Escape!
"So, where're we goin'?" Jesse asked the blue-haired boy. He glanced up from his long look at his backpack that lay in a disheveled heap on the dirt ground. James's green eyes shined in the moonlight. He smiled.
"I think that maybe we should move out on our own, together, and do what we wanna do," James said. He raised his view to the heavens above. "Where we can be free. It's all that I've ever wanted to be."
Jesse didn't know what to think. Her partner was in a daze, completely awed by something greater than any human would ever know. She looked up, too, but instead of seeing the wonderful escape that James did, all that she saw was the same old sky. Not that it was nothing worth looking at, but she couldn't capture the full feeling that the blue-haired boy did. "Uh, James?" she asked, breaking the silence and moment of admiration which she couldn't hope to understand. "Where?"
The one with green eyes snapped from the stunned gaze and came slowly floating back to Earth from the stars. "Oh, yeah," he said, a bit embarrassed for the fact that he had lost himself in his joy. "How 'bout Pewter City?"
"Pewter?" the girl asked. "Where's that?" Her attention suddenly grew. She never really payed too much attention in geography class, so she had no idea where even her own town was.
"That's a town just above the Viridian Forest and west of Cerulean."
"Uh, and where are those places?" Jesse's embarrassment was obviously shown on her rose-tinted face. James sighed in obvious annoyment.
"Cerulean is just about five miles north of here and Viridian Forest is about 15 miles to the west," James looked at Jesse. "So, whaddya think?"
"Why Pewter City?" Jesse asked, catching James a bit off guard.
"Why not?"
"Point taken." With that, the two pulled their backpack straps on tight, they felt just right in the way that they sat propped on their backsides. They began to walk to the heavy steel gates.
"Jess?" James began. He watched her legs stride back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. He slowly looked up to meet her shining eyes. Waiting for them to turn in acknowledgement, he continued. "What's wrong?"
The girl stopped in her tracks. "Wrong?"
"Yeah," he began again, "I can see something in your eyes."
"What could you see in my eyes?" Jesse didn't mean to sound sarcastic, but she couldn't tell him. Ever. Or could she…
"Listen, James, you know secrets, right?"
"Secrets?"
"Yeah, you know secrets. Those things that people can't tell because of a certain reason?"
All too well, he thought to himself. What if she ever found out about my secrets? James forced a smile and nodded, only that forced smile didn't last more than a second before it cracked back into a serious expression.
"Well, I have good reason not to say anything about what might be wrong," she explained.
"So something is wrong?"
"I never said that!" she turned bright red again, once again noticing a vital slip-up in her words. "I just meant that if something was wrong then maybe I just couldn't tell you."
"Oh…" James replied. He knew that she was afraid. But of what? And why? The boy looked back at the girl. "So you're sure that you want to do this?"
"Well, of course," she started. "Why would I have accepted in the first place if I didn't?"
"Well, I dunno." James kept watching her, hoping for another sloppy mistake. "Maybe you just wanted it for a certain reason that you might not be wanting to tell."
"I told you already, James," Jesse paused. "I just wanna go. And for whatever reason that I may have, I might not want to tell you…not that there is a reason."
James smiled at the fact that he could always see straight through his newfound partner. He knew that she didn't want it to be this easy to read her, but unfortunately for her, at the time it was.
"And James, I can tell that something is wrong for you, too." She wasn't trying to lie, although she was never quite sure whether she really had or not. She couldn't tell at this point whether she was just imagining it, but she thought that she had seen the pain across his face in the pale moonlight of a boy who didn't know who he was or what he was really doing. Jesse just smiled up at his face, and as they began to walk again, she stepped in synchronization with him, and slightly closer. To make sure that he won't be lost in the night, she assured herself, making excuses for emotions that would not bring themselves away from the surface of her mind. They looked at each other, studying the other's every movement, walking all too slow.
Their walk was suddenly interrupted by the blaring noise of a siren. The two screeching, cracking pitches switched off evenly as four searchlights scanned all around the campus.
"Two of our students are missing! I repeat, two of our students are missing!" said the green-haired receptionist through a megaphone. Lights in every single room of the students' quarters lit up the night as they were all awakened by the blaring sound. "All of the teachers, search the perimeter of the school. Whoever has taken them couldn't have gone far!"
The two "missing" children ducked behind a bush as one of the several searchlights that were growing in number and illuminating the place brighter then the daylight that would come in hours swept by the area in which they were standing.
"We've gotta make a break for it!" Jesse whispered as loudly as she could and motioned for the gate that was only about five meters away, five meters from freedom.
"They'll expect that. We've gotta…" James whispered back to the girl. He glanced around the field of the school's ground, looking for an exit that wasn't the usual. A look of shock shot across his face as he realized a great flaw in their plan of escape. "…Look for another way."
Jesse didn't expect such a response. She had never been able to solve any of the logic puzzles that her old teacher had given her, so how could she help here? Her maroon hair flipped from side to side as she kept looking over the area where they could possibly make a run for their money, all the way out. Her fingers began drumming on the cold, wet ground under herself as she became more and more aware of their certain failure. Soon there was an extra noise, one of her partner rustling through his backpack, which was interrupted by another blaring vocal announcement by the green-haired receptionist.
"The south end has been completely searched! Everyone move to the east end of the school!" The woman left her obvious concern for the two in her voice and tone only, as she kept a rather distinct frown pressed onto her face.
The blue-haired one sat straight up, looking around, realizing that it had only taken those who were searching for the two a matter of minutes to search one end of the school, and they being on the north end would only leave them so much time…
He continued to fumble around in his backpack, fishing through his book of the world, his clothes, his knick-knacks of what not, knowing that what he wanted was in the pack but was unwilling to show itself. "Keep looking, Jess," he assured. "You're our only hope."
She kept snapping her neck from side to side, her red hair following, as she looked for a way out. Still looking, she spoke back to James. "What are you looking for, anyways?"
"Not looking for," the smiling boy began, "found." He pulled his hand out of the bag and revealed a small box wrapped in shiny paper with a note taped carefully to the top.
"Yeah, so what'll that do for us?" Jesse began, not sure of what to say about what looked like a birthday present being pulled from his bag. "This is no time for opening lost gifts! This is life-or-death!" She stopped at that, a little embarrassed, for she knew that this wouldn't make her die, it would make her wish that she had. She rephrased it then, trying to sound like a more down-to-earth person and saying the truth. "Freedom or restriction…"
James felt the same way. Certain that this box held the answer, he tore it open. "In here," he began to explain, but was interrupted by Jesse's whack on his stomach.
"Look," she said, pointing at a startled animal. It cowered in the loud noise, slowly slinking away from all of the lights and people running around on the other sides of the building. James watched with her, but still was tearing away at the paper that coated the box. The pokémon noticed them, but instead of running away, stared, for they didn't seem to want to chase it. The cat-like creature had never seen any humans that weren't out to catch him before, so he was amazed.
"What is that?" James whispered, rather interested by its strange behavior, but was smacked in the stomach again by the comrade at his side.
"Look at it! It looks like it wants out, and we'll see what it'll do to get out!" Jesse smiled at her sudden stroke of brilliance.
James watched and wondered. This is crazy, he thought. We're taking advice from a frightened meowth! Tell me this isn't happening…
"Alright, everyone move to the north! The perpetrators that have taken them aren't on the other sides!" The green-haired woman was slowly losing the distinct frown and was showing signs of true distress in not finding either of the missing children, the people who she had seen such potential in.
The cat shot into a straight-up position. Eyes growing wide, it watched as some siloughetted figures moved in closer and closer to their position. It gave one harsh "Meow!" and raced up to the wall, and in seeing an overlooked by the duo's escape, found an area in the wall, where it was unstable and collapsing which left an area to climb like rickety, uneven stairs. The creature bounded towards the top, and disappeared over the other side.
"That's it!" Jesse exclaimed. She jumped up and ran towards the new way out, and in her haste, attracted the receptionist to see them.
There they are! The green-haired woman thought to herself. She began to jog to where the girl had jumped from the bushes.
In seeing the sudden loss of control by his partner, James pulled his half-open backpack onto one shoulder and held the box, now stripped of its glorious paper, in his other hand. He raced onto the fallen bricks and grabbed with his free hand at the higher levels of bricks, jumping and climbing but making very little progress in such an amount of time. He finally was able to place his head on the top brick and see the pleading face of Jesse on the other side, hoping in her eyes that the boy would make it. Suddenly, James felt an icy-cold hand clasp at his ankle.
"Gotcha!" the familiar voice said as she began to pull him back down into the schoolyard. James glanced back and saw a swish of green hair. He pulled as hard as he could with his one free hand, but had no real success.
"No!" He screamed as he kicked. I'm so close now! I can't let myself lose here!
The boy's feet were both being tightly grasped, and he started to fall, his free hand lost its grip, and he began to fall back to the ground.
"NO!"
Author's Notes: James is going to be stuck, isn't he? Heheheh…you didn't think that this escape would just be a walk in the park, did you? Aw, man…was I really the kind who you thought would give you all that you wanted and cream-coat it? It's been pretty calm so far, but soon you'll see…they are just beginning to know what the hardships in the future will be. Mwahahahahahah! No, I'm not gonna do anything that someone really couldn't handle, and if I do, I'll warn you. Please review! Till next chapter, I'm blasting off!
PokeMaster
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