"Mummy! Daddy!"
The small six year old took the stairs as fast as his feet could carry him, a huge grin splitting his face as his eyes twinkled brightly. His hands clutched a single sheet of paper in front of him and it was clear that that single thing was the main source of excitement. Giggles streamed out of his mouth as he hit the bottom landing and sprinted down the hall, pausing once to peek in the kitchen to see if his mother or father was there, then again at the lounge. His brow furrowed when he saw no one, and he slowly walked back out into the hall, only to stop when he heard loud voices coming from outside.
The grin was back as he flung himself towards the front door, ripping it open and tumbling out onto the porch, only stopping when he slammed into the familiar back of his brother.
"Reggie?" he mumbled as he pulled away, slightly dazed. He let out a small gasp to accompany the name when suddenly his brothers hand was over his mouth and wide black eyes, much like his own, were staring intensely at him as Reggie crouched down.
"Ssh, Paulie. Be quiet."
The boy was instantly quiet, only ever hearing that tone of voice come from his father, and even then only on the rarest of occasions when everything was serious as can be. Hearing it from Reggie really scared him, and he flicked his eyes over to look past his brother, surprised to see that the raised voices were coming from his two parents standing by the front gate, and some mysterious man.
He wanted to ask who it was, but he knew not to annoy Reggie so he stayed quiet, watching instead with curious eyes. The mysterious man looked odd. He had bright green hair, glasses, an angry glare and mean feeling in general. He knew he'd never want to be beside the man if he had to, and the way he was shaking his fist and screaming at his parents made him want them to move away as well. He seemed to be an evil man, one filled with hate.
How insightful children were.
"Reggie, take your brother and go inside," his mothers firm voice suddenly shot over to them, and instantly Reggie was picking up his brother and pulling him into the house as told. The small boy fought back, wanting to be near his parents, but his brother was too strong and soon he was being forced onto the sofa.
He sighed in defeat and slumped back against he pillows, his lips forming a pout as Reggie flopped down beside him, carelessly throwing an arm out to drag him into a one armed hug.
"Sorry Paulie, but Mum is right. We both shouldn't be out there."
"Who is he?"
Reggie gave his brother a frown before sighing himself, his head falling back to land against the head of the sofa. "That's Conway Senior. He's the husband of one of Dad's patients, well ex-patients."
Large black eyes stared up innocently at the older brother, curiosity shining through them as the brain worked to put puzzle pieces together.
"Is it Mrs Kane's husband?" he asked, remembering the woman he'd jabbered away to after turning up to his fathers work one afternoon after school. She'd been a happy lady, chatting away about her son, her husband, and how he must be such a smart boy, what with Doctor Zolander being his father. She'd even fished out a lollipop for him from her bag and made him promise to eat it before seeing his brother.
He'd actually been sad when he'd overheard his father tell his mother she'd died. They'd told him when he'd asked that she'd just gone to another place for some more treatment, but he wasn't stupid. He knew exactly what they'd meant. Then again they were just trying to protect him.
"Yeah, he's not too happy Paulie." Reggie was good, he knew how smart he was. His older brother never held anything from him, always tell him the truth. "He thinks it's Dad's fault Mrs Kane died."
"But it wasn't…"
"Grief does strange things to people sometimes," Reggie explained, ruffling his confused brothers hair as he did so. He may have been smart, but the young boy didn't always understand everything as to how they were, his childish mind only seeing the obvious instead of the details. It was normal really.
They lapsed into silence, both brothers lost in their own thoughts as the sound of voice still wandered in from outside. It made them cringe to know just what it possibly was all about, and the youngest boy felt his bottom lip wobble and a small noise slipped out, one of despair.
"Whats that you have Paulie?"
The smaller boy looked up to see his older brother smiling down at him, reaching out to take the picture grasped tightly in his hand. He smiled back and suddenly bounced up on his knees, leaning on Reggie's shoulder as he began to point out the people in the picture.
The picture that was of him, Reggie, his mother and father, Uncle Hael, Drew and even the pokemon they were given the other month, the ones currently curled up in the spare room upstairs. The older brother reached out a hand and stroked all the faces, smiling at the amount of detail that the six year old had put in. His brother had always been good at art.
"You can keep it if you want? After I show Mummy and Daddy?"
The small boy had that curious look back on his face as he watched Reggie raise his head, nodding it in agreement as he continued to stroke the piece of paper.
"This is our family? Right?"
The youngest nodded his head happily, reaching out and placing his hand over Reggie's.
"We'll always be together! Always!"
…
The purple haired male let out a stunned gasp as his eyes flew open, his body already moving to sit up in surprise. His brain registered the small amount of surprise he got when no pain followed the sudden movement, but it disappeared as he cried out at the blinding white light attacking his eyes relentlessly.
"Ah Paul, you're awake."
Said man groaned as he pulled the arm that'd tried to protect his eyesight away from his head, squinting over to where the almost hypnotic voice came from, only to frown when he saw nothing except a huge, endless void of just blinding white. Nibbling on his bottom lip, like he was so fond of doing when utterly confused, he slowly climbed to his feet, this time actually registering the no pain thing, and began to look around in confusion.
"Where am I?" he called out, not expecting an answer but also expecting one at the same time. That voice had to have come from somewhere right?
He began to slowly turn around, trying to find something that could help him out, making sure not to twist himself up and fall over.
"Paul."
A yelp tumbled out of his mouth as his eyes locked onto… something… and he almost crashed back down on the ground in surprise. The person looked back at him with wide blue eyes, its head cocked to the side in confusion.
He looked back up, staring at the person in front of him with as much confusion as it had. Where the hell had this small… child come from? Let alone a child that so obviously stood out, he thought as he scrutinized its appearance. Pink shorts, pink shirt, blue socks, pink shoes, and bright pink hair weren't exactly something one would miss when looking around in a pure white void. Especially when this person just so happened to have a pair of ears and a long tail sticking out of it.
And it was certainly that, an it. Because no matter how hard Paul looked, he could not tell if it was a girl or a boy. Sure, all the pink it was wearing made him instantly think girl, but it's figure was that of a small boy around the age of six, and it was wearing the clothes that a young boy would've worn way back in the 18th century.
Down right confusing? He thought so.
"Paul? Are you alright?"
And that voice! It was completely neutral! It didn't give anything away! In fact it just sounded like some sort of hypnotic, childish voice that made him want to bubble with excitement at fall asleep at the same time. It was calming and soothing, yet also happy and exciting? It was just pure insanity.
"Paul!"
"What!"
Realising he'd just snapped at a child, a child, he instantly slapped a hand over his mouth and looked at it with wide, apologetic eyes. He hadn't meant to, he was just so wound up from not knowing what was going on. And he always liked to be in control.
But it didn't seem affected at all by his outburst. No, instead it just giggled and walked towards him, hands clasped together behind its back as it approached him, its head still cocked to one side before suddenly it was in the air, directly at eye contact with him.
Oh, he just gave up.
"Do you know where you are Paul?" it asked, and Paul had to look past the fact that it's eyes were not only an intense shade of blue, but also appeared to take up almost half of its face. Swallowing the lump in his throat though, he managed to force out the words.
"No idea. Mind telling me?"
There was another giggle and the strange creature was suddenly back on the ground, beaconing for him to follow it. Not wanting to annoy the creature that clearly owned… wherever the hell he was, he began to walk beside it, purposefully shortening his strides to walk at its speed.
"You're in the, limbo world I think it's been called?" it glanced up at him, and with a smile that both made Paul's heart melt and freeze at the same time, it reached up to gently take his hand. "You human's named it that when one too many chose to go back to the living world instead of dying."
"Chose?"
"Yes, you can choose. That is unless you have no chance to really live. Then you have to die." Another weird smile. "Sometimes they get to go back to say their goodbyes though! This is where people in… what was it? Coma's? I think so. But it's where they all are!"
Paul frowned and looked around, trying to find traces of other people. If this… thing… was speaking the truth, wouldn't he be seeing thousands of people from all over the world milling around? Some of them maybe begging and crying? It was stark and empty, completely voided of people so he highly doubted that-
"Stop looking, you won't see any of them."
He jumped as it intruded his thoughts with it's strange voice, and the tugging on his hand made him look down at the small creature. It really was scaring him, yet intrigued him.
"Why?"
"Because, this is your limbo. Not anyone else's."
"So you're saying everyone has their own... limbo?"
"In a manner of speaking." The creature smiled brightly up at him before it tugged him forward and Paul let out a gasp as he toppled forward, squeezing his eyes tightly shut as he waited for the impact of the ground.
Only to frown when nothing came.
He slowly cracked open an eye again, before both flew open and he sat up, looking around the… movie theatre?
"What-"
"Ssh! We're getting to the best part!" the creature interrupted, and Paul looked to his right to see it sitting beside him, one hand still clutching his while the other was buried deep in a box of… popcorn?
Okay, this was seriously getting out of control.
Shaking his head, he turned back to the front, surprised to see a movie on the large screen in front of them, and it was at the perfect view point as well. Then again, they were in the exact centre of all the seats. But it wasn't all of that though that got to him, not yet. No, it was the people he saw on the screen.
"Drew… Gary?" he mumbled in confusion, before he watched in stunned silence as the two threw themselves at each other, clutching on as Drew cried into Gary's chest and the brunet attempted to sooth his sobbing… friend? For some reason, the delicacy that Gary was showing Drew screamed a lot more than friend. But before he even had time to ask the strange creature beside him, the image of the two faded and flicked to one of Reggie.
Paul frowned as he watched his brother stand at a window, peering out of it as if searching for something. It took him a moment, but he finally recognized it as… his own room back at their house. The room that Reggie had always stood in to wait for him to come home considering it had the best view of the front yard and road leading up to it. Once again, he was about to ask a question when he was stopped by the sudden image of Reggie leaning forward, pressing his forehead to the glass as tears streamed down his face and his arms came around to cradle himself.
"Reggie?"
"I said be quiet!" the creature snapped beside him, lightly tapping his hand as if to reprimand him before turning its attention back to the screen, in time to watch as it went to the next person in the montage of what appeared to be drama.
Ash sat quietly between Misty and May, holding their hands tightly as they continuously glanced towards the far side of the room, where Paul recognized a patch of green hair and brown hair. Their eyes screamed worry and concern, but none of them got up until Leaf rose from where she'd been out of shot, her face a mixture of fury and sadness as she began to make her way over to where Drew and Gary were having their private moment. Within moment, May was out of her seat and grabbing Leaf's shoulders, pulling her into a tight hug as they cried. Whether over having lost their love interests, or for the same reasons as the others it wasn't clear.
The next clip was of Brock sitting beside an oddly quiet Barry, one hand on the blond's shoulder as he talked to Nurse Joy, his gaze flickering between the pink haired nurse and a door to his right. It was odd to see him looking so serious, and not flirting with the gorgeous woman in front of him. Paul watched quietly as Brock appeared to thank the nurse before turning fully to look at Barry. He managed to catch the brunet mouth something like "Reggie" to the blond before he turned and walked away, leaving Barry by himself with watery eyes.
"What is this?" Paul suddenly burst, his eyes wide. He didn't understand anything! When the creature didn't respond he grew even angrier until he was about to turn to stare at the thing beside him, only to freeze at the next image.
Dawn, sitting on a chair beside a blurred out figure on the bed. Her eyes were red, her face blotchy and drawn, her bottom lip was quivering and tears streamed down her face at an impossibly face rate. Her hand was clenching another, a much darker and tanner one than her abnormally white skin, paler than normal, and for some reason Paul felt a wave of dread wash over him as he watched the girl he love throw back her head and open her mouth in what he knew would be a scream of pain.
The last thing he saw was the door burst open and the others come streaming through before the screen went black.
It took him a long moment, a very very long moment to get a hold of himself before he was turning to look at the creature beside him, his heart thumping at the pain he saw in those blue, blue eyes.
"I don't like torturing you Paul, not at all. But you had to see that."
"What…" he trailed off before squeezing his eyes shut and forcing out the words, "What was that?"
There was a small hum of acknowledgement beside him, but it wasn't until he once again opened his eyes did the creature reply, it's eyes downcast with pain and torment at knowing it was causing Paul pain he'd never felt before.
"That was what will happen if you decide to die."
"If I decide?" Paul frowned, staring with confusion at the small creature. "I have a choice?"
"Of course you do!" it exploded, glaring at him with those wide, innocent eyes. Yet somehow they still managed to make Paul, Paul, the king of glares, freeze and his blood run cold. "If you didn't you wouldn't be here! The people who are most certainly going to die would be dead right now. The limbo is only for those deserving of having another chance at life!"
"Could've told me that earlier," Paul sighed, rolling his eyes as the new information fitted itself into his brain. So he was allowed to choose? What a stupid thing to do. "Why would you let me choose? Its obvious I want to live. Why would I want to die?"
A smile like that was enough to send even more chills down Paul's spine, which was weirdly unnatural. Nothing he'd ever known could scare him like this, or give him the shivers exactly how it was. It had to be some sort of supernatural being, more than what he'd originally thought, and it definitely had to be powerful. But before he could once again ask any sort of question, that weird mind-numbing voice echoed through the room.
"I'm glad you asked."
Next think Paul knew, tears where threatening to stream down his face as the image of his parents appeared on the screen.
They seemed happy, so happy as they stood together. Behind and in front of them stretched a huge meadow, surrounded by trees and Paul was instantly reminded of his parents love for nature. That was the one thing he clearly remembered about them, their readiness to always be outside. He watched with a lump in his throat and tears welling in his eyes as there appeared to be music around his parent's, followed by the sudden appearances of other couples dancing around them. Children, teenagers, adults, every age and size were twirling around the clearing, and he watched in a captivated trance as his faith bowed to his mother, offering his hand as he swung her into a dance, their laughter and happiness clearly written all over their faces.
The screen went black.
Paul jumped as he felt a drop of wetness land on the back of his hand, and slowly he reached up to brush the water away from his cheeks, only to stop when a different sort of hand reached up to brush them away. He stared in a mixture of wonder and nervousness as the creatures tail came out of nowhere and brushed his face, wiping away the tears gathering there.
"That is why you might choose death Paul, because your mother and father are waiting for you. They know you're here, they watched the whole fight. They saw it all Paul, and they're proud of you," the creature whispered, her eyes making and maintaining contact with Paul's glistening black orbs. "Yet, they worry for you. They're scared, and want to see you. It's touching, how much they care for you." The smile that was present on it's face took a turn for sadness, and Paul felt his heart drop. "They're sorry you know? Sorry for leaving you and Reggie. They never wanted to, but the wounds they took were too great to be able to give them a choice."
"To great?" Paul exploded, his eyes wide. "Mine are worse then theirs ever were!"
"That's where you're wrong," it sighed, seeing the signs of too much stress raging on Paul's face. "See Paul, their wounds were inflicted by a human object, and it was repetitive. Your more serious wounds were caused by pokemon themselves, meaning that you were sent here. To me. Where I could heal parts of you whilst you are here in the limbo." Seeing the confusion on his face, the creature sighed once again and tried to restart, make it more simpler. "This limbo is for those mortally, or almost mortally wounded by pokemon. You choose to live of die here, and if you live I heal you, if you die you don't need to be healed."
"Why… but their wounds… Mum was-"
"She was finished with a human knife. I don't know if you saw it. If that hadn't happened she could've live, she could've come back to you and Reggie. But Conway Senior stopped that."
Paul stayed quiet, his head down with his bangs covering his face as the final bits of information slotted into place.
"So you're a pokemon then?" he asked, not looking up. The creature smiled and whispered a quiet affirmative. "What kind of pokemon are you?"
"Just one of the many. This is not about me though, this is about you. I don't have much more time to spare, and you must make a decision."
The purple haired man groaned as the theatre disappeared again, and he was suddenly standing back in the white void, the now established pokemon gripping his hand tightly as he readjusted his eyes to the blinding light. It was truly painful, and he couldn't help but wonder what kind of idiot came up with the colour schemes for this place.
"You have two choices Paul," the pokemon spoke up, it's eyes flashing a deep red and Paul watched in slight awe as all white disappeared and instead was split in half and replaced with two new scenes. On the left half was a meadow, much like the one he'd seen his parents in before, beautiful and luscious. While on his right was an almost exact replica of Veilstone, the outskirts of the city where his home was. The one he'd seen Reggie in before.
He turned to look at the pokemon, and frowned when he saw the eyes flash red again. What more could it possibly add?
So when he turned back to look, he instantly felt his heart jump into his throat and a small strangled gasp made its way out of his mouth when he saw his loved ones all staring back at him. On the left his mother and father stood, watching him with those kind eyes and expressions that he remembered so well despite only having seen them in photos for so many years. His mother was wrapped in his fathers embrace, their hands clasped together showing a perfect union, and Paul found it hard to look away. To his right though was the four other most important people in his life.
Dawn stood at the front, one hand reached across her body and clutching her elbow as a sign of insecurity, and Paul felt his heart skip a beat. On her left stood Reggie, his ever so loyal brother with his hand on Dawn's shoulder while her other shoulder held Gary's hand, the brunet standing right behind her with his other arm wrapped around Drew's waist as his cousin looked at him with a small smile touching his face.
"Just friends my ass…"
Paul vaguely noted the small, innocent looking creature beside him's sarcastic remark, and he knew that if he'd really being paying attention he would've had to have done a double take, but for now he was too absorbed in the fact this two families, the two groups of people he loved more than anything were so close to each other, but so far away.
And he could only go with one.
"Will I remember this?" he asked quietly, voice smaller than it should've been. "Will I remember any of this?"
"No. Not a thing."
He sighed, his heart aching over the decision. He wanted to be with both, wanted it so bad.
"I-"
"Only one Paul. No arguing."
The purple haired man swallowed the lump in his throat, forcing himself to think clearly. He wanted both, yet wished for the choice to not be there at all. It crushed him inside as he stared at the groups, trying to work it out.
He was about to turn back to the pokemon, to see if he could make a deal one more time, but was stunned to see it wasn't there anymore. Instead, now floating in front of him, directly between the two groups, was none other than pink, cat-like pokemon, one he'd never seen but had always heard of. And as he saw it for probably the first, and possibly only time in his life, he couldn't stop himself from catching his breath in awe of its beauty.
"Mew…"
"Make your decision Paul Shinji Hayden-Lopez, you're out of time."
He swallowed hard, tearing his eyes away from the adorable, yet still intimidating pokemon and slowly nodded his head.
He'd made his decision.
And as he stepped forward, he hoped he hadn't made the wrong one.
"PAUL!"
Oh lord, I really suck at updating. MOCKING FACE! Only two more chapters after this guys! TWO MORE CHAPTERS THEN GOODBYE LUCKY! Trying to figure out if I'm sad or glad that it's finishing, a bit of both really.
And honestly? I'm so unhappy with this chapter. But I have no idea now how to finish the last two. Writing them both at once, because I have skills.