seemed to be word for word from a news broadcast.

The website creator included a phone number under the site's text, urging visitors to call it if they had information regarding Andrew's disappearance. But below that was what glued Wallace to the computer. Other students, and maybe even faculty, were submitting comments about Andrew.

Wallace refreshed the page and scrolled to find several new white boxes filled with text below the hotline number. As new posts came in, the older ones were pushed to the bottom before they were catalogued into the site's memory, which was still viewable by toggling through different page numbers. With 233 pages filled with comments, and twelve comments per page, there were nearly 2,800 comments racked up so far. Wallace refreshed the page again before he read the comment stream:

LOL hes not missing, daddy just decided not to pay his tuition

MrMewtwo seconds ago

he's a cutie

anonymousditto seconds ago

WE LOVE YOU, ANDREW!

krabbyKatie seconds ago

i have a link to my blog about missing person theories in kalos, anyone interested?

corygon-Z seconds ago

he is tooo skinny, the wind blew him away, if you find him tell him to eat something

milTANK00 4 minutes ago

I've got Andrew tied up in my basement.

DracoMeat 6 minutes ago

praying for his family and for his safe return, Arceus guide him.

Sincerelysinnoh 8 minutes ago

As he scrolled, Wallace realized most of the comments were garbage, some wished Andrew well, but most were pointless. But he did find one that caught his eye:

I hope you're safe.

Lita 25 minutes ago

Lita. The same name on tons of letters in Andrew's inbox and the same name on a note he found with the set of keychain charms in Andrew's room, and now there, in a stream of trollish comments. Wallace rolled the name around in his head, wracking his brain to recall if Andrew ever mentioned anyone named Lita to him or during any of his streams.

"I-I'm sorry, I have to go," Arlette said, pulling Wallace's attention out of the computer.

Wallace looked up to see her standing by the door, bag hanging off her shoulder and Chandler cradled in her arms. Before Wallace could say anything she swung the door opened, and while looking back to Wallace, slammed directly into a woman entering the room.

Arlette's bag crashed to the floor, spilling a few supplies over the glossy white tile, and Wallace watched as the girl fumbled not to drop Chandler who cried out after the collision. Arlette sunk to her knees as she grasped Chandler firmly in her arms and sighed.

"Sorry about that," the woman in the doorway said as she brushed off her clothes. "You alright?" she asked, but made no effort to help Arlette up.

The girl whimpered her reply as she stood on wobbly legs and backed up to the counter. "F-Fine."

The woman nodded before she reached into the fold of a black overcoat that hung off her lithe body. "I'm Detective Minako Fujioka," she said as she pulled a fold up badge out and flashed it two the room.

Wallace's skin pricked with anxiety at the sound of the woman's voice. Instantly he was flashed back to his return home, his father had met with the same detective who worked on Andrew's case. Despite her stern tone and official looking badge, the woman looked more like a student. She was no taller than Wallace, with a young and round face, tanned skin, and a bob of white-blonde hair that fell around her face.

"A-Are you here with public safety?" Arlette asked, shrinking away from the detective as she moved into the center of the room.

"No, I've been assigned to the Andrew Gates missing person case," Minako said as she pulled back one side of her coat to reveal a brown messenger bag hanging by her hip. She opened the top flap and reached around inside before she pulled out two small cards. "I'm following a lead."

Wallace trained his eyes on the woman's face once she turned to him and held out the card, the same one he'd seen in his kitchen at home, marked with her title and name. The woman regarded him with a short smile that didn't reach her eyes, but Wallace tensed under the gaze of eyes that didn't appear as youthful as the rest of her. Light hazel eyes that looked tired and weary bore down into Wallace, as if hoping to squeeze a confession out of him through ocular interrogation alone.

Just when Walalce felt like he couldn't bear to keep eye contact going with the detective any longer, that he might break away and somehow reveal his guilt, Minako turned her attention to Arlette. Wallace unclenched his fists and let out his first breath since the detective entered the room as she strode away from his bedside.

"Are you Arlette Bellerose?" Minako asked as she opened her coat again and dug around inside her bag.

"Y-Yes, that's me," Arlette said.

Even though her body was hidden from view behind the detective, Wallace could tell she was scared by the way her voice quivered through every syllable.

"Do you know this boy?" Minako asked.

Wallace eased up in bed, sitting up completely as he strained his neck to see what Minako had pulled from her bag. His eyes flicked to Arlette's face, barely visible over Minako's shoulder, and full of increasing panic.

"A-Andrew, I-I knew him," Arlette muttered.

Wallace's breath caught in his throat as his arms began to tremble from holding himself up. Minako must have heard the change in his breathing, because she turned slightly and tossed him a cold look over her shoulder.

"Maybe we should do this in private," Minako said as she turned back to Arlette.

"D-Do what?" Arlette asked as she attempted to move as far away from the detective as possible by pressing herself against the counters.

Minako glanced back to Wallace again before she turned and blocked Arlette from his sight. "While looking into Andrew's activity for the week prior to his disappearance we uncovered messages between him and a young woman named Lita. We did some digging and found many Litas in the trainer registry, but none who lived in a proximity we mapped out based on the information we pulled from the messages."

Wallace's arms went slack as Minako's words hit him. His stomach tightened as what felt like ice water pushed through his veins.

"So we tracked the trainer ID that was registered to the messages sent by Lita and they came back to an Arlette Bellerose," Minako said. "Registered as a student at Radix University, the same university Andrew was applied to. The more we dug into you, we learned that you were in Camphrier Town around the time Andrew disappeared. In fact, as we kept digging we found out that Andrew's trainer ID was used in the Camphrier Pokémon Center days after he was supposed to have vanished. Yours was also used that day, 2 hours before to be exact."

"B-But that – that – that doesn't –"

"Save it, Ms. Bellerose," Minako said as she reached behind her and pulled something off her waistline.

Wallace listened to the clinking of steel as Minako approached Arlette who had started crying, loud and choking sobs.

"Arlette Bellerose, you are under arrest in connection with the disappearance of Andrew Gates," Minako said.

Wallace throat tightened and his vision slurred as Minako moved around to Arlette's back, revealing a pair of shining silver cuffs fixed around Arlette's thin wrists. His eyes darted up Arlette's body to find her face, tears streaming down her already slick cheeks and her face twisted in horror.

Minako nodded to him before she ushered Arlette towards the door, leading her by the elbow, and rattling off a series of rights before the two left Wallace in the infirmary.

Wallace fidgeted in his spot on the bed, his back to the window that sunlight still streamed through, though no longer pleasant. The light that hit his skin burned his uncovered flesh, and baked through his shirt to scorch his back. He tried to occupy his hands by petting spinarak, who had settled into his lap, but found himself to fried to even focus on that task.

His hands trembled nervously as he listened to the detective speaking in the hallway to what sounded like Nurse Joie. Wallace closed his eyes as he felt a vein bulging in his neck, information, thoughts, and words, all flooded his mind. Arlette knew Andrew. Arlette was Lita. Lita and Andrew were close. Wallace balled up his fists tight to the point his nails, untrimmed since he left home, dug into the soft flesh of his palm.

Wallace hunched over on the bed, his chest suddenly feeling tight, he clenched his teeth as what felt like a cry worked its way up into his throat. But rather than a whine, what escaped his lips was a laugh. Light and buoyant, Wallace let out a carefree laugh that bounced off the walls around him. Soon his laughing turned deeper, more guttural as tears fell from the corners of his eyes.

"Elgy?" Elgyem shifted on Wallace's shoulder as the boy rocked back and forth, holding his stomach as he let out full and bellowing howl of laughter.

Wallace disregarded his pokémon's concern as he ran out of air and his laughing because nothing more than an airy snicker, a wicked smile growing across his face.


End of Chapter Nine


AN: Although she was mentioned in a previous chapter, this time we had a true debut of Detective Minako Fujioka by The Ruffler.

Question of the Chapter #8: Who do you think The Lost Boy, of the chapter title is?