Foreword: This fic is hereby dedicated to Meowthgal. Yes, that's an unusual statement, but I had to do SOMETHING for her. ^_^;
Also, I actually got Cat Soup recently, so be prepared for some trippiness, especially from page six and beyond. ^_^;
Author's responses:
-To Tanya: Thanks for your kind comments. I'm glad to hear that it doesn't matter that I took poor Bill somewhat off character. ^_^;
-To DarkCatXX: I've been meaning to review your stories, but I never got around to it. And that's extremely rude. O_o; *goes off to do so*
As for the motivation, yes, lags like that tend to happen now and then, but I'm sure you'll get over it. ^_^ (And as for yours truly... *looks at all her unfinished stories* Hoo boy... ^_^;)
And as for your questions about the storyline, perhaps the river will mean something eventually. (Originally, it was just a random idea that popped into mind... Then again, so was the pact, and that wound up being some sort of a coincidence. ^_^;) And yes, you'll hear more about Alice (and get a better description of her) later on, but how exactly... Well, I don't want to spoil it for you. ^_^;
-To the rest of you: Nah. I'm not THAT disappointed that I've got only two reviewers. I'm just disappointed in the fact that there's been an unhealthy amount of cookie-cutter stories on FF.net lately. It's as if people are really lacking creativity to come up with a concept other than new trainers starting off at (insert town name here) with (insert Pokémon here) that just happens to be (insert oddity here). Either that or something other than some kid who just happened to be (captured by any of the three existing Teams, most likely Rocket/worked for any of the three existing teams, most likely Rocket/in a situation in which he or she meets a legendary Pokémon) and wound up (being experimented on/falling under a spell or curse), which turned them into a(n) (insert Pokémon here) hybrid. (And don't even get me started on the romance stuff or the "chosen one" fics.) And people absolutely love these concepts, no matter how many times they're repeated. O.o;
Now, I don't mean to rant and offend and whatnot, but as I've said in a chatroom: "There's only so much you can do with a concept before it can become boring." After all, we're all supposed to be creative little suckers. Can't we come up with our own ideas? =/
I guess that's another purpose of How Bizarre. To break away from the fill-in-the-blank, predictable stories appearing somewhat often as of late and to prove to the world that you can:
A. Write a Pokémon story without mentioning legendary Pokémon. At all.
B. Write a Pokémon story without any hints of Mary Sues/Gary Stus. (Alice is not a Mary Sue. I'll explain why once the time is right.)
C. Get away with writing a story completely unpredictable and so far from the norm that it seems like a fresh concept... and make it look good.
Well, that said, this is almost a page long, so let's get into the story, shall we? ^_^;
---
Night Four: Sweet Nightmares
Bill led the way through the city. He didn't know where he was going (When did he ever in his dream world?), but he hoped that eventually, he'd wind up outside of the city and one step closer to the Lotus Temple. His eyes were glued on the ground; he didn't notice as the sky became multi-colored and distorted, as if wet paint of all sorts of dark colors had been poured into one can before being swirled, creating not a new color but instead waves and swirls of separate hues.
He didn't notice as the setting shifted from giant skyscrapers boasting windows with paint-on cogs to buildings with dreary, gray, brick walls, a part of the city that seemed very urban. It had signs and graffiti all over the walls of its structures, though there were no hands to put them up or to vandalize at all, nor was the writing at all legible to Bill's eyes. They all seemed to be in a foreign writing -- possibly Arabic... or just scribbles. Bill only gave them a glance and didn't bother to stop and decipher them.
"Something wrong, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.
"Quite dreary here, isn't...?" Bill stopped short as he looked up at the sky. "How peculiar."
"Hmm. Indeed," Morpheus replied with a bored tone. "Is that all you're troubled with?"
"Not exactly," Bill answered.
"Then Alice...?"
Bill shook his head. "Though I've been thinking about her since yesterday, that's not what's on my mind."
Morpheus floated down, bowing his head close to the head of his companion. "Then what is?"
Bill frowned. "Do you have the feeling that we're being watched?"
---
A shadow curled out from around the corner of a building. Amongst the blackish-purple fog, a pair of green eyes opened, narrow and slanted. A claw-like hand pushed out from within the dark cloud and curled around the corner of the brick building, pulling the form closer to the open, allowing it to see the backs of a Meowth and a golden-horned being just a few feet away.
"Do you have the feeling that we're being watched?" the Meowth asked.
A line was drawn in the cloud before curving up into a twisted smile.
"Come," the thing said in a raspy voice.
Three shadows grew from him along the ground before rising up onto the wall of the building on the other side of the alley. A pair of red eyes, one of blue, and the last of yellow each opened like those of the thing the shadows came from.
"Ornithophobia," the red-eyed shadow announced in a feminine voice.
"Enochlophobia," the red-eyed's blue-eyed sister added.
"Agoraphobia," the yellow-eyed sister finished.
"We are the three urchins that plague this dream world. We are the children of chaos. The spawn of nightmares. The things that terrorize our dreamer into fearing his own haven," all three recited in unison. "We are the Three Sisters. Here to serve the king of darkness, Nightmare."
The misty shadow chuckled. "Ah, my three most loyal servants. I trust you know what I have observed, do you not?"
"Strange things have been happening in this dream world lately," Ornithophobia stated.
"Much more peculiar than usual," Enochlophobia inputted.
"They say the dreamer is lost," Agoraphobia said.
Ornithophobia's ruby eyes narrowed. "Lost among his own dreams..."
Enochlophobia's sapphire eyes followed. "They say the keeper of the Lotus Temple is in wait for him."
Agoraphobia's eyes closed completely. "But he is too busy finding something he lost in his own Wonderland."
Nightmare grinned. "So you HAVE all been paying attention. What does this mean for us?"
"The dreamer's body is free for our taking," the Three Sisters responded in unison. "While the dreamer is wandering about his own mind, we can wake up his body by taking his place in his mind, and with this, he will be sealed within himself... forever."
"Very good," Nightmare complimented. "Now, how ever will we delay the dreamer from getting to the Lotus Temple before one of us does?"
"We will volunteer to slow him by tormenting him with his own fears," Ornithophobia responded. "But first, we must know where the dreamer is."
Nightmare's grin grew wider. "Split up and search every corner of the land. However... Start with the strange couple wandering about our city. It's most unusual to have someone aside from us meander within our sanctuary..."
Ornithophobia pulled away from the wall, revealing herself to be a harpy with black claws, a gray, demonic face, and a body covered with ebony feathers.
"Sisters, go on your search. I will take care of the intruders," Ornithophobia announced as she took flight and transformed into a full, gigantic raven.
"Oh, she's always the one who gets to have fun first," Agoraphobia complained with a sigh.
"Be patient, Sister," Enochlophobia responded. "We will have our chance as well."
With that, she and her sister rose up the brick building quickly, shooting into the air as two black blurs. Nightmare watched them with his emerald eyes before grinning once more and disappearing back into the non-living shadows...
---
A chill ran down Bill's spine. Something wasn't right. He sensed it. Something chilled his skin, and a cold, heavy feeling settled in his stomach. Fear. He stopped in his tracks as his head tilted skyward and his eyes widened.
"What's wrong, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.
"I could have sworn I felt something," Bill replied, rubbing his arms.
Morpheus closed his eyes. "Another sign."
Bill looked over his shoulder at Morpheus. "A sign of what, exactly?"
Morpheus didn't answer. He only opened his eyes slightly, staring at Bill as if the Meowth and only the Meowth knew the answer. Bill turned around and raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what Morpheus was thinking.
All of a sudden, he felt someone passing behind him rather quickly. He froze, then looked back over his shoulder, shuddering in anxiety.
"What... What was that?" Bill asked softly.
"Are you afraid of the dark?" a voice hissed at him from seemingly nowhere.
Bill turned around and took a step backwards. "Morpheus... What is that...?"
"Are you afraid of the dark?" it repeated. "Are you...?"
Bill closed his eyes, got a grip on himself, and shook his head. "No!"
"You're lying," the voice sneered. "I know. I know everything about you, especially your fears. You can't hide from me."
Shadows grew from every dark patch in the area and merged together to form a dark being with blood red eyes. She narrowed them at Bill, studying him carefully.
"Are you the one who dreams? Who searches for something he yearns?" she asked.
Bill could only nod, unaware of the consequences that simple action could bring.
"You... are Bill?"
Again, he nodded.
A pair of wings burst from the darkness, throwing a rain of ebony feathers at Morpheus and Bill. Bill shielded his face, as if the feathers were blades until at last, he moved his arm to see the demon before him. The harpy who gazed at him with vicious, ruby eyes.
"With every dream comes a nightmare," she told him. "You think you are away from harm when you dream... Think again!"
She pointed to Bill's arm with a talon. He looked down and found that wherever a feather struck his flesh, there was a red line from which blood dripped. He felt nothing, though.
"What is this?" Bill questioned with eyes wide as saucers.
"Does it matter?" the harpy responded. "I am one of the four siblings who can make your every nightmare come true. I am Ornithophobia, mistress of birds. And to demonstrate my power..."
She spread her wings and threw her head back, sending a storm of feathers into the sky. Each feather flattened and reshaped itself into a black square before folding several times to form a black paper crane. Entire flocks of them darkened the sky, obscuring the colors as they flew like a single body, a single river of paper terror that rooted Bill to his spot on the ground.
"Bill, I suggest you run!" Morpheus shouted as he watched the river flow towards the mortal.
Bill remained frozen for a few moments before diving out of the way, sprawling out on the sidewalk a few feet away. He had narrowly missed them all as they plunged into the ground, forming a dark hole in the cement as they burrowed further and further into the ground.
Only when the last crane disappeared below did Bill shakily get up. He looked at Ornithophobia and froze once more in pure fright. He feared birds as it was, but the form Ornithophobia took caused his blood to run as cold as ice.
She chose, of all things, a Fearow. The memory still haunted him. The images of the cloudy afternoon when a Fearow had swooped in and attacked him simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had suppressed the memory for so long that it only seemed like a faded nightmare whose end he couldn't remember. It only seemed like a trick of the mind.
He backed away, scared beyond words.
"No," he managed to whisper.
Then, there was a rumbling below. Morpheus looked down and watched the spot of cement Bill was fixed to. It cracked, though the human soul didn't notice. Then, all at once, the river of ebony burst from the ground below him, throwing him into the air and slamming him down into the cement again before flying into the air to wait for him.
Morpheus stared at the limp Meowth. "Bill?"
Bill didn't stir. His body was covered in red lines, and his face was buried in his forepaws.
"Such a shame to see you go down so easily," Ornithophobia muttered as she took flight, prepared to strike Bill herself.
"Bill, don't you realize that these dreams are just that -- only dreams?" Morpheus inquired harshly. "Though I have no control over what goes on in a mortal's dreams anymore, YOU have that power. You are the god of your OWN dreams, Bill. Figure things out from there."
Ornithophobia struck Bill with a Fury Attack, sending the Meowth bouncing about the pavement before he wound up face-down on the cement again. He looked up at Morpheus, who only remained floating there, watching.
"Only dreams," Bill murmured.
A shrill cry escaped Ornithophobia's throat as she swooped in again for a Drill Peck, the last attack the real Fearow used on Bill so many years ago. However, just at the last moment, Bill pulled himself out of the way, leaving Ornithophobia to drill into the cement.
"You were wrong!" Bill snapped as he stood up without a cut on his body. "I CAN'T be hurt here! These are my dreams, and I can do as I wish here!"
Bill ejected his claws and held them up to Ornithophobia.
"I may still be ornithophobic outside of this world; I can't tell right now," he stated. "However, in this world, you can't touch me!"
Ornithophobia transformed back into a harpy and lifted her head.
"We'll see about that," she said with a smirk.
Just then, the river of paper cranes dove onto Bill. He quickly began slashing away at them with his claws, desperately trying to get them off of him. However, it seemed as if he was drowning in a sea of them; whenever he shredded one, five more replaced it. He resorted to biting a few as he rest of him thrashed about in a slashing frenzy.
At last, when the last crane was ripped off of him, he realized something. Ornithophobia was gone.
"Morpheus! Where did she go!?" Bill demanded in anger.
"Patience, Bill," Morpheus responded. "You will defeat her when the time comes. However, it is not time. Not yet. I suggest we move on."
Bill nodded and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly to calm himself after all that excitement. When he was at last ready, he began leading the way, into the vast unknown.
---
The blue-colored sun was setting in the northern horizon once more as Bill found himself walking out of the city. He breathed a sigh of relief, happy to be away from the crowded urban streets.
The landscape before him was bleak. The sky above was a shade of gray, and the sands he stood on were a pale red. The dark waves rolled onto the beach regularly, making a noise almost like a stadium full of people hissing at the sky. It all seemed eternal, the struggle between land, water, and sky to occupy the same existence equally.
"What is this?" Bill inquired.
He looked over his shoulder to see Morpheus only shrug.
"What is it to you?" Morpheus responded. "Could it be that, like the ocean, there is a part of you ever-changing?"
Bill considered this as he looked out to sea again. The intensity and depth of it all was indescribable by words.
"It's that way," Bill finally muttered.
"Hmm?" Morpheus inquired.
Bill pointed to the horizon over the sea with a paw. "The Lotus Temple. It's that way."
"Alright then."
Bill looked at Morpheus again. "How will we get there? I can't swim an ocean, especially in the body of a Meowth, and I have a feeling that you won't be carrying me there."
"We will get there by boat, of course," Morpheus announced as a gray hand slid from his black robes and pointed forward, at something further down the beach.
Bill ran towards it, kicking up red sand as he did for he had yet to get used to running on sand with Meowth paws. At last, in the moonlight of a green moon, he arrived at the thing. It was a boat of glass, crystal clear and cold as ice, with small structure like a wooden shed in the middle to shelter its occupants. Bill studied the boat with a look of skepticism.
"But will it float?" Bill asked to no one in particular.
"There is only one way to find out," Morpheus responded. "Get in. I will push the boat far enough into the water so that it will float towards our destination."
With a slow nod, Bill jumped up and grabbed the edge of the boat, pulling himself up and over it and into the boat itself. Morpheus glided behind the boat and began pushing it off the sand, further and further into the water until it was deeper than he was tall. Morpheus then swung himself into the boat and sat down on where he landed.
Bill had nothing to say from then on. He retreated into the wooden shed and watched the ocean scene below through the glass floor. The waters were highlighted with a green tint, and he could see perfectly, all the way to the sandy bottom, which seemed to be miles upon miles below. He watched as schools of black Goldeen swam peacefully by and as Tentacool giving off sparks of light danced in erratic patterns about the ocean floor. He kept watching until a Gyarados made of a blue liquid swooped in and swallowed several Goldeen and a Tentacool, then swam closer to the surface of the water, allowing Bill to see clearly as the Pokémon within it disintegrated. He shifted uncomfortably before lying on his back, staring up at the shed's darkness.
With a shudder, he closed his eyes.
---
He opened his eyes once more to the sound of tapping on the roof. He raised an eyebrow and turned over carefully to see drops of color float to the bottom as the boat went past. Curious, he looked out of the opening to the shed to find colored rain fall from a lit-up, purple sky. He briefly wondered if he had fallen asleep but tossed that idea aside, figuring that time was just as unpredictable as distance.
He and Morpheus watched the drops fall into the ocean without a word to the other. Morpheus was as still as a statue, but Bill held out a paw, catching a large, orange raindrop in the middle of it. He brought it to his face and examined it carefully until it gave off a bright light and turned into a small, orange faerie. The faerie giggled touched his nose (or the spot where his nose would be) and flew into the sky to fall back down as a raindrop again.
"How unusual," Bill finally muttered.
Morpheus chuckled. "Indeed."
---
Ellie lay awake in her bedroom as the hour hand moved to eleven o' clock. Several months had passed since her brother fell into that coma (though no one knew they were days in his mind), and things were STILL not improving. She knew because she visited him that day, just like she had every other day and just like she had promised to him she would every day.
"No! You can't!" her mother cried on the other side of the wall, in the master bedroom.
Ellie didn't turn her head. Instead, her eyes moved so that she could see the wall from the corners of her eyes without having to otherwise move.
"He's already half dead, Rose!" Ellie's father yelled. "There's no hope for him! Even the doctors said it!"
"We can't give up hope on William!" Rose protested. "He'll wake up soon!"
"He's not responding to any of their treatments," the father pointed out. "It's a waste of time and money. Our son is probably suffering right now; the best thing to do is to put him out of his misery."
"Stop talking about him as if he's a dog!" Rose boomed. "William is our son -- our ONLY son! We can't have him put to sleep like a stray animal in a pound! We have to keep him alive until the day when--"
"When he wakes up?" the father finished. "Rose, William WON'T wake up. He is as good as dead. We have two daughters, and he kept his distance from us; it won't be so bad if he dies. Now, listen. I'll call up the hospital, and--"
"NO!" Rose sobbed. "I won't let you! William will wake up soon! You can't let him die!"
Her husband growled. "Rose!"
Ellie heard her mother burst into tears. It was only then when she turned her head to look at the wall.
"Everything will be fine," the father said. "He probably wants us to do this..."
Rose sobbed as Ellie's head turned again to look at the ceiling.
There was a moment's pause before the little girl got out of bed. She picked up her backpack and emptied it before going about her room, collecting clothing, odds and ends, and a piggybank, placing everything in her backpack. When everything was packed, she opened the window and slid outside before running towards the street and away from the house.
"Don't worry, Big Brother," Ellie murmured. "I'll help keep you alive for a little while longer while Mommy and Daddy look for me. Maybe you'll wake up while I'm gone..."
Also, I actually got Cat Soup recently, so be prepared for some trippiness, especially from page six and beyond. ^_^;
Author's responses:
-To Tanya: Thanks for your kind comments. I'm glad to hear that it doesn't matter that I took poor Bill somewhat off character. ^_^;
-To DarkCatXX: I've been meaning to review your stories, but I never got around to it. And that's extremely rude. O_o; *goes off to do so*
As for the motivation, yes, lags like that tend to happen now and then, but I'm sure you'll get over it. ^_^ (And as for yours truly... *looks at all her unfinished stories* Hoo boy... ^_^;)
And as for your questions about the storyline, perhaps the river will mean something eventually. (Originally, it was just a random idea that popped into mind... Then again, so was the pact, and that wound up being some sort of a coincidence. ^_^;) And yes, you'll hear more about Alice (and get a better description of her) later on, but how exactly... Well, I don't want to spoil it for you. ^_^;
-To the rest of you: Nah. I'm not THAT disappointed that I've got only two reviewers. I'm just disappointed in the fact that there's been an unhealthy amount of cookie-cutter stories on FF.net lately. It's as if people are really lacking creativity to come up with a concept other than new trainers starting off at (insert town name here) with (insert Pokémon here) that just happens to be (insert oddity here). Either that or something other than some kid who just happened to be (captured by any of the three existing Teams, most likely Rocket/worked for any of the three existing teams, most likely Rocket/in a situation in which he or she meets a legendary Pokémon) and wound up (being experimented on/falling under a spell or curse), which turned them into a(n) (insert Pokémon here) hybrid. (And don't even get me started on the romance stuff or the "chosen one" fics.) And people absolutely love these concepts, no matter how many times they're repeated. O.o;
Now, I don't mean to rant and offend and whatnot, but as I've said in a chatroom: "There's only so much you can do with a concept before it can become boring." After all, we're all supposed to be creative little suckers. Can't we come up with our own ideas? =/
I guess that's another purpose of How Bizarre. To break away from the fill-in-the-blank, predictable stories appearing somewhat often as of late and to prove to the world that you can:
A. Write a Pokémon story without mentioning legendary Pokémon. At all.
B. Write a Pokémon story without any hints of Mary Sues/Gary Stus. (Alice is not a Mary Sue. I'll explain why once the time is right.)
C. Get away with writing a story completely unpredictable and so far from the norm that it seems like a fresh concept... and make it look good.
Well, that said, this is almost a page long, so let's get into the story, shall we? ^_^;
---
Night Four: Sweet Nightmares
Bill led the way through the city. He didn't know where he was going (When did he ever in his dream world?), but he hoped that eventually, he'd wind up outside of the city and one step closer to the Lotus Temple. His eyes were glued on the ground; he didn't notice as the sky became multi-colored and distorted, as if wet paint of all sorts of dark colors had been poured into one can before being swirled, creating not a new color but instead waves and swirls of separate hues.
He didn't notice as the setting shifted from giant skyscrapers boasting windows with paint-on cogs to buildings with dreary, gray, brick walls, a part of the city that seemed very urban. It had signs and graffiti all over the walls of its structures, though there were no hands to put them up or to vandalize at all, nor was the writing at all legible to Bill's eyes. They all seemed to be in a foreign writing -- possibly Arabic... or just scribbles. Bill only gave them a glance and didn't bother to stop and decipher them.
"Something wrong, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.
"Quite dreary here, isn't...?" Bill stopped short as he looked up at the sky. "How peculiar."
"Hmm. Indeed," Morpheus replied with a bored tone. "Is that all you're troubled with?"
"Not exactly," Bill answered.
"Then Alice...?"
Bill shook his head. "Though I've been thinking about her since yesterday, that's not what's on my mind."
Morpheus floated down, bowing his head close to the head of his companion. "Then what is?"
Bill frowned. "Do you have the feeling that we're being watched?"
---
A shadow curled out from around the corner of a building. Amongst the blackish-purple fog, a pair of green eyes opened, narrow and slanted. A claw-like hand pushed out from within the dark cloud and curled around the corner of the brick building, pulling the form closer to the open, allowing it to see the backs of a Meowth and a golden-horned being just a few feet away.
"Do you have the feeling that we're being watched?" the Meowth asked.
A line was drawn in the cloud before curving up into a twisted smile.
"Come," the thing said in a raspy voice.
Three shadows grew from him along the ground before rising up onto the wall of the building on the other side of the alley. A pair of red eyes, one of blue, and the last of yellow each opened like those of the thing the shadows came from.
"Ornithophobia," the red-eyed shadow announced in a feminine voice.
"Enochlophobia," the red-eyed's blue-eyed sister added.
"Agoraphobia," the yellow-eyed sister finished.
"We are the three urchins that plague this dream world. We are the children of chaos. The spawn of nightmares. The things that terrorize our dreamer into fearing his own haven," all three recited in unison. "We are the Three Sisters. Here to serve the king of darkness, Nightmare."
The misty shadow chuckled. "Ah, my three most loyal servants. I trust you know what I have observed, do you not?"
"Strange things have been happening in this dream world lately," Ornithophobia stated.
"Much more peculiar than usual," Enochlophobia inputted.
"They say the dreamer is lost," Agoraphobia said.
Ornithophobia's ruby eyes narrowed. "Lost among his own dreams..."
Enochlophobia's sapphire eyes followed. "They say the keeper of the Lotus Temple is in wait for him."
Agoraphobia's eyes closed completely. "But he is too busy finding something he lost in his own Wonderland."
Nightmare grinned. "So you HAVE all been paying attention. What does this mean for us?"
"The dreamer's body is free for our taking," the Three Sisters responded in unison. "While the dreamer is wandering about his own mind, we can wake up his body by taking his place in his mind, and with this, he will be sealed within himself... forever."
"Very good," Nightmare complimented. "Now, how ever will we delay the dreamer from getting to the Lotus Temple before one of us does?"
"We will volunteer to slow him by tormenting him with his own fears," Ornithophobia responded. "But first, we must know where the dreamer is."
Nightmare's grin grew wider. "Split up and search every corner of the land. However... Start with the strange couple wandering about our city. It's most unusual to have someone aside from us meander within our sanctuary..."
Ornithophobia pulled away from the wall, revealing herself to be a harpy with black claws, a gray, demonic face, and a body covered with ebony feathers.
"Sisters, go on your search. I will take care of the intruders," Ornithophobia announced as she took flight and transformed into a full, gigantic raven.
"Oh, she's always the one who gets to have fun first," Agoraphobia complained with a sigh.
"Be patient, Sister," Enochlophobia responded. "We will have our chance as well."
With that, she and her sister rose up the brick building quickly, shooting into the air as two black blurs. Nightmare watched them with his emerald eyes before grinning once more and disappearing back into the non-living shadows...
---
A chill ran down Bill's spine. Something wasn't right. He sensed it. Something chilled his skin, and a cold, heavy feeling settled in his stomach. Fear. He stopped in his tracks as his head tilted skyward and his eyes widened.
"What's wrong, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.
"I could have sworn I felt something," Bill replied, rubbing his arms.
Morpheus closed his eyes. "Another sign."
Bill looked over his shoulder at Morpheus. "A sign of what, exactly?"
Morpheus didn't answer. He only opened his eyes slightly, staring at Bill as if the Meowth and only the Meowth knew the answer. Bill turned around and raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what Morpheus was thinking.
All of a sudden, he felt someone passing behind him rather quickly. He froze, then looked back over his shoulder, shuddering in anxiety.
"What... What was that?" Bill asked softly.
"Are you afraid of the dark?" a voice hissed at him from seemingly nowhere.
Bill turned around and took a step backwards. "Morpheus... What is that...?"
"Are you afraid of the dark?" it repeated. "Are you...?"
Bill closed his eyes, got a grip on himself, and shook his head. "No!"
"You're lying," the voice sneered. "I know. I know everything about you, especially your fears. You can't hide from me."
Shadows grew from every dark patch in the area and merged together to form a dark being with blood red eyes. She narrowed them at Bill, studying him carefully.
"Are you the one who dreams? Who searches for something he yearns?" she asked.
Bill could only nod, unaware of the consequences that simple action could bring.
"You... are Bill?"
Again, he nodded.
A pair of wings burst from the darkness, throwing a rain of ebony feathers at Morpheus and Bill. Bill shielded his face, as if the feathers were blades until at last, he moved his arm to see the demon before him. The harpy who gazed at him with vicious, ruby eyes.
"With every dream comes a nightmare," she told him. "You think you are away from harm when you dream... Think again!"
She pointed to Bill's arm with a talon. He looked down and found that wherever a feather struck his flesh, there was a red line from which blood dripped. He felt nothing, though.
"What is this?" Bill questioned with eyes wide as saucers.
"Does it matter?" the harpy responded. "I am one of the four siblings who can make your every nightmare come true. I am Ornithophobia, mistress of birds. And to demonstrate my power..."
She spread her wings and threw her head back, sending a storm of feathers into the sky. Each feather flattened and reshaped itself into a black square before folding several times to form a black paper crane. Entire flocks of them darkened the sky, obscuring the colors as they flew like a single body, a single river of paper terror that rooted Bill to his spot on the ground.
"Bill, I suggest you run!" Morpheus shouted as he watched the river flow towards the mortal.
Bill remained frozen for a few moments before diving out of the way, sprawling out on the sidewalk a few feet away. He had narrowly missed them all as they plunged into the ground, forming a dark hole in the cement as they burrowed further and further into the ground.
Only when the last crane disappeared below did Bill shakily get up. He looked at Ornithophobia and froze once more in pure fright. He feared birds as it was, but the form Ornithophobia took caused his blood to run as cold as ice.
She chose, of all things, a Fearow. The memory still haunted him. The images of the cloudy afternoon when a Fearow had swooped in and attacked him simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had suppressed the memory for so long that it only seemed like a faded nightmare whose end he couldn't remember. It only seemed like a trick of the mind.
He backed away, scared beyond words.
"No," he managed to whisper.
Then, there was a rumbling below. Morpheus looked down and watched the spot of cement Bill was fixed to. It cracked, though the human soul didn't notice. Then, all at once, the river of ebony burst from the ground below him, throwing him into the air and slamming him down into the cement again before flying into the air to wait for him.
Morpheus stared at the limp Meowth. "Bill?"
Bill didn't stir. His body was covered in red lines, and his face was buried in his forepaws.
"Such a shame to see you go down so easily," Ornithophobia muttered as she took flight, prepared to strike Bill herself.
"Bill, don't you realize that these dreams are just that -- only dreams?" Morpheus inquired harshly. "Though I have no control over what goes on in a mortal's dreams anymore, YOU have that power. You are the god of your OWN dreams, Bill. Figure things out from there."
Ornithophobia struck Bill with a Fury Attack, sending the Meowth bouncing about the pavement before he wound up face-down on the cement again. He looked up at Morpheus, who only remained floating there, watching.
"Only dreams," Bill murmured.
A shrill cry escaped Ornithophobia's throat as she swooped in again for a Drill Peck, the last attack the real Fearow used on Bill so many years ago. However, just at the last moment, Bill pulled himself out of the way, leaving Ornithophobia to drill into the cement.
"You were wrong!" Bill snapped as he stood up without a cut on his body. "I CAN'T be hurt here! These are my dreams, and I can do as I wish here!"
Bill ejected his claws and held them up to Ornithophobia.
"I may still be ornithophobic outside of this world; I can't tell right now," he stated. "However, in this world, you can't touch me!"
Ornithophobia transformed back into a harpy and lifted her head.
"We'll see about that," she said with a smirk.
Just then, the river of paper cranes dove onto Bill. He quickly began slashing away at them with his claws, desperately trying to get them off of him. However, it seemed as if he was drowning in a sea of them; whenever he shredded one, five more replaced it. He resorted to biting a few as he rest of him thrashed about in a slashing frenzy.
At last, when the last crane was ripped off of him, he realized something. Ornithophobia was gone.
"Morpheus! Where did she go!?" Bill demanded in anger.
"Patience, Bill," Morpheus responded. "You will defeat her when the time comes. However, it is not time. Not yet. I suggest we move on."
Bill nodded and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly to calm himself after all that excitement. When he was at last ready, he began leading the way, into the vast unknown.
---
The blue-colored sun was setting in the northern horizon once more as Bill found himself walking out of the city. He breathed a sigh of relief, happy to be away from the crowded urban streets.
The landscape before him was bleak. The sky above was a shade of gray, and the sands he stood on were a pale red. The dark waves rolled onto the beach regularly, making a noise almost like a stadium full of people hissing at the sky. It all seemed eternal, the struggle between land, water, and sky to occupy the same existence equally.
"What is this?" Bill inquired.
He looked over his shoulder to see Morpheus only shrug.
"What is it to you?" Morpheus responded. "Could it be that, like the ocean, there is a part of you ever-changing?"
Bill considered this as he looked out to sea again. The intensity and depth of it all was indescribable by words.
"It's that way," Bill finally muttered.
"Hmm?" Morpheus inquired.
Bill pointed to the horizon over the sea with a paw. "The Lotus Temple. It's that way."
"Alright then."
Bill looked at Morpheus again. "How will we get there? I can't swim an ocean, especially in the body of a Meowth, and I have a feeling that you won't be carrying me there."
"We will get there by boat, of course," Morpheus announced as a gray hand slid from his black robes and pointed forward, at something further down the beach.
Bill ran towards it, kicking up red sand as he did for he had yet to get used to running on sand with Meowth paws. At last, in the moonlight of a green moon, he arrived at the thing. It was a boat of glass, crystal clear and cold as ice, with small structure like a wooden shed in the middle to shelter its occupants. Bill studied the boat with a look of skepticism.
"But will it float?" Bill asked to no one in particular.
"There is only one way to find out," Morpheus responded. "Get in. I will push the boat far enough into the water so that it will float towards our destination."
With a slow nod, Bill jumped up and grabbed the edge of the boat, pulling himself up and over it and into the boat itself. Morpheus glided behind the boat and began pushing it off the sand, further and further into the water until it was deeper than he was tall. Morpheus then swung himself into the boat and sat down on where he landed.
Bill had nothing to say from then on. He retreated into the wooden shed and watched the ocean scene below through the glass floor. The waters were highlighted with a green tint, and he could see perfectly, all the way to the sandy bottom, which seemed to be miles upon miles below. He watched as schools of black Goldeen swam peacefully by and as Tentacool giving off sparks of light danced in erratic patterns about the ocean floor. He kept watching until a Gyarados made of a blue liquid swooped in and swallowed several Goldeen and a Tentacool, then swam closer to the surface of the water, allowing Bill to see clearly as the Pokémon within it disintegrated. He shifted uncomfortably before lying on his back, staring up at the shed's darkness.
With a shudder, he closed his eyes.
---
He opened his eyes once more to the sound of tapping on the roof. He raised an eyebrow and turned over carefully to see drops of color float to the bottom as the boat went past. Curious, he looked out of the opening to the shed to find colored rain fall from a lit-up, purple sky. He briefly wondered if he had fallen asleep but tossed that idea aside, figuring that time was just as unpredictable as distance.
He and Morpheus watched the drops fall into the ocean without a word to the other. Morpheus was as still as a statue, but Bill held out a paw, catching a large, orange raindrop in the middle of it. He brought it to his face and examined it carefully until it gave off a bright light and turned into a small, orange faerie. The faerie giggled touched his nose (or the spot where his nose would be) and flew into the sky to fall back down as a raindrop again.
"How unusual," Bill finally muttered.
Morpheus chuckled. "Indeed."
---
Ellie lay awake in her bedroom as the hour hand moved to eleven o' clock. Several months had passed since her brother fell into that coma (though no one knew they were days in his mind), and things were STILL not improving. She knew because she visited him that day, just like she had every other day and just like she had promised to him she would every day.
"No! You can't!" her mother cried on the other side of the wall, in the master bedroom.
Ellie didn't turn her head. Instead, her eyes moved so that she could see the wall from the corners of her eyes without having to otherwise move.
"He's already half dead, Rose!" Ellie's father yelled. "There's no hope for him! Even the doctors said it!"
"We can't give up hope on William!" Rose protested. "He'll wake up soon!"
"He's not responding to any of their treatments," the father pointed out. "It's a waste of time and money. Our son is probably suffering right now; the best thing to do is to put him out of his misery."
"Stop talking about him as if he's a dog!" Rose boomed. "William is our son -- our ONLY son! We can't have him put to sleep like a stray animal in a pound! We have to keep him alive until the day when--"
"When he wakes up?" the father finished. "Rose, William WON'T wake up. He is as good as dead. We have two daughters, and he kept his distance from us; it won't be so bad if he dies. Now, listen. I'll call up the hospital, and--"
"NO!" Rose sobbed. "I won't let you! William will wake up soon! You can't let him die!"
Her husband growled. "Rose!"
Ellie heard her mother burst into tears. It was only then when she turned her head to look at the wall.
"Everything will be fine," the father said. "He probably wants us to do this..."
Rose sobbed as Ellie's head turned again to look at the ceiling.
There was a moment's pause before the little girl got out of bed. She picked up her backpack and emptied it before going about her room, collecting clothing, odds and ends, and a piggybank, placing everything in her backpack. When everything was packed, she opened the window and slid outside before running towards the street and away from the house.
"Don't worry, Big Brother," Ellie murmured. "I'll help keep you alive for a little while longer while Mommy and Daddy look for me. Maybe you'll wake up while I'm gone..."