I woke up to a stinging in my left arm, and I remembered the events of yesterday. I got up and looked over at the table to find neither the chandelier, nor James, but his blood was still stained to the wood. Confused I started to look around for them. I looked outside, and there were no officials. I looked upstairs, downstairs, inside, and outside. I even checked the basement, but I found no one. So I went back inside and sat on the couch. But then, an idea came to me, and I looked up.

There he was, as a chandelure. "James?" I asked. No response. "James?" "Hmmm?" he answered. "James? Is that you?" I asked again. "Kiara? Where am I? How am I still alive?" he questioned. I walked up the stairs to get closer. He was a chandelure alright, and I could see his blank yellow eyes staring at me. "I don't know James, I am asking the same thing," I said. "Kiara, your arm!" he exclaimed. I almost forgot about it, and I looked down to see a gash from my shoulder to my elbow. The sight alone made me cringe. And once she was aware of it, the injury started to pulse with pain again. "Oww," I murmured. "Here, let me help," he offered. Then he disappeared, only to reappear with medical supplies.

He then went to work with fixing me up. With his psychic abilities he disinfected my wound, cleaned it, stitched it up, and finally put a bandage around the fairly big cut. "Thank you, James," I said. "It's my pleasure to serve you," he replied. After a silent pause I said, "James, about last night-" "I don't want to talk about it," he said sadly. "Okay…" Another long silence followed. "Well, it's a good thing you kissed me, I don't even know where my lips are now," James joked. We both laughed softly for a few seconds. Then I remembered something: "There's a visitor coming here, tomorrow, in the woods. I will tell you, he will be familiar to you, almost identical. I can't bring back one who is dead, but this is the best I can do."

I almost instantly got up. "Kiara, what's wrong?" James asked. "I'm sorry James, I have to go, I'll return. I promise," I answered. Then I was out the door. I ran directly to the woods, hoping I would find whoever was coming today. I had no idea who I was looking for, but I knew he looked like Max. I searched for almost an hour when I finally gave up. Crushed, I started to walk out of the forest. I only took five steps when I saw the trees light up. My shadow was in front of me, so I spun around.

I was almost blinded by a light almost a bright as the sun. Curious, I stepped toward the light. As I stepped closer a strong circular wind stirred, making the trees bend. The wind grew stronger the closer I got, until it was at gale speeds. I looked behind me to see trees undisturbed by the harsh gusts. Fixing my gaze to the middle of the light, I looked at it with my aura sight. I flinched as the aura of the light was immense. It was unfathomably dense, as if it extended for miles, but it was contained within a sphere-like area. Its aura pulsed every few seconds, altering the auras of other things. In fact, the severe winds were the concentrated energy of the light.

When I was a few feet away, the light's aura drastically increased its density then, exploded. It sent a blasted me onto my back, knocking the wind out of me. Everything blurred when I hit the ground, and I laid like that for a few minutes. When I regained my breath and got up I saw an exact copy of Max.

I ran up to him to find him clutching his head like he was hit with a club. I started to say something but he cut me off, "Who's that?" Trying not to startle him, I said softly, "I'm Kiara." Apparently he didn't hear me because he said, "I'm warnin-" But he didn't finish and he yelled in pain as he held his head again. He stayed like that for a minute before taking a step and collapsing on the ground.

Worried that something might be wrong, I ran over, picked him up, and ran as fast as I could back to the house. When I got there James yelled at me. "You did NOT just dig up Max!" "This isn't Max! Can't you tell?" I snapped. "Well who is it then?!" James asked. I took a brief moment to sum up who the lucario I was holding was. I didn't wait for James to respond and I hurried to the spare bedroom. I laid Max's unconscious double on the bed. Then I spent the next ten minutes trying to make sure he was alright. When I was convinced he was, I put him under the covers.

I calmed myself and looked at him with my aura sight. To my surprise, he almost exactly like Max, except for one thing. His aura wasn't actually "fitting" in his body. I had no idea what that meant, so I didn't bother thinking about it. I bent down and kissed him before I left the room, saying, "Goodnight."

So that's that. All the events transpired after that, and the next chapter will start where Ch. 8 left off.

Hope you enjoyed reading. I enjoyed typing. Please leave in the comments how I did, I is always appreciated.

Umbrenox signing out.