Responses from the author:
To everyone at Tanya's RPG Forum (Reborn): Thanks so much for the comments for the TRF version of this fanfic. If it wasn't for your kind words, I wouldn't have edited this and republished it right here on FF.net. Well, actually, maybe I would have, but, er... ^_^;
To DarkCatXX: First off, yay for becoming a member of this dark pit of doom! =D (Yes, I'm REALLY out of the loop, and yes, that was incredibly comforting, wasn't it? XD)
Anywho, yes, I'm back. And even if it's with a blurb of serious insanity (Sometimes, I don't even know where my material comes from. ^_^;), at least I'm posting again. ^_^
---
Night Two: Deep in My Heart...
"Ellie! Beth!"
Bill ran through the streets of the deserted town, looking up at the sky as he frantically tried to find his sisters. Morpheus shook his head and followed.
"Bill!" Morpheus called.
Bill refused to acknowledge the fact that Morpheus addressed him. His mind was set on finding the source of the voices. He was too intent on finding his sisters and getting out of his own dream world. All he wanted was his precious reality, the world where he can count on almost everything to be defined by fact.
When he couldn't find the source of the voices, he stopped to catch his breath. He was in the middle of town, back where he started. Morpheus caught up with him and looked at him sympathetically.
"They weren't real, Bill," he said. "Not in this world. In this world, everything you've experienced in reality is just a faded dream."
"No..." Bill closed his eyes and shook his head. "No! Morpheus, you're the god of dreams, aren't you? Can't you exit a person's dream whenever you wish? Can't you take me back and end my dreaming? Isn't that your power!?"
"Alas, no," Morpheus replied. "I can put my hold on a person's dream and force them to dream for awhile longer, but when I take my hand away, the dream ends. I have no real control over dreams anymore. Especially after I got drunk in the 1960's and caused the Charles Manson fiasco."
Bill winced upon hearing of Morpheus' limitations. "No..."
"I'm sorry, Bill," Morpheus said with a forlorn sigh.
Bill sighed as well and looked around. He noticed something. Something odd indeed.
"Where is everyone?" he asked the god of dreams.
"There's no one here anymore, Bill," Morpheus informed him. "Some places are like this. Empty shells of ideas, abandoned in the vast dream world a mortal creates... Quite common, actually."
Bill looked about himself again, this time in sadness and despair.
"Quite... depressing here... isn't it?" the soul asked the god.
"Mmm. It can be," Morpheus agreed.
"What was here?" Bill questioned.
Morpheus shrugged. "Who knows? Only you."
Not wanting to ponder over that bit, Bill wandered about the abandoned streets, looking at the wooden structures, some with those swinging doors of old, Western saloons, others with regular, wooden front doors, others with no door at all or a door barely hanging on its hinges. Bill stopped before what appeared to be a Victorian house. It seemed out of place, yet not at all. His curiosity got the best of him, and he ventured inside.
He was confronted with dust and cobwebs everywhere, but barely any real furniture. Only a few scattered chairs, covered in white cloths like ghosts or miscellaneous tables here and there of different varieties. Bolder-colored spots on the walls and floors told Bill that there once was a house full of furniture and walls covered with pictures, but many of them seemed to be missing.
He continued on, into what he would think was the parlor. Absolutely nothing remained in this room, save for a lonesome picture hanging on the wall...
...Or, what did up until he took a step into the room. The cord holding the picture snapped, and the picture, frame and all, fell to the wooden floor, clattering against the old, hard wood. Bill cautiously walked forward and picked the frame up, staring at its dusty surface for awhile before rubbing his paw on the pane preserving the photo.
His eyes widened. He recognized the picture. It was... taken on Christmas Day two years before. Yes, he remembered. His parents, his sister, and he were all gathered in front of the Christmas tree. His mother, dressed in a green dress and a smile upon her lovely face, sat in a chair with a wooden frame and red, velvet upholstery. His youngest sister, Ellie, stood in a red dress with a white bow tied in her curly, red hair, smiling at the camera as she gripped the arm of the chair. Bill himself stood in a rather plain suit (for once), with one hand on the edge of the chair, eyes shying away from the camera and looking at Ellie instead. Beth stood next to him, behind the chair in a dress of blue, hair partially clipped back as she smiled warmly at the camera. Finally, the father... The father...
"What's wrong with this picture?" Bill asked.
"What do you mean?" Morpheus inquired, leaning over Bill's shoulder to study it. "Nothing seems to be wrong to me..."
"My father," Bill said softly. "He's supposed to be in this picture. I know it! I've seen this picture so many times before! But..."
He put a paw over the empty corner of the photo.
"He's not there," Bill finished in amazement.
Morpheus stood in thought for a moment.
"Perhaps this is a symbol of how you truly feel about your father," Morpheus suggested.
"...I feel... as if my father was never there?" Bill asked.
Morpheus didn't answer but instead gave Bill a smile.
Bill's eyes trailed back to the photo. It was true, though. His father was always at work or in the Game Corner. Never at home with the family.
Bill remembered, as a boy, wandering about the halls of his home, only to find himself standing outside his parents' bedroom, watching as his mother looked at a photo album while holding back tears. One day, in his inquisitiveness, he snuck into his parents' bedroom and pulled that photo album from under the bed to see what pictures his mother was looking at.
It was their wedding album. His mother constantly looked at the photos taken on the very day she got married, wishing and yearning for those days when her husband loved her above everything else -- above gambling, above Pokémon, above everything save for his own, human children.
From then on, Bill became determined to avoid becoming the man his father had been. Bill vowed to love deeper and work harder for those he cared about, more so than his own father.
At remembering this, Bill threw the photo aside rather violently and turned to leave the house. Morpheus followed, gliding like a spectre not far behind.
As soon as he was outside, Bill stopped. Morpheus did as well. They both heard it. Carnival music.
Bill turned in the direction that the music was coming from and darted that way. He continued to the edge of the town opposite to where he came in. There, he found a cliff, and below the small cliff was... A circus bustling with life.
Tents were scattered at the foot of the cliff, all red and white, all different shapes and sizes. Laughter and pipe organ music was emitted from every square inch of the place, as was the smell of popcorn and peanuts.
Bill looked up at Morpheus with an inquisitive glance, but the god said nothing, only stared down at the commotion below. Without a reason why, the Meowth journeyed down into the circus area, knowing that Morpheus was following.
The two continued through, dodging various Pokémon, some with balloons tied around their paws, some carrying popcorn, some with plush dolls, and some with nothing at all. All, however, were on their hind legs, and all of them were obviously visitors to the circus. Pokémon clowns danced about the grounds, steering clear of an Ursaring or two in pink tutus. Donphan burning in bright, red fire stomped through the grounds unnoticed, lifting their trunks to trumpet a series of long notes as they continued on their way. Bill and Morpheus passed all of this, drawn, strangely enough, to the big top alone.
They entered, apparently just before a show, for the lights dimmed as they sat down in the bleachers. The ring master, a Scizor, appeared and began motioning to different rings with his giant pincers. Then, came the true performers. And no, they weren't Pokémon.
Twenty-some wind up, wooden dolls marched into each ring to mechanically perform their acts. The audience erupted into cheers and laughter as the wooden clowns acted out comedy bits. They watched in awe as wooden trapeze artists flew through the air high above them. They watched in amazement as wooden lion tamers forced blurry versions of Entei to sit, stay, jump through hoops made of water, and roar. And they were highly entertained by the beautiful, wooden women sitting high upon the flaming Donphan without a care in the world nor a scorch on their bodies. At the end of all of this, more clowns came onto the scene.
One clown, however, caught everyone's attention. She was a tall, lanky clown in colorful garb with puffy, purple hair. She stumbled and fell, triggering a wave of laughter throughout the audience except Bill and Morpheus, who watched in silence. However, it didn't end there. The Scizor ringmaster darted forward with a whip and whipped the wooden doll, taking a chip out of her. The crowd, however, got a kick out of this, so the Scizor whipped her again.
Bill watched in horror, wondering how the audience could possibly think this scene was funny. However, he looked around and realized something odd, yet important -- the audience were Swinub people. Each member of the audience had the body of a human being, wrapped in human clothing, but their heads were exactly like Swinub heads. Each audience member oinked as they laughed, taking in the humor like the pigs that they were. They didn't care as the Scizor cracked his whip again, causing one of the doll's arms to fall off.
Bill, who was thoroughly disgusted by this display of crudeness, stood and darted forward before Morpheus could say something to stop him.
"Stop it!" Bill yelled as he got between the Scizor and the doll (who had considerable amounts of wood missing).
The Scizor brought his arm up to whip the doll, but then noticed the Meowth and stopped in surprise. With a free pincer, the Scizor motioned for Bill to get out of the way. Bill responded by shaking his head vigorously.
"I won't let you hurt her!" Bill snapped. "She only made one mistake, and now, you're beating her to death! It isn't right!"
The Scizor shrugged and prepared to whip Bill to get him out of the way. However, as the whip came down, the wooden doll used the arm still attached to her body to push Bill out of the way and take the complete blow. She was split in half. As both pieces fell to the ground, one half looked up at Bill and smiled softly before closing her eye.
Bill stared in disbelief at the doll, unaware that the crowd was booing him. This angered the ringmaster, causing him to snap his whip in front of Bill. He snapped out of his thoughts, mentally coming back to his situation.
"Bill! Run!" Morpheus advised loudly.
With a nod, Bill dropped to all fours and ran as fast as he could out of the tent with everyone pursuing him. Morpheus followed quickly, not looking back at the angry ringmaster, the wooden dolls, the Swinub people, the flaming Donphan... Nothing.
Neither of them made too many thoughts until they crossed into greener land. They noticed the shrieks and hollers from the people at the circus growing fainter and fainter, but they didn't stop until Bill could run no longer. He dropped to his stomach, then pulled himself to his knees and looked behind him to see the shouting Pokémon and dolls at the edge of the circus grounds. They were unable to venture any further, for all of them were tied to the circus and could never leave it. Bill laughed in relief.
However, the thought of the doll's final moments came across his mind, and he fell silent in mourning sadness.
"Whatever is wrong, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.
"Why do I feel any sadness for that wind-up doll back in the circus?" Bill responded. "Why do I care?"
"Why did you ever care about things?" Morpheus answered. "You're a human, which gives you an enormous amount of sensitivity as it is. However, in addition, you're also extraordinarily compassionate, which makes all the difference. I can't answer your question to why you're like this; perhaps that will be a question you'll be able to answer yourself someday..."
Bill looked at Morpheus blankly before turning from the god and leading the way, away from the circus. Morpheus followed without another word.
They journeyed like that for hours, neither of them exchanging any forms of speech. Neither even so much as looking at the other. For hours, they journeyed through the green countryside without a single unusual thing happening. It was like a bit of sanity in Wonderland, and with this, Bill was quite relieved. At least he could concentrate on other questions being brought up in his mind.
At last, after a long period of pondering, he arrived at the bank of a river and stopped to rest. He looked into the blue waters to see Magikarp of just about every color of the rainbow swimming past as well as Barboach that seemed to have trouble keeping their proper shape, morphing into a variety of objects, such as stars or cubes or even umbrellas. Bill had no thirst to quench, so he only remained sitting there, watching the aquatic oddities float by until at last he voiced his question.
"Morpheus?" he addressed.
"Ever-present and listening, Bill," the god responded.
Bill paused for a moment. "Why did you bring me here? I... I know that you wanted me to dream, but the more I think about it, the more that I think that that simple reason isn't the only reason why you forced me into my dream world."
"What makes you think that?" Morpheus asked.
"I don't know," Bill admitted. "It just seems... It just seems that everything I look at in this world seems to trigger a feeling inside of me. Not just the picture we found in the abandoned town, either. I mean, everything. The dolls, the circus, the Bellossom, the door... All of it. Everything I look at seems to cause some strange sensation in my heart..."
"Perhaps it's because everything you see means something to you," Morpheus implied.
Bill looked up at Morpheus, blinked, and shook his head. "I don't understand."
Morpheus sighed. "Everything in your dream world has its own, separate meaning. Each meaning is linked to a different emotion in your heart. So, whenever you look at a certain object in your dream, it means something else. For example..."
Morpheus trailed off, expecting an answer from Bill. However, the youth was busy, replaying a single scene in his mind. Surely, such an image would last in his mind forever. He'd always see that smile etched into his brain, that one moment of pure emotion...
"I felt my heart drop when I saw that doll lashed in two," Bill finally stated. "It was like..." He stared at the endless, rosy-pink sky. "It was like..."
"It was like someone you loved died?" Morpheus proposed.
Bill shook his head. "No... It was like... When I saw that doll, it was as if I found something. Then, when she broke into pieces, it was like... I lost that something all over again."
Bill stood on his hind legs and put one of his forepaws over his heart. He looked straight forward with a saddened gaze. He felt numb as he replayed the scene in his mind once more. He couldn't take his mind off of that look in that doll's eye as both halves fell to the ground under the circus tent.
"What does that mean, Morpheus?" Bill asked.
Morpheus shook his head. "I can't answer that question. Only you can, Bill."
Bill sighed and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, the landscape turned dark. Once more, it was night.
"Time goes by so quickly here," Bill muttered.
"Perhaps it's another symbol," Morpheus hinted. "Yet another thing that has a message it wants to tell you..."
"Hmm."
Bill's eyes rose a bit at the starry sky, trying to figure out what Morpheus meant. Eventually, though, his mind cleared, and all he thought about was trying to figure out what sort of strange constellations he was looking at when he stared at the stars. They certainly didn't look like any pattern he knew...
Just then, wings appeared about the North Star (or what seemed to be the North Star), and the speck of light descended from the tapestry of black and silver to hover around Bill's head. He blinked, realizing that the so-called star was nothing but a black Volbeat emitting an eerie, silver light.
"What a peculiar world," Bill murmured as he followed the insect Pokémon with his eyes.
The firefly hovered about the Meowth's head once more before descending further and flying across the river, low to the water. Bill gazed into the depths of the black, liquid ribbon, only to see the water had turned blood red. Not only that, but within its depths, he found a sight that caused him to pale in horror and jump backwards, landing on his tail and releasing a shuddering gasp from his throat.
"What is it, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.
"Th-there!" Bill exclaimed as he motioned towards the river with an outstretched, shaking paw. "I-I saw something!"
"What?" Morpheus asked as he tilted his head. "What did you see?"
"I saw..."
Bill was unable to answer. He didn't want to describe it. The girl, lying on her back on the bottom of the river. Her long, silky, raven hair floated about her, mainly covering her dead face, and the pure, white dress she wore was torn in several places and painted with blood in several more. Cuts were all over her arms, allowing some bits of skin to flap in the current of the water, revealing torn muscle and bleached bone underneath.
If there had been anything in Bill's stomach, it would have promptly left by then. But since there wasn't (though his brain was still telling him to vomit), all he could do was kneel and gag for awhile until the feeling subsided. Morpheus watched on with the greatest of sympathies in his eyes.
"What... was that!?" Bill asked as he took a few gulps of fresh air.
Morpheus shrugged. "Perhaps just another symbol. Maybe a symbol of a great sense of pain caused by water."
Bill hesitated. Water... He couldn't think of much else except...
He shook his head vigorously and pressed his paw over his chest again. He wanted to toss the thought aside, but it wouldn't leave his mind. There it was, as plain as daylight.
"What are you thinking, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.
Bill shook his head. "Nothing. I'm thinking of nothing."
He stood up and began leading the way. He walked along the river, unwilling to step into the waters for fear that the corpse might be following him somehow, slithering along the riverbed as it waited living flesh for living flesh to pass through the waters so it could snatch it up and pull it under the bitter-cold waters. Bill shuddered.
"Come along, Morpheus," Bill half commanded. "I'd like to find a safe place to rest for the night."
Morpheus nodded and floated along behind his mortal companion.
---
Ellie sat in the hospital room, staring at her older brother, then looking away quickly, at Goldenrod's nighttime scenery through the window. She couldn't stand seeing a person, especially her own flesh and blood, hooked up to monitors and machinery, with tubes and wires and IVs coming out of his mouth and several spots on his skin. The room was in silence. She was alone in the room, save for her brother, and at this, she fidgeted, swinging her legs forwards and backwards, under the chair, then straight out in front of her as she stared at her lap.
"What do you mean 'you don't know'!?"
Ellie looked up, towards the doorway, beyond which her mother was arguing with a doctor.
"There's something terribly wrong with my son, and you can't even figure out what it is!?" the mother shouted.
"Mrs. McKenzie, we're doing all that we can to discover just what might be wrong with your son," the doctor responded softly. "We're running every single test we can think of, and we're examining every single part of his body. However, we haven't found anything yet, but I can assure you, we WILL find out what caused this coma. You just have to be patient!"
Ellie's mother broke down into hysterical sobs.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. McKenzie," the doctor apologized. "We're doing the best we can."
Ellie could hear that her mother's sobs were getting softer. The doctor was leading her away, back into the waiting room. Ellie looked back at her lap and swung her legs forwards and backwards again, thinking of nothing in particular save for a white space of extreme confusion. She didn't look up as she heard footsteps approaching once more.
The door opened, and in walked a male doctor holding a clipboard. The doctor, not noticing Ellie, walked up to the bed and gazed down at the nearly lifeless body lying on it with his blue eyes. He sighed and ran the fingers of his free hand through his straight, brown hair.
"I doubt he'll wake up," the doctor muttered to himself.
Ellie looked up, staring blankly at the doctor as he turned around to see her. The two of them simply gaped at each other in surprise. The awkward silence between them was thick and solid, as if an invisible brick wall had been built between it and both sides had a person who could only ponder how to get around it.
To everyone at Tanya's RPG Forum (Reborn): Thanks so much for the comments for the TRF version of this fanfic. If it wasn't for your kind words, I wouldn't have edited this and republished it right here on FF.net. Well, actually, maybe I would have, but, er... ^_^;
To DarkCatXX: First off, yay for becoming a member of this dark pit of doom! =D (Yes, I'm REALLY out of the loop, and yes, that was incredibly comforting, wasn't it? XD)
Anywho, yes, I'm back. And even if it's with a blurb of serious insanity (Sometimes, I don't even know where my material comes from. ^_^;), at least I'm posting again. ^_^
---
Night Two: Deep in My Heart...
"Ellie! Beth!"
Bill ran through the streets of the deserted town, looking up at the sky as he frantically tried to find his sisters. Morpheus shook his head and followed.
"Bill!" Morpheus called.
Bill refused to acknowledge the fact that Morpheus addressed him. His mind was set on finding the source of the voices. He was too intent on finding his sisters and getting out of his own dream world. All he wanted was his precious reality, the world where he can count on almost everything to be defined by fact.
When he couldn't find the source of the voices, he stopped to catch his breath. He was in the middle of town, back where he started. Morpheus caught up with him and looked at him sympathetically.
"They weren't real, Bill," he said. "Not in this world. In this world, everything you've experienced in reality is just a faded dream."
"No..." Bill closed his eyes and shook his head. "No! Morpheus, you're the god of dreams, aren't you? Can't you exit a person's dream whenever you wish? Can't you take me back and end my dreaming? Isn't that your power!?"
"Alas, no," Morpheus replied. "I can put my hold on a person's dream and force them to dream for awhile longer, but when I take my hand away, the dream ends. I have no real control over dreams anymore. Especially after I got drunk in the 1960's and caused the Charles Manson fiasco."
Bill winced upon hearing of Morpheus' limitations. "No..."
"I'm sorry, Bill," Morpheus said with a forlorn sigh.
Bill sighed as well and looked around. He noticed something. Something odd indeed.
"Where is everyone?" he asked the god of dreams.
"There's no one here anymore, Bill," Morpheus informed him. "Some places are like this. Empty shells of ideas, abandoned in the vast dream world a mortal creates... Quite common, actually."
Bill looked about himself again, this time in sadness and despair.
"Quite... depressing here... isn't it?" the soul asked the god.
"Mmm. It can be," Morpheus agreed.
"What was here?" Bill questioned.
Morpheus shrugged. "Who knows? Only you."
Not wanting to ponder over that bit, Bill wandered about the abandoned streets, looking at the wooden structures, some with those swinging doors of old, Western saloons, others with regular, wooden front doors, others with no door at all or a door barely hanging on its hinges. Bill stopped before what appeared to be a Victorian house. It seemed out of place, yet not at all. His curiosity got the best of him, and he ventured inside.
He was confronted with dust and cobwebs everywhere, but barely any real furniture. Only a few scattered chairs, covered in white cloths like ghosts or miscellaneous tables here and there of different varieties. Bolder-colored spots on the walls and floors told Bill that there once was a house full of furniture and walls covered with pictures, but many of them seemed to be missing.
He continued on, into what he would think was the parlor. Absolutely nothing remained in this room, save for a lonesome picture hanging on the wall...
...Or, what did up until he took a step into the room. The cord holding the picture snapped, and the picture, frame and all, fell to the wooden floor, clattering against the old, hard wood. Bill cautiously walked forward and picked the frame up, staring at its dusty surface for awhile before rubbing his paw on the pane preserving the photo.
His eyes widened. He recognized the picture. It was... taken on Christmas Day two years before. Yes, he remembered. His parents, his sister, and he were all gathered in front of the Christmas tree. His mother, dressed in a green dress and a smile upon her lovely face, sat in a chair with a wooden frame and red, velvet upholstery. His youngest sister, Ellie, stood in a red dress with a white bow tied in her curly, red hair, smiling at the camera as she gripped the arm of the chair. Bill himself stood in a rather plain suit (for once), with one hand on the edge of the chair, eyes shying away from the camera and looking at Ellie instead. Beth stood next to him, behind the chair in a dress of blue, hair partially clipped back as she smiled warmly at the camera. Finally, the father... The father...
"What's wrong with this picture?" Bill asked.
"What do you mean?" Morpheus inquired, leaning over Bill's shoulder to study it. "Nothing seems to be wrong to me..."
"My father," Bill said softly. "He's supposed to be in this picture. I know it! I've seen this picture so many times before! But..."
He put a paw over the empty corner of the photo.
"He's not there," Bill finished in amazement.
Morpheus stood in thought for a moment.
"Perhaps this is a symbol of how you truly feel about your father," Morpheus suggested.
"...I feel... as if my father was never there?" Bill asked.
Morpheus didn't answer but instead gave Bill a smile.
Bill's eyes trailed back to the photo. It was true, though. His father was always at work or in the Game Corner. Never at home with the family.
Bill remembered, as a boy, wandering about the halls of his home, only to find himself standing outside his parents' bedroom, watching as his mother looked at a photo album while holding back tears. One day, in his inquisitiveness, he snuck into his parents' bedroom and pulled that photo album from under the bed to see what pictures his mother was looking at.
It was their wedding album. His mother constantly looked at the photos taken on the very day she got married, wishing and yearning for those days when her husband loved her above everything else -- above gambling, above Pokémon, above everything save for his own, human children.
From then on, Bill became determined to avoid becoming the man his father had been. Bill vowed to love deeper and work harder for those he cared about, more so than his own father.
At remembering this, Bill threw the photo aside rather violently and turned to leave the house. Morpheus followed, gliding like a spectre not far behind.
As soon as he was outside, Bill stopped. Morpheus did as well. They both heard it. Carnival music.
Bill turned in the direction that the music was coming from and darted that way. He continued to the edge of the town opposite to where he came in. There, he found a cliff, and below the small cliff was... A circus bustling with life.
Tents were scattered at the foot of the cliff, all red and white, all different shapes and sizes. Laughter and pipe organ music was emitted from every square inch of the place, as was the smell of popcorn and peanuts.
Bill looked up at Morpheus with an inquisitive glance, but the god said nothing, only stared down at the commotion below. Without a reason why, the Meowth journeyed down into the circus area, knowing that Morpheus was following.
The two continued through, dodging various Pokémon, some with balloons tied around their paws, some carrying popcorn, some with plush dolls, and some with nothing at all. All, however, were on their hind legs, and all of them were obviously visitors to the circus. Pokémon clowns danced about the grounds, steering clear of an Ursaring or two in pink tutus. Donphan burning in bright, red fire stomped through the grounds unnoticed, lifting their trunks to trumpet a series of long notes as they continued on their way. Bill and Morpheus passed all of this, drawn, strangely enough, to the big top alone.
They entered, apparently just before a show, for the lights dimmed as they sat down in the bleachers. The ring master, a Scizor, appeared and began motioning to different rings with his giant pincers. Then, came the true performers. And no, they weren't Pokémon.
Twenty-some wind up, wooden dolls marched into each ring to mechanically perform their acts. The audience erupted into cheers and laughter as the wooden clowns acted out comedy bits. They watched in awe as wooden trapeze artists flew through the air high above them. They watched in amazement as wooden lion tamers forced blurry versions of Entei to sit, stay, jump through hoops made of water, and roar. And they were highly entertained by the beautiful, wooden women sitting high upon the flaming Donphan without a care in the world nor a scorch on their bodies. At the end of all of this, more clowns came onto the scene.
One clown, however, caught everyone's attention. She was a tall, lanky clown in colorful garb with puffy, purple hair. She stumbled and fell, triggering a wave of laughter throughout the audience except Bill and Morpheus, who watched in silence. However, it didn't end there. The Scizor ringmaster darted forward with a whip and whipped the wooden doll, taking a chip out of her. The crowd, however, got a kick out of this, so the Scizor whipped her again.
Bill watched in horror, wondering how the audience could possibly think this scene was funny. However, he looked around and realized something odd, yet important -- the audience were Swinub people. Each member of the audience had the body of a human being, wrapped in human clothing, but their heads were exactly like Swinub heads. Each audience member oinked as they laughed, taking in the humor like the pigs that they were. They didn't care as the Scizor cracked his whip again, causing one of the doll's arms to fall off.
Bill, who was thoroughly disgusted by this display of crudeness, stood and darted forward before Morpheus could say something to stop him.
"Stop it!" Bill yelled as he got between the Scizor and the doll (who had considerable amounts of wood missing).
The Scizor brought his arm up to whip the doll, but then noticed the Meowth and stopped in surprise. With a free pincer, the Scizor motioned for Bill to get out of the way. Bill responded by shaking his head vigorously.
"I won't let you hurt her!" Bill snapped. "She only made one mistake, and now, you're beating her to death! It isn't right!"
The Scizor shrugged and prepared to whip Bill to get him out of the way. However, as the whip came down, the wooden doll used the arm still attached to her body to push Bill out of the way and take the complete blow. She was split in half. As both pieces fell to the ground, one half looked up at Bill and smiled softly before closing her eye.
Bill stared in disbelief at the doll, unaware that the crowd was booing him. This angered the ringmaster, causing him to snap his whip in front of Bill. He snapped out of his thoughts, mentally coming back to his situation.
"Bill! Run!" Morpheus advised loudly.
With a nod, Bill dropped to all fours and ran as fast as he could out of the tent with everyone pursuing him. Morpheus followed quickly, not looking back at the angry ringmaster, the wooden dolls, the Swinub people, the flaming Donphan... Nothing.
Neither of them made too many thoughts until they crossed into greener land. They noticed the shrieks and hollers from the people at the circus growing fainter and fainter, but they didn't stop until Bill could run no longer. He dropped to his stomach, then pulled himself to his knees and looked behind him to see the shouting Pokémon and dolls at the edge of the circus grounds. They were unable to venture any further, for all of them were tied to the circus and could never leave it. Bill laughed in relief.
However, the thought of the doll's final moments came across his mind, and he fell silent in mourning sadness.
"Whatever is wrong, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.
"Why do I feel any sadness for that wind-up doll back in the circus?" Bill responded. "Why do I care?"
"Why did you ever care about things?" Morpheus answered. "You're a human, which gives you an enormous amount of sensitivity as it is. However, in addition, you're also extraordinarily compassionate, which makes all the difference. I can't answer your question to why you're like this; perhaps that will be a question you'll be able to answer yourself someday..."
Bill looked at Morpheus blankly before turning from the god and leading the way, away from the circus. Morpheus followed without another word.
They journeyed like that for hours, neither of them exchanging any forms of speech. Neither even so much as looking at the other. For hours, they journeyed through the green countryside without a single unusual thing happening. It was like a bit of sanity in Wonderland, and with this, Bill was quite relieved. At least he could concentrate on other questions being brought up in his mind.
At last, after a long period of pondering, he arrived at the bank of a river and stopped to rest. He looked into the blue waters to see Magikarp of just about every color of the rainbow swimming past as well as Barboach that seemed to have trouble keeping their proper shape, morphing into a variety of objects, such as stars or cubes or even umbrellas. Bill had no thirst to quench, so he only remained sitting there, watching the aquatic oddities float by until at last he voiced his question.
"Morpheus?" he addressed.
"Ever-present and listening, Bill," the god responded.
Bill paused for a moment. "Why did you bring me here? I... I know that you wanted me to dream, but the more I think about it, the more that I think that that simple reason isn't the only reason why you forced me into my dream world."
"What makes you think that?" Morpheus asked.
"I don't know," Bill admitted. "It just seems... It just seems that everything I look at in this world seems to trigger a feeling inside of me. Not just the picture we found in the abandoned town, either. I mean, everything. The dolls, the circus, the Bellossom, the door... All of it. Everything I look at seems to cause some strange sensation in my heart..."
"Perhaps it's because everything you see means something to you," Morpheus implied.
Bill looked up at Morpheus, blinked, and shook his head. "I don't understand."
Morpheus sighed. "Everything in your dream world has its own, separate meaning. Each meaning is linked to a different emotion in your heart. So, whenever you look at a certain object in your dream, it means something else. For example..."
Morpheus trailed off, expecting an answer from Bill. However, the youth was busy, replaying a single scene in his mind. Surely, such an image would last in his mind forever. He'd always see that smile etched into his brain, that one moment of pure emotion...
"I felt my heart drop when I saw that doll lashed in two," Bill finally stated. "It was like..." He stared at the endless, rosy-pink sky. "It was like..."
"It was like someone you loved died?" Morpheus proposed.
Bill shook his head. "No... It was like... When I saw that doll, it was as if I found something. Then, when she broke into pieces, it was like... I lost that something all over again."
Bill stood on his hind legs and put one of his forepaws over his heart. He looked straight forward with a saddened gaze. He felt numb as he replayed the scene in his mind once more. He couldn't take his mind off of that look in that doll's eye as both halves fell to the ground under the circus tent.
"What does that mean, Morpheus?" Bill asked.
Morpheus shook his head. "I can't answer that question. Only you can, Bill."
Bill sighed and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, the landscape turned dark. Once more, it was night.
"Time goes by so quickly here," Bill muttered.
"Perhaps it's another symbol," Morpheus hinted. "Yet another thing that has a message it wants to tell you..."
"Hmm."
Bill's eyes rose a bit at the starry sky, trying to figure out what Morpheus meant. Eventually, though, his mind cleared, and all he thought about was trying to figure out what sort of strange constellations he was looking at when he stared at the stars. They certainly didn't look like any pattern he knew...
Just then, wings appeared about the North Star (or what seemed to be the North Star), and the speck of light descended from the tapestry of black and silver to hover around Bill's head. He blinked, realizing that the so-called star was nothing but a black Volbeat emitting an eerie, silver light.
"What a peculiar world," Bill murmured as he followed the insect Pokémon with his eyes.
The firefly hovered about the Meowth's head once more before descending further and flying across the river, low to the water. Bill gazed into the depths of the black, liquid ribbon, only to see the water had turned blood red. Not only that, but within its depths, he found a sight that caused him to pale in horror and jump backwards, landing on his tail and releasing a shuddering gasp from his throat.
"What is it, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.
"Th-there!" Bill exclaimed as he motioned towards the river with an outstretched, shaking paw. "I-I saw something!"
"What?" Morpheus asked as he tilted his head. "What did you see?"
"I saw..."
Bill was unable to answer. He didn't want to describe it. The girl, lying on her back on the bottom of the river. Her long, silky, raven hair floated about her, mainly covering her dead face, and the pure, white dress she wore was torn in several places and painted with blood in several more. Cuts were all over her arms, allowing some bits of skin to flap in the current of the water, revealing torn muscle and bleached bone underneath.
If there had been anything in Bill's stomach, it would have promptly left by then. But since there wasn't (though his brain was still telling him to vomit), all he could do was kneel and gag for awhile until the feeling subsided. Morpheus watched on with the greatest of sympathies in his eyes.
"What... was that!?" Bill asked as he took a few gulps of fresh air.
Morpheus shrugged. "Perhaps just another symbol. Maybe a symbol of a great sense of pain caused by water."
Bill hesitated. Water... He couldn't think of much else except...
He shook his head vigorously and pressed his paw over his chest again. He wanted to toss the thought aside, but it wouldn't leave his mind. There it was, as plain as daylight.
"What are you thinking, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.
Bill shook his head. "Nothing. I'm thinking of nothing."
He stood up and began leading the way. He walked along the river, unwilling to step into the waters for fear that the corpse might be following him somehow, slithering along the riverbed as it waited living flesh for living flesh to pass through the waters so it could snatch it up and pull it under the bitter-cold waters. Bill shuddered.
"Come along, Morpheus," Bill half commanded. "I'd like to find a safe place to rest for the night."
Morpheus nodded and floated along behind his mortal companion.
---
Ellie sat in the hospital room, staring at her older brother, then looking away quickly, at Goldenrod's nighttime scenery through the window. She couldn't stand seeing a person, especially her own flesh and blood, hooked up to monitors and machinery, with tubes and wires and IVs coming out of his mouth and several spots on his skin. The room was in silence. She was alone in the room, save for her brother, and at this, she fidgeted, swinging her legs forwards and backwards, under the chair, then straight out in front of her as she stared at her lap.
"What do you mean 'you don't know'!?"
Ellie looked up, towards the doorway, beyond which her mother was arguing with a doctor.
"There's something terribly wrong with my son, and you can't even figure out what it is!?" the mother shouted.
"Mrs. McKenzie, we're doing all that we can to discover just what might be wrong with your son," the doctor responded softly. "We're running every single test we can think of, and we're examining every single part of his body. However, we haven't found anything yet, but I can assure you, we WILL find out what caused this coma. You just have to be patient!"
Ellie's mother broke down into hysterical sobs.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. McKenzie," the doctor apologized. "We're doing the best we can."
Ellie could hear that her mother's sobs were getting softer. The doctor was leading her away, back into the waiting room. Ellie looked back at her lap and swung her legs forwards and backwards again, thinking of nothing in particular save for a white space of extreme confusion. She didn't look up as she heard footsteps approaching once more.
The door opened, and in walked a male doctor holding a clipboard. The doctor, not noticing Ellie, walked up to the bed and gazed down at the nearly lifeless body lying on it with his blue eyes. He sighed and ran the fingers of his free hand through his straight, brown hair.
"I doubt he'll wake up," the doctor muttered to himself.
Ellie looked up, staring blankly at the doctor as he turned around to see her. The two of them simply gaped at each other in surprise. The awkward silence between them was thick and solid, as if an invisible brick wall had been built between it and both sides had a person who could only ponder how to get around it.